Nanko and Kyoto trips this weekend, and listening to DJ Stevo in London!

Hello folks,

another long weekend, a short week at work, sure how bad. I like this 3-day work week, put in 40+ hours and have the rest of the week off...I could get used to it. Went for a few scoops after work on Friday night, hitting my favourite bar by 11pm...it was along day. The bar is called Bar Double, a tiny poky place on the 6th floor, it seats about 20 people but the bar man is sound and he makes the best Gin and Tonic I have tasted. Sweet. Ran for the last train home and went to bed as I was getting up for Nanko in the morning. The lads went on to Karaoke but, not my bag that night I'm afraid.

So, up in the morning and off to Nanko, new manfrotto carbon fibre tripod in hand and not even realising I was carring it. A nice tripod and new head replacing my ol' ton weight manfrotto I traded-in last weekend. I hit Nanko at high tide, disaster, as the birds tend to huddle into edges and they are unviewable...bah humbug. However, I percevered and stayed there anyway for a few hours, hoping the birds would fly up and around and sure enough they did. Highlights of the morning were Sharp-tailed Sand, Terek Sand, Marsh Sand, LRP, Kentish Plover, Bull Headed Shrike (a nice male, see photo), Black kite and a stunning Hodgons Hawk Cuckoo flying around in front of the observation platform...a great buzz. It was HOT though and very humid, not pleasant to be walking around in but I think the weather is turning and autumn is definitely on the way.

Walking back towards the train I stumbled upon a flycatcher sp. but what exactly I'm not too sure. I managed to fire off a couple of shots but only one was anyways decent (see right). I emailed it onto Neil and Barty-boy back home. Neil said it is probably a female Narcissus Flycatcher but not definite. He thinks he could be another species that's similar but I can't remember what the latin name was he said now so I'll ask him again and fix this entry with it...nice bird though. Neil had a similar bird several years ago and he is still not sure what it was. Flycatchers are numerous in Japan with over 10 species and some of the females are ridiculously similar between species. So, if anyone reads this and wants to make a suggestion, I would be most grateful.

Didn't do much else on Fri apart from listening to Steve's show in London...great stuff young man, thoroughly enjoyed it and LONG MAY YOU RUN!!! A star in the making I tells ya!! It was great to hear a familiar voice and I laughed alot listening to Stevo. You sounded very natural Stevo, very natural.

Saturday saw me struggle out of bed and head up to Kyoto to visit some temples, gardens and see the town. I really like Kyoto, I would prefer to live there than Osaka. There's a really good atmosphere there and to have a beautiful river running through it where people hang out, chat and have a beer or two. It's a really good place to live. It probably explains why the city has a healthy population of gaijins. I will put up some photos on the photopage for you to see some of the temples and area. I hope you enjoy them...

Sin e for now

ps: this week I have mostly been eating brown rice, wahooo