Another rainy week in Hokkaido

It was pi**ing down with rain all day today, the weather has been pretty poor again all week. We went out for a drive this afternoon and the Stonechats were still there and I could take a few snaps through the open car window at least.......





I discovered my teleconverter doesn't work so well in poor light, there was a Night Heron walking across the padis that I photographed but the results were very soft and the AF couldn't lock onto the bird and and IS seemed a bit jumpy too.........

Nothing much about really. Here's a very wet Swallow.



Last week the first Spot Billed Ducklings appeared on the river near my flat......



The mortality rate of these ducklings is usually very high. Cats, Rats, Crows all take them I suppose and they seem especially vulnerable when the river swells after heavy rains...........like today.

And there are about 8 or 9 singing Oriental Reed Warblers on the same river. Difficult to get a good shot of, they are very shy despite being a big noisy species......



So the footy season ends with a bit of a whimper. The FA Cup flashed by last night (I was pretty drunk), the Champions League was surprisingly one sided and the end of the Premier League wasn't exactly dramatic either.......lets just hope England can get through next week without any cock-ups.

I wish I could think of something interesting to write but I can't.

At the end of May we usually go away for a 4 or 5 night trip to east or north Hokkaido but because of my wife's new job that isn't possible this year. You can see some bird photos from those trips here.

The big news from the UK seems to be a frumpy middle aged Scottish woman not winning some talent show. I get homesick every now and then but on the other hand I don't have to watch crap like that (or have to talk about it or be forced to listen to others talking about it at work). Now that the footy season is over and my SKY footy package switched off until August my TV won't even be switched on for the next 10 weeks (though I'll watch some downloaded stuff on my computer of course, still got most of Season 4 of Blakes 7 to watch yet..............).