This is my 8th christmas in Japan. It wasn't white, in fact it was raining on the 25th although there was heavy snow last night. On Christmas Eve morning we had a couple of hours of sunshine allowing some nice shots of the usual suspects at Onuma. Nuthatches were stars of the show today.
The Varied and Marsh Tits were also present.
In case you're wondering how easy it is to get close to these species, here's the answer.
The Whooper Swan flock was bunching together as the amount of open water at Onuma shrinks and the ice grows.
Lots of Siskin in the forest but no Owl. We drove east to Shikabe and saw some interesting stuff like White Tailed Eagle plus Red Necked and Slavonian Grebes offshore. A few days earlier at Onuma saw dreadful weather and no bird shots of note so here are a couple of the local mammals.
Not much to report in Hakodate. Flocks of Hawfinch and Dusky Thrush in the park, Brown Dipper and Kingfisher on the river, the usual wildfowl and Gull species over at Kamiso. Here's a chilly looking male Daurian Redstart in the local park a few days ago.
I have a few more classes to teach today and tomorrow before an 8 day break over the New Year. Lots of footie on tonight, can Liverpool stay top going into 2009?
A very low key Xmas. I won't bother ranting about the plastic Japanese Christmas (I did so the previous 2 years if you're desperate for something to read and want to look back in the archives). It's sunny outside now but I have to work. I hope next week has a sunny day or two so we can go up to Yakumo to photograph the eagles.
Season's Greetings to my regular 40 or 50 readers, hope you're well wherever you are.
And a Merry Xmas from London - cold but dry presently. Best of local N.London birdwatching today were two Goldcrests - always elusive but a real treat to spot. And our British Nuthatch too with rather better colouring than the Japanese counterpart. Good win for Liverpool - back on song maybe?.
ReplyDeleteAnd Meg is on her way to hometown Hakodate.
Best regards, Tony