Waiting for the Hegura ferry

I arrived early in Wajima early, with enough time to do some birding before the ferry left, otherwise it's such a waste of a bird-filled dawn when sunrise is at 4:30. The sun may rise then but you'd have been forgiven for thinking it simply hadn't bothered that particular morning. Dense fog, or more accurately a blanket of low cloud, kept light to a minimum and gave everything a drippy grey uniformity.


Funnily a female Blue Rock Thrush, which would normally be no more than variations on a grey theme anyway, managed to transform itself into this fetching brown...

There were several singing Kamchatka Leaf Warblers that remained invisible in the foggy tree tops and a Narcissus Flycatcher that brightened the gloom of the understorey. When the clouds eventually began to rise a small number of Pacific Swifts were circling the light house on the hill top. So there were migrants around. Hegura might still produce something at this late date.


Both Japanese Pygmy and Japanese Woodpeckers were easy to see in the early morning murk.

The other highlight while waiting for the ferry was this Pacific Reef Egret. They are often too far out on the rocks to allow photography but high tide didn't leave this bird too many options.

One other pleasant surprise was a bedraggled Japanese Marten but it made off before I could get a decent shot of it.