Eagles on the ice

Not as good as the Eagle pics a couple of weeks ago but a bit more atmospheric perhaps. An adult Stellers Sea Eagle standing on the ice at Onuma Lake. Although still wintry at Onuma there are some ice-free patches showing on the lake and in amongst all the Corvids were 1 or 2 Stellers and 3 or 4 White Tailed Eagles. The usual common woodland species. Nuthatch, Great, Varied and Marsh Tit, Dusky Thrush, Great Spotted anmd Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker. Yet more pics from the regular group of tame individuals.







My wife snapped this whilst wandering off in the forest. Heavily cropped and zoomed but not so bad for a 100 quid digicam.




We started the day off in lousy weather at Kamiso. The local council are doing some construction work next to the river (why? they have to spend their budgets and provide enployment for unemployable types who need sake/cigs/pachinko money by doing useless projects that wreck the environment even more). Crappy weather meant we didn't hang around for long anyway. 4 Great Egret, a few Grey Heron, Glaucous and Glaucous Winged Gull, Black Necked Grebe plus a few common Ducks were present.

Here are a couple of shots from the end of the day at Onuma.





I'm just debating whether or not to get up early to watch the Liverpool game vs Barcelona. I flicked between the Man U and Arsenal games early this morning (with French and Dutch commentary). Hardly worth getting up at 4.45am for..........will Liverpool be any different?

Around Feb 21st down the years
1986 (Feb 21) Penwortham. A male Siskin in the garden.

1987 (Feb 21) Pilling/Leighton Moss. The first 7 or 8 months of 1987 saw the only twitching I've ever done (this is because I can't drive more than anything). A SNOW GOOSE at Pilling was the bird me and friend (he drove a Mini at the time) twitched. Oh and nice view of a Bittern at Leighton Moss later too.

2006 (Feb 22) Hakodate. Smew plus all 5 species Grebe at Kamiso.