There were quite a few birds in the port whilst I was waiting in vain for the Steller’s Sea Eagle to move…….
Red-breasted Merganser, Scaup, Common Goldeneye, Black-necked Grebe, Pelagic Cormorant and Glaucous-winged Gull to be exact.
There was a flock of 7 Asian Rosy Finch east of town today but they flew off before I could get a decent picture.
The local Steller’s Sea Eagle has returned there…………….
Annoyingly it stayed high up on the hillside and didn’t do anything all afternoon.
Several White-tailed Eagles and 2 Mountain Hawk-Eagles were around as well.
I headed up to Yakumo yesterday and was amazed to find virtually no Eagles. Only about 6 or so, they’ve eaten all the Salmon they could find and have gone. I was very surprised: in the 19 or so winters I’ve been going up there, this is by far the earliest they’ve dispersed.
Not much else around there either. On the way back one of the ports at least had a few common birds like the above Harlequin and this Great Crested Grebe.
Today we went east of town to the Hawk-Eagle spot and there were 2 of them. This is an immature.
Other stuff around included White-tailed Eagle, Black-legged Kittiwake, Black-necked grebe and Peregrine.
The Waxwings were still in town this morning and I saw some in Yakumo and Esan this weekend too.
Another year almost over.
East of town one of the ports was full of Kittiwakes.
000’s of them but no Red-leggeds sadly.
The same influx happened 2 years ago at the same place.
Not much else around: White-tailed Eagle, Harlequin Duck, Glaucous-winged Gull, Black-necked Grebe……….
Yesterday I was east of town again and the Mountain Hawk-Eagles were showing very well again. The male (above) tried to catch flyby gulls several times but was unsuccessful.
Also around the area were Peregrine, White-tailed Eagle, Harlequin Duck, Blue Rock Thrush, lots of Red-breasted Merganser offshore and tens of thousands of gulls: lots of Kittiwakes and Common Gulls mainly.
Earlier in the day at Onuma we saw Smew, a pair of White-tailed Eagles eating a freshly killed Mallard, various resident species including Black Woodpecker and son on…………
I went east today to check on the Kittiwakes again but they were mostly offshore. Luckily the Mountain Hawk-Eagles put on a good show. The above one is the male.
This is the female, as she nonchalantly nabbed a young Slaty-backed Gull out of the sky………
Could have been a great pic if I’d reacted a bit quicker, by the time I’d processed what was going on and got the camera up the chance had passed.
This is a juvenile bird, I guess a son/daughter of the above pair?
I was using the 1.4 teleconverter. Again , some of the better shots were a little mushy and most of the others were out of focus. It seems to work Ok at Yakumo where the eagles fly more at eye level often in very nice light but the shots of these birds in the sky leave me a bit underwhelmed. Maybe I should take the teleconverter off next time……
There were absolutely loads of Kittiwakes east of town today as well as seemingly equally large numbers of Common Gulls.
All the Kittiwakes that came close enough to ID were Black-legged. They were a scruffy bunch.
Hopefully they’ll stick around and I can find a Red-legged one.
Nasty weather but quite a few birds were present on the east coast around to Onuma: Mountain Hawk-Eagle, Peregrine, White-tailed and Steller’s Sea Eagles, Eastern Buzzard, Harlequin Duck, Red-necked Grebe etc. At Onuma it was very quiet in the late afternoon gloom but Smew and Goshawk were both around.
There were 2 Mountain Hawk Eagles east of town. I think the above one is a female and the one below is a male.
I had the 1.4 teleconverter on and the pics are a little fuzzy.
The female flew fairly low down at least……
There were 2 Mountain Hawk Eagles and 2 or 3 White-tailed Eagles east of town this afternoon…………
When one of the latter flew over, one of the former got a bit annoyed as you can see above.
The regular Steller’s Sea Eagle doesn’t seem to have arrived yet, hopefully it will come soon.
Other stuff around included Blue Rock Thrush, Harlequin Duck, Red-breasted Merganser, Common Goldeneye, Brent Goose, Great Egret, large numbers of Common Gull and Black-legged Kittiwake offshore and a briefly glimpsed flock of waxwing in town (no idea which species).
East of town today there were a couple of White-tailed Eagles and also 2 Mountain Hawk Eagles…………….
Other birds around included Harlequin Duck, Glaucous-winged Gull and Pelagic Cormorant. A pretty quiet day.
Highlight of the day was 2 offshore Humpback Whales, my first ever whale sighting.