Dusky Thrushes

Well it's been a quiet last few days since the grebe-fest last week. Not much in my neighbourhood. Quite a lot of Dusky Thrush have been passing through.......

They are the only Thrush species in Hokkaido in winter (unless you're lucky enough to get a vagrant such as Fieldfare). 6 other species either breed in summer or pass through on migration but they are all timid and shy forest dwellers. Dusky Thrushes hop across gardens and parks just like Thrush species do back in the UK..................

As you can see we had a little more snow this week, the weather has been pretty poor the last 3 days. A Peregrine was a nice fly-over bird yesterday but a feast bird against grey skies didn't produce any decent photos. A Little Grebe was on the river today, Grey Heron and Sparrowhawk were seen from my living room window (flying) and there are still quite a few Hawfinch around.

And this must be the scruffiest looking White Wagtail in East Asia at the moment.

I got up to watch the Chelsea v Inter Milan game this morning, surprised at how poor Chelsea were. They're starting to look a little old in the tooth.

Looks like no car at the weekend, I may catch the train to Kamiso, hopefully the Grebes and other waterbirds will still be there.............