Yellow-bellied Tit and a few plastics

I've only ever been to Choshi in summer (thank you Least Tern), rather strange considering how much time I spend gulling you might think. Well, yes, but on the other hand it's a fair old hike from Kyoto. An almost eight-hour non-stop drive in fact. However, when I heard about the arrival of Yellow-bellied Tits a while ago I knew I'd have to get up there some time this winter.

Yellow-bellied Tits at Choshi... again? On the 'wrong side' of Japan and in exactly the same spot. How weird is that. How much of Japan did they fly over to get there? To happen once is quite a surpise, but to happen twice is bizarre. Well as I said, I knew they were likely to stay all winter and that I'd have to get up there at some point. The point came last week.

I didn't do the whole eight-hour drive in one irresponsible stretch, I actually stopped twice. Once at a Tokyo park that just happened to have some Rose-ringed Parakeets flying around making a din and another park where there were Masked Laughing Thrushes bouncing around making a din. Some plastics play hard to get but these were the kind I like best, get'm and go. They weren't the only plastic on this trip I might add. This was a veritable tick-fest with three plastics, one armchair, one heard only and of course the Yellow-bellied Tits. 

Masked Laughing Thrushes: the park even has a Starbucks next to the birds' favourite clump of bushes.

The Tits played hard to get. Not that I blame them so much, more my own expectations. When I originally heard they were in a park, even if it were the size of four football fields, I thought how hard can that be?! A park; a park in this area means manicured lawns with a few trees sticking out, I wasn't expecting a jungle. My heart sank just pulling into the car park for the first time... not to mention each subsequent occasion.

On the first attempt locals told us the best spot to look, they also told us they'd seen one briefly at 10am, too briefly to photograph, and hadn't had another sign since. Hardly encouraging. Here I was at the gulling capital of Japan and I'm stuck in a forest looking for a small passerine. I'm not sure which I felt more strongly, frustration at not gulling or fear that I might not see the Tits, and do no gulling. The next day I managed untickable views, my mate saw two birds together, one was nice and yellow the other was drab and doing a Coal Tit impersonation. I didn't see the yellow one. I glimpsed the impersonator... from behind. This was hard, frustration up a couple of notches. And to make matters worse, all the Great Tits and Varied Tits were chattering away like mad, doing a Laughing Thrush you might say, while in contrast the Yellow-bellieds were almost silent. I say almost because I heard a single call, once. So much for morning activity, try again in the (becoming rather chilly, overcast and even showery) afternoon. But, the third time really was lucky, how rare is that? I saw three different birds and I heard them calling on three or four occasions. Success! Just as well because the following day was pouring rain from beginning to end. I also learned the IOC has bestowed specieshood on the Bonin Greenfinch; armchair! A good day, and by coincidence my birthday.

Yellow-bellied Tit, one of three seen (apparently there are four).

The next day was spent gulling. Gulling from the car it has to be said, because as I mentioned the rain never stopped all day. My mate was hoping to see Thayer's today because he had a flight booked to go after the Black-winged Cuckoo-Shrikes on Ishigaki the following day but sadly the Thayer's (sorry thayeri Iceland) was a no-show.

Not-a-Thayer's Reef Egret

Not-a-Thayer's Temminck's Cormorant

After a night in Narita my next port of call was Mito city. Yes, that Mito city, home of Black Swans. I did warn there was more plastic to come. My mate Richard explained there were two car parks at the west side of 'swan lake', one that costs Y500 and one that does not. So on arrival I rolled into the first jam-packed car park I see, jump out, and head towards the lake only to be buttonholed by an attendant politely demanding Y500. What is wrong with the people of Mito? Why are they squeezing into a pay car park when there's a free one 200 metres further along. I can only imagine they were all, like me, out of towners who'd made a special trip to see the Black Swans.

Black Swan

This was another high quality plastic, stroll up, record shot, back in the van and off to Choshi again. 

The following day was a full day of gulling... more to follow.    

Still no gulls in Mie

I'd hoped to get across to Tsu city more often from early November to check out the Taimyr Gull passage but there were always other things getting in the way. I had already seen a few incidental Taimyr on October 20th but my two gulling focused trips (Nov 11th and 30th) were disappointing, the latter date might already be late for large numbers of Taimyr and Vega don't arrive in significant numbers until around now (the second week of December) but November 11th should have been more productive.


Coming back to the 30th, the primary early morning aim was to get decent shots of the returning Canvasback. This was a great success with the bird closer than I've ever seen, just over the embankment from the car park in the early half light. As the sun came up behind me the conditions were excellent and brought out the best in this and the accompanying Common Pochards, I was really quite pleased with some of the images I managed to get... some eye-catching shots of a small white feather drifting above the ducks' heads and the Canvasbacks surprise and reaction. Unfortunately I accidentally deleted the whole file; no doubt with time the quality of the images will get even better in my memory. So, while on the one hand I think another early morning visit is in order if I want to improve on last winter's images of the duck, the fact is I don't really have any great enthusiasm for it. The chances of getting equally good views are probably slim to zero even assuming the bird is actually on the river rather than with the huge rafts of ducks out at sea. I just don't have the photographers' patience I'm afraid.


Content with my photographic haul I checked whether there were any gulls about, there weren't, though I hadn't expected there to be any to be honest. The early hour along with the high tide pretty much guaranteed they'd all be off somewhere else feeding. Therefore I headed south with the intention of returning in the afternoon.


It was just as well I did head south because by far the most unexpected bird of the day was an immature Temminck's Cormorant in Matsusaka. I've seen no more than a handful each of Temminck's and Pelagic Cormorant's along this coast and they've always been on tetrapods facing the open sea. This bird was right at a river mouth issuing into a shallow bay. It's the closest I've come to an 'inland' Temminck's.

There were other photogenic birds around but nothing to really get the pulse racing.

Sanderling

Northern Lapwing

Common Sandpiper

Meadow Bunting

Back up to the gull beach in the afternoon. There were around 50 large gulls in two loafing clumps compared to the hundreds there will be later in winter; Taimyr c10, Vega c40, Slaty-backed 2. Disappointing if not entirely unexpected, however, definitely unexpected was a passing finless porpoise! They are fairly common in these waters but I rarely see them because most of the good birding areas are next to shallow water and by the time reach places with a steeper fall-off the all too frequent stronger afternoon wind puts too much chop on the water.

Not so easy to spot even on calm days.

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

A few interesting birds in Mie

As I mentioned in the last post I went to Mie after seeing the Bluethroat in Nagoya and the following morning I had a good session south of Matsusaka.


Dusky Thrushes are common in winter but normally there aren't so many good looking males this early in the season so the bird in the following images was a stand out.

But when it comes to early breeding plumage, this striking Great Cormorant takes the biscuit. There are thousands of Great Cormorants in this area but not one other bird showed even a smidgen of breeding plumage.

The breeding plumage Great Cormorant again, here with a bird typical for this time of year.

There were a couple of Pelagic Cormorants too. This is a common species in Japan but scarce in this area.

Pelagic Cormorant and Great Cormorant.

I'm not sure which is more surprising, that I saw three Temminck's Cormorants or that I've never seen them here before.

Two Temminck's Cormorants.

The right hand of the two previous Temminck's.

Another Temminck's further along the beach.

I don't see many Pacific Reef Egrets here either but this one was notable in that I first saw it in an 'inland' ditch. Admittedly only about 100 metres inland but that's enough for a bird I associate with coastal rocks.

The Pacific Reef Egret after it moved downstream to a small harbour.

Then it was off to the sea, its inland adventure over.

There were 10 Brent Geese on the sea just off one of the estuaries, this is a regular wintering species but only in these low numbers.

Two of the Brent Geese in with an assortment of duck species. I always expect geese to stand out because of their size but the Brents aren't so much bigger than the larger duck species and the duller hatch-year birds blend in remarkably well.

In the same flock were several Baikal Teal. This was another personal first for this stretch of coast.

The two females here catch the eye more than the two males!

Two more males.

And yet another.

Birds of prey featured well with Peregrine, Eastern Buzzard, Black Kite, Osprey, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Northern Goshawk and Eastern Marsh Harrier all putting in appearances. As well as this bird again...

Our local Turkey Vulture on the look out for a seafood snack.

Far far more expected, at least for anyone who doesn't know there's a lurking Turkey Vulture, is Eastern Buzzard. The Buzzard was trying out a bit of lurking of its own when I first noticed it but it soon moved to a typical perch. I think the lurking idea seems pretty good on the face of it but Buzzards have been making a success out of sitting on exposed perches so long, why fix it if it ain't broke?