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.

Wryneck aside a less than exciting week

Earlier in the week my wife's job took her to the botanical gardens where she ran into a frenzy of photographers. Her phoned description of the bird's call suggested Japanese Woodpecker to me, which let's face it isn't the first name that springs to mind in connection with a frenzy but even though they aren't rare in the hills surrounding the city birds don't normally turn up in the parks.

So a couple of days later when I had some free time mid-morning I went to the botanical gardens. Not opening 9am it's often a better bet for a late start than the Imperial Palace Park which would usually be my early morning choice in the city if looking for migrants.

The weather was beautiful so the place was really busy, finding birds was slow and there would always be a someone wandering along to flush whatever might be on view. Passage migrants of interest were single Narcissus Flycatcher and Kamchatka Leaf Warbler and early winter birds included three Daurian Redstarts and the odd Pale Thrush but the first Bramblings of the season were pick of the bunch.

One of a party of about 15 Brambling.

After a couple of hours I heard a slightly distant single woodpecker call, over before I realised and not enough to determine which species it had been. Almost simultaneously a shout went up and photographers were running. The call was from the direction I'd been headed so I was witness to an amazing scene that must have prompted my wife to phone me a couple of days earlier. A crowd of photographers tail-like followed the green comet or like bees behind their queen they'd cluster under the tree in a rush and off the bird would go again. Back and forth from tree to tree, over the pond and across it again. I doubt the bird had entertainment in mind but if I'd been in charge of auditions for a latter day Keystone Cops movie those photographers would have been signed up on the spot.

Bird photographers get a bad press everywhere but I think in Japan most came to birds late without the benefit of a lifetime's experience and lacking basic fieldcraft don't realise that they're doing anything wrong and the culture being what it is no one see going to take them to task over it. I must just add that on my recent trips to Hegurajima everyone I encountered was wonderfully well mannered and behaved.

With the Japanese Woodpecker confirmed as the cause of the frenzy, I could go to work content I hadn't missed anything spectacular.

A couple of days later on Saturday morning I was working in Hirakata and took the opportunity to check the Yodo riverside in the afternoon. The large close-cut grass area is usually good for wagtails and Japanese Skylark and that day was no exception.

Japanese Skylark 

White Wagtail, the local lugens, this a presumed adult female 

Japanese Wagtail

I walked two or three kilometres up stream through a more wooded area but there there was nothing but Brown-eared Bullbuls, a few Bull-headed Shrikes and the other usual suspects in the trees while the river was equally disappointing with a handful of Eurasian Wigeon and the odd Grey Heron.

I made my way back towards the station and at the last clump of scrub before reaching the manicured grass again a Wryneck flew up from my feet and perched in the closest bush. It was too close to focus on so grabbed my camera but through the twigs I needed to switch to manual focus and by the time I fumbled with that the Wryneck had slipped into the reed beyond. I say reeds but it's an impentratable wall, the tallest are four-metre giants with a tangled mass of bindweed running through them.

A metaled track encloses this small rectangle, at one end these dense reeds which give way to thickening into scrub and finally a few stunted trees poke through at the other end. It's all over in 100 metres. And not for the first time it was the last place tried that held all the birds. Apart from the Wryneck and the typical birds of the area of course, Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Japanese White-eye and a year's supply of Bulbuls, there were a couple of Daurian Redstarts, a male Narcissus Flycatcher, a Kamchatka Leaf Warbler and one or two Pale Thrushes. The dense nature of the vegetation meant the idea of getting photographs was a joke but because birds came and went, some not to be seen again, there was a great sense of expectation that something of more interest could have been lurking in there.

A selection of peek-a-boo shots, Kamchatka Leaf at the top (really), a couple of the Narcissus, Pygmy Woodpecker (usually much easier) and a couple of White-eyes. Even the normally brazen Daurian Redstarts were skulkers.

If there was something good lurking, I never did find it.

woodpeckers

Wryneck is probably a more common wintering species than my sightings suggest, probably only 2-3 per winter around the city. It can be found in areas of bushes or young trees close to water, major rivers, lakes (including the park variety) or hill streams alongside a road where the combination provides more open habitat. Reedbeds with scattered bushes are a favourite with them. Birds are normally solitary, quiet and probably overlooked, though when there are two or three together they can be very vocal.

A wintering bird on a small mountain river on Mt.Katsuragi, Osaka.

Three woodpeckers can be seen in Kyoto, Japanese Pygmy is very common in parks and gardens as well as woodland, Great Spotted is common, especially in winter, on the surrounding hills and Japanese though less numerous can still be found on surrounding hills. Japanese used to breed in the Fushimi Inari Shrine precinct and on occasion visit city parks. Higher into the mountains away from the city White-backed is fairly common. In areas like Ashyu Forest to the north or Nara/Wakayama mountains to the south Great Spotted and White-backed seem comparable in number, and Japanese is far more easily seen in these areas.

For anyone interested in woodpeckers Hokkaido is the place for both variety and numbers.

Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker in the botanical gardens, Kyoto city, 7 March 2012.

Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker in the Imerial Palace Park, Kyoto city.

Two Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers in what I'd have thought was unusual habitat near Abashiri, Hokkaido 31 December 2012.

Another LSW in the same general area as the above birds.

Male White-backed Woodpecker, Woody Pal, Shiga. They're more often heard than seen in summer but once the leaves have fallen they're much easier, as long as snow allows access to the mountain tracks.

White-backed near Kawayu Onsen, Hokkaido 12 August 2012.

    

Male Great Spotted Woodpecker Abashiri, Hokkaido 15 August 2012.

Female Great Spotted Woodpecker, Abashiri 15 August 2012. 

Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker, Wakatohanto 12 August 2012.

Juvenile male moulting to adult Abashiri 15 August 2012.

Female Japanese Woodpecker Mt.Misen, Wakayama 28 June 2013.

Grey-headed Woodpecker Abashiri, Hokkaido 14 August 2012.