A lot of Dusky Thrushes in town at the moment…
A lot
Category: Hakodate
A quiet walk in the park
Some common species from the local park…
Back home
I just can’t escape geese: this lone straggling White-front was in parkland atop a cape!
The Ospreys have returned…not great pics it has to be said.
And near my apartment all the snow has gone…
Other birds around on Monday in the Esan area were Glaucous-winged Gull, Harlequin Duck, lots of Brent Goose and a lone White-tailed Eagle.
Harsh
Very bright and sunny yesterday…not so good for white birds on ice/water then.
The light was too harsh for decent photos of this Great Egret in the local park.
It was catching tiddlers…
A long sunny walk
A very springlike day, I took a long walk down the river to the ocean. Still deathly quiet birdwise: a few Dusky Thrush, a surprise male Pheasant, an injured Whooper Swan, 5 species of duck including Goldeneye and Goosander.
And the male Daurian Redstart was in the same place as yesterday.
And the Great Egret was back on the river too.
On its territory
Every winter a Daurian Redstart sets up a territory alongside the river near my apartment. And on my way back from a chore this morning there he was….
A very slow March
A very very quiet time at the moment: for various reasons I haven’t been out much and even when I do there aren’t many birds around. 2022 has been a bit of a slow year across the board.
Here are a few common local birds from the last few days.
Not what I hoped for
Most winters we either have flocks of Waxwings or flocks of Crossbills. Or both. Or if not maybe Redpolls, Bullfinches…
Not so lucky this year. Only Dusky Thrushes…
A quiet Friday afternoon
I had a quick walk around the block this afternoon: not much around. A few Eastern Great and Varied Tits, 20 or so Dusky Thrush and this lone Pygmy.
A quiet week in town
A Brambling snacking on Dusky Thrush poop in town today…
There were loads of Dusky Thrush last week in Hakodate but most appear to have gone. Nothing interesting among them. And they ate all the berries so if any Waxwings do make it to my neighbourhood this winter there won’t be much food for them.
Not much else around: Sparrowhawk, Goshawk and Hawfinch being the most noteworthy.
It has stopped snowing at last…
A Goshawk in town
I’ve been walking around the neighbourhood this week looking for Waxwings with no success. But I did see this juvenile/first-winter Goshawk nab a pigeon.
Annoyingly my R5 froze as it flew off (this happens occasionally: very frustrating for such an expensive camera). Maybe it made no difference as the AF on my ancient 100-400L M1 is very sluggish on the R5.
F***ing twigs.
Also around were Eastern Buzzard, Winter Wren, 10 or so Dusky Thrush, a male Goosander and this Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker in the local park.
A Redstart
I took a long walk this morning. Quite a few birds around: 6 species of duck including Goosander and Goldeneye, a flyover Goshawk, 1 or 2 Great Egret and this male Daurian Redstart.
I was using my old 100-400L M1 with 1.4 T/C and today’s images were pretty soft but Topaz Denoise/Sharpen makes them presentable for low resolution images like here.
City workers were hacking down the last area of trees next to the river and the amount of litter strewn along the riverside was shocking. A shame to see my local patch turning into this.