Waxwings

I had a couple of spare hours yesterday and took a quick walk near my flat and was rewarded with a flock of over 100 Bohemian Waxwing.



Bang in the centre in town on a busy pedestrian street. They would fly down from the wires/TV antennae, snaffle a load of berries and fly off again. In very poor light it was difficult to get many good shots. I also had to dash to and fro across a very busy road just in front of the local Police HQ. Locals stare at foreigners anyway and my apparently strange behaviour made all their birthdays come at once.





Only 1 of the 2 species of Waxwing were present in this flock. The other one, Japanese Waxwing, han't graced Hakodate with its' presence yet this year. The shots where they're sitting on top of people's house were ok but when they all swarmed down onto the ground I could only get burred or dark images that photoshop can't rescue. They do like their berries though, even the wizened withery looking ones on Hon-cho.







Blue sky would have been nice. High ISO settings and problems with exposure settings (once again I forgot to change settings at the wrong moments) meant I was a bit disappointed when I got home and downloaded the photos onto my computer.







An old friend with his new(ish) wife passed through Hakodate on Sunday/Monday so I had to go back to tidy the flat to make it halfway decent. By the time I went out again in the late afternoon the Waxwings had gone but there were flocks of Redpoll (30 or so), Crossbill (20 or so), Brambling (20-30) and Asian Rosy Finch (4 or 5). The light really wasn't good, here's pics off those 4 species.









We went out with the aforementioned friends and had a very pleasant evening where I drank and ate far too much and this morning somewhat tired and hungover today went to Onuma before they got on the train and departed to central Hokkaido.. Lots of pics which I'll post tomorrow I think.