
It popped out of the grass for a minute…


We took a week-long road trip and on the first night we slept near Mukawa.
In the morning there were lots of birds singing in the grasslands including all 3 ‘grasshopper’ warblers. I was very happy to get some photos of Lanceolated Warbler: not a bird I often see or photograph.
It was a dark misty morning though.
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.
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…
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.
This perch the next morning was slightly better…
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.
The nearest I could get to a comparison shot: