Nuthatches rescue the day

The tame Nuthatches returned to the feeding log for the fourth (or is fifth?) successive winter. There are 2 regular ones: 'Hoppy', so named because he/she hops readily into ones hand for some free seeds and 'Notty' so named because he/she does not.

It was rather dark so I was generally using high ISOs (800 or 1600) or flash.

There were several Marsh and Great Tits with them, a Treecreeper and 4 species of Woodpecker (including Black). I could also hear the distant honk of swans............

But it was nice to see the Nuthatches had survived another year..............

We had started out in Ono in the morning (Merlin and Great Egret here) and then we went to Yakumo: this was a bit of a mistake ans it was raining heavily and there were still only a few eagles, this was the best of a very poor bunch of photos.

We also nearly got the car stuck in a muddy field and the wife was not happy with that let me tell you, the car got caked in mud and I had to ride 15 minutes to the nearest carwash with the grumpiest most pi**ed off woman in Hokkaido...............

An adult Glaucous Winged Gull on the drive back to Hakodate.

I watched England beat Australia on a jerky constantly freezing feed last night, usually these sporting events are very watchable on veetle or sopcast but I could only find a very dodgy flash player stream. I didn't bother staying up to watch Stoke v Liverpool thank god..........

Thanks for clicking this link.