March fizzling out...............

A Nuthtach at Onuma yesterday.

A very quiet end to March, hence all the old photos recently.

The tame tits and nuthatches priovided my only real photo opps over the last 2 weeks..............

The snow is melting............spring is here.

I did get out and about and there were a few interesting birds. The first Ospreys of the year arriving last week, several White Tailed Eagle at various locales, all 5 species of grebe, lots of common wildfowl everywhere including some displaying White Winged Scoter off Sawara this afternoon, Red Throated Diver at Kamiiso, a flock of Crossbills in a park in the east of town this morning...............

One staple of late March is Brent Goose but although I saw lots around they weren't in the usual spot at Irifune so no pics.

This Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker was in the same park as the crossbills and the Glaucous Winged Gulls were at Menagawa.

So that was March.....................let's not talk about England's World Cup prospects or I'll get annoyed.


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Meet the Locals #4

(Well it's been another very quiet week so some shots from the archives again).

Narcissus Flycatcher (Ficedula narcissina). All the pictures here are of males.

Another east Asian speciality not so well known to foreign birders, this is one of the most attractive summer visitors to Japan. It is endemic to east Asia, breeding in Japan, Taiwan, China, Korea and the far east of Russia. It winters is SE Asia.

This is the only breeding Ficedula species in Japan (although several others do occur as scarce passage visitors or vagrants). The nominate race is the one we see in Hokkaido. Other subspecies occur both in mainland Asia and also on some Japanese subtropical islands.

They start to arrive in south Hokkaido in late April and by early May they are a regular passage visitor to the parks in Hakodate.............







Sometimes they look a little worn.........



They buzz around catching all kinds of creepy crawlies.





They set up temporary territories and their loud warbling song can be heard in several of the local parks..........



By the middle of May they stop passing through but are one of the commonest birds in woodland habitats like that in  Onuma during summer. As the forest thickens they stay in the treetops and you can hear them singing all over the forest. Thay are tricky to see from mid June onwards and I leave the woods to the mosquitoes.

I don't have any pics at all of the female..........but basically they are dull brownish looking birds that resemble the hordes of Asian Brown Flycatchers that pass through at the same time and in the same habitat.

Although they are a common spring sight I only see a few in autumn, I have no idea why that should be................perhaps they migrate earlier when the foliage is still thick and I'm on the beach pestering waders.


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Linked to WBW.

Meet the Locals #3

(Lousy weather in town the last few days so forgive another dip into the archives.........)

RED CHEEKED STARLING (Sturnus philippensis)

A male Red Cheeked Starling , also known as Chestnut Cheeked Starling and Violet Backed Starling.

This is the more interesting of the 2 breeding starling species here in Japan. It isn't well known outside the region, in fact it only breeds in north Honshu, Hokkaido and Sakhalin (The Russian island to the north of Hokkaido) where it is a summer visitor. It winters is southeast Asia. There are no subspecies or races.

As you can see the male is a stunning bird and is very photogenic, especially during the cherry blossom season.









The female is rather plain compared to the male but not without her charms.






They arrive in Hakodate in the last week of April and are in fact a very common urban bird, there is a colony in Goryokaku Park and several smaller ones along the river. They are pretty much everywhere in summer in a variety of habitats including the forest at Onuma and Mt Hakodate. All these shots were taken within a 10 minute walk of my apartment, they are probably the most conspicuous bird of early summer.





The young leave the nest in late June and there is always a frenzy of activity in the local bushes. The adults are busy bringing them all kinds of bugs...........



.

And fruits too..................



The youngsters just sit around looking comical waiting to be fed...............





And then after late June they completely go off my radar. Once the young have fledged they all flock together in skittish family groups of 20 or so and suddenly become very wary and are lost in the summer foliage. My main view of them after early July is small tight flocks flying to roosting sites just before sunset.

They leave in late September to spend a winter in the sun..................









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On this day (March 19th)..............

March 19th 2010.

A Red Throated Diver up nice and close in the harbour at Kamiiso 3 years ago today. These occasionally visit harbours when they are sick or injured but this one seemed to look OK......................

Linked to Wild Bird Wednesday.

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The first hints of spring.............

Part of a flock of Dunlin at Oshamanbe today.

It wasn't so cold today and there are patches of ground appearing with no snow. Spring is coming. I guess this was our first 'summer' visitor.

One of several Skylarks seen today. A very very common bird in Hokkaido but generally absent in winter, these must have been returnees from further south in Japan.

The day began in Yakumo. There were still a few eagles around. 1 immature Stellers and 2 White Taileds, there were also several White Taileds at other locations on the way. A lone Lapwing was a local scarcity but the snow at the river mouth was still a little too deep to allow a full exploration so we headed up to Oshamanbe. I was hoping the Long Tailed Ducks would still be around. They were, 6 of them, but they stayed out of range the whole time. This was the best I could muster.

Other stuff in and near the port included Black Necked and Great Crested Grebe, Scaup, Teal, Goldeneye and lots of Black Scoter.

In the corner was a small flock of 40 or so Dunlin.

These are not so common in south Hokkaido but are pretty much the only sandpiper species around in winter.

There were lots of Glaucous Gulls around today..................

The only Glaucous Gull I saw in the UK was a big brute in Fleetwood back in the 1980's. The ones in NE Asia don't seem especially big or aggressive. The alpha gull is definitely the Glaucous Winged Gull..............

We ended up in Onuma, I spent asn hour or more at the end of the day hoping the nosiy Black Woodpeckers would come close but they didn't. The Nuthatches did of course...............

It's going to rain tomorrow and the temperature will stay above freezing even at night.................bye bye winter.

Bye bye Liverpool's chances of sneaking into the top 4 (though it was always a long shot).

Bye bye any chance of a title race after Man City's pathetic performance yesterday.


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