Tokachi Trip 2024

Snow Goose

Some photos from last week…

I’m winding down this blog; it’ll close in mid December and disappear forever from this address…I got a bit tired of doing it to be honest and not many people visited so it seemed daft to continue paying for a web hosting service. I’ve decided to concentrate on the challenge of trying to grow my YouTube channel from the winter.

I did manage to migrate all previous posts and comments from this blog to a free wordpress.com site; you can access it here.

I’ll still update that site (probably with embedded photos from my flickr site) and you can still add comments (all 2 or 3 of you!) but it’s a more basic version of this one.

Thanks to all who took the time to visit over the last 5 or 6 years.

Over

The on-tap parade of photogenic local birds seems to have dried up. Onuma had both swans and Greater White-fronted Geese yesterday but was otherwise a bit quiet.

No crossbills for several days now. Just a few Dusky Thrush around and the resident woodpeckers…

Spring migration is just around the corner at least.

Canon RF 600 f/11

Whooper Swan

Someone very kindly lent me his 600 f11 lens when he heard about my dodgy shoulder.

It was a nice sunny day today so I took it out for a spin. It might take a bit of getting used to but it seems pretty reasonable for a walk about lens…

No exciting birds around, the injured long-staying Whooper and a few common ducks and lots of Dusky Thrush.

Dusky Thrush
Common Goldeneye

Late Winter Trip 2022 Day 5 #9

Bean Goose

I only saw 1 Bean Goose (Taiga I think) amongst the main flocks in Mukawa. There was a flock of them a few miles east but they were impossible to get close enough to photograph.

There were also quite a few swans. Not photogenic in the harsh spring sunshine. Mainly Whoopers but I found at least 1 Bewick’s.

Bewick’s Swan

The nearest I could get to a comparison shot:

Bewick’s and Whooper Swans

A sunny walk in October

Great Egret

I took a walk down the river this morning. A very mild sunny autumnal day with a few birds around. 7 (!) Great Egret were the most interesting and there was also this lone injured Whooper Swan. It’s probably been there all summer: I saw it in the spring.

Whooper Swan

Other stuff around included 4 species of duck including Pintail, a few buntings in the bushes, a briefly glimpsed Pale Thrush.