A nasty cold

So I had a nasty cold this last few days. Not much to write about, the cherry blossoms continue to blossom. The above shot was taken with my cellphone last Sunday in quite awful weather. Cold, wet and windy. I had a stinking cold too (or did I already mention that?). I met 2 English birders whose cruiser docked for a few hours in Hakodate, on their way to Alaska.

David and Brenda are from near Brighton. David has a UK list of over 500 and a world list of over 5000. Unfortunately he didn't add to the latter at Kamiso and Onuma. There were a few interesting things on the sea (Red Throated Diver, Red Necked Grebe, 7 species of Gull) but Onuma was very quiet, not helped by the lousy weather. A nice day nevertheless, at least they saw some Japanese countryside anyway.....

The migration season continues in Hakodate. An Osprey flew down the local river yesterday and Dusky Thrush continue to be common. Also present are Stonechat, Japanese Bush Warbler, Japanese Thrush, Red Flanked Bluetail and Barn Swallow.





Red Cheeked Starlings have become common but are tricky to get a decent shot of. I have failed so far.







At least they'll be around the whole summer. Lots of stuff flitting around in the bushes.......they invariably turn out to be these things.......Black Faced Buntings.



Not a great week for bird photos so I'm compelled to post some some more cherry blossom ones.







The Chelsea/Man U game was pretty funny...........always nice to see your rivals lose the plot totally. I'll be supporting Man U tonight though (little exposure to Man U fans over the last 10 or so years has mellowed my hatred of the club somewhat). I'm still hoping for an all northwest CL final but I suspect it won't happen.......still you never know.

Right, I'm off to deal with the rivers of green slime living in my nasal passages.