July begins………….and another dark overcast Sunday.
July is generally the worst birding month in south Hokkaido. Most stuff is still singing at least. These Kingfishers were the only notable shots from today. 2 Oystercatcher were in Kamiiso a couple of days ago. The terns were no longer at Yakumo but the Ospreys were diving and a few intersting species were around at various locales: Japanese Green Pigeon, Sand Martin, Japanese Grosbeak and the usual common stuff.
After several weeks of generally clear sunny weather the clouds have come………
These Ospreys were very close, wish I’d had blue skies………
Whilst I was watching the terns there were several Osprey fishing very close by.
The ight was awful so the photos are not great.
They were being overambitious: 2 or 3 times they couldn’t lift the fish out of the water like this individual……….
Woule have been a nice picture if it had been facing the other way………….
Not good photos but there was a flock of terns at Yakumo yesterday. Terns are pretty thin on the ground in Hokkaido and are always worth a second look.
There were 30 or so Common Terns: the east Asian race looks very different to the ones I remember seeing on the river in Preston.
There were also 2 White-winged Black Terns including this adult. Shame it didn’t come close enough for a worthwhile shot. The light was terrible anyway.
Apparently a Gull-billed Tern was at Yakumo last week too……….
Midsummer has arrived. Birding is a little slow but the common birds are all still singing at least.
I took off the 500 f4 and borrowed my wife’s ancient 70-200 f2.8 lens for the Brown Bear yesterday.
It was about 20 meters away from the car. It appeared very calm and eventually disappeared into the forest.
This diving Osprey caught me a bit by surprise………
It’s almost in focus.
Other stuff around this weekend included all 4 species of cuckoo, Eastern Marsh Harrier, straggling Scaup and Goldeneye, Great Egret and Rhinoceros Auklet plus all the common summer stuff.
A very close encounter with Brown Bear from yesterday.
500mm f4 makes a good portrait lens in these circumstances!
I don’t want to say too much about this individual because if local officials know where it is they can get a little overzealous and the poor bear might get shot.
This Osprey seems to like the local port. It was there again this afternoon.
I haven’t seen it catch anything there. Yet.
An overcast humid day saw us on the western coast. Among the more interesting stuff around was Mountain Hawk-Eagle, Peregrine, Osprey, Intermediate Egret, Rhinoceros Auklet, Great Crested Grebe, Japanese Green Pigeon and the usual common birds like this Siberian Meadow Bunting.
Both these Bunting species are summer visitors to Hokkaido. They occur in many habitats but both can often be found together on local capes and headlands.
These were on a cape on the west coast today. Other stuff around included Osprey, Peregrine, lots of Rhinoceros Auklet offshore, Blue Rock Thrush, Oriental Reed Warbler and 3 species of Cuckoo calling including several Lesser Cuckoo.
Oriental Reed Warblers are common summer visitors. There used to be 9 or 10 singing males on the river near my aprtment but I’ve only heard 2 this year (and they seem to have disappeared): more victims of the City tree felling policy I assume.
This bird was on the west coast today.
