A very very quiet time at the moment: for various reasons I haven’t been out much and even when I do there aren’t many birds around. 2022 has been a bit of a slow year across the board.
Here are a few common local birds from the last few days.
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.