A White Tailed Eagle eating a rotten salmon last week in Yakumo.
We went up to Yakumo for the third time in 8 days last Wednesday and got some more nice eagle shots. This adult White Tailed was snapped off a main bridge inland at Yakumo. The crows were hassling it mercilessly.
You can see more photos of this individual here.
And I even managed a crappy digiscoped video of an adult Stellers Sea Eagle.
I tried uploading it to my own website but it took ages for the page to download when viewed in all browsers so i thought f**k it put it on youtube, it's easier. You can read more about this and see more video here. Whilst I was setting everything up it was eating a salmon on that branch and defending it against the crows. Unfortunately the fish fell off before I was up and running and all we get is a confused looking eagle taking a dump and them flapping off in a huff.
I'm glad I found a use for my old compact digicam and scope. Videoscoping. I hardly ever use my Scope except for a bit of seawatching at Kamiso.
So I found a bit of a rarity on Friday. A Fieldfare was among the Dusky Thrush.I only got a very brief view but it was clearly a Fieldfare, god how many thousands of them have I seen in England and Germany. No photo and I couldn't relocate it despite heroic efforts to do so. Of course now small doubts set in. But it was a Fieldfare, honestly. Shame it f*#*ked off and left so quickly.
I've seen a few rare and semi-rare birds around Hakodate now. The Fieldfare of course, Hoopoe, Mugimaki Flycatcher, American Wigeon. Plus a Caspian Tern over at Asabu in 2006. And I don't have a single photo of any of them.
It's got cold again and Onuma was finally completely frozen over on Thursday.
Not much in the way of bird pics so here's a Red Squirrel instead.
More pics and bird related stuff on my new blog.
I found 2 other Hakodate birding blogs. Both appear to be written by 2 staff (or students I suppose) at the Hakodate branch of Hokkaido University. You can click on the links on the right or go here and here. We've been seeing some of the same birds in the same places (Thayers Gull, Daurian Jackdaw etc) but have never seen each other.
So Liverpool couldn't beat Stoke last night. By the time Liverpool play again Man Utd could have overtaken them at the top. Oh and Stevie G might at that stage be more concerned with getting good legal advice than winning titles. Why the hell were Torres and Keane on the bench? Benitez is a good solid manager but not a great one. Now we have to hope Man U and Chelsea draw and Man U somehow drop points against Wigan and Bolton. Oh and Rafa's outburst against Ferguson (true though most of it was) could have waited until the end of the season with the title safely in the bag. I still can't see Liverpool as Premier League champions. Go on you bunch of foreign mercenaries prove me wrong.
Food of the week has been nukasanma, a kind of salty big anchovy type fish thing that my mother-in-law makes.
TV Show of the week has been 'Survivors'. I realise it's a bit of a badly acted cheesefest but as I said last week I'm a sucker for this kind of thing. 28 Days Later, The Day of The Triffids, Children Of Men, The Stand: I watched 'em all. Even the recent 'I am Legend' was OK. 'The Postman' was crap though. Has Kevin Costner ever made a decent movie?
Our car is currently off road. It has been making all kinds of odd noises and it's going under the knife on Tuesday. Further trips this winter to Yakumo/Onuma and even Kamiso and Ono depend on the outcome of the visit to the garage so fingers crossed on that one........
Wah nice videoscoping hehehe and new birds was found in Borneo yesterday, Pied Avocet and White-faced Plover !
ReplyDeleteSorry latest news 'Man U brush aside dismal Chelsea'
ReplyDeleteFinally a thaw in UK Big Freeze - but still RSPB Rainham Marshes mainly frozen waters - so keeping down duck & gees numbers. Serious birders out in force targetting elusive Penduline tits.My 'star' bird (brief visit only) were a couple of Snipe - but Jack or Common?1
Are you sure that squirrel is RED? It definitely looks a grey squirrel to me.
ReplyDeletePedantry aside I know it isn't exactly red........but it's the same species as the Red Squirrel in Europe. It's reddish in the UK and dark brown or black in Germany........
ReplyDeleteAnyway 'red' haired people are actually gingers, the poor bas*rds.
'Red' is a very vague term.
Nhnnn...Not convinced by your explanation (on red squirrel). However, it's not important. I take you are not fond of Cilla Black?
ReplyDeleteBy the way, do you know there are many (?...so they say) wild squirrels in Takayama in Gifu?... so much so, that there is a 'Risu En (squirrel park)' there.
Tks for nice pics, all of which are very nice (though it is strange not to see any pic of robin). Regards,
Noting the exchange between S.C.E. and Anonymous - re Squirrels, it is a fact that red squirrels now number only around 200k in Scotland and are in the literal hundreds in Wales and the south-west of the UK. There is a clear and distinct difference between grey and red and those depicted in your exchanges are definitely grey! apart from that, the photos are great.
ReplyDeleteIain (Inverness & Northwood)
Thanks for all the comments.....
ReplyDeleteThey may be greyish in colour but the Squirrels in my pictures are the exact same species as the Red Squirrel in the UK, (Sciurus vulgaris to give it its' scientific name). The species is found across Eurasia from Ireland to Japan.
The Eastern Grey Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) is native to the US, not Eurasia and was introduced to the UK.
To quote from wikipedia
"The coat of the Red Squirrel varies in colour with time of year and location. There are several different coat colour morphs ranging from black to red. Red coats are most common in Great Britain; in other parts of Europe and Asia different coat colours co-exist within populations, much like hair colour in some human populations."