Fishing Ospreys at the rivermouths carrying fish inland to their nest, flocks of Black-headed Gulls in breeding plumage and grebes in summer colours on the sea before they head north…it’s spring.
Spring 2023 underway
Tag: Black-necked Grebe
A sunny Sunday with the RF 600 f/11
Some more shots from the Canon RF 600 f/11.
Struggling a bit with it: the slowish AF and high ISO are a pixel peeper’s nightmare. Small low resolution shots like this are not so bad.
BIFs are hard, at least they’re hard for me.
A soft but interesting enough shot.
A lot of noise reduction and sharpening going on here. Again, at such low resolution and when looked at on a phone they are passable.
Some more RF600 f/11 shots
It was a bright sunny afternoon….
The lens is taking a bit of getting used to, still not 100% comfortable with getting the right exposure sometimes. A lot of soft shots but a few hits.
And lo-rez pics like this are presentable.
Another freezing day
Another bitterly cold day with the same species as a couple of days ago…
A freezing start to 2022
A very cold New Years Day saw us east of town. All 3 species of eagle were present plus Goshawk, Sparrowhawk and Peregrine…
I waited a while for a Steller’s high up on the hillside to take flight…but it didn’t.
A few birds were in the water behind me…
A quiet week in late January
A couple of winter staple species from the last week: the grebe was in Esan and the egret in Hakodate.
Most of the usual species were in Esan the other day but no good photos were to be had and in Kamiiso today there were lots of ducks in the port but it was snowing too heavily for any pics.
Scruffy ones
The local Steller’s Sea Eagle sat in its tree all day out east and the Mountain Hawk-Eagle made a very distant fleeting appearance only.
Several rather scruffy White-tailed Eagles came a bit closer………….
Not much in the port: a few gulls, common ducks and this Black-necked Grebe.
Empty ports
The ports were all very quiet: not much fishing activity so hardly any gulls. A couple of Black-necked Grebes, a few Goldeneye: that was about it.
The common one
It’s the time of year when Grebes appear in the ports. Black-necked Grebes are especially common in late winter/early spring.
Some more Grebes
In addition to the Slavonian Grebe there were also half a dozen Black-Neckeds and several Great Crested Grebes in the same port.
2 Port Birds
I took a quick look in one of the local ports this morning and it was pretty quiet. A lone Black-necked Grebe, a single Black Scoter and a flock of Common Gulls were the only noteworthy species……….
A familiar sight
The ports are beginning to fill up with birds……….
East of town there were 2 or 3 Great Crested Grebe, 1 Black-necked Grebe and small flocks of Wigeon and Scaup.
Black-necked Grebes are very common here in winter and most ports seem to have a few in them until early April.