White-billed Diver

My first lifer of 2017.....................

A lot of ducks

On Wednesday there were a lot of ducks around...................

Survivor

The sick looking Black Scoter we saw over a week ago was still there...............

Teleconverter déjà vu

One of my (many) faults is that I appear destined to constantly repeat the same mistakes over and over again...........

Quiet period

Late March is sometimes a prime birding time around Hakodate. Crossbills are in the parks or maybe Grebes and Divers are in the ports. Sometimes however it can be rather quiet and 2017 is one of those quiet slow late Marches. The above Black-tailed Gull was one of many individuals pairing off at the moment.

Grey Wagtail, Great Egret and Siskin the only notable local birds the last 2 or 3 days..............hopefully that'll all change in a couple of weeks or so.

Some spring Woodpeckers

There were a lot of woodpeckers at Onuma today................

The Replacements

No more eagles anymore but they have been replaced in my sights by other raptors...............

March winding down...........

March is winding down. Not much about locally, just a few Dusky Thrush, Common Teal and a small flock of Hawfinch (one above) of any interest.................

Note the grey sky. After a week or more of sunshine looks like some dull weather is coming............just as I have a few days off coming up.

The interim

It's the interim period, not winter anymore but not really spring yet either...................

Another fine spring day...........

Monday was another beautiful cloudless spring day in south Hokkaido..............

Some more port birds...........

An Asian Rosy Finch from Sunday afternoon..............

A visitor from Russia

There were still a few White-tailed Eagles scattered around north of town.................

Some BIF surprises

It was a beautiful clear spring day in south Hokkaido.....................

Saturday afternoon in Onuma

A Goldcrest in Onuma this afternoon......................

Some more SMIFs

I spent another afternoon with the Smew on Monday.......................

A bit slow.............

Despite a lot of driving around in great weather last weekend the birds were a bit thin on the ground...............

Another one that hadn't left

I was looking for the Ring-necked Duck again on Sunday and although I couldn't relocate it I did find a Baikal Teal.......................

The Smifs

Very sunny weather the last couple of days...................

And a female........

The Bullfinches were more spread out on Friday and not as photogenic as previously..............

Also around were Brambling, Hawfinch and a couple of Redpoll. Still no Crossbills, looks like 2017 may be a crossbill-less year..........

Their work is not complete.......

Well they're still hard at it...........

Some common locals

The common local residents were present in Onuma earlier in the week...........

A couple of common harbour birds

East of Hakodate, Brent Geese and Harlequin Ducks are common winter visitors.............

More harbour stuff...........

The Long-tailed Duck from last week was still in the same harbour.............

A Black Woodpecker

A female Black Woodpecker in Onuma yesterday................

It hadn't left............

We spent the day in Onuma...............

Some Redpolls

We went back to the place where we'd seen the Asian Rosy Finches last week but they had long since disappeared.

A Friday morning walk

I had a spare couple of hours on Friday morning............

On this day (March 4th).....................

March 4th 2014.

A male Crossbill in town 3 years ago today. There were large numbers of this species in March of that year and they already scavenging pinecones on the ground, presumably having eaten most of the ones still on the trees. It allowed for a few nice low angle shooting opportunities........................

Springlike

Very mild weather yesterday saw us head west...................

A sunny Monday in late February #2

Some more shots from Monday.................

Yellow Throated Bunting and other stuff............

A male Yellow Throated Bunting in one of the local parks yesterday morning..............

On this day (March 1st)............................

March 1st 2009.

A Blakistons Fish Owl at Rausu 8 years ago today. Not a great photo once you pixel peep, the 400D was not a great low light camera and the 100-400 on it was never sharp wide open. And that yellow ring too..................

Like the cranes and eagles in east Hokkaido which are attracted by free food in winter there is an element of 'cheating' with these Owls (which are attracted by free fish handouts courtesy of a guesthouse next to the stream).

Still, you can't argue with being able to photograph the world's biggest species of Owl. I hope to go back and do it with my wifes's full-frame camera and my 500 f4 one day.