Eastern Marsh Harrier attacking Green Pheasant

I arrived at northern Lake Biwa after driving down from Ishikawa and managed three hours sleep before dawn.

First I checked out the track leading up the hill near Lake Yogo that I'll always use to access woodland birding; snow willing. Why did even bother, I should have known it would be impassable. I did know it, madness. What is it with this place and snow? There wasn't a trace of snow in any direction away from this unremarkable hill yet the track leading up it was under half a metre of the stuff! The hill isn't even very high. In the end I drove up another (higher) hill about 4km away, not a even a lingering flake. A flock of fairly confiding rosacea Bullfinches was the best find, then it was down to the lake.

Numbers of most duck species were definitely down compared to mid-winter, the exceptions being Tufted and Mallard which actually seemed more numerous if anything. Presumably because they stood out in homogeneous groups rather than being less conspicuously dotted through huge mixed flocks. As with Katano Kamo-ike yesterday the Baikal Teal and Taiga Bean Geese had already departed but there was a flock of 41 Tundra Swans on the fields by the lake. The Swans were as obvious as you'd expect them to be unlike the mysteriously invisible birds I only heard at Kanazawa yesterday.

While watching the Swans I had half an eye on an immature Eastern Marsh Harrier quartering belt of reeds behind me. Suddenly it banked then dropped towards something in the grass and for once I grabbed my camera before my bins and was able to get a few shots of it making three attempts to pounce on a Green Pheasant. The Pheasant stood its ground and faced the Harrier with its tail spread and neck feathers raised. I'll bet if it had tried to run, it would have been breakfast.

And these are some of the Tundra Swans I'd been watching...

The two-day trip to Kanazawa and Lake Biwa netted a total of 81 species:-
Green Pheasant
Tundra Swan
Mandarin
Gadwall
Falcated Duck
Eurasian Wigeon
Mallard
Eastern Spot-billed Duck
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Eurasian Teal
Common Pochard
Tufted Duck
Greater Scaup
Goldeneye
Smew
Goosander
Red-throated Diver
Black-throated Diver
Pacific Diver
Little Grebe
Red-necked Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Black-necked Grebe
Grey Heron
Great White Egret
Great Cormorant
Temminck's Cormorant
Pelagic Cormorant
Kestrel  
Osprey
Black Kite
Eastern Marsh Harrier
Hen Harrier
Eastern Buzzard
Coot
Grey-headed Lapwing
Northern Lapwing
Black-tailed Gull
Vega Gull
Slaty-backed Gull
Black-headed Gull
Feral Rock Dove
Oriental Turtle Dove
Crested Kingfisher
Hoopoe
Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Bull-headed Shrike
Azure-winged Magpie
Jay
Daurian Jackdaw
Rook
Carrion Crow
Large-billed Crow
Bohemian Waxwing
Great Tit
Varied Tit
Coal Tit
Long-tailed Tit
Japanese Skylark
Brown-eared Bulbul
Japanese Bush Warbler
Japanese White-eye
Wren
White-cheeked Starling
Pale Thrush
Dusky Thrush
Daurian Redstart
Brown Dipper
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
White Wagtail
Japanese Wagtail
Brambling
Oriental Greenfinch
Eurasian Siskin
Eurasian Bullfinch
Meadow Bunting
Rustic Bunting
Black-faced Bunting
Reed Bunting

Ishikawa trip last weekend

While the Hoopoe I wrote about a couple of days ago was the highlight of the trip to Ishikawa last weekend, the aim was to see the Scaly-sided Merganser on the Saigawa in Kanazawa. And just like last winter I failed miserably.

I started on the Saigawa at the usual (?) spot and though there were 11 Goosanders on the river at first light there was no sign of the Merganser. Here we go again I thought, but hey, there was plenty of river still to check, still plenty of optimism... still plenty of misplaced optimism as it turned out. The Goosanders were expected here but a Bohemian Waxwing wasn't. A splendid adult hanging on the fringe a group of about 20 Hawfinches, not quiet sure if it should join those seed eaters. I suppose if you're a Waxwing being on your own is an odd experience.

I gave up on the spot far more quickly than last winter, no more walking up and down, and drove up river stopping everywhere the road touched the river, at every vantage point giving a view along an unreachable stretch. There were no more Goosanders, nothing to keep my hopes up, where does it go? Or maybe it had gone, it is March after all.

I saw no more sawbills up river, but a couple of Crested Kingfishers in riverside trees and a Brown Dipper were reward enough. Or at least that's what I told myself, I could maybe have seen them without the four-hour drive. Returning for a quick look back at the starting point where there were now only four Goosanders convinced me to give up and trawl the fields to the north of the city for anyhting else of interest.

Two of the Goosanders just after dawn. 

The lonely Bohemian Waxwing, a cracking adult.

It seemed a day for disappearing birds so it was somehow appropriate that I could hear invisible Tundra Swans calling on the fields. They didn't sound too far away but I couldn't find them, they weren't overhead either. Fail to find a Scaly-sided Merganser on a long and difficult river is one thing but audible Tundra Swans on open fields is an entirely different matter. The fields weren't a total bust though, I did find three Daurian Jackdaws in one of the Rook flocks, all dark birds though one had ghosted white underparts. I have a soft spot for Daurians and these were really were worth the trip as there haven't been any close to home this winter. Or none that I've seen anyway. Unfortunately, unlike many I've seen, I couldn't get creep up on them as the flock wasn't settled enough. The muddy fields they were feeding in resulted in many of the Carrion Crows having whiter-based bills than I'd expect from Rooks in Europe let alone the less white-based eastern birds.

White-billed Carrion Crow. 

The real deal, an obvious Rook.

The Daurians weren't the only good crows in the area. This is Azure-winged Magpie country, a fairly common species along the coast near Kanazawa but one I can't see in Kansai. The first ones I came across were in a tiny scrubby area in the docks and for a change I was able to get a couple of shots off before they managed melt away into what little undergrowth there was. Another disappearing bird.

Two of half a dozen Azure-winged Magpies.

I intended to go down to Katano Kamo-ike and almost didn't drop into Kenmin Kaihin Park before heading south. Fortunately I did and hence ran into the Hoopoe, suddenly things were really looking up and Merg or no Merg coming to Kanazawa now seemed a smart choice.

Baikal Teal and Taiga Bean Geese always leave early and I wasn't surprised there were none at Katano Kamo-ike. Nevertheless it was worth dropping in to connect with the only Falcated Ducks of the day. Then it was just a short trip to the coast in the hope of seeing a few divers and auks. There weren't any auks but three species of diver were excellent and on rocks off Kasano Misaki were Temminck's and Pelagic Cormorants.

A breeding Great Cormorant in the harbour.

Nearby, in the harbour were hundreds of gulls. Sadly the light was going and and most gulls were out on the breakwater. I was torn; stay here overnight and check the gulls in the morning or keep heading south and start Sunday at Biwako. A small harbour on a Sunday? I doubted there'd be much gull action in the morning so down to Biwako it was. It was on the dive south I paused in a convenience store car park I posted the Hoopoe shots.

Hoopoe in Kanazawa

A whole weekend off... wonderful. To make the most of it I decided to head up to Ishikawa and make my way back via Lake Biwa. The latter will be tomorrow, at the moment I'm sitting in a Fukui convenience store car park in the pouring rain waiting for the evening traffic to tail off a bit. Well, I've got all night to reach the lake.

The best and most surprising bird today was a Hoopoe, typically early and my first spring migrant. If  Hoopoes aren't your cup of tea, browse elsewhere.