A bit of needle

A heavy crop of an Osprey carrying a needlefish this afternoon. An odd looking fish............must be tricky to swallow whole I'd imagine.

Not much else around. Grey Wagtails have appeared on the river near my flat. Nothing in Kamiiso except a few moulting Goosander. The heatwave is mercifully over and now it's normal summer weather. Pretty hot and humid as opposed to very hot and extremely humid.

North Hokkaido Summer 2017 #15

The last few photos from my trip at the end of last month...............

If at first you don't succeed............

 2 or 3 weeks ago we witnessed a pair of Little Grebes having a bit of a nesting disaster.............

A surprise on a Monday

We were in Yakumo this afternoon.............

Another hot humid Sunday

The weather is still hot and humid.........................

North Hokkaido Summer 2017 #14

Almost at the end of this huge batch of photos from the end of June............

More Ospreys on a rock

Some more Osprey shots from a few days ago.

The female Osprey eventually started feeding its chick..............

North Hokkaido Summer 2017 #13

Still a few photos to post from the end of last month....................

Some Ospreys on a rock.................

We returned to the location of The Osprey nest to see if the young had left the nest.................

North Hokkaido Summer 2017 #12

Yet more Rubythroats from the end of June..............I took too many pictures of them.

Too hot to do much

 Last week saw high temperatures in south Hokkaido..........

Summertime lull

It's the summertime lull................

North Hokkaido Summer 2017 #11

Some more Middendorffs Warbler pics from the end of June..............

North Hokkaido Summer 2017 #10

We found a different choice of background for Siberian Rubythroats..................

The heat is on

It has got very very hot the last few days................

A family of Ospreys

We hadn't been out west to see the Osprey nest for a while...............

North Hokkaido Summer 2017 #9

Siberian Rubythroats are very common in north Hokkaido in summer...............

Kingfisher in the gloom

It is very dark under the trees in Onuma in summer.................

North Hokkaido Summer 2017 #8

A Long-tailed Rosefinch from last week..............

North Hokkaido Summer 2017 #7

In between the Rubythroats I took a few Siberian Stonechat pictures.............

North Hokkaido Summer 2017 #6

Some more shots of the very photogenic Rubythroats from the end of June................

North Hokkaido Summer 2017 #5

A male Reed Bunting from last week.....................

Brown Hawk Owl

On the way back from north Hokkaido we stopped off near Tomakomai..............

Some bad family planning

We were in Onuma earlier in the week.................

North Hokkaido Summer 2017 #4

Some more Rubythroats from last week................

North Hokkaido Summer 2017 #3

A Middendorffs Warbler from last week......................

North Hokkaido Summer 2017 #2

The campsite where we usually stay in north Hokkaido has its own population of Siberian Rubythroats...................

North Hokkaido Summer 2017 #1

We spent a few days up on the Ohotsuku coast in north Hokkaido last week..........

Whiskered Tern

We just got back from a weeklong camping trip to north Hokkaido.

The above Whiskered Tern was right at the end of the trip near Hakodate. An uncommon passage visitor in this part of the world. Not a great photo but this is only the second one I've seen in Japan. As I've said before, terns are scarce in Hokkaido so it's always nice to see them.

I saw my first ever Whiskered Tern on Lake Tinaroo in FNQ about 23 years ago, I think this is only my 3rd one ever.

I have tons of photos to sort through, a daunting task.