A two-day wader trip to Mie

With at least two Spoon-billed Sandpipers in Japan at the weekend plus another a week earlier at my usual wader spot in Mie, as well as Western Sand and Nordmann's Greenshank in Kyushu and Baird's Sand in Osaka, looking for waders might have seemed a safe bet.

I drove across on Saturday night to be ready for dawn and an early high tide and came back on Monday afternoon. The start wasn't all I'd hoped for, though high tide wasn't until 9am I could see the flats shrink rapidly in the moon light and sure enough by dawn there was nothing left. It was obvious from the outset that numbers of some species were well down since my previous visit a couple of weeks ago. Grey-tailed Tattler down from 1000+ to about 100 and Terek to 100 from several. Grey Plover had disappeared entirely and just a single Ruddy Turnstone was odd. On the other hand the number of Sanderling, an over-wintering species, was up but where had two Oystercatchers gone? There have been 10 Oystercatchers on each visit since mid-August but today only eight.

The most notable feature of the morning was the number of newly arrived ducks with about 400 Eurasian Teal leading the charge. There were four garganey and a party of eclipse Falcated Duck were nice to see.

This odd looking Garganey was glued to the party of Falacated Duck when I first came across it. The Falcated were maybe fresh in as they were far more nervous than anything else and I spent an age trying to get a half decent digiscoped shot of them, and the Garganey.

Three typical Garganey lurking in the reeds, with so many eclipse Eurasian Teal around it's getting more difficult, or at least time consuming, to find them.

Eclipse Falcated are a first for me in the area.

The afternoon was disappointing and I was thinking of heading home when just as the light started to go I discovered a small block of good fields tucked away behind some houses, it would be great to have an aerial view to see exactly where the best fields are. This area held a lot of Common Snipe, several Little Ringed Plover and Wood Sandpipers, all field specialists I'd seen very little of today. There was even a flock of stints that flew up only to drop back out of sight into the next field. This was enough to convince me to stay over night and try again with good light.

From the seawall I had a great view of Jupiter and four of its moons before trying to sleep and later Saturn and its rings in the opposite direction... while still not sleeping. Even something as natural as the night sky is a treat for a city dweller.

After a quick check of the shoreline first thing, I went back to see what I could find on the fields and got the following shots of the common waders there.

Wood Sandpipers.

Adult Little Ringed Plover.

Juvenile Little Ringed Plover.

Red-necked Stint.

Just as I was beginning to doubt the wisdom of staying over night, there wasn't anything more than I'd seen last night, a Grey-faced Buzzard came low over the field flushing a Ruff and three Pacific Golden Plover. Where had they been? The area of fields was small and the vegetation not high but they dropped back into it never to be seen again.

I decided to head home and as a last roll of the dice took a single track road across a block of nearby fields and I struck gold. A small field of mud with shallow pools and only a hint of vegetation, it was quite invisible from any of the roads surrounding the block and on it were about 30 stints. No sooner had I started sifting through them then I came across a possible Little Stint and as I was watching it another, a far more obvious bird, walked into my field of view. Bingo! After feeling the trip had been something of a let down I found my rare after all and not having seen any of the big rarities in Japan was much less painful than it had been just a few minutes earlier.

I got a lot of interesting shots of the stints, Red-necked ans Little and I'll save them for another post.

Below is a list of all species:-
Gadwall   1
Falcated Duck   5
Eurasian Wigeon   1
Mallard   2
Eastern Spot-billed Duck   commmon
Northern Shoveler   5
Garganey   4
Eurasian Teal   c400
Common Pochard   3 Little Grebe   common
Black-necked Grebe   1
Night Heron   1 heard over head at night plus many at a regular roost site
Cattle Egret   c10 Grey Heron   common
Great White Egret   well over 100 on each of the two main ponds plus common in fields and along rivers
Intermediate Egret   c50 numbers are way down compared to two weeks ago (as with Cattle)
Little Egret   quite common
Great Cormorant   very common (1000s)
Osprey   2
Black Kite   <10
Grey-faced Buzzard   1
Moorhen   2 plus one heard
Eurasian Coot   2
(Eastern) Oystercatcher   8
Black-winged Stilt   c25
Grey-headed Lapwing   10+
Pacific Golden Plover   3
Little Ringed Plover   several at a small area of suitable fields otherwise only 1
Kentish Plover   common
Lesser Sand Plover   15-20
Common Snipe   common in the same fields as the LRPs but otherwise only 9
Eastern Black-tailed Godwit   2
Bar-tailed Godwit   11
Whimbrel   1
Eurasian Curlew   3-5
Far Eastern Curlew   3
Marsh Sandpiper   7
Common Greenshank   13+
Wood Sandpiper   several in the LRP fields
Grey Tailed Tattler   <100 numbers way down compared to August visits
Terek Sandpiper   c100
Common Sandpiper   5-10
Ruddy Turnstone   1
Great Knot   11
Sanderling   c140
Red-necked Stint   40-50
Little Stint   2-3
Dunlin   9
Broad-billed Sandpiper   1
Ruff   1
Black-tailed Gull   very common
Slaty-backed Gull   3
Feral Rock Dove
Oriental Turtle Dove   widespread
Common Kingfisher   1 heard
Bull-headed Shrike   2 heard
Jay   1 over the road on the drive home
Carrion Crow   common
Large-billed Crow   common
Sand Martin   fairly common
Barn Swallow   common
Japanese Skylark   several
Zitting Cisticola   several but as only one was heard singing numbers recorded were much lower
Brown-eared Bulbul   a small number seemed to be on the move, it's still a bit early
White-cheeked Starling   several, the huge flocks of juveniles have disappeared
Blue Rock Thrush   5
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
Grey Wagtail   2
White Wagtail   fairly common
Meadow Bunting   1 heard

dabbling ducks

The only common resident duck in Kansai is the Eastern Spot-billed, though there are a few Mallard, even if the appearance of some suggests questionable genetic heritage, and also a small number of Mandarin Ducks in the hill forests though these require a great deal of luck to see and they are much easier to find in winter. The region does well for dabbling ducks in winter, Ruddy Shelduck and Green-winged Teal are the only rarities we get. I've only heard of one Green-winged in Kansai but they may be both under-recorded and under-reported, Kanto has far more reports which may indicate it is commoner further north.


Baikal Teal and Falcated Duck, the species most visitors will be interested in are both easily found. One problem with Baikal Teal is that the largest wintering flock, at Kohoku-cho north east Lake Biwa, is always rather far out on the lake. The birds are invariably hidden by vegetation on some artificial islands with, at best,  just a few males identifiable at that distance. I've seen a flock of 2000 flushed by a harrier when moments earlier none had been in view. Because Kohoku-cho is good for so many interesting birds this is still a good place to catch up with them but for better views Katano Kamo Ike in Ishikawa, just outside Kansai, is a much better bet. They tend to be irregular elsewhere,  if you're lucky you might even see them on the back pond at the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, but don't bank on it.


Falcated is altogether more cooperative and can easily be found in Kyoto city. There are always some at Midoragaiike, a pond just north of the botanical gardens and it's often on rivers, particularly the Katsuragawa. It's a great looking duck and by anas standards a frequent diver. The drake in the shots below spent the winter on a small pond in the botanical gardens, seeming to enjoy a diet of bread rather than aquatic plants.

The female is also a distinctive bird even if it can't compete with the male when it comes to looks. The following shot was taken at Midoragaiike, Kyoto city.

Also at Midoragaiike was the following Falcated Duck x Eurasian Wigeon hybrid, the only one resulting from this pairing I've ever seen. There could never be any doubt about its parentage with obvious features from each progenitor species. The tertials aren't falcated, it lacks the black division through a larger white rear flank patch and the breast is obviously Wigeon pink. The head pattern is more subtly different with the red stronger than on Falcated and without the long, sweeping nape feathers. The bill is an interesting pattern; a great duck.

     Despite the mixed parentage there doesn't seem to be any doubt in the bird's mind which species it belongs to.

Even with the oddly marked wings and underparts it still has a Falcated feel to it, albeit a compact version.

When I first came to Japan Common Shelduck wasn't a species I'd expect to see in Kansai, I've still only seen one in Kyoto city but then they are a coastal bird. Now, it's no surprise to run into then on the Japan Sea coast of the region in winter and they became quite regular in the Osaka area though on going habitat loss is making them more unpredictable again. The place to find them in Kansai is the Tsu city/Matsusaka city area of Mie Prefecture where they are reasonably common on the extensive tidal flats.

                                            Common Shelducks moved off the tidal flats at high tide.

A bird in a muddy field giving much better than usual views.

Much rarer is Ruddy Shelduck, and not just in Kansai. They do crop up on the Japan Sea side of the region, this bird was a total surprise one day when birding near Katano Kamo Ike in Ishikawa.

                                               A poor quality video grab of a fantastic bird.




While Mandarin Ducks are very difficult to find in summer, winter is an entirely different matter. However they are remarkably faithful to their regular wintering ponds or lakes and it's unusual to see them away from these favoured spots. In Kyoto city there's only one guaranteed location, the International Conference Center lake at Takaragaiike. Typical of Mandarins, they're usually lurking under overhanging bushes below the path but of course they do swim out onto open water and even wander around in surrounding woodland like the birds below.

They are also easy to find in Nara city, if going public transport check the ponds near the site of the original palace complex.


Eurasian Wigeon is possibly the commonest duck in the region, they occur on rivers, ponds, tidal areas and there are vast numbers ringing the shores of Lake Biwa.

American Wigeon is sufficiently numerous to bump into here and there over the course of a winter but there are far more individuals of with mixed genes, some of which can be very close in appearance to one or the other species. The male below showed no sign of Eurasian in its ancestry though several birds on the same lake in Hyogo prefecture clearly did.

Another good looking male on the Kamogawa outside the botanical gardens in Kyoto city, it differs in having more extensive fine black flecking on the face creating a more clearly defined comb between eye and bill. Of interest is the female type next to it. Both it and the Eurasian in the foreground are conveniently showing their greater coverts with the mainly whitish, black-tipped feathers of American very different to the mainly blackish, white-tipped feathers of Eurasian.

                                                    Male and female American Wigeon.

                                        Greater coverts of female American Wigeon; mainly whitish with black tips.




Of course if males can be difficult to be certain about because of introgression then having confidence a female American doesn't have any Eurasian influence in its family history is next to impossible here. The bird below was in the same flock of Eurasian as the above birds. At times it stood out with a very grey head and ghost of the male head flash, at other times I couldn't find it. Light conditions and viewing angle played a big part.

Head patten and greater coverts markings both indicate American, as did the underwing.

I was never a big duck fan in the UK and regrettably hardly ever gave Wigeon a second look. Now I'd really like to know how much individual variation they show where hybridisation isn't so prevalent. I lean strongly towards a bird like the one below having mixed genes and they do come even closer to Eurasian than this while still arousing suspicion.

As a self-confessed former duck neutral I can state with absolute certainty that Mallard would have been overlooked on every waterway I ever visited. However, now that it's no longer the default querulous, bread-eating park duck it's shot up the duck league table in dramatic fashion. I really never noticed what a smart-looking bird it is. Of course it isn't uncommon here, there can be some good concentrations at some locations on Lake Biwa and estuaries in Mie, nevertheless numbers are much lower than those of several other species.

As both Mallard and Eastern Spot-billed breed in the region it's unsurprising hybrids occur, such as the one below. Saddly it isn't as attractive as many hybrids can be.

Eastern Spot-billed Duck x Mallard hybrid.

                                                               Eastern Spot-billed Duck.



Other widespread and common species that can be easily found in Kyoto city include Northern Pintail, Gadwall and Common Teal.

                                                            Kamogawa, Kyoto city.

                                                           Midoragaiike, Kyoto city.

Male Green-winged Teal, Nagoya February 2014. I suspect this rare visitor is slightly more regular further north in Japan, there are very few Kansai records I've heard of. 

Adult breeding male Eurasian Teal.

                                                                First winter male.

 

Eclipse male.

                                      Eclipse male (centre right) and female (centre left).


Northern Shoveler is also widespread but more localised. It occurs at Lake Biwa but usually either on well vegetated nearby ponds or in the only location shallow and sheltered enough for the water to be covered with lotus. Oddly it is also quite common on the tidal, bare river banks at the mouth of the Yamatogawa in Osaka.

                                                             Yamatogawa, Osaka.

Male and female Northern Shoveler.

Garganey are the surprise package in Kansai and can turn up anywhere during spring and autumn migration. I've seen larger parties elsewhere 13-15 is the largest party I've met with in Kansai, ones and twos are the norm. This male and female appeared in spring on the Katsuragawa in Kyoto not far from my home.