Biwako & Matsusaka, a two-day trip

I hadn't been up to the north end of Lake Biwa in ages, all winter in fact. Which is surprising considering winter is the best time to go and as a result I haven't even seen Steller's Sea Eagle this winter. I was hoping to get (good if possible) views and maybe even photos of Copper Pheasant but in the event I didn't even hear a displaying male.


Because there's a cell tower at the top of my usual hill there is an access road, well that's why it is 'my' hill in the first place of course, and this access road has been snow-ploughed allowing anyone daft enough to drive to the top the freedom to do so. However it also meant all bar one of my usual pull-offs were blocked by snow. By day the road becomes a shallow stream as snowmelt finds the easiest route downhill between the walls of snow on either side, but at dawn a steeply-angled ice-rink would be a better description of the road as it nears the top. Going upward, be it driving or on foot, always seems safer than going down to me, so I stopped at the summit rather than drop down the final 100 metres to the car park. I nevertheless still had to walk it. If I tried to stand still on the road I began to move down the slope, slowly at first. Gingerly I had to edge my way down trying to get purchase on a litter of pine needles frozen into the paved edge before it disappeared under the snow. Trying not to pick up speed! And all the while wishing I'd actually gone and bought new boots when I'd planned to rather than keep putting it off.


Like a lot of winter woodland birding much of the ridge was, well not birdless exactly but... you know. A few invisible tits calling somewhere off the trail, occasional Grosbeaks overhead. Then, again like so often, all the birds were back at the start point, by the car. Three species of woodpecker, Nuthatch, five species of tit, Jays, Red-flanked Bluetail, three species of bunting, five species of finch and so on.




Red-flanked Bluetail.

As I said, all my usual pull-offs along the road were blocked by snow except for one, the lowest good stop on the way back down. There were two clear signs spring is here...

Bear art? I often come across conifers with huge sections of bark ripped off, it comes away in huge chunks as if it had been badly-fitted to the tree. This hardwood presents a much better canvas.

Bullfinches feasting on new buds; this male (and female below) the expected rosacea.

Lake Biwa itself is a vast expanse of water, the winter panorama without exception broken by countless rafts of countless ducks, as well as more modest numbers of geese and swans. But hardly surprising given the date most of the wildfowl has gone and the drive southward was consequently a rapid one despite the best efforts of some serious road works. I reached Lake Sainoko far earlier than usual. Far too early for any harriers there may be in the area coming in to roost. However I did see five different Eastern Marsh Harriers in the time I spent there. I also had my first Barn Swallow of the year and little did I realise then, that by the same time a day later they would be common.


As usual the harriers were more often than not distant, at their closest they weren't great to photograph.

After a convenience store dinner and a nap it was off to Matsusaka. The route was simple according to the map; pretty much a straight line to Route 1 and I could take it from there. A straight line on major roads but a lot of jinks and route numbers so I let the satnav take the strain. She found an even more direct route! However this involved sticking to a road atop the river embankment; sometimes single track, sometimes very rough, but it was more direct. I don't know if it was any quicker in the end, especially at that time of day as it entailed cutting across several major roads with no signals during rush hour.

The main purpose in Mie was to look for immature Taimyr Gulls but there were a few other things of interest. First and foremost was a Japanese Scops Owl calling at 04:10 in an industrial area at Matsusaka port! It was very close but I didn't see it and it quickly moved further off onto private land.



Another point of interest I'd never seen before was seaweed harvesting by boat...

A seaweed harvest boat. at first I though being in the boat might be the better option but I'm no longer sure.

Simply line the boat up at the end of the row...

...and go!

Long-billed Dowitchers were fairly close for a change but the gulls will have to wait for another post.

rosacea Bullfinch

At first light last Sunday, just to the north of Lake Biwa, I came across a flock of fairly confiding Bullfinches feeding on new buds along a sheltered stretch mountain road. That the road is still closed for the winter meant there weren't any cars to disturb the early morning calm and I was the only person up there. The initial three or four birds I saw multiplied into a total of about 15 as I noticed more and more feeding quietly low in the bushes along the steep upward verge to my right and better lit drop-off on the left.

I was keen to see which race they were and was surprised to see males that suggested both rosacea and griseiventris present. One male was uniformly dark grey below sharply contrasting with the bright pinkish ear coverts patch; very attractive actually. Not to mention exciting, I've never knowingly seen griseiventris outside Hokkaido. According to Brazil (East Asia Fieldguide) rosacea is the common winter race in Korea and griseiventris the common race in Japan, but all I've ever seen in Kansai are rosacea. However, when the birds moved on I checked the images (which was in itself a huge disappointment, but more of that in a minute) and saw there was a slight reddish tint to the grey in the centre of the breast, this was even clearer when viewed later on the pc. As far as I'm aware griseiventris is completely grey below whereas rosacea is variable. Therefore I presume this bird must be towards the 'grey end' of rosacea, it's certainly the greyest I've seen, and I can well imagine how easy it might be to misidentify as a griseiventris on a brief or distant view. Though for all I know they may come even greyer than this.

I was slightly surprised that almost all the females showed conspicuous white in the outertail feathers whereas the only two males I saw well enough did not. This seems to be variable in some (all?) taxa so it's probably no more than coincidence.

Coming back to the other big disappointment, looking at the images I realised the setting dial had moved onto TV and there simply hadn't been enough light to support the shutter speed the setting demanded. So all the shots I got, or the vast majority anyway, were seriously under-exposed and I've had to lighten these images to be able to use them.

A nice side by side: the upper bird was an obvious rosacea (as later shots will show) even though it doesn't look very red-breasted here. The grieiventris-like bird below has very uniform grey belly and flanks abruptly abutting the white vent and lower belly, this was apparent from all angles.   

Below is a series of three shots of the same duo at different angles. The rosacea can look very pale below or less so, redder or greyer, depending on the angle. The griseiventris lookalike is very consistent in appearance.

Three shots of the same two males together, one clearly a rosacea while the other had me believing I had a great comparison of both races.  

Below is the same rosacea looking even redder in this image. Following that are two shots of the griseiventris, the last showing a distinct reddish hue.

The rosacea with a female.

Two shots of the griseiventris-type, the latter heavily cropped and lightened revealing a distinct reddish tint to the centre of the breast.

I was also interested in getting some shots of females and when I returned to the males there was only one, which may or may not have been the original rosacea.

If males can be tricky then what hope is there for females?

Two females with conspicuous white in the outer tail feathers.

Another female, very heavily cropped, better showing the extent of white in T6.

The females are a quite beautiful combination of soft, subtle colours and identification issues aside I'd have to say I prefer them to the males. The following bird perched higher catching more light so my shutter speed disaster didn't reek quiet so much havoc.

finches

Brambling and Siskin flocks are frequent sight in the hills throughout the region in winter. They are more likely within the city later in the season and can often be found in riverside trees, temple gardens or parks but occurrence and numbers vary depending on weather and food availability elsewhere. I would be confident of seeing both species in many mountainous areas but closer to home, say at Takaragaiike, the botanical gardens or along the Katsura River, it's a matter of pot-luck. Though once they've arrived in an area they're likely to stay as long as the food lasts, which usually measns all winter in their case.
Oriental Greenfinch is a very common species in the region, found in a variety of habitats from open arable land to forested hill tops. It's also common along Kyoto's rivers and in the parks, in fact hard to avoid might be a better way to describe its status. Winter flocks can be very large.
Common Redpoll is an irregular winter visitor to Kansai, it is sometimes found wintering on easily accessible mountains in the south of the region and must no doubt be overlooked in less accessible locations. While I've never heard of lowland birds further south than Lake Biwa it can occur at coastal locations on the Japan Sea.
Asian Rosy Finch is unusual in the region but is more regular on Ibukiyama and other high peaks on the periphery of Kansai. I'm told they occur in forested mountains in central Kyoto prefecture but these areas are largely inaccessible due to snow.
Wintering Long-tailed Rosefinches are far more widespread and in Kyoto can be found in scrubby riparian habitat and woodland edges around the city. It doesn't get into city parks but I'd expect to see it easily in suitable areas.Common Rosefinch definitely can't be expected in the region but odd ones are quite regular on off-shore islands particularly in spring.Pallas's Rosefinch is less regular than further north in Honshu. I've only seen them twice, in the mountains on the Kii Peninsular and to the north of Lake Biwa.
Pine Grosbeak is eruptive but rare even in the few years they do turn up and there might just be one or two singles throughout the region. The only flock I've heard of in Kyoto city was about 30 years ago.
Common Crossbill occurrence is slightly more frequent and numbers can be quite large in good years, the winter of 2013/14 has been the best I've known with flocks in many places throughout the region, with a Two-barred in a flock near Lake Biwa and another in nearby north east Shikoku.
Eurasian Bullfinch P.p.rosacea is fairly widespread, sometimes common, in winter but numbers do vary from year to year. Some authorities lump rosacea and griseiventris however when comparing the more distinctive males there are certainly morphological differences between birds I see in Hokkaido and Kansai. I've only once seen a bird with completely red underparts, on a headland in Shimane one February, unfortunately it wasn't actually a birding trip and I'm unsure which taxon it was. 
Hawfinch is a fairly common winter visitor in Kansai, singles or small parties are regular in city parks and wooded temple gardens or less regularly in trees lining rivers.
Japanese Grosbeaks breed in forested hills Kansai and are common in wooded city parks such as the botanical gardens and the Imperial Palace Park in Kyoto. Chinese is very scarce in Kansai, I don't hear of them every year. I once found a pair wintering in a small Kyoto shrine garden, but they are more often found in Osaka parks.

On Hegura flocks of Bramblings can start to arrive from early October, this one of many birds on the 13th.

A Brambling from a flock which spent the winter in a small area of trees the Katsura River (Kyoto), this shot 30 December.

On 17 April there were still some lingering birds in the same trees.

There can be huge flocks in Lakeside trees around Lake Biwa and elsewhere.

Birds in a small clump of trees at the mouth of the Yamato River in Osaka city.

Juvenile Siskin on Hegura, 14 October 2013.

Male Siskin, Hokkaido 31 December 2012.

Two members of a flock wintering in riverside trees on the Katsura River (Kyoto city), 17 January 2011.

An exceptionally dark bird on Mishima (Yamaguchi), 29 April 2011. Not only is the mantle black but the yellows and greens are much duller than usual.

A party of Common Redpolls spent weeks in a tiny group of small trees next to Izumo Airport (Shimane), 4 January 2009.

Common Redpoll, Izumo Airport. I believe there had been Arctic Redpoll with the birds when they first arrived but they didn't stay as long.

Long-tailed Rosefinch is common along the Katsura River (Kyoto city) in winter.

Female Long-tailed Rosefinch along the Katsura River, Kyoto city.

Unlike most migrant Common Rosefinches I see, this was with a flock of Eurasian Tree Sparrows in the port on Mishima (Yamaguchi), 3 May 2011.

Pine Grosbeaks in Shari port, Hokkaido, 30 December 2012.

One of a large number of birds at Woody Pal, Shiga, 23 November 2013.

Male griseiventris Bullfinch at Abashiri, Hokkaido, 31 December 2012. Clean grey breast and belly extending onto including lower throat. Clearly defined red area contrasts sharply with underparts. 

Male rosacea Bulfinch on Mt.Katsuragi (Nara), 15 February 2009. Unlike griseiventris it has a distinct reddish cast to breast and belly, the more extensive red on face and throat is less sharply defined.

Female rosacea Bullfinch with brownish cast to underparts. Lake Biwa (Shiga), 26 January 2009.

Members of a small group of very eye-catching Bullfinches at Woody Pal (Shiga), 2 December 2012. There was a large influx of Bullfinches that winter and this group differed from the usual Kansai birds in having uniformly grey underparts without any hint of reddish or brownish. Though they are slightly paler bordering the black cap, perhaps all female griseiventris?

Hawfinch in the Kyoto botanical gardens, 3 February 2013.

Hawfinch on Mishima (Yamaguchi), 29 April 2011.

Chinese Grosbeak Senri Park (Osaka), 14 January 2007. To my knowledge birds came to this park in two consecutive winters and also to another park in the north of the city for two further winters.

Japanese Grosbeaks in Kyoto botanical gardens, 7 March 2012. The gardens are a great place to see the birds on the ground as they get accustomed to people slowly wandering round.