The weather was awful, I didn’t get any nice photos and acid reflux burned my throat quite badly…
The spoonbills were still around but way off…
A disappointing night away…
Category: Rarities
Last of the spooners
Don’t think I will be back that way for a while when no doubt they’ll have departed…
Another local rarity…
Terrible light and crappy pics but this was only my second ever Common Shelduck here in Japan…
I saw tons of these when I was growing up in NW England though.
More spooners
One of them had an almost all-yellow bill..the other didn’t. Maybe a first-winter and second-winter bird? They both had darkish wingtips so were not adults at least.
Some late May rarities…
There were a couple of immature Eurasian Spoonbills at Yakumo. This is a scarce visitor but is probably annual; I’ve now seen them 7 or 8 times round here.
Short local May trip 2024 #13
The best shots I manged of the Dollarbird were with the 600 f/11.
I didn’t really get any BIFs I was happy with.
The last morning it had apparently gone…
On the way back there were Marsh Sandpiper and Falcated Duck at Yakumo but otherwise a bit quiet.
Short local May trip 2024 #6
It was still around the next morning but it either stayed on the wires or flew off in the wrong direction for a photo…
At least the light was better than the day before.
Short local May trip 2024 #3
Bird of the trip was Dollarbird; only the 3rd time I’ve seen it in Hokkaido. Shame it was so dark that first day.
High ISOs are OK with the R5 though.
A spring surprise
Heavy crop but the first scarce bird of the spring. Eurasian or Common Starling.
Never seen one of these in summer plumage in Hokkaido before (and I’ve only seen half a dozen of them here anyway).
Rare duck still there
The Lesser Scaup I saw 2 weeks ago was still there…
A male please
A male as tame as this one before all the crossbills leave would be nice…
Not there on Monday
Some more shots of the White-winged Crossbill from Sunday. I went back to the same spot twice on Monday but it wasn’t there…
