Redpolls

Though Redpolls aren't rare in Japan their occurrence definitely has a northern bias. I've only once seen a small wintering flock in the western part of the country so I was keen to try for a party of eight in Kanazawa. I like to think of Kanazawa as an outpost of northern Japan within easy driving distance of Kyoto. I say easy driving distance even though some might think a 260km drive to see Redpolls a tad excessive, but you have to bear in mind there's such good general birding to be had in the Kanazawa area that a day or two up there is never boring.


My good friends in the met office informed me Tuesday would be mainly sunny with the odd shower but that the weather would go steeply downhill there after; a misearable amount of rain on the Wednesday followed by a depressing quantity the following day. Why do I even bother to check what cocktail of conditions they pull from the lucky-dip forecast hat? In the event Tuesday was so overcast (with frequent showers) that I was unsure whether the sun rose at all that day. The next day was blue skies all the way. I didn't wait around to find out how inaccurate the third day prediction might have been.


So if the following images all look as though they were taken pre-sunrise on very high ISO, they may as well have been.

I found seven Redpolls without difficulty. This midday image shows how dull the conditions were, the following shots are all significantly lightened.

Tundra Swan in the early afternoon glow.

Slavionian Grebe: a bird that I rarely see in Kansai. I was due a spot of luck on this trip and finding this to be the closest bird on a huge lake must have been it.

On any other day that flock of Black-necked Grebes in the background would have been closer than a just identifiable Slavonian in the distance.

One of several Brown Dippers along the river, this bird was frequently singing under a major road bridge. This shot really was taken at dawn, the trick being it was dawn the following (supposedly rainy) morning. 

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Brown Dipper

After our success with Copper Pheasant a couple of days earlier I took visiting Aussie birder Jack Krohn owling in Tottori. This was ultimately disappointing with zero birds seen. We'd been assured there was a roosting Japanese Scops Owl in a particular nest box and that it occasionally poked it's head up to look around. We waited till light was failing and other Japanese Scops were already starting to call before we were forced to admit must've spent hours staring at an empty box! Ah well.


The forest was good and I was surprised not to hear any Eastern Crowned Warblers but there were plenty of other forest species. Invisible Ruddy Kingfishers moved back and forth up the steep valley, Ashy Minivets passed unseen above the canopy and Oriental Cuckoo was ever distant. But not everything was only heard, a few things showed themselves. A couple of White-bellied Green Pigeons briefly commuting between hill tops, Japanese and White-backed Woodpeckers cooperated at times and Blue and White as well as Narcissus Flycatchers put in appearances. Wrens were perhaps the commonest bird around with Great Tits a close second.

A female White-backed Woodpecker.

Wrens were very common.

I got up at 3am the following morning and there was a lot of activity around the cabins, three or four Japanese Scops, a single Oriental Scops and three Brown Hawk Owls were all calling nearby but none showed themselves. The same was true of three Northern Hawk Cuckoos and the only Lesser Cuckoo of the trip repeatedly overflying.


On the drive back to Kyoto we stopped off at the Oriental White Stork re-introduction programme centre and saw a couple of adults bill clapping while hanging in the air high overhead and another pair with a well grown chick on a post-top nest on the fields in front of the centre. One of the adults kept leaping into the air with exaggerated wing flaps, rather comically I thought, as if tethered to the nest as a tourist attraction. Jack on the other hand thought it was merely attempting to behave like a young bird in order to give the chick a lesson on how to strengthening its wings.


The following day we headed into Kyoto forest and had flight views of Grey Nightjar at dawn so nocturnals weren't a total wash-out. Later along one of the rivers a Brown Dipper was so intent on killing and eating a crab that it wasn't concerned by our presence.

Later in the morning we crossed Lake Biwa and made our way to Ibukiyama where we had our only Common Cuckoo of the trip. There were about 20 photographers lined up waiting for Golden Eagle to put in an appearance but unfortunately none did in the time we had available. It was really pleasant sitting in the sun at the mountain top even though it was too hazy to see any snowy peaks further north. On the way back down from the peak in Shiga to the base in Gifu we ran into a Grey-faced Buzzard circling over the trees before drifting off behind a ridge. Then it was back to Kyoto for a nap before an early start for the next target; Pleske's Warbler.

Brown Dipper to accentors

Brown Dipper is very common on the region's mountain rivers and streams, from broad valley bottoms with many channels meandering through boulder-strewn beds to narrow forested streams you can jump across. Even in the centre of villages in the hills. Some move downstream closer to the city in winter but most stay on the breeding rivers year round as they rarely freeze here. A site isn't required, any mountain waterway will do, but I never fail to see them on the river alongside the road when heading north out of the city on route 367, then on any of the tributaries heading towards Ashyu Forest.

An impersonation of juvenile Thayer's Gull?

Another Ashyu bird. 

This one in Hokkaido.

There are three species of sparrow on the Japan list but House Sparrow is a vagrant. Russet Sparrow is a winter visitor to Kansai and it's one of those species which, though far from rare, isn't easy to find on demand. I most regularly see them on the fields at Ogura but any open arable land with clumps of bushes or trees could attract them. Eurasian Tree Sparrow is extremely common in urban and rural areas and will be seen everywhere except forests and mountain tops.

There have only been a handful of records of House Sparrow in Japan so I was delighted to see this male on Mishima (Yamaguchi) in early May 2008.

Russet Sparrows were regular in winter in these riverside trees at Ogura but the trees have been felled and I still need a new favourite spot.

Male Russet.

Female Russet.

Eurasian Tree Sparrow, impossible to miss in Kansai.

Alpine Accentor only just makes it into Kansai by the skin of its teeth, they occur on the summit of Mt.Ibuki which is just inside Shiga though the drive to the top begins in Gifu Prefecture. Siberian Accentor does occur in winter on the Japan Sea side of the region but it's by no means regular. However it could easily go unnoticed. Japanese Accentor breeds in the mountains of the Kii Peninsular and on Mt.Ibuki. In winter it's more widespread and can be found in lower wooded hills but they are unobtrusive and can be overlooked.

A winter Japanese Accentor on Mt.Katsuragi south of Osaka.