Russell Jenkins Stoop Files

I didn’t really get into the spirit of summer. When I did go out, I found everything to be quiet and unbearably hot. July and August were very dry in Niigata, and life around me seemed to be tired. I had hoped earlier to get some nice dragonfly pics, but I didn’t really find the numbers and variety of past years. I recall one large emperor who droned by me with a deep but dull buzz. He was lacking colour and that high frequency buzz that thrills us. He seemed tired and dried out and it was just the start of August. I lost my motivation.

Above is a photo taken at Fukushimagata on Sunday October 1st. By this time I’d expect to see patches of newly arrived ducks from the north. It was pretty quiet and no sign of any new comers. Just the regular Grey Herons and Little Egrets. (Lots of Great Crested Grebes)

I was fortunate to go out yesterday morning, October 2nd, and arrived at Hyoko about 9:30. I was happy to see the ducks I had been expecting. I found many of them sleeping in the lily pads left over from summer. They had found somewhere to rest after their long flights south.

I felt the summer was at its end as the air cooled. Within the next two hours I discovered more batches of travellers dropping from high in the sky onto the lake. The numbers increased noticeably.

There were lots of egrets walking around on the leaves to, and I watched snap up lots of tiny morsels of something?

I did see a peregrine fly over fairly high up when I first arrived but it seemed to have another destination in mind. I only saw the regular Black-eared Kites, and crows but no other raptors. They will show up soon. In the meantime, I felt the loneliness of summer drfting away as more and more waterfowl arrived. I have already edited the pics I wanted to use for this post but I forgot about one rail and several coot. I will add them sometime, someday.

I was surprised to find these ugly duckings. I thought it a bit late in the season. They seemed pretty relaxed and happy though. I finished the morning off with a lovely little Grey-streaked Flycatcher (I hope I’m right?) which is a bird I often see during Niigata’s autumn.

That’s it for my first post using WordPress for this blog. I hope more exciting things will come and I will try to keep it alive with a post every ten days or so.