A long long cold walk

A slightly blurry out of focus Slavonian Grebe at Kamiiso this afternoon. I took a long walk along the beach looking for Lapland Buntings which have been seen by several birders, it would have been a local tick. I braved blizzards, waded through snowdrifts and got soaked by the waves from a very rough sea but alas no Buntings............

The Grebe was a nice find though..........

Also in the same harbour were several Scaup (young male above), Goldeneye and Wigeon. Offshore there were rafts of Black Scoter and on the river were groups of Pochard and Whooper Swan. Overhead there was a White tailed Eagle and on the beaches various Gulls including Glaucous Winged and the local race of Common Gull. These Brent Geese didn't care about the waves much........

And this was a local tick, a Kentish Plover. The other name for this species is Snowy Plover, oddly it was on the only place on the beach with no snow.

#198 on my Hakodate list, I need to double check that figure to make sure I haven't overlooked something (or maybe to lop off any stringy ones)..................the aforementioned Lapland Bunting as well as Great Grey Shrike and Mountain Hawk Eagle have all been seen in the local area already this year and they would all be local ticks. I want to know exactly what #200 is when it happens.

A bit of an annoying last few days. Due to a miscalculation in my checking account I missed a credit card payment and now they have frozen my card. This is the first payment I have ever missed in almost 8 years (and like I say it was a simple error) and the f**kers froze my card. As soon as I realised it wasn't working I paid it in full the next day and they still haven't unfrozen it..............and there are some important things on it like my health insurance premiums too. I also found out my insurance company won't cover me for my delays/lost luggage from last month and the money the airline should cough up looks like a non starter as they haven't answered any e-mails I've sent in the last 4 weeks.

Instead of getting angry about this I've developed the following philosophy: most of the service industry are tightfisted w**kers who'll lie to you and rip you off at a moment's notice. Once you accept his fact you will never be disappointed by appalling service. In fact if you are lucky enough to enjoy good service then well it's a bonus.

So DC Card Japan, KLM Customer Service and William Russell Global Travel...........F**K you!

Maybe Liverpool can take my mind off all that...............er maybe not.

I'll watch some of the new series of 'Shameless' I think. Not the US version (my god what were they thinking).

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