Things moving..........a little

One of many Stonechats passing through Hakodate this afternoon. Also on the move were Grey Wagtail, both species of Starling and an unidentified Cuckoo species. A different Night Heron (a subadult by the looks of it) was around today. Slightly more co-operative than its' younger relative last week but it too decided to play hide and seek later.



This is my new 'hobby'.



A tiny 16 litre salt water aquarium. It has 2 turbo snails (it had 3 but one died). And another one looks like it's dying), 2 hermit crabs (in rude health) and 3 Florida Fighting Conch (a rather silly looking snail type thing with a stranger hoover-like nose). The fish come later when the nitrogen cycle is complete..........

Around September 11th down the years:

1983 (Sept 11). Ribble at Penwortham. Black Tern, 8 Little Stint and Green Sandpiper.

1990 (Sept ?). Ilford. I moved down to London and rented a house near Rdebridge tube station. Middle of nowhere London-wise. Only one pub. And that was a ghastly beefeater type place where we saw a huge punch up between the local whites and Asians the first time we entered. Wanstead Park was near the house. I saw only my second ever Lesser Spotted Woodpecker there. I wasn't much into birding at that time in my life. Might have been an ok local patch.

1995 (Sept 11-14). I was on the dole and wemt up the river Ribble four out of four days.Not much except Little Stint and lots and lots of Curlew and strangely 1 lone Pinkfooted Goose.

2002 (Sept 11-17). Malaysia. We stayed on Tioman Island on the way back to Japan. 1 year to the day after the terrorist attacks I recall. I didn't do any research about Malaysia and we turned up at the domestic airport in KL and ended up on a $70 flight to Tioman. No accomodation booked so when we arrived we asked around and were taken by boat to a small 'resort'. It was pretty basic and though it had a nice beach it didn't sell alcohol. Impossible to take our custom elsewhere. Malaysia=Thailand minus the fun.



Nice enough place however. Birds? Don't remember too clearly. Sooty Tern, Eastern Reef Egret, White Bellied Sea Eagle, Pacific Swallow.........and some other commmon local stuff.

2003 (Sep 11). Hakodate. Striated Heron was a surprise on the local river. Also lots of Asian Brown Flycatcher..........

2004 (Sep 11). Hobby over my apartment and 10 muscipia (dunno if I spelt that correctly) Flycatchers, both Asian Brown and Sooty. These have been much scarcer the last 2 or 3 autumns.

2005 (Sep 11) Yakumo. Flocks of Black Tailed Godwit, 10 Greenshank, 1 Spotted Redshank as well as Great White Egret and Mandarin Duck.

2006 (Sep 12) Hakodate. Whimbrel, Grey Tailed Tattler, Terek Sandpiper, Red Necked Stint and Mandarin Duck.

So hopefully England can win at Wembley tomorrow..........I'll be getting up at 4 to watch it on an internet feed with Chinese commentary.

I've given up any hopes for England doing anything in the Rugby World Cup. Bunch of toffs anyway. Can I support Ireland? My mum's maiden name is 100% Irish and 5 or 6 generations ago my family were some kind of oppressed serfs dreaming of emigrating to the bright lights of Chorley.

Or how about Wales? My surname is definitely Welsh although to my knowledge any family connection to Wales is even more tenuous than to Ireland.

Absolutely zero connection to New Zealand I'm sorry to say.