A Wryneck on the edge of Hakodate this afternoon, it was part of a family, here's one of the young ones.
Regular readers of this blog may remember that my last 2 summers have been blighted by construction noise close to my apartment building. Well now it's going to be 3 summers running, this year it will be our actual apartment building. Actually it was looking a little tatty and now we have 4 or 5 weeks of painting and repairs to look forward to. Half the scaffolding was erected today (whilst we were out). the hottest time of the year and the whole building will be wrapped up in a nylon tarpaulin. At least this isn't so long and we'll get a nice new exterior but still another summer working to the sounds of hammering, drilling and shouting 6 or 7 days a week. FFS.
Stil lots of stuff singing, most of the common species were around this last 3 days. Chestnut Eared and Black Throated Bunting, Oriental and Black Browed Reed Warblers, Northern Hobby, Cuckoo, Brown Thrush, Night Heron, Lathams Snipe, Siberian Stonechat, Pacific Swift, Russet Sparrow etc............
This morning we stopped at Shikabe for a look at the Japanese Green Pigeons.
The only time they landed I wasn't paying attention and my settings were all wrong and they were well overexposed, I could rescue them a little on the computer though.
Offshore at Sawara there were lots of dolphins and at Onuma there wasn't much at all birdwise, here's a Red Fox instead.
Yesterday we went to Kikonai, I was hoping the Swinhoes Egret would still be around. It wasn't but there was this species.
A crappy record shot of an adult Striated Heron, fairly scarce up here. By the time I had walked down the river and crossed the bridge and walked back down the other side to get a closer view it had disappeared.
No waders passing through yet (well it is way too early although I have seen the odd ones in late July down the years) but the breeding Common Sandpipers and Little Ringed Plovers were both present. Oh and lots of Ospreys again.
Thanks for clicking this link.......
Those pigeons look amazing with the green on the rocks too and that fox is so cool especially surrounded by the green grass.
ReplyDeleteI have never seen Green Pigeons close to the sea like that here. So that's an unusual backdrop for them. Sorry to hear about your apartmental noise.
ReplyDeleteHi Galllcissa, this species flies down to the sea to drink saltwater (to help digest some of the highly acidic fruit they eat I guess).........
ReplyDeleteThat makes sense; thanks for that pearl of knowledge!
ReplyDeleteFirst time for me to see the young Wryneck! Didn't know that they breed in Japan. I also found a place where many Green Pigeons come down to drink sea water as well, but too bad I have no camera now...
ReplyDeleteThose pigeons look wonderful!
ReplyDeleteA pretty good list of "common " species Stu, but I suppose it's all relative, especially breeding Wryneck? Wish we had those.
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