2010 Best of #2

A male Siberian Stonechat on the outskirts of town. The padis on the outskirts of Hakodate always provide nice photo opps for common birds such as the above Stonechats and Black Browed Reed Warblers.



Nearer home there were 10 or so pairs of Oriental Reed Warblers with their loud noisy songs.





Another common local breeder, the Asian House Martin.



The Red Cheeked Starlings eggs must have hatched in late June, this led to a feeding frenzy.



Lathams Snipe seemed very common this summer too.



Over at Shikabe we found a good place to photograph Japanese Green Pigeon as they came down to the sea to drink saltwater..................





Late summer saw some nice Osprey views at Kamiiso.





Highlight of the summer for me was a pelagic trip off Tomakomai in August resulting in lots of new birds for me and a nice chance for some albatross pics. These are Black Footed Albatross.






The wader season started in early August with these Sanderling up at Oshamanbe.



And also at Oshamanbe............both Great Knot (top) and Red Knot.





And Ruddy Turnstone too.



The beach at Kamiiso also proved to be a good spot for waders.

Bar Tailed Godwit (the first 2), Dunlin, Lesser Sand Plover, Red Necked Stint and Grey Plover.........













Grey Tailed Tattler were everywhere, this individual was at Shikabe.



After the wader season there is always a bit of a lull. October is great for birdwatching and usually has interesting birds but some reason I never get good photos of them. The only real photo opps are of the Night Herons.............



And an Osprey on a pole.................no blue sky here alas.




The end of the year was a little quiet due to my back injury, these Japanese Waxwing from a couple of weeks ago were the highlight...........



And here's a video compilation I made from 2010. Not a masterpiece of course but it gives you a flavour of the local birds at least..........





Thanks for clicking this link.



I'm heading back to England today, that'll be a bit weird. I haven't been back for a while and in my semi-crippled state it'll be a bit surreal.

The year has kind of petered out thanks to my slipped disk but it was a pretty good year for birds. I got 11 new species on my Japanese list (up to 249, I think anyway) and half a dozen or so on my Hakodate list (running at 197 now I think). I don't really do any twitching, theer's no grapevine here plus of course I can't even drive.

I'm still missing several species that everyone else around here seems to see; Snow Bunting, Hazel Grouse and Rough Legged Buzzard for example. Hopefully I can see these in 2011 and many more besides.

2010 was crap for Liverpool and England in the footy, I'm getting immune to the pain as I grow older. At least the cricket appears to be going OK..........

Thanks to everyone who checks this blog, I appreciate your comments and the fact you make time to look at my pics and to in some cases read my moaning about aches and pains and personal ongoing war with construction noise.