Latham's, Swinhoe's and Pintail... a good month for snipe.

September was very much a staying local month, covering a small stretch of my old patch at Ogura. Mainly because I didn't have the time to do otherwise, and not seeing that much for my efforts if truth be told. I've seen some quite spectacular wader passages here over the years but 2022 won't be going down as one to remember.

I covered a relatively small part of the overall area on nine dates through the month, seeing snipe other than Common on eight of them; this after making several visits throughout August when no migrant snipe were recorded. Actually, my first non-Common snipe were two birds (probably Swinhoe's) in Mie on 2 Sept though I had already seen a party of three Latham's there in August.

As far as confirming ID was concerned, all the following birds were 'tail-checked'. I saw a total of six Latham's, four Swinhoe's, one probable Pintail and a few swintail. As I only covered a relatively small area, it's reasonable to infer numbers passing through would have been much greater. There were also many Common, up to 10 per visit but even these disappeared in October suggesting all were migrants rather than birds that will winter here.

LATHAM'S SNIPE

(5 Aug - three adults together)

(8 Sept - two adults together)

(20 Sept - single adult)

PINTAIL SNIPE

(21 Sept) Flushed by a Siberian weasel soon after I found it. I already suspected this could prove to be a Pintail and this image taken just before it takes flight appears to show pins in the spread tail. The weasel's ears are visible in the grass just to the left of the tail.

SWINHOE'S SNIPE

(22 Sept)

(28 Sept) The only juvenile/first winter.

(28 Sept) Adult

(30 Sept)

COMMON SNIPE

(20 Sept) They did exist!

Finally, I can't resist throwing this in just because it has 'snipe' in the name. These are local breeders and there were males with tiny chicks running round in September.

Greater Painted Snipe

 

Blue and White Flycatcher with blue undertail coverts

It's the fore- and upperparts that normally attract attention when it comes to male Blue and Whites, so just to be different here's one where the underparts take centre stage. These blue centred longest undertail coverts came as a surprise, so much so that I was thinking "Do they always look like this and I've never paid any attention, or is this unusual?". Fortunately, it isn't something obvious that I've always overlooked and does appear to be unusual, although quite how unusual, I don't know. For what it's worth, I haven't been able to find any online images that match it. I saw this bird on 4th May in Kanazawa, Ishikawa.

What appear to be blue feathers, slightly masked by overlying white, on the lower breast also catch the eye.  

Below is a female photographed the following day on Hegurajima.

 

Little Curlews

 I neglected my usual winter patch in the Matsusaka/Tsu area this year. I say winter but could easily add spring and autumn, there's always something going on. And instead, I head up to Lake Biwa whenever I had free time in search of Lesser Scaup. Successfully in search of Lesser Scaup I might add... unbelievable! This obsession was the result of a female being seen in December. I never found it but what must the odds have been against finding a different bird in the same area? I wonder how many rare ducks are overlooked on Lake Biwa or along coasts where massive aggregations occur. Maybe I should focus on finding a Redhead next winter? Yeah, right.

Anyway, it was good to be getting back to my old stomping ground but each time I went I felt the place hadn't quite lived up to expectation. There weren't the concentrations of winter gulls I'd been looking forward to and the spring build up never really took off. The spring wader passage was slow taking off too, it still hasn't really got going. Plus trying to find habitat in the right condition at the right time has been hard work. 

Moan, moan, moan. But looking back at the five visits I've made since 23 March there's actually been a stand out bird each and every time. There was a Thayer's Gull on that first visit and, by two days, my earliest ever Latham's Snipe on 30 March. Into April and the 7th, 13th and 19th produced a totally unexpected Pallas's Reed Bunting, a patch tick singing Japanese Robin and two Little Curlews respectively. It's not to be sniffed at, is it?

So, finally, on to the title birds. I was on the seawall checking the landward side pools for any Garganey which should be arriving now (zero), or any stints along the muddy edges (zero), when my eye was caught by a couple of large waders circling the field behind one of many solar farms that blight the area. They looked as though they'd been put up and were aiming to re-settle, these Far Eastern Curlews in turn led me to notice two much smaller waders, likewise circling and ultimately dropping to the fields. I've seen enough Little Curlews trying the Pacific Golden Plover ploy, Whimbrel ploy even, not to be fooled for a second. Though they'd gone down probably no more than about 600m away as the bird flies, seawall roads don't allow for much choice of direction and the ones currently on offer were of no help at all. So after touring the district I edged along the narrow road between the fields hoping they hadn't moved.

They were active and wide ranging, this is the only shot showing them together. One is very obviously paler than the other, convenient for keeping track of which is which as they move around the fields, but more unusually it also has a clearly noticeable primary extension which is at odds with descriptions I've read of the species. 

The primary extension is clearly noticeable, the primary projection itself is longer than typical for the species.

The darker bird with a shorter primary projection and no extension.

The expected short projection clearly visible. 

Though the overall pattern of the greater coverts, median coverts and tertials always seems the same 'oak-leaf' pattern there is more variation in the lesser coverts, some have a distinct 'oak-leaf' pattern while others only very slight or a broad even fringe. This bird is 'oak-leaf' throughout.    

The paler bird has broad even fringes on many lesser coverts with only a very slight indication of 'oak-leaf' on some. 

 

The paler of the two with a quite pale Far Eastern. They aren't called Little Curlew for no reason!

The darker of the two with it Far Eastern dark counterpart.

The two Far Easterns together.

Pallas's Reed Bunting - well that was unexpected

 I was hoping to find migrant snipe over the past week, both locally, here in Kyoto, and across in Mie. Unfortunately there's precious little good looking workable habitat and I didn't find a single snipe. I expect there'll be birds around, I'm simply not looking in the right places. Very disappointing. Even more so considering I had a Latham's on 30 March, my earliest sighting yet. There wasn't much happening on the wader front in general, though it's still early days of course, but April is peak time for snipe passage in this area and I'd hoped for more success.

It isn't true to say I didn't find any snipe but the only one I came across surprisingly turned out to be Common. First thing in the morning it was running around and jumping over tussocks amongst the rank grass and mulleins on the upper beach, between the seawall and the sand. Strange place (and behaviour) for a Common Snipe.

The next bird to catch my eye was a hybrid Eurasian Teal, this is my first teal hybrid. It was on a pool with a few Eurasian Teals and Falcated Ducks and it's the latter which my be the other species involved. Maybe. The bird was never close and these photos are the best I could get.

There can't be any doubt one parent is a teal, but what's the other. Very heavy flank markings, the green crown and shaggy nape put me in mind of Falcated. Uppertail coverts aren't bad either. Quite where the white vent and undertail coverts come from, I have no idea.

Next up was the Pallas's Reed; right place, right time, total luck. I wonder whether it was wintering here, or had wintered in the region and was now slowly on the move. It would have to be a very early (and rare) spring migrant otherwise.

I was hoping to see a nice breeding plumage Buff-bellied Pipit, most were in patchy transitional plumage, at best, and none had been close enough to photograph anyway. There were one or two Pipits I was trying to creep up on when two reed buntings flew up from the the far side of the opposite embankment, one perched in a bush and this bird on a wavy reed stem. From the word go this bird looked worth a closer look and through the scope I though I could make out blue-grey lesser coverts, well worth a closer look. By the time I'd binned it, scoped it, got my camera on it, time was surely running out, it wasn't going to perch up forever. The autofocus wouldn't grab, damn, I focused on the vegetation near the base of the wavy reed stem, and got one shot off before it flew. Double damn. Both birds flew round the corner of a largish building building - the only building in about 1.5km - and didn't seem to appear from the other side. I walked to the corner and peered round. There was a broad, deep ditch overgrown with reeds and bushes running along the base of the seawall embankment, a narrow track for the local mini-tractors and growing barley on the other side. A reed bunting was perched in a bush about 100m further along. How had it got so far without me seeing it? Was it even the same bird? I never got to find out because it flew again long before I could get close enough, and dived into the barley never to be re-emerge. 

When I returned to the van I checked the results on the back of the camera and to my surprise the image was less out of focus than expected. On top of that, I'd jammed a second shot of it in flight, it's not going to win any photographic competitions but the wing coverts are amazingly clear. This is only the third mainland Pallas's Reed I've ever found. What a score!

No photographic awards, but the all important lesser coverts are just visible.

Astonishingly, the lesser coverts are actually the clearest, most in focus point on the bird. No wonder I didn't find any snipe, I used all my luck on this shot.

By now it was almost lunch time and an afternoon of gulling beckoned further up the coast.

Thayer's... er, sorry, Iceland Gull (and a wannabe)

 After plugging away with Biwako ducks this winter, it was finally time to switch back to gulls. There weren't as many gulls as I'd hoped for when I arrived in Mie but a Thayer's will always make it a good gulling day in this part of Japan.

From left to right; Taimyr, Vega (the usual suspects) and Thayer's.

By this time of year the gulls on the beach are reasonably approachable, they are really flighty early in winter.

Unlike ducks, gulls are pretty easy when it comes to getting shots of wing pattern.

Of course you have to watch out for the Vega that wants its 15 minutes... there's always got to be one, hasn't there!

Got to give it marks for effort I suppose.

Lesser Scaup... I keep on trying.

 I've been trying to see and get more conclusive views of the possible female Lesser Scaup I posted on recently. It's always been a hit and miss bird; would it be present or a no-show today? I'd drawn another blank on a single visit last week and, as things turned out, I didn't find it again yesterday either. Truth be told, I was in two minds whether to give it anymore time, so many hours, so many days..., for inadequate views, inadequate or none at all. For the first time I had no sense of anticipation, no expectation of success driving up the ever busy pre-dawn Route 1. How many rarity-finders reports have I read where the observers had been reduced to this sense of resignation before finally connecting with their difficult bird. Why does it work out for them? As I drove north along the lakeshore I was struck by the low number of ducks out there and when I arrived at the usual stretch there was nothing. I didn't need to pull into any car parks to check, there were simply no aythya out there. 

There's a point where you have to give up, right? It was a toss-up; head up to the north end to maybe check the Taigas for a Tundra, I haven't been up there at all this winter(!), or cross the lake and make my way into the hills to look for forest birds for a change. Nearing Biwako Bridge I realized I hadn't switched out the just expired ETC card so that decided it... north end it was. Before long serial roadworks and endless tailbacks put paid to that idea, I wouldn't arrive until late morning at this rate and there's no point spending all daylight in a stop-start line of traffic. I did a little birding near Lake Sainoko then stopped for coffee and a ponder. It was going to take too long to reach the (probably birdless) forest by now as well. Plan D then... look for female Lesser Scaup. So much for the power of coffee if that's all I could come up with.

Why did I bother getting up at 4am?  Why not initiate Plan E instead? 

Plan E began and ended with go straight home. I was sorely tempted, but as it was a very mild, spring-like day the outre Plan D held the day. At least it wouldn't hurt to drive past the usual spot and see if any ducks had come in, would it? A minor detour. 

Approaching, I could see several hundred aythya had come by this time, something to scan through and enjoy the weather. I tripodded the scope, wandered across the grass and used a random duck near one end of the flock to focus. The duck chose that instant to stretch, head forwards out of sight, wing slowly extending sideways till fully displayed. A Lesser Scaup wingbar?! 

My heart sank. What?! Scaup can have a Lesser wingbar? Since when? That's ridiculous, what am I even still doing here! As it straightened up the head shape wasn't Greater, the scapulars looked very coarsely vermiculated, almost barred. ...A male Lesser Scaup...? 

No, surely not; that would be outrageous - no, it would be inconceivable. Beyond inconceivable, way beyond. This was a random duck I just happened to stick the scope on... and it just happened to stick its wing out and hold that position in that very instant... I spend days in the rain, frigid temperatures, wind, snow, waiting for the glimpse of the other birds wing, a flash, the merest twitch. Words fail me.  

After the initial shock and confusion, the next few hours were spent looking at this bird. Or for this bird, it was surprisingly hard to pick-up once lost. Anyway, the upshot is that it really does look very good for a male Lesser Scaup. No obvious hybridization red flags here that I can see.

Head tall, peaked at rear. Bill shallow, black not always visible in profile.

Scapulars with bold or coarse vermiculations, almost barring. Greater Scaup can be very variable with regard to vermiculations and some can look very dark but this is more due to blacker rather than greyer densely pack lines, the overall effect can be similar but the individual lines don't normally look as thick as these broad stripes. The tall, narrow head is clearer when the neck is raised, even slightly like this. 

Black is restricted to the nail, here just the top visible. Vermiculations clearly visible at a distance where Greater Scaup looks fairly uniform grey.

The whole of the nail looks black but I never detected anything off the nail.

Another couple of nail shots.

This bird was far more obliging than the bird I've been struggling to see the wing pattern on. However, the flock as a whole was restless, heads were often up and some birds were diving, the first time I've seen that in the loafing flocks here. Perhaps their routines are changing pre-departure.

Underwing mainly grey but median coverts forming a narrow white bar. Upper primaries grey contrasting sharply with the white secondaries. In these shots the grey p1 is hidden beneath outermost secondary. 

A hybrid Tufted Duck x Common Pochard or Gt Scaup last week showing underwing (above) and upperwing (below). 

This particular hybrid was darker and more uniform above than the Tufted x Gt Scaup I've seen. The head is strongly glossed green in direct sun. 

I wondered if the saddle colour might be due to wear or a colour abnormality when I first saw it, it could turn in the water and look every bit as black as the Tufties. I didn't see this bird closely enough to see the actual vermiculations; were they Pochard-fine or Greater-scaup coarse? The overall uniformity suggests the former. The green head sheen was very obvious in direct sun. Does that obviate the Common Pochard option? I've never knowingly seen a Tufted x Pochard hybrid, it would be a hybrid tick!

This winter has been so different to most over the last 20 years. Normally, I'd spent almost all my free time looking at gulls, which seems perfectly reasonable to me, but this winter ducks have really taken centre stage. It's been interesting for sure, due in no small measure to the fascination of hybrids. Strange considering I've no interest, to speak of, in hybrid gulls. That south Biwako is so much closer to home is a huge plus, really easy to back and forth. Will I be back on the lakeshore next week? Well, never say never, but honestly, I seriously doubt it.