Eleven species of bunting on Hegura in October

Hegurajima is always good for buntings in October and this year was no exception with 11 species seen even though the expected Tristram's was missed for possibly the first time ever. Birds seen were Pine (2), Chesnut-eared, Little, Rustic, Elegant, Black-faced (personata and spodocephala), Grey, Pallas's Reed (4+), Japanese Reed (1-2), Common Reed (1) and Lapland (1). 

There were two highlights for me, Lapland which I've only seen here once and Japanese Reed Bunting which was an island tick. Additionally Pine is an October specialty (usually in slightly bigger numbers) and Pallas's, which isn't guaranteed, put up a much better showing than the norm.  

LAPLAND BUNTING

JAPANESE REED BUNTING 

PALLAS'S REED BUNTINGS

PINE

CHESTNUT-EARED

LITTLE

GREY

RUSTIC

ELEGANT

Hegurajima: November 1st

There have been an amazing four national firsts this autumn, two of them on Hegurajima; Claudia's Leaf Warbler and Amur Paradise Flycatcher. Though no doubt the latter has been overlooked in the pre-split past. The last week of October saw continuous strong north westerlies flowing from the continent, what might they have brought? No boats out to the island of course in those conditions and no birders out there either. Even the more reliable Tobishima service wasn't operating meaning no possibility of anyone chasing the Ruby-crowned Kinglet there, the most recent of the four new birds for Japan.


The winds eased on Thursday 31st allowing sailing the following day... and more time for birds to leave. The problem with a day trip to the island from November onwards is that you only get 3.5 hours of birding because of the ferry's earlier winter return timetable. In effect only a little over three hours birding which makes the 404km each way drive seem much further than when I'm staying on the island.


I used to think there must be a good reason why the ferry schedule changes in winter. Now I'm not so sure. Why does it need to leave the island an hour earlier and be back in Wajima at 15:30 back in Wajima 1.5 hours before sunset at this time of year? It's not as if they have a lot to do once back in port and they surely don't require daylight to do it... Wajima is on the grid. Perhaps they don't realise the port has lighting because they've never been there after dark. Strange as it may seem now, when I first went to Hegurajima we drove all round Wajima looking for a convenience store... there were none! For many subsequent visits I had to be prepared and provisioned before getting out into the sticks then there was one, and the following year they were all over the town. A bit like Daurian Redstarts in mid-October. And another thing while I'm at it... did you ever wonder why the ferry leaves Hegura five minutes before the 15:00 (now 14:00) scheduled departure time? It seems departure time is as the ferry leaves the harbour not the quay. Thank goodness other forms of public transport don't follow the same logic, even other ferry services I use for that matter.


What about the birds then? I'm coming to that.


There were enough birds on the island to encourage the thought that a mega was just around the corner. Perhaps there was. Unfortunately you can't turn all the corners in three hours and I obviously didn't choose the right one(s).


Highlights were Eurasian Skylarks, ie not japonica, and a couple of Pine Buntings. Neither are unexpected here but equally they aren't birds I'm going to see staying at home in Kyoto. Red-throated Pipit I might see once in a blue moon in Kyoto while Stejneger's Stonechat, White's Thrush and Eyebrowed Thrush are birds I could see but usually don't. I'd sum it up as a low number of species with a high degree of scarcity from the Kyoto birders perspective.


It's actually worth going for the Pine Buntings alone! I didn't see them until five minutes before boarding the ferry, they were just hopping around on the road in the harbour.

Great birds, great family.

I definitely could have seen Rustic Bunting staying in Kyoto. But not on a rugged rocky headland with red berries!

There were at least 10 Eurasian Skylarks that I flushed from long grass along the west side of the island. This bird at the southern end of the island was the only one that perched briefly in the open allowing an all too distant shot before it dropped back into cover. In flight they looked slightly larger than Japanese even without direct comparison, they were cleaner white below and the flight calls were also sufficiently different to attract attention. 

In the harbour area a couple of people were trying to get good views and photographs of O Hibari (large skylark). Maybe I'm totally wrong on this but I often feel the name O Hibari is used as a catch-all for the various races of Eurasian Skylark that could turn up here in autumn/winter due to the difficulty/impossibility of confirming racial identity; I am told by a friend that O Hibari refers specifically to pekinensis and that lonnbergi is Karafuto Chu Hibari but it's always the former name I seem to hear mentioned. Incidentally, I'm told Chu Hibari intermedia hasn't been recorded in Japan which, again, is presumably is down to the difficulty/impossibility of separating the races of Eurasian Skylark in the field rather than it never reaching these shores.



Female Stejneger's Stonechat, probably a first autumn with the heavy white tips to the primary coverts.





As there wasn't a great deal of interest sufficiently close to photograph on the island, good images of the skylarks would have been very welcome, I'll add some shots of a first autumn Asian Brown Flycatcher taken on Oct 12th during the previous visit. This was quite a strikingly marked bird which I first saw in heavy rain making observation and more particularly photography difficult. I was struck by flashing white about the wings as I first glimpsed it dash away between the trunks of some pines ahead. Ever the optimist, I was excited by the possibility of Pied Flycatcher and in true ficedula-style it vanished. Fortunately I did relocate it some time and though that brought spirits down on a par with the weather it was a relief to sort it out. I found it again the following day in much better weather conditions about 400m from the original site and was able to get a few closer shots. I assume the the discrepancy between this and the Asian Brown Flycatchers I expect to see at this time of year are all due to retained juvenile body feathers. According to Leader (British Birds 2010), juvenile Asian Brown Flycatcher undergoes a complete body moult before migration and only the exceptional bird will retain any juvenile feathers beyond August. Certainly I've found very few online images of Asian Brown showing any of the features of this bird and none with all of them.

The first good view of the bird in the rain on the first day, I was more or less using the camera inside a plastic bag and could hardly see the bird at all through the view finder. The uppertail coverts are contrastingly dark, the longest with bold rounded pale spots, according to Leader the ground colour of retained juvenile feathers is blackish and much darker than the next generation feathers.

The median coverts bar is quite arresting and the dark and white streaks in the crown are just visible here, there's an almost Spotted Flycatcher feel to the head in this view. The pale area in the primaries remains a mystery as it isn't visible on the closed wing but it may have contributed to my initial impression of a very white-winged flycatcher as I glimpsed it in flight. Fortunately I could get better views the following day.

One of the most obviously different to the norm features is the presence of large, round spots longest uppertail coverts, the darker appearance of the lower rump and uppertail coverts is noticeable but not nearly as pronounced as in the wetter conditions of the previous day. Less eye-catching but no less interesting are two lower rear scapulars which also have large pale spots. 

The white markings on the forehead and crown are formed by white tips to some feathers.

This Japanese Bush Warbler shot is also from mid-October when they were very common on the island. I'm uncertain whether they are far less common now or simply less vocal.

81 species on Hegurajima

81 species might not seem like a large total for five days birding but there are two mitigating facts: firstly five days sounds like far more than the just over 30 hours in the field that it boils down to and secondly as October progresses there isn't really the variety there was earlier in the season. It really can't compare to spring when you might be lucky enough to get that many in a day. So all told I was quite pleased with the birding, the absence of a tick being the only bugbear... after all the Siberian Accentor I still need isn't so much to ask for on Hegura at this time of year, is it?


The surprises big or small:-
   Zero Tristram's Buntings - I've never struck-out in October before, this is the 'island specialty' that isn't even so difficult to get on the mainland.


   The first trip (Oct 11-13) produced a small number of spodocephala Black-faced Buntings but no personata whereas on the two day trips (Oct 20 and 21) personata were very common and there were no spodocephala.


   Just a single Dusky Warbler but five Radde's. I don't think Radde's is nearly as rare as some people think but this tipped the scales further from general expectation as well as my own previous experience. There was also one unidentified Dusky/Radde's.


   A relatively large and growing flock of Temminck's Cormorants on rocks in the bay behind Wajima harbour, there were 26 birds when I left with more seen flying in later. There were two Great Cormorants in the harbour. I've never had this number of Temminck's along the coast here so perhaps this was a pre-typhoon gathering... the fishing boats were doing much the same the following day.

The only Radde's Warbler that stayed in the open long enough to get a couple of shots off. It seemed like I was the only person connecting with Radde's which was becoming a bit embarrassing, I don't want to get a reputation for stringing Radde's and I'm tempted to keep quite in future. I got on to all five birds (and the lone Dusky) because of the call, I was 25-30 metres past this one when I heard it. Don't other people hear them? Some birders might be too busy chatting and perhaps the photography specialist don't know the calls which could give the impression that they're a rarity.

And with a flash of undertail coverts, it was gone. Back into the depths of the undergrowth.

Black-faced Bunting E.s.spodocephala

I'd say it has to be an adult male with these underlying markings.

A nice shot of the nominate tail pattern.

Staying with buntings...

Rustic

Pine

Little

Yellow wagtails are a favourite of mine, any taxon will do... which is just as well at this time of year.

Like Dusky Thrush, Naumann's tends to perch in the open so it's much easier to assess numbers compared the other thrushes. Naumann's is definitely a very scarce bird, personally I've never seen more than one per autumn.

This first winter male spent a day hanging round the harbour.

The following birds are definitely not scarce...

There were huge numbers of Eurasian Siskin earlier in the month, slightly fewer later, and they occupied all habitats from the shoreline to woodland. Their small size in short coastal vegetation could be quite a distraction when looking for skulkers.

Eurasian Siskin

Bramblings were equally common, equally catholic in their choice of habitat and equally tame. Fortunately their larger size made them more obvious and less of a distraction... other than them being great looking birds.

Olive-backed Pipits are ever-present.

Finally some of those early morning Temminck's Cormorants congregating on inshore rocks in Wajima...

As a footnote, there's quite a lot of infrastructure work taking place on the island, it's strange to have dumper-trucks running round all over the place and to see this barge ferrying materials to the island.

The final load coming across before the typhoon was due to arrive the following day. This was the calmest I'd seen the sea all month.

And a very subjective and unscientific approach to listing all species during the sum of the observation periods:-
Japanese Quail   1
Greater White-fronted Goose   2
Mandarin Duck
Eurasian Wigeon
Mallard
Eurasian Teal
Tufted Duck
Streaked Shearwater
Grey Heron
Great White Egret   1
Temminck's Cormorant
Peregrine   3
Black Kite
Japanese Sparrowhawk   1
Eurasian Sparrowhawk   at least two, it's never easy to estimate numbers for such a mobile species but I saw two together circling with the Goshawk early one morning.
Northern Goshawk   1
Common Coot   3
Pacific Golden Plover   2
Grey-tailed Tattler   1
Common Snipe   7
'Swintail' Snipe   1
Black-tailed Gull
Vega Gull
Slaty-backed Gull
Black Woodpigeon
Oriental Turtle Dove
(one racing pigeon with full bling)
Ashy Drongo   1
Bull-headed Shrike   4
Rook   12
Large-billed Crow
Coal Tit
Skylark
Brown-eared Bulbul
Japanese Bush Warbler
Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler   1
locostella sp   1
Black-browed Reed Warbler   1
locustella/acro sp   1
Radde's Warbler   5
Dusky Warbler   1
Kamchatka Leaf Warbler   in large numbers mid-month, small numbers later
Yellow-browed Warbler   3 all heard only
Japanese White-eye   common later in the month
Goldcrest  1 mid-month became one of the commonest birds later
Eurasian Wren   1
White-cheeked Starling   2
Siberian Thrush   1
White's Thrush   2
Japanese Thrush   2
Eyebrowed Thrush
Pale Thrush
Naumann's Thrush   1
Dusky Thrush
Stejneger's Stonechat
Blue Rock Thrush
Red-flanked Bluetail
Daurian Redstart
Grey-streaked Flycatcher
Brown Flycatcher
Narcissus Flycatcher   1
Mugimaki Flycatcher   2
Taiga Flycatcher   1 heard
Taiga/Red-breasted Flycatcher   1 (possibly the same bird as above)
Yellow Wagtail   2
Grey Wagtail
White Wagtail
Olive-backed Pipit
Red-throated Pipit
Buff-bellied Pipit   2
Pechora Pipit   1
Brambling
Eurasian Siskin
Oriental Greenfinch
Hawfinch
Japanese Grosbeak
Pine Bunting   2
Meadow Bunting   2 on the 11th
Chestnut-eared Bunting   2
Little Bunting
Yellow-browed Bunting   1
Rustic Bunting
Elegant Bunting  
Black-faced Bunting
Grey Bunting   1