We headed north and near Yakumo found a large flock of Long-tailed Tit.
The Hokkaido subspecies...............
This is currently a very popular bird for Japanese bird photographers, the Japanese love anything 'cute'...................
I even got some BIFs...............
Other small birds at Yakumo included Siskin and Redpoll. Offshore there were lots of ducks including White-winged Scoter and Long-tailed Duck. A Peregrine disturbed the ducks on the river.
The ducks all scattered and I half-heartedly fired off a few shots..............I assumed they were all just Pintail and Mallard and the small ones were Common Teal.
I was wrong. The top 4 are 3 drake and 1 female Baikal Teal. As you can see here..............
I'm embarrassed to say I didn't notice these until I got home and checked the photos on my PC.
If these had been a lifer I probably wouldn't have typed that sentence above for public consumption. I only saw my first one of this species at the end of last year and now I can't stop seeing them, that's 5 this week already!In the digital age I wonder how many lifers birders get whilst checking their day's shots?
Congratulations on the flight shots of the Long-tailed Tits. I just did a very unscientific search and it appears that there are very flew flight shots for this species on the Internet, so kudos to you. And yes, I think they are cute too!
ReplyDeleteThanks David........
DeleteI often find things when reviewing shots on the computer that I didn't see in the field - Baikal Teal would be a nice surprise !
ReplyDeleteI once took a picture of a very large cow (I was bored) and when I checked on the computer there was a Cattle Egret next to it............
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