Raptors – Hakodate Birding

A grey day out east

February 29, 2020 by Stuart Price, posted in Esan, Raptors

We were east of town today under heavy grey skies. Not great for bird photos but there were lots of interesting birds around. 4 species of goose (a record for me in Japan!): in among the many skeins of White-fronted and Bean Goose heading north I found 3 Cackling Goose. There were also Brent Geese flocks feeding along the coast.

Lots of Common Crossbill around as well as White-tailed, Steller’s Sea and Mountain Hawk-Eagles (only singles of the latter 2), Harlequin Duck, Black-necked Grebe, Glaucous-winged Gull, Red-breasted Merganser and Asian Rosy Finch.

Shame about the dark gloomy skies.

Some late Eagles

February 24, 2020 by Stuart Price, posted in Oshamanbe, Raptors

Still quite a few Eagles around today. They are dotted randomly up and down the coast………..

Back!

January 27, 2020 by Stuart Price, posted in Esan, Raptors

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.

A broken dial

January 27, 2020January 28, 2020 by Stuart Price, posted in Oshamanbe, Raptors, Wildfowl

Not many Eagles at Yakumo anymore but Oshamanbe had a few.

These could have been great photos but this was pretty much the only part of the day when the sun went behind a cloud and my settings were all wrong. Not even my fault: the rubber ring on the top dial of my camera is too loose meaning sometimes it is impossible to quickly change things like ISO and shutter speed. So they were way underexposed and lifting the shadows too much is never good on a photo (especially on cameras with older Canon sensors).

The 7D M2 has 2 dials and I use a grip (where the main dial is fine) but……….still, annoying.

Just before the light was great too………

A break from Waxwings

January 20, 2020 by Stuart Price, posted in Esan, Raptors, Sawara, Wildfowl

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.