A dark rainy Monday, not ideal for either birding or bird photos.
We went back to one of the Crossbill spots but there were only a few around and there weren’t many other birds either, only common stuff.
A miserable Monday
Tag: Common Crossbill
A morning walk with a 1.4X #4
Some more photos with the R5/100-400LM1/1.4X combo.
Looks like 2021 is another Crossbill year. That’s 2 in a row………….
A morning walk with a 1.4X #1
I took a walk down the local river this morning with my new R5 and my very old 100-400L Mk1 coupled with a 1.4X teleconverter.
There were lots of birds about and I was surprised how reasonable the IQ was as i wasn’t expecting much. There were a lot of Crossbills around………..
If I pixel-peeped they were a little soft but, like I said, I was quite happy with these shots.
Breaking in a New Camera
I picked up a new camera yesterday: The Canon R5. I took it out today and tried it out for the first time………..
The Crossbills were in the same place as a couple of weeks ago. The new camera is taking a bit to get used to……………a lot of new things to think about.
Afternoon Crossbills
Some Crossbills from later in the day on Monday………..
Coming down for a drink
The snow/ice wasn’t melting so the Crossbills had to drink snow…………..
Some more Sunday Crossbills
Crossbills seem easy to photograph near Hakodate: there are lots of lowish pine trees for a start……….
This particular spot has lots of pine trees on a windy cape. A very quiet place with hardly anyone around especially on a wintry weekend.
These are all females.
Some Sunday Crossbills
There were about 50 Crossbills in a loose jumpy flock. Only Common Crossbills: no Two-barreds among them sadly.
Tamer
The Crossbills out east were tamer than last week………….
But not that tame yet.
Some Crossbills on a windy cape
It was sunny out east yesterday and there were a few Crossbills around. Not as tame as last winter. Not yet anyway…………
Also around were Rustic Bunting, Steller’s and White-tailed Eagles and the usual common gulls and ducks.
A rainy end to a week-off
I’ve just had 8 days off in what is usually the best birding time of the year. The last day, today, was very dark and rainy. All shots are with high ISOs and low shutter speeds.
2020 wasn’t a vintage year birds in for Golden Week: let’s hope things improve as May progresses.
This afternoon we were on one of the capes east of town. As well as the resident woodpeckers there were a few migrants around including this bedraggled looking Siberian Rubythroat. Not a great photo but one of my 2 favourite passerine species.
I photograph this species every summer on its breeding grounds in north Hokkaido. Will I be able to get up there this summer with all this Covid19 chaos? This might be the only shot I get in 2020.
My other favourite passerine species is Common Crossbill and there were 3 of them at the cape too. Not often I see both species on the same day in the same place. In fact maybe today was a first in that regard.
Again, a lousy photo after the glut of Crossbills I had earlier this year. But this species occurs very erratically so I don’t know when the next shot will be.
A new Crossbill location
The Crossbills seemed to have thinned out in Hakodate and Oshamanbe but we found a flock yesterday next to another port.
There were some Siskins in amongst them too.
Other stuff around included Redpoll, Osprey, my first Eastern Marsh Harriers and Oriental Turtle Doves of the year plus the usual common ducks and gulls. No Eagles anywhere…………