A male Grey Headed Woodpecker in Goryokaku Park this afternoon. Note the sky colour, this must be the first sunshine I've experienced in Hakodate in 2011. Several degrees above freezing too and we have a temporary thaw.........
A bit of a quiet week, the last couple of days saw a selection of common winter species including this Great Egret on the river.........
6 species of duck on the river, Little Grebe were around as well as the usual common smaller birds: Daurian Redstart, White Wagtail, Wren, Coal and Great Tit, Long Tailed Rosefinch, Black Faced Bunting, Hawfinch and these two: Dusky Thrush and Oriental Greenfinch.
On Tuesday I headed over to Kamiiso. 13 species of wildfowl here, nothing special though. The Kentish Plover was still on the beach too.
There were absolutely loads of Black Kite............
The most interesting bird in the harbour was a lone Great Crested Grebe, a not so common winter visitor here that usually stays well offshore so not a species I often get to photograph.
In 3 or 4 weeks the Black Necked and Red Necked Grebes should be hitting the same harbour (well they did last year anyway).
Don't know what to make of all the comings and goings at Liverpool. Torres hasn't been interested for ages so I wasn't so bothered about him leaving but 35 million for Carroll?!?!
Thanks for clicking this link.
Great shots! I do hope the weather would improve, for all of us.
ReplyDeleteGreat pic of the Grey-headed Woodpecker!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your first brilliant weather as well.
There is no Grey-headed around here, but there's of course the similar Japanese Green Woodpecker, which is just too shy for a shot like that...
Nice to see your blue skies...
ReplyDeleteOur Great Crested Grebes also tend to be well offshore, but every now and then one takes a liking to a fishpond, to the great delight of photographers here in HK !
Happy "Year of the Rabbit" !
Thanks for the comments.
ReplyDeleteAyuwat-dunno why but Grey Headeds aren't especially shy...........
John-thanks, you too although I was told by a Chinese person yesterday it was the year of the HARE, not the rabbit............have to say hare sounds cooler than rabbit...........