Woodland north of Lake Biwa

I took a visiting Irish birder out at the weekend, who despite just arriving in the country was up for a 3am start from his hotel. He was interested in bird photography and was keen to get good views of some local birds. Finding woodland birds is always a risk outside the spring song period but with luck it's possible to connect with some good birds and the chance of getting good shots is often better than coastal or lakeside locations.

After picking him up we drove to the north of Lake Biwa and our first stop was a vain attempt to see Ural Owl but, perhaps more unexpected, we did hear a Japanese (Collard) Scops Owl singing. My first of the year. 

The morning turned out to be heavily overcast with a constant threat of rain, not so good for photographic prospects, and Birdable light was slow to penetrate the forest. Disappointingly there was far less bird activity compared to the crystal clear morning a week earlier. However a male Copper Pheasant was drumming in the same spot as last week, as then just out of sight down a steep slope. Further along the track, again in the same place as a week ago, a Common Crossbill called overhead as it flew between knots of pines clustered around two high points along the ridge. Surely the same bird as last week as they are so scarce in this part of the country.

The best sighting of the morning was a party of three female Copper Pheasants flushed from the steep hillside below the road as I fortuitously stopped the van in just the right spot. It's a pity they hadn't been slightly further away, then they may not have burst into flight the instant we pulled up.

Eurasian Siskin: one of the most numerous birds on the mountain.

We dropped down to Lake Biwa mid-morning and had reasonable views of Long-tailed Rosefinches at a favourite spot of theirs. Black-necked Grebes were dotted all along the shore still very common but now much better looking.

Black-necked Grebes, most are in breeding plumage now and these lake birds are invariably closer and consequently easier to photograph than many of the coastal birds I see in Mie.

Lake Biwa is rather disappointing now as far as wildfowl goes. Most ducks have left, numbers are drastically reduced and some species have disappeared completely. Baikal Teal, never easy to see here, always lead the exodus but even north-end specialities like Goosander have gone (I did see one this week), as have the ubiquitously abundant Northern Pintail. Bean Geese had already departed before my previous visit and this week the Tundra Swans have followed suit.


I didn't see any Smew last week but this time there were two pairs displaying on a pond at the north end. Drakes always gather in large rafts way out on the water at the southern end of the lake, while redheads stick to the northern end and are frequently found on satellite ponds or in tiny fishing harbours. So to see males and females together is in itself a sure sign that they're on the move.

Displaying Smew.

Along with the Smew, there was a Eurasian Spoonbill on the pond. I've seen wintering birds here many times in the past but not for three or four years. As this was only my third visit here this winter it is possible I have overlooked this bird until now but I strongly suspect it has wintered somewhere else and is now drifting towards where ever it needs to be.

Eurasian Spoonbill.

List of species recorded:-
Copper Pheasant   male drumming just below the ridge, group of three females flushed from steep slope below the road lower down the mountain.
Most ducks have now departed, the following small numbers remained at the northern end on Lake Biwa.
Gadwall   2
Falcated Duck   c10
Eurasian Wigeon   100s
Mallard   c200
Eastern Spot-billed Duck   common
Northern Shoveler   c40
Eurasian Teal   c40
Common Pochard   5
Tufted Duck   c30
Common Goldeneye   3
Smew   2 displaying pairs on a small pond.
Goosander   1
Little Grebe   4
Great Crested Grebe   6
Black-necked Grebe   50-60
Eurasian Spoonbill   1 my first at this site for three or four years
Grey Heron   30-40
Great White Egret   5-10
Great Cormorant   c30
Black Kite   common
Common Moorhen   3
Common Coot   common
Grey-headed Lapwing   2
Vega Gull   1
Black-headed Gull   several
Rock Dove   6
Oriental Turtle Dove   3 (a record low?)
Japanese (Collared) Scops Owl   1 heard
Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker   common
Great Spotted Woodpecker   1
dendrocopos sp   2-3 calling
Japanese Woodpecker   1 heard
Bull-headed Shrike   2 plus 1 heard in lakeside scrub
Rook   60-70
Carrion Crow   common on fields
Large-billed Crow   more common in the hills, fewer on the fields
Great Tit   common
Coal Tit   common
Varied Tit   several
Willow Tit   several
Long-tailed Tit   common
Eurasian (Japanese) Skylark   frequently heard singing on arable land
Brown-eared Bulbul   surprisingly few, under 10
Japanese Bush Warbler   c8 seen or heard, birds now becoming vocal even in dull weather
Japanese White-eye   very surprisingly only a single bird seen and no others heard
Wren   2 heard on the mountain
White-cheeked Starling   some small flocks plus odd ones here and there, probably about 30-40
Pale Thrush   2 small groups totaling about 20 birds
Dusky Thrush   common on fields
Red-flanked Bluetail   1 female on the mountain
Daurian Redstart   1 heard at Lake Biwa
Blue Rock Thrush   2 in built up areas further south
Eurasian Tree Sparrow   common along lakeside and on arable land
White Wagtail   common on the fields
Japanese Wagtail   3
Buff-bellied Pipit   c15 in a single party
Brambling   5 flushed form the mountain roadside and a few others heard flying over, but no big numbers still in the area
Oriental Greenfinch   a few on lower slopes and common around the lake
Eurasian Siskin   unlike Brambling, still in big numbers on the mountain
Long-tailed Rosefinch   4 at a favourite lakeside spot
Common Crossbill   1 presumably the same individual as a week ago
Bullfinch   3 plus several heard in two places
Meadow Bunting   fairly common
Black-faced Bunting   heard at only one location
Reed Bunting   still common in reed beds

First 2015 trip to Mie

I'm having a wonderfully slow start to the year at work and was free the 7th and 8th, so off I went to Mie. I'd thought about northern Lake Biwa but the forecast for more snow up there didn't look to promising, though in the event the weather wasn't that great in Mie either.

As usual I waited on the seawall for dawn. The scene looked so serene with the full moon shining down on the exposed tidal flats but the buffeting the van was getting from wind told a different story. And it was cold.

By the time dawn was approaching the flats had already been drowned but the silhouettes of hundreds of ducks, thousands even, were beginning to emerge where there had previously only been disembodied voices. Uninhibited whooping whistles from the Wigeon on the sea and just the occasional subdued equivalent from the raft of Pochard on the landward side of the wall - stubborn silence hadn't given away about 600 Pintail.

On the same pool there were five Long-billed Dowitchers in exactly the same spot as two months ago, though the number of Stilts was down.

As I usually start birding in the same spot I'm never going to get better shots of the Dowitchers than these early poor light shots.

It was very much a digiscoping day, waders and ducks at long range and the quality of images isn't anything to write home about. 13 species of wader wasn't bad for the time of year but whatever time of year there's always one or two species that can't be missed, that are. The ones that inexplicably aren't to be found. And on the day it was the turn of Ruddy Turnstone and Grey-headed Lapwing to go missing. The hundreds of Dunlin and Sanderling weren't a surprise but slightly better were three Northern Greenshank and four Green Sandpiper. I think the best find must have been a couple of Lesser Sand Plovers, a bird not normally found here in winter.

Dunlin were very common and would allow great photo opportunities but as usual there's always something better somewhere, if I could only find it, and the common birds can wait. Even so, I love these long-billed birds.

An unexpected find, Lesser (Mongolian) Sand Plover.

The first really interesting bird of the day was a Slavonian Grebe, a bird I hardly ever see in Kansai. In fact I can only recall three off the top of my head. And another surprise was an eared owl, probably Long-eared going by the habitat and the fact that they do winter here whereas the once common Short-eared has all but disappeared as a wintering species. Having said that there is a wintering bird on the Yodo river just south of Kyoto this year. All I got of it was a glimpse as it weaved between some trees and was gone.

If the Slav Grebe was distant, Little and Black-necked were common and there would always be some closer birds. For Little that usually meant in a ditch rather than on a pond and for Black-necked in a harbour rather than on the open sea or pond.

I really didn't see many passerines but the following two were both in a small park behind the sea wall. There were also three or four Hawfinches but not surprisingly they weren't going to sit up for the camera.

Female Daurian Redstart. 

There are always a number of Olive-backed Pipits in a small park behind the sea wall.

Coming to ducks, I'm always checking harbours hoping to find some interesting sea ducks but the vast majority are Common Pochard.

Greater Scaup tagging along with Pochards.

Towards evening I came across a group of Stejneger's Scoters not too far off-shore, this is only the second time I've found this species in Kansai and definitely qualifies as bird of the day.

Stejneger's Scoters just too far out for decent digiscoping.

grebes

Little Grebe is a common resident and very common winter visitor in the region. It can be found on even shallow rivers like the Kamogawa and there are huge numbers on Lake Biwa. It's actually Shiga's prefectural bird.

Breeding plumage on the Kamogawa, Kyoto city March.

A non-breeding bird on the Katsuragawa, Kyoto city January.

A September juvenile, Matsusaka city, Mie. I've seen birds like this as late as December in Kyoto.

 

Great Crested Grebe is another very common bird in winter, though less widespread than Little. There are large numbers on Lake Biwa where it's also a very uncommon breeder.

Coming into breeding plumage on the Yamatogawa, Osaka.

Red-necked Grebe is very common on the Japan Sea side of Kansai in winter but I've never seen one on Lake Biwa, nor in the Osaka area. The shot below was taken in Hokkaido in winter.

Abashiri harbour early on a miserable December morning.

Slavonian Grebe is rather rare here, I've only bumped into them on three occasions. I once saw two on the lower reaches of the Yodogawa in Osaka and surprisingly once inland, a bird at Kisenyama Dam near Uji city. The most recent was a bird in Mie. Black-necked on the other hand is common, mainly near coasts but also on Lake Biwa where there can be large concentrations and on smaller lakes closer to the Japan Sea.

Slavonian Grebe is quite rare in Kansai and this in Mie (January 2015) is my first for several years.

Black-necked Grebe is a common bird here in winter.