2011 underway

A Stellers Sea Eagle at Yakumo this morning.

Very wintry here, heavy heavy snow and very cold. January is always the best month for eagles and there were some close views of both species. The weather wasn't so great but there were occasional snow free interludes............

Thanks to Tomohiro for the driving today.

Most of today's keepers were of Stellers..........both old and young.

                             

There were equal numbers of White Tailed Eagles but for some reason all the shots turned out crap. Other stuff at Yakumo included Bullfinch, Brown Dipper, Rook, Daurian Jackdaw, Goosander, Japanese Wagtail, Goldeneye, Scaup, Wigeon, Whooper Swan, Long Billed Plover, Long Tailed Tit, Black Scoter, Little and Great Crested Grebes, Glaucous and Glaucous Winged Gulls and various other common winter stuff. Here's a Glaucous Winged Gull.............

We headed back to Onuma and the tame Tits and Nuthatches are surviving the cold snap..........

The regular flock of Whooper Swan arrived whilst I was away but for some reason their regular corner of the lake is not ice free and they stood around looking lost on the ice..........

We headed back to Ono to look for a Mountain Hawk Eagle my wife found yesterday but it was nowhere to be seen, from the car window I did see a Japanese Waxwing on the outskirts of Hakodate though and it seems there are plenty around so I'll try and find some this coming week.......

Man Utd scored a dodgy penalty and Gerard got a red card, don't think I'll bother watching the second half of that one.............but I'm still so happy about the cricket more Liverpool disappointments barely even register.

I'm still hobbling and my back isn't quite right, it looks like I may need an operation. At least I'll get an insurance payout...............

I'm still suffering from jetlag so it's off to bed soon. My final connection from Tokyo to Hakodate almost got cancelled (we were warned it may have to return to Tokyo because of heavy snow at Hakodate Airport) but luckily it was able to land, my god I swear I'll never travel in winter again if I can help it.

More snow forecast for next week but I have a feeling some interesting birds will come with the bad weather. Not only waxwings, I think I saw some Crossbills from the car window too.......

All told it's good to be back, 2011 will be a good year I think.........

Thanks for clicking this link.