Dollarbirds

After a long drive back down from Niigata and the Tiger Shrikes I finally arrived in north Shiga around 16:30. The drive was long because of three much-needed cat-naps en route, I'd only had 30 minutes sleep the previous night driving up. Still, there was plenty of daylight to get some birding in before the nightshift started.


There were half a dozen cars parked at the end of the road when I arrived. All but one of their occupants, I would later realise, were staking out the local celebrity Dollarbirds' nest.


Back up in Niigata, I'd visited one Dollarbird site very briefly but didn't hang around as the nestbox is right by the track side and I didn't want to disturb the birds. Though I suspect they're actually pretty tolerant of people.

I first noticed this bird perched nearby.

There were a couple of noisy Grey-faced Buzzards in a nearby copse, I'm guessing they had a nest in there somewhere, the bird that flew out and perched on a telegraph pole was quite unperturbed by my approach; that seems fairly typical of the species judging by their approachability in wintering areas.

Fast forwarding to Shiga again. I could hear Fairy Pitta as I stepped out the van... but was it a Pitta?
I headed into the forest past the Dollarbird stake-out and the patient crowd of would-be admirers. Reaching the Pitta area and heard the song again, now loud and clear, emanating from just a little further up the slope. There was only one guy waiting for it, at the fork of a drivable track, but as he obviously wasn't on it I stopped at some favourite trees and scanned the upper branches. Nothing. I walked off the other side of the track sat down and waited. There was the song again! Even closer it seemed and the guy had his camera pointed up into the trees. I made my way across towards him as carefully as I could and scanned the treetops. Still nothing. With the next burst of song I realised it was the guy playing a recording! I asked him why he was doing it. To which he replied that "everyone does it" then it would appear in the trees... as if everyone doing it made it okay! So I told him not to.


"Everyone does it"? Actually that's not true. On my previous visit a Japanese birder urged me not to tell anyone about the Pitta returning this year because he was concerned about a repetition of last year when apparently so many people had disturbed these birds by playing audio. It is good to hear some people do have consideration for the birds' welfare but I felt like saying it would be better to speak directly to the offenders when he came across them, rather than preaching to the converted.


So, did I hear a Pitta from the van, or only a recording? I'll never know. Another annoying point about people using audio actually! When I eventually returned to the van all six cars had already left, I didn't hear anything of their departure from where I'd been sitting quietly at the Pitta spot, no tailgates slamming nor engines starting. Would I have heard the guy's recording in the reverse direction? None of the Dollarbird gang had reacted to the Pitta song as I was walking in, can they tell the difference between a recording and the real thing? Are they so inured to hearing audio wolf they wouldn't react to the real thing? Maybe they were too intent on their stake-out to notice at all? I presume they'd know a Pitta if they heard one.


As evening drew on and the Dollarbird boys were long gone I ate 'dinner' in the van, the Dollarbird suddenly appeared on the wires right in front of me, almost overhead. Then for the next 20-30 minutes it put on a wonderful show, displaying over the clearing to my right. At times rolling through the tree tops at the back, then it might get way, way up high in great circles before swooping down over the nest site area and coming back to perch on the wires or nearby treetops. An experience no photograph could ever capture.

The poor light added to the atmosphere of the performance, watching the bird using the whole sky was a delight.

I was a little surprised not to have a flyover Nightjar while watching the roller, there were plenty singing, but as night progressed I was even more surprised not to hear any Japanese Scops Owls. I can only guess they're too busy at the moment. I did hear a selection of grunts, gasps, wheezes and squeals suggesting a family group of Ural Owls not far away; a short burst of song confirmed there was at least one Ural there.


I set off back into the forest at dawn. Oriental and Lesser Cuckoos were singing intermittently, Narcissus Flycatchers most of the time and occasionally a White-bellied Green Pigeon would chime in. The pick of the 'heard only' birds was a Japanese Paradise Flycatcher, on the wrong side of a small cascading river and screened by a facing wall of cedars; less than sporting I thought. There was definitely no Pitta singing this morning, and no one even looking either. The roller adulators, this morning ferried in by 11 vehicles, would brook no distraction. Perhaps the male Pitta has moved on if there isn't a female here this year.


Mammals had been disappointing, plenty of macaques of course but apart from them only a single red fox and a couple of sika deer. Though one of the latter was a young animal which when it saw me positively bounced slowly along the track, with all four legs springing together. It had obviously been watching too much Disney.

Once off the track the young sika stopped and followed my movements as I tried to get a better angle.

Hegura: a weekend in Ishikawa part 2

The sky is getting light by 3:30am nowadays and I had plenty of time for birding at Rokkozaki before deciding what to do with the final day of this once-to-be three day trip. There were six singing Kamchatka Leaf Warblers this morning, Pacific Swifts and Red-rumped Swallows were passing through clearly there were birds to be found and with the notion of a lazy Sunday having already gone by the board even Hegura might still be possible. If the ferry were running that is.


Still in two minds I arrived back in Wajima and went to check at the ferry office.The boat was going and I had enough time to reach a convenience store for a coffee before departure. What to do: be sensible and drive towards home or go to the island? I had a busy week coming up and I'd get home very late and with little sleep over the weekend. The coffee hadn't helped me make up my mind but I gravitated back to the ticket office anyway. Compared to yesterday there were few cars in the car park, there might not be many birders out there. There might be some good birds out there. There could be a mega out there... not to mention a Swinhoe's Petrel from the boat. Before common sense prevailed I went and bought a ticket, if the ferry was going then so was I.


I hadn't really expect a Swinhoe's Petrel from the ferry of course, so I wasn't disappointed. The Streaked Shearwaters were good though.

 

 

 

 

Once on the island it quickly became apparent the Kamchatka Leaf Warblers at Rokkozaki had been no more than a taste of what could be found on the island. There had to be something else out here.

 

 

 

 

 

The Kamchatka Leaf Warblers were very vocal and unlike in autumn so many singing birds meant identification was that much easier. I suppose it's slightly surprising then that Rokkozaki provided the only Arctic Warbler when there were so many more warblers out here on the island. Unsurprisingly, total numbers of birds were lower than they would have been during peak migration period, or even just a week earlier. One of only two birders I met was bemoaning the general lack of birds, however the variety of species was quite good.


I found:-
Cattle Egret 1
Great White Egret 1
Northern Hobby 1

Eurasian Sparrowhawk 1
Lesser Cuckoo 1
White-throated Needletail 1
Broad-billed Roller (I hate the name Dollarbird) 1

 

Red-rumped Swallow 3
Black-browed Reed Warbler 1
Dark-sided Flycatcher 1

 

 

Asian Brown Flycatcher 2

Eurasian Siskin 1
Hawfinch 1



There were plenty of presumed local breeders to sift through too, Japanese Bush Warblers were performing everywhere.

 

This Black-faced Bunting probably wanted to be Yellow-breasted, it couldn't quite pull off the breast band...

And so many Black Woodpigeons! I saw ones or twos regularly at the southern end, the biggest party was four, and heard a couple more at the northern end.

In fact, though numbers of most species were low, there were new birds at every turn and the species tally grew steadily. My 4.5 hours on the island passed all too quickly and I felt certain there was something really exciting on the island. I still am to be honest. Before going out I'd been concerned I might be totally wasting my time but now I'm sure if I'd been able to stay there and put in the time I'd have found something special.

Mishima: bad weather, good birds!

The sky was very overcast when I woke this morning but it didn't look like there'd been any of the forecast rain. No sooner had I got outside than it started. There was drizzle and heavier showers throughout the day with the sun just starting to show as it was setting.

My camera stayed in the bag most of the day but it was bright enough for the bird of the day, a Greater Short-toed Lark I found at about 4:30. Unfortunately it was quite nervous, unlike the White Wagtails it was with (also new in) and these shots were the best I could muster. At least it's identifiable.

Downtown Utu witht the ferry arriving. The Lark was on the strtch of short grass behind the beach.

The day started slowly but by late morning things began to pick up, birds were obviously arriving. The thrushes were the first indicator and by day's end I'd added Siberian, Grey-backed (the other star bird of the day), Brown-headed (very common) and Pale to the trip list.

This pair of Ospreys, the smaller male with a fish, were the only birds I got a shot of in the morning before the rain began and the helicopter was leaving the radar station on top of the highest hill. I was once trying to digiscope a Wryneck through the fence of the small hilltop base and before long a military vehicle arrived and I wasn't surprised they told me I could stand there with my scope and camera peering through the fence... I'd have to stand on the other side of the road! So I moved four metres back and they were quite satisfied with that, bizarre.

The Short-toed Lark and Grey-backed Thrush may have been the best birds of the day, but they weren't the high point. That came in early afternoon with an amazing congregation of birds, or flocks of birds. Along a 50 metre stretch I estimated there were about 30 singing Eastern Crowned warblers, a few Sakhalin Warblers, 23 Ashy Minivets, 150 Bramblings, 20 Siskin, a lone Japanese Grosbeak, a huge number of White-eyes, three Blue and White Flycatchers, uncountable Narcissus Flycatchers
and a Lesser Cuckoo. They weren't passing through in waves, the finches were sitting about being finchy and the rest were dashing madly around without going anywhere. Only the Cuckoo didn't hang about. There wasn't much point in using the binoculars to go through them all, it was really a stand in awe moment. The Minivets below were part of a different flock.

Yesterday Sakhalin Leaf Warblers had been far more common than Eastern Crowned. Of course Eastern Crowned are usually silent unless singing whereas Sakhalins call frequently which can skew perception of numbers, two of the three I recorded yesterday were singing birds, it's no exaggeration to say there were hundreds singing today.

After leaving the Lark by the beach in Utu village I bumped into another good bird, a great bird, and the sun was just coming out to try to do it justice. A wonderful Broad-billed Roller. I can't bring myself to say Dollarbird, it sounds too cheap for such a cracking bird. As a kid European Rollers and Hoopoe were the two most exotic birds I'd dream of seeing.

We'll probably be getting clear skies again tonight and tomorrow so I can only hope there are still some good birds that arrived today waiting to be found. Though as I was writing that I heard a Pacific Golden Plover flying over, we're due a few waders.