Very heavy snow kept us indoors for the first 4 days of the year. It was snowing again this morning but we headed east where mysteriously everywhere was almost snowfree…
On this particular cape there were almost no birds except this Peregrine.
The local Steller’s flew by the port but I wasn’t really ready when it did.
A quick trip out east today. Not much about except for a few raptors, gulls and ducks…
Not a great day for photos again, for various reasons I’ve been struggling a bit recently to get any nice shots at all.
A quiet day east of town trying to forget World Cup blues…
The usual winter birds were around including Glaucous-winged Gull, Brent Geese, White-tailed Eagle and several Peregrine.
Long-tailed Rosefinch and a small flock of Asian Rosy Finch were present but no photos of those.
Here are some Harlequins in the shade…
A Peregrine at Yakumo yesterday…
Day #4 was a quiet one…we allowed ourselves to sleep in even.
These Black Scoters were in the port at Mukawa.
And this Peregrine was atop a post wondering if it a goose was too big to nab or not.
I bumped into someone else birding and he said he’d seen Pine Bunting and Lapland Bunting. It was a big area and although I spent 2 or 3 hours searching I couldn’t find them.
I did find this absurdly tame Peregrine. Maybe it had scared off the small birds?
What the f**k is that red thing? God knows.
This male Pine Bunting was one of several interesting small birds at the weekend: the Snow Bunting of course but also Long-tailed Rosefinch, a flock of 7 Asian Rosy Finch and a couple of small flocks of Siberian Meadow Bunting.
Hope they have their wits about them…
Some urban bokeh from the weekend…
One of the resident Peregrines out east today.
A quiet Monday: Eurasian Kestrel, Buff-bellied Pipit, Rustic Bunting were among the more interesting species but nothing especially noteworthy. No Waxwings or winter finches yet.
A few raptors were around.
I can’t get sharp BIFs pointing upwards at 700mm.
Several White-tailed Eagles were in the skies but I couldn’t find the local Steller’s anywhere.
Why do male Harlequins never come close like this female?
It was a dark cold christmas eve….
We were east of town checking on the Steller’s Sea Eagle which takes up residence there every winter. It was there but sat on a tree on the mountainside doing nothing. A Mountain Hawk-Eagle put in a brief appearance at least.
The port was quiet but this Pelagic Cormorant popped up close.
We stayed at a hotel on a nearby cape…
Still really mild. We were out east today: a few interesting things around but not great for photography. The above Peregrine posed nicely and there were also several White-tailed Eagle around, a lone Mountain Hawk-Eagle and 000’s of Black-legged Kittiwakes offshore.
Here’s a common local species: you can see it’s a male by the red flash on its head.
2 Peregrines were around on Sunday, an adult (above and below)…
And this juvenile…
