Baer's and Ferruginous, plus hybrids on Lake Biwa

 Apart from the Kanto tick-fest in December, my last five birding trips have all been to Biwako - four of them, unusually, to the south end. Mie has certainly taken a back seat this winter; so far.

In the dim and distant past I made regular visits to the south end of Lake Biwa, often working my way north, layby by layby, checking the ducks for as long as daylight would allow. Over time my MO changed, instead I'd head to the north end overnight and bird my way south. The reason for the strategic shift being that a wider range of habitat at the top end would equate to better birding. That there is a wider range of habitat up there still holds true. But is the birding always better? One unintended consequence of the shift was that I largely ignore the ducks, there isn't enough time if I want to cover all that additional habitat, woodland alone knocks three hours off the day. Missing out on ducks is strange indeed since if there's one thing Lake Biwa is associated with, it's seeing vast, vast numbers of wintering ducks.

This snapped into sharp focus with the recent December visits, the first of them to help a mate see a couple of duck targets still outstanding for his 2020 year list. Our first objective was a Ferruginous Duck we knew to be present in a particular area. 

We pulled into the first parking area, kitted-up and started to scan the visible flock. One of the first birds in the scope was a Baer's Pochard! Well that was unexpected. After a 400-metre walk along the shore, the target Fudge Duck was in the bag. That's 30 minutes sifting and two rare ducks seen, one of them a global mega no less. "Ducks - one,  'wide range of habitat' - nil". As it happened there was also a Red-crested Pochard less than 1km further up the lakeside, not a bad stretch of water. We could have packed up and gone for second breakfast. 

So, I've been spending time looking at ducks recently. I've never thought of myself as much of a duck person to be honest, but the style of birding is right up my street; immobility. None of this crashing through trackless forests or stomping over mountain ranges. For me, you can't beat sitting on a cliff top sea-watching, letting the birds put in the effort, or on ferries, I'm equally happy with that, and of course relaxing on the beach sifting through gull flocks. Sitting and sifting; my kind of birding. 

A word (or two) of advice to any would-be sit-an-sifter. The cliff-tops aren't always quite as balmy as you might picture in your mind's eye, be prepared to leave the parasol and sunscreen at home. If, on the ferry, sea-spray freezes instantly on contact with your clothing, don't take your gloves off to help locate that ridiculously tiny shutter-release button on your camera because your camera will already have packed-up. Oh and don't touch the rail to steady yourself, even with gloves on. The ideal conditions for sitting on the beach are when there are no joggers, dog walkers or sundry others to disturb the gulls, you don't want to have to keep relocating to follow the flock, obviously. Unfortunately at such times 90 percent of the beach tends to be airborne somewhere between ground level and knee-height, the remaining 10 between knee and waist, so best not sit. 

Back to ducks; the success with sifting hasn't stopped with Baer's and Fudge. My first foray of 2021 netted 12 Baikal Teal on a small satellite pond, the Red-crested Pochard (which still won't even come within record shot range) and the big prize of a Baer's hybrid, as well as my second Fudge hybrid in as many weeks. The Fudge could be the same bird relocated to a different area, I can't be sure as the first sighting was against the sun so hardly ideal to see the fine details. 

It's an unfortunate situation that such a rare species as Baer's Pochard manifests such a high rate of hybrid offspring sightings, I've probably seen more Baer's x Common Pochard hybrids over the years than any other duck combination (except Eurasian x American Wigeon which wins by a country mile, they just can't keep their feathers off each other). But from the sifters' perspective it's an indisputably good find. 

As the hybrids are arguably of more interest than the real deals (we know what they look like), I'll start with the them; Baer's first.  

Nice it has a full green head, no doubting what one half of the progenitor pair was. I've noticed in the past that, though Baer's will be green-headed at this time of year, they can still show distinctly reddish hues into December, indicating head moult hasn't been completed at that time. So red on the head in early December isn't reason to doubt the authenticity of a bird. The Fudge hybrid, below, is no less distinctive as far as head colouration goes. Both have eyes that must be influenced by their Common Pochard side.

The Fudge tended to stay reasonably close to shore and sooner or later would have been close enough to get good shots of. The Baer's on the other hand, not unlike the Red-crested Pochard, seemed to prefer staying well out on the water. So a couple of Fudge shots and a record shot of the Baer's...

 

Baer's Pochard x Ferruginous Duck... or x Common Pochard hybrid?

Earlier this week I heard there was a Baer's Pochard at Osaka Castle. Always great birds to see, I took the first opportunity to get myself down there to have a look. I didn't know where on the various sections of moat the bird was supposed to be but I didn't foresee any great problems finding a Baer's.  I entered the castle park from the south west, arriving in Osaka by Keihan train, and as luck would have it the bird was on the very first stretch of water. I at least I imagine it was; a funny thing, is luck. I can only imagine it was so close under the trees that I didn't notice it, I would also add in my defence that the very small section of moat it was on was directly into the sun and the vast majority of ducks were in the opposite direction. Well, whatever the reason, I missed it and off I went on what was probably a four or five kilometre walk around the different sections of inner and outer moats.


Eventually I arrived back where I'd started. There were about 10 Common Pochard in that quite corner, and I suddenly felt with absolute certainty that it was going to be there with them... and that it had been there all the time. And sure enough there... there it wasn't. This couldn't be the bird, could it? So I was left wondering had there been a Baer's as well as this hybrid? Had this originally been mistakenly identified as a Baer's? Had there simply been a communication mix up somewhere between the initial sighting and me getting word of it? No idea. Not that it matters too much to me, if I'd known it was a hybrid I'd have been every bit as keen to get down there and see it. I've seen two Common Pochard x Baer's hybrids but this was my first Ferruginous cross.


Having said that, after posting and looking again at the closer images there seems to be a hint of Common Pochard on the upper parts, very fine grey speckling across the scapulars. A Ferruginous hybrid wouldn't... shouldn't, have this. Also perhaps there's slightly too much red in the crown. I didn't think Baer's had quite so much white in the out primary which made me think of Ferruginous at first, plus the generally chestnut head. Also this early in the winter it's possible a Baer's wouldn't yet show much green in the head. Perhaps a month from now there'll be some areas of green alongside reddish patches on the head? Hmmm, I'm persuaded; another Baer's x Common Pochard hybrid looks more likely.


The bird came quite close to the edge of the moat and though it was three or four metres down to the water from my position I was able to get some reasonably good images.

Perhaps at first glance, and at a distance, it might suggest Baer's but even at moderate distance its cover wouldn't stand closer scrutiny.



Ferruginous Ducks in Osaka

Chances to get into the field have continued to be few and far between of late, though with any luck that's about to change. With three days off next week, I'm hoping to see a few good birds plus most Saturdays are likely to be free from now on giving me the luxury of real weekends to look forward to.


Taking advantage of my first free Saturday since New Year I aimed to catch up one one or two winter birds today. There have been a few things around I haven't had time to go for, and time is very obviously running out for winter visitors. Though I'd hoped to cover more ground the only good bird I saw was one of two drake Ferruginous Ducks that have wintered in Osaka.


On the walk from the nearest station to the Yodo River I quicky realized how very warm - and how over-dressed I was for the spring-like conditions. But once on the riverside minus jacket and sweater the weather was beautiful. Though the strong sun made a clear case that the time has come to throw my brimmed summer hat into my pack even if it isn't safe to ditch the winter wooly just yet.


The duck was on a pool, one of many ringed by fishermen, connected to the main river. Like the other wintering ducks here it was quite used to all the humans sitting around the water's edge idly casting lengths of line into the water so one more merely pointing a lens towards the water was nothing to be concerned about and it drifted very close to shore at times. Below are more images than perhaps are necessary, but it was nice to have a cooperative bird for a change.