Aisatsu

Aisatsu

This blog is for family and friends, to share my feelings and photos with and for myself, to support my fading memory. Readers who have my site translated automatically, please refer to the original if necessary. Especially when it comes to identification. Any comments, anonymous or by email name are always welcome!.

Sunday 31 March 2013

Kingfisher courtship

March 30th,  a good day to start a family    Kingfisher  カワセミ












Didn't know Kingfishers perform this kind of display.

Also that day:  Bull-headed Shrike  , off to feeding his wife



and Red-flanked Bluetail  ルリビタキ, not in a hurry to leave




Saturday 30 March 2013

Around Nishi-ku

Close to home

ヒレンジャク,  Japanese Waxwing




Is there an easier way to pick those berries than turning your head 180 degrees?




ハシボソ ガラス,  Carrion Crow




In the harbor, very close to home: 

カワウ,  Great Cormorant in the rain



イソヒヨドリ,  Blue Rock Thrush fem searching the decks for bugs




ツバメ,  Barn Swallow  in a shadow game



セグロカモメ, Herring Gull  on his favorite pontoon




Friday 29 March 2013

Shōjōbakama


Seen on shiōyama:

ショウジョウバカマ,  Shōjōbakama,  Heloniopsis japonica








surfing Tsunoshima

Something entirely different.
No wing,s but nevertheless worth watching!












Wednesday 27 March 2013

角島, Tsunoshima 5


The last post of this day, the last birds of Tsunoshima and that little harbor across.

ミウ,  Temminck's Cormorant


  



From a distance they look so much like the Great Cormorant that we get in Fukuoka.
Today I could distinguish them by the shape of the base of the bill quite well.




below  オオハム, Black-throated Loon






and シロエリオオハム,  Pacific Loon








A familiar fishing harbor sight










Sunday 24 March 2013

角島, Tsunoshima 4

Another bird that kept an eye on the school of fish that the mergansers were feeding on:



クロサギ, Pacific Reef Egret








We moved off the island to a small fishing harbor nearby on the coast of Honshu. There we were treated with some more Black-necked Grebes, many of them in summer plumage.














今日の勉強   =  Natsubane,  summer plumage

角島, Tsunoshima 3

That’s a whole lot of mergansers on the blog!
We don't get to see them in big numbers very often. In spring they get together before heading off to their breeding grounds in the north. There must have been a hundred of them in a protected bay of Tsunoshima and they all needed to eat well before departure.


ウミアイ  Red-breasted Merganser


Slim and elegant birds with bright orange-red bills


The males' black head gets a green shine when it gets a bit of sunshine.



Some females have black coloring around their eyes - a sign of breeding?

They swam back and forth near the boat-harbor, following a school of fish towards shallow water, which they would eagerly plunge into and get their fill. How much was hard to tell, they probably swallowed their catch mostly below the surface.




rush. rush


The hunt is on




Got one!



Heading back


Waiting for the next chance



 male


female


pair? 
There were many more female than male, about 30% male - 70% female



The Ladies Parada




Fish!!


One female venturing out of the water, inspecting a bit of  rock. Not a usual sight in winter, but they breed on the ground in the north of China and Russia

Another bird seen in smaller numbers:

ハジロカイツブ  Black-necked Grebe



More of them in the next post.