Imperial Palace Park

For the first time in eight years I'm not spending a week during spring migration on an island in the Japan Sea. If that isn't depressing enough, continuous rain yesterday tipped me into a severe case of bird deprivation. So I dropped into Gosho for a couple of hours this morning in the hope of finding something... anything of interest. Pleasant as it might have been to get out, things of interest were predictably thin on the ground. There had been Japanese Robin there last week but the best I could come up with today was an all to brief glimpse of a male Eye-browed Thrush, and the only other birds that don't actually breed in the park were about seven singing Narcissus Flycatchers and a White-bellied Green Pigeon. I sometimes see Green Pigeon in Gosho in winter but I don't think I've had one this late. It's certainly the only one I've heard singing in the city, a sound I always associate with mountain forests.

So, apart from a rotten shot of the Eyebrowed taken through the undergrowth all the shots below are of the usual city centre suspects.

Eyebrowed Thrush

Large-billed Crow

Olive-backed Pipit

White-cheeked Starling

Ruddy-breasted Crakes and waders

Continuing from the previous post, I'd managed 44 species in the hills yesterday I was hopeful of seeing over 100 species for the weekend. A modest total for many places perhaps, even in a day, but I've never even hit 90 over two days in Kansai.

I'd driven out of the hills to the nearest convenience store on the approach to Lake Biwa and at 22:30, after an hour sleep and more importantly a long anticipated coffee, I set off for Mie prefecture and the second largely sleepless night. Being a Saturday the roads were still quite busy until cutting across the Kii Peninsular towards Mie. At about 02:00 I began to meet groups of cyclists heading in the opposite direction, presumably a long distance event as they were strung out over many kilometres, the first and last on either side of the central mountains. It's reassuring to know there are others of questionable sanity out there and when friends double check and exchange those knowing glances "You spent... two nights... in the mountains or driving... with no sleep... just to look for birds?" it's a relief to at least imagine diluting the doubt behind the smiles by redirecting their misgivings towards the obvious 'real' nutters. My favourite was two or three years ago birding during a typhoon in northern Okinawa. Every few metres I'd have to stop to drag a fallen tree limb from the road, the only other vehicles I saw all day were two police cars and a highway maintenance truck, but when I came down to the coast road at one point a fisherman was braced against the parapet casting out into the boiling East China Sea. I felt so incredibly normal!

These trips are usually punctuated by convenience store stops and I grabbed another hour of sleep and a coffee fix before driving the final kilometre to my planned starting point. It still wasn't light when I pulled up onto the Kumozu River levee to finish my coffee and switching off the engine I heard a singing Ruddy Crake close to the van. Then another... and another. Brilliant, this is something I never hear around Kyoto, what a great start to the day. Surely I could make 100 today.

Just as I'd been surprised by the number of summer visitors already singing in the mountains yesterday, several Oriental Reed Warblers were in full song where there had been none last weekend. But it wasn't just the birds that were changing, large expanses of fields had been flooded through the week and farmers were already planting rice at sun-up. This could potentially attract more waders or just make finding them more difficult.

Persistent drizzle and occasional heavier showers fulfilled the promise of the slow leaden dawn and while one benefit was low-flying Pacific Swifts, the great views of Dusky Thrushes and Chestnut-cheeked Starlings didn't result in the kind of photographs I'd have liked.

Another advantage with wet weather is that Green Pheasants, suddenly common, come into the open more and for longer, but not so the Chinese Bamboo Partridges that remain heard but not seen. For some reason they are far more cooperative in some other parts of Japan.

Just as there had been last week, there were eight Spotted Redshanks on a nearby coastal pool. But unlike last week most were now coming into breeding plumage, unfortunately good shots were impossible through the morning murk. Waders generally were more abundant than last week with large numbers of Lesser Sandplover, Grey Plover, Dunlin and Bar-tailed Godwits. There were also big numbers of Whimbrel all along the coast, this a species which hadn't present at all last week but a single Great Knot was the only other new species.

The very dull conditions meant afternoon birding was curtailed not allowing time to visit some areas which would have guaranteed a few additional species such as Sanderling. Frustratingly Common Reed Buntings which had been common last week were nowhere to be found. Perhaps they've all left but were the Blue Rock Thrushes, they aren't winter visitors. Why are there always some certainties that can't be found? Common Goldeneye seem to vanish long before the other ducks. Nevertheless, my weekend tally came to a record-breaking and extremely satisfying 110 species.

Bar-tailed Godwits.

List of species
Chinese Bamboo Partridge   several heard
Green Pheasant  
Gadwall
Falcated Duck
Eurasian Wigeon
Mallard
Eastern Spot-billed Duck
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Eurasian Teal
Common Pochard
Tufted Duck
Greater Scaup
Red-breasted Merganser
Streaked Shearwater
Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Grey Heron
Great White Egret
Little Egret
Great Cormorant
Osprey   1
Black kite
accipiter sp   1
Ruddy-breasted Crake   3 heard
Common Moorhen   2
Common Coot
Eurasian Oystercatcher   c30
Grey-headed Lapwing   5-6
Grey plover   c25
Little Ringed Plover   2
Kentish Plover
Lesser Sandplover
Common Snipe
Long-billed Dowitcher   1
Bar-tailed Godwit
Whimbrel
Eurasian Curlew   5
Far Eastern Curlew   2
Spotted Redshank   8
Common Greenshank   3
Wood Sandpiper   1
Common Sandpiper   5
Great Knot   1
Dunlin   c1000
Black-tailed Gull
Common Gull   sev
Vega Gull
Mongolian Gull   1-2
Slaty-backed Gull   2-3
Vega x taimyrensis intergrades   more common than Vega
Black-headed Gull
Saunder's Gull   2
Feral Rock Dove
Oriental Turtle Dove
Pacific Swift   30-40
Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker   1 heard
Bull-headed Shrike
Jay   1 A big surprise in some coastal pines.
Carrion Crow
Large-billed Crow
Great Tit   2
Barn Swallow
Skylark
Zitting Cisticola   several
Brown-eared Bulul
Japanese Bush Warbler   several
Oriental Reed Warbler   fairly common
Japanese White-eye   several
Chestnut-cheeked Starling   c40
White-cheeked Starling
Dusky Thrush
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
White Wagtail
Japanese Wagtail   1
Buff-bellied Pipit   several
Oriental Greenfinch
Meadow Bunting
Chestnut-eared Bunting   1
Black-faced Bunting

Japanese Night Heron, Copper Pheasant and Mountain Hawk Eagle... a good day out!

I never get into the hills north of Kyoto at this time of year, preferring to go for waders, but this rare weekend with two days free allowed me to give it a shot and still have time for waders. I really hadn't expected many summer visitors to be in but I was in for a pleasant surprise, though generally numbers and range of species were still low there was enough variety to make going well worthwhile.

I left home late Friday night and was in one of my mammal/bird areas by 01:00 but where were the mammals? A few Sika Deer, a Japanese Marten and that was it. I was thinking the drive up was a total waste of time until things began to get going at about 04:45. The first good bird was a calling Japanese Night Heron, too far off-road to have any chance of reaching it, with a supporting cast of several Japanese Scops Owls. As night gave way Japanese Thrush and Blue and White Flycatcher song was everywhere, these were two birds I hadn't anticipated. Other summer visitors during the day included a single Common/Oriental Cuckoo fly-past, a couple of Narcissus Flycatchers and an Eastern Crowned Warbler. Oddly, I hadn't heard a warbler all day then the Eastern Crowned popped up in a tree below me as I was waiting for nightfall on Saturday evening. A lot of winter birds must have moved on, there were still a lot of Grey Buntings around and a small group of thrushes included at least one Pale but very few finches which are normally common in the hills in winter.

One of many Blue and White Flycatchers, thanks to the steep slopes it was perched below me rather than way above in the tree tops as they usually are.

The best of many terrible shots of Grey Bunting, at least this was a male.

I spent the whole day on one relatively small hill, the amount of good habitat is extensive in the prefecture and I've explored little of it as the birds seem widespread and potentially encountered anywhere. The other two top quality birds in the title were along a track in a deep valley low on the hill. I flushed the Copper Pheasant off the track, a bit frustrating as if I hadn't been trying to see the small party of thrushes I mentioned earlier, I'd have seen it on the ground. This is made worse because I've twice flush Japanese Night Heron off the same track in similar fashion. I have to learn to look where I'm going! Just a few minutes later the Mountain Hawk Eagle floated overhead. A 3-4 metre stretch of the track has been washed during winter leaving a gaping hole that even the hunters 4x4s won't get across so perhaps the track will be a little quieter this summer. A patch of snow I crossed had only one set of old footprints other than the ones I left.

Such a distinctive bird, there's nothing in Japan to confuse Mountain Hawk Eagle with. 

Mountain Hawk Eagle gliding along the hillside. Apart from the cedars most trees are drab and leafless but the flowering Kobushi Magnolia put on a great display.

Other good birds during the day included all four breeding woodpeckers and two parties of Red-billed Leiothrix, the first I've seen in these mountains. After nightfall three owl species were calling, Ural, Japanese Scops and Brown Hawk. The latter was another summer visitor I hadn't expected to come across yet.

After about 20 hours on the hill I'd had enough, coffee was beckoning, and made my way to the nearest convenience store. Then after an hour of sleep in the car park I began the drive to Mie and a Sunday with waders...

List of species
Copper Pheasant   1 female
Japanese Night Heron   1 heard
Black-crowned Night Heron   1 heard on the drive up
Black Kite   several
Mountain Hawk Eagle   1
Grey-headed Lapwing   2-3 heard on the drive up
Oriental Turtle Dove   fairly common
White-bellied Green Pigeon   5-6 heard
Common/Oriental Cuckoo   1
Japanese Scops Owl   several heard
Ural Owl   1 heard
Brown Hawk Owl   2 heard
Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker   common
White-backed Woodpecker   3 plus several drumming
Great Spotted Woodpecker   2 plus several drumming
dendrocopos sp   several heard
Japanese Woodpecker   1 plus several heard
Jay   common
Carrion Crow   several
Large-billed Crow   common
Eastern Great Tit   common
Coal Tit   common
Varied Tit   fairly common
Willow Tit   fairly common
Asian House Martin   common around breeding sites
Long-tailed Tit   common
Brown-eared Bulbul   common
Asian Stubtail   1 heard
Japanese Bush Warbler   several
Eastern Crowned Warbler   1
Red-billed Leiothrix   6+
Japanese White-eye   fairly common
Wren   common
Japanese Thrush   fairly common
Pale Thrush   1
turdus sp   several heard at one location
Narcissus Flycatcher   2
Blue and White Flycatcher   common
Brown Dipper   1 heard, it's usually easily seen here
Grey Wagtail   several
Japanese Wagtail   1
Oriental Greenfinch   several
Eurasian Siskin   6-8
Japanese Grosbeak   1
Meadow Bunting   several
Grey Bunting   fairly common

Tsu/Matsusaka, Mie

I spent all day on the 9th and the morning of the 10th in the Tsu/Matsusaka area of Mie this week hoping to see migrant waders. My enthusiasm was probably getting the better of me, numbers are still fairly low and some common species weren't in yet, no Red-necked Stint or Grey-tailed Tattler for example, but I still managed 20 species.  Eight Spotted Redshank, single Long-billed Dowitcher and Ruff were the pick of the bunch. None are rare but I don't see Spotted Redshank every time I go, Dowitchers are unpredictable and Ruff really is a scarce passage bird.

Because spring passage wasn't in full swing and many wintering species had departed there was something of a 'between seasons' feel to the trip. There weren't any Common Shelduck or even the normally so common Goldeneye but others were still hanging on with a single Black Brant and a couple of Saunder's Gulls. Two Chestnut-cheeked Starlings, which is a reliable early passerine, were the only non-wader migrants I came across.

I'd planned to make it a one-day trip but decided to hang on and spend the night in the van as the tide tables showed a much bigger drop the following day. Counter intuitively waders are often much closer at low tide as birds can gather on distant sandbars and follow the receding waterline towards the coast. As things turned out the views were better on tidal areas but wader numbers were identical except for four new Bar-tailed Godwits.

I left just before midday as I wanted to check out an area in the mountains on the return journey. It always looks promising driving through but in the event the accessible areas, and much of the rest, were monotonous ranks of cedar. Even Large-billed Crows and Brown-eared Bulbuls were thin on the ground.

There were huge rafts of Greater Scaup well off-shore, 200-300 on a large pond and a few, like these in some of the harbours.

The Ruff was a nice surprise.

Long-billed Dowitcher

Spotted Redshanks

This is usually one of the commoner species so in that respect just a single was disappointing but as the moult of most I see isn't as advanced I was happy enough. 

On the 9th there was just a slight dip between high tides and the Oystercatchers were only seen at one location but on the 10th there was a much bigger fall in the water level and birds were dispersed over a wide area and were much easier to find.

Some of the Bar-tailed Godwits were very red and views were quite close on the 10th.

These three Barwits were more distant on the 9th, so was their breeding plumage. One of them was a monster with an amazingly long, thick and straight bill, I was expecting it to be Black-tailed until I got the scope on it.

The Grey Plover must be either late breeders or fast moulters, there wasn't a single black 'n' white amongst them. 

I don't think it's possible to get a shot of Sanderling with two feet on the ground, with two birds there's at least a chance.

First summer Saunder's Gull, one of only two I managed to see. 

 

I was going to say a slightly odd looking Slaty-backed but then what's really odd is to see two that look the same.

The Buff-bellied Pipits are starting to come into breeding plumage but this bird caught my eye more because of its long, hook-tipped upper mandible. 

List of birds seen
Chinese Bamboo Partridge   1 heard
Green Pheasant   3 plus many heard each morning
Gadwall
Falcated Duck
Eurasian Wigeon
Mallard
Eastern Spot-billed Duck
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Eurasian Teal
Pochard
Tufted Duck
Greater Scaup
Red-breasted Merganser
Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Grey Heron
Great White Egret
Intermediate Egret   1
Little Egret
Great Cormorant
Osprey   1
Black kite
Moorhen   1
Coot
Eurasian Oystercatcher   29
Black-winged Stilt   3
Grey-headed Lapwing   10-15
Grey Plover   16
Little Ringed Plover   fairly common 9th, only 1 10th
Kentish Plover   common
Lesser Sandplover   2
Common Snipe
Long-billed Dowitcher   1
Bar-tailed Godwit   7
Eurasian Curlew   1
Far Eastern Curlew   2
Spotted Redshank   8
Redshank   2
Greenshank   2
Wood Sandpiper   1
Common Sandpiper   4
Sanderling   common on some beaches
Dunlin   c300
Ruff   1
Black-tailed Gull   several
Common Gull   fairly common
Vega Gull   fairly common
Slaty-backed Gull   3
Taimyr Gull   fairly common
Black-headed Gull  
Saunder's Gull   2
Feral Rock Dove
Oriental Turtle Dove
Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker   1
Bull-headed Shrike   several
Carrion Crow
Large-billed Crow
Great Tit   1
Barn Swallow
Zitting Cisticola   3
Brown-eared Bulbul
Japanese Bush Warbler   many heard
Chestnut-cheeked Starling   2
White-cheeked Starling
Dusky Thrush
Blue Rock Thrush   2
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
White Wagtail
Olive-backed Pipit   1
Buff-bellied Pipit   10+
Oriental Greenfinch
Meadow Bunting
Black-faced Bunting   4-8
Reed bunting   several

Additional species driving back
Varied Tit   1
Coal Tit   fairly common
Long-tailed tit   1 party
Japanese White-eye   several
Eurasian Wren   3 heard
Grey Wagtail   1

Mammals on the drive out
Sika Deer   c30
Japanese Marten   1
mouse sp   1

possible Ring-billed Gull (first winter) in Osaka

I was going through my old files of Common Gull images last week trying to make sense of the huge range of kamtschatschensis appearance when I came across this bird. When I originally saw it (13 March 2011) my initial though was Ring-billed, however it didn't look the classic I would hope to find in Japan so there was plenty of room for doubt. To my knowledge there have only been three or four Ringers recorded in Japan, all adults. So perhaps a first of sorts, is it a major rarity for Japan or a further, and far from needed, stretch of the identification parameters of kamtschatschensis?

After resolving it was unlike any kamtschatschensis I'd ever seen but that the brief views I'd had weren't good enough to claim such a rare sighting, I put it on the back burner until re-discovering the images last week. Now I find myself agreeing with my feeling at the time, that it could well be Ring-billed, particularly as Howell and Dunn (Gulls of the Americas) state that the inner primary window and corresponding wedge of greater primary coverts can be dull.

It was on one of the closest sandbars when I picked it up, the long legs, deep body, heavy chest, angular head and thick bill combined to create an arresting jizz. Probably because of the longer legs it frequently adopted a far more upright stance than the Common Gulls. The plumage features here can all be shown by kamtschatschensis though birds with very scaled breast markings usually also have heavier hind neck blotching and the rear ear coverts spot never seems to look as isolated and conspicuous as it does on this gull. Though the saddle is very pale, almost all first winter kamtschatschensis have much paler grey saddles than adults. The primary projection looked deeper than that of Common and had three evenly spaced tips between the tertials and p9. The blade of Common looks narrower creating a longer impression and the tip of p5 often, though not always, falls conspicuously beyond the tertials frequently producing a pattern of four unevenly spaced tips.  

There was barring on the outer feathers proximal of the tail band but nothing sub-terminally.  

Though Ring-billed is supposed to have a contrasting whitish centre to the underwing, the coverts bar on this bird is actually less contrasting than on most kamtschatschensis.

The only shot on water; angular head and heavy bill aside it looks a little odd, flat-backed and low in the water. The tertial fringes appear very narrow but see below. 

It would be strange to see a first winter kamtschatschensis, any age for that matter, with such worn tertials in March. It makes judging how broad the white fringes might have been difficult, but possibly too broad for Ring-billed?

The overall impression in flight was of a broad-winged powerful gull. The primary window and inner greater primary coverts often looked more prominent at distance.

The outer webs of the inner primaries are dusky, not what I'd hope for in Ring-billed but not typical of Common either. The inner webs are surprisingly pale across the outer wing.

The jizz was more of a large white-headed gull rather than Common.

A heavily cropped and sharpened head shot.

Feedback about this gull from a few people mentioned some features, which I was really already aware of, pointing away from Ring-billed but one in particular refering to the median coverts pattern has convinced me this is kamtschatschensis. Albeit, in my opinion, an exceptional one.