Category: Mukawa

Finally!

by Stuart Price, posted in Mukawa
Sakhalin Grasshopper Warbler

Near Tomakomai last weekend I finally got a shot of one of the most difficult to photograph local birds. Sakhalin Grasshopper Warblers are common summer visitors to the grasslands and their song can be heard everywhere in suitable habitat. I’ve been trying for years to get a shot. They are extremely skulking. But then one above popped up and sang atop a bush for a few seconds!

A few minutes earlier I’d been delighted with this lame effort, the first time I’d ever photographed it.

Sakhalin Grasshopper Warbler

There were several Siberian Rubythroat around but they were also skulking. Other stuff included Masked, Chestnut-eared and Common Reed Buntings, Long-tailed Rosefinch, Eastern Crowned Warbler, Japanese Thrush, Black-browed Reed Warbler and lots and lots of Stonechats…

Stejneger’s Stonechat

A drizzly Saturday

by Stuart Price, posted in Mukawa, Raptors
White-tailed Eagle

A wet miserable White-tailed Eagle on a wet miserable Saturday afternoon near Mukawa.

Lathams’s Snipe habitats have been damaged by the absurd number of solar farms spring up all the time and replacing grassland.

Plus they’re difficult to perch on…see how this one slid all the way down.

Latham’s Snipe

This perch the next morning was slightly better…

Latham’s Snipe

Late Winter Trip 2022 Day 5 #9

by Stuart Price, posted in Mukawa, Wildfowl
Bean Goose

I only saw 1 Bean Goose (Taiga I think) amongst the main flocks in Mukawa. There was a flock of them a few miles east but they were impossible to get close enough to photograph.

There were also quite a few swans. Not photogenic in the harsh spring sunshine. Mainly Whoopers but I found at least 1 Bewick’s.

Bewick’s Swan

The nearest I could get to a comparison shot:

Bewick’s and Whooper Swans