A few recent birds in Mie

During my last few visits to to the Matsusaka and Tsu area there have been a lot of decent birds, or decent shots of ordinary birds, that haven't found there way into blog posts for one reason or another. These are a few of those birds.


Starting off with one that's already featured, the current star bird of the area, Canvasback.

As has Goldeneye.

One Swallow may not make a summer but the first one passed through on March 13 and Japanese Skylarks were singing everywhere, this one as it was walking along the roadside.

There are still a few Buff-bellied Pipits around but I was more surprised to see an Olive-backed on the beach, they're usually under pine trees here.

White-cheeked Starlings seem very variable when it comes to the extent of white about the head. Might this be age related or just individual variation? Could they even be prone to leucism? I saw the first of these bird a couple of weeks ago and the second during the week.

Extensive head markings aren't anything unexpected. The breast band is unusual.

This individual is getting a little carried away.

On the wader front, several Little Ringed Plover were in this week as was a Spotted Redshank and this Temminck's Stint.

Pity this Temminck's was against the light.

Other waders have been around all winter...

Northern Lapwing

Sanderlings

Dunlins

Kentish Plover

This American Wigeon was a month or so ago and is the only seemingly pure bird I saw this winter.

I planned last Wednesday as a gulling day and this was the sight that greeted me on the beach.

The sun hadn't risen but as is often the case when conditions are suitable the fishing boats were as close inshore as they could get.

As the light was broadening.

One of the better gulls was this juvenile Glaucous.

Isabelline Wheatear plus odds and ends

I've already had exceptionally good views of Isabelline Wheatear in Japan and didn't immediately rush off when I first heard about this bird on the beach towards the southern end of Hegurajima Sunday. It was in the exact spot I saw my first wheatear species in Japan, a Desert, a few years ago. When I did roll up there was a small crowd who obviously had it in view so it didn't take any locating. But I was sorry to see the poor condition the bird seemed in. Poor in terms of plumage at least, it was actually very active and didn't suggest it was sick.


There was one knot of people who gave the impression they were happy to wait and let the bird come to them and a larger group that followed it's every move. Inevitably this meant from one end of the beach to the other and back again. I only spent a few minutes with the bird as I didn't think it was getting any peace and walked the length of the beach-side path slightly behind the crowd as I was already going that way and took the central track away from the beach repeat the pointless back and forth. I must say I was rather impressed with the group not pushing the bird, all the more so as they looked a younger crowd which bodes well I suppose.


So here are the best of a bad bunch of very messy Isabelline Wheatear shots. The plumage looks to have been contaminated by something but as the bird was very active it will hopefully be fine.

Not terribly pretty, I'm sure you'll agree. Compare with the autumn bird in Osaka five years ago...

Before sailing out to the island I saw and heard, especially heard, Japanese Martens crashing around in the trees and 'barking' at each other on the hill next to Wajima harbour. I've seen Marten there before but that morning there was definitely something out of the ordinary going on. I think there were at least three animals involved in the commotion that went on for about 40 minutes as they moved noisily around the hill top. The second time I saw one of them it seemed to have had enough and be on its way, crossing the road via over-arching branches which allowed me to get this shot.

Other shots were better exposed but were blurred because of low shutter speed, luckily it paused at this point allowing a sharper image, either blurred or substantially obscured behind foliage.

Coming back from the island the crossing was quite, much as usual, but a sudden raft of Streaked Shearwaters just off Wajima allowed me what are probably my best shots of this species.

Because the ferry hadn't run the day before I had time on the Noto Peninsula and ran into this unexpected Green Pheasant. Unexpected because I don't usually seem them in such an exposed position, walking along a berm between paddies, in the midday sun. The shots of Kentish Plover chicks were if anything even more of a surprise.

And for a trio of unexpected, this Japanese grass lizard was not only quite happy to share the concrete bench with me but didn't even mind when I pointed the camera at it... it's usually at that point they dash of at incredible speed.

A few other birds on the beach

It can be tough getting a good shot of Greater Scaup, they're often closest when in harbours rather than the open sea. On this occasion, standing on the tideline checking gulls, the birds were cruising the tideline and coming to me.

Immature Red-breasted Merganser

It wasn't just ducks off the beach, there were waders on the beach, mainly Dunlin, Sanderling and these Kentish Plovers.

Kentish Plover

And of course more gulls. There are plenty of atypical Vega around vying for attention, this was a nice one...

Distinctly small with shortish, purple legs. The saddle really is darker than the other Vega even though the different angle doesn't normally allow a meaningful comparison.

Extensive white in the outer primaries isn't unusual, a significant minority show this.

The fine streaking on the very rounded head and the bill slight are sufficiently unusual to catch the eye. However all the features shown by this gull can be found sifting through a flock of Vega, it's the combination of delicate head along with that saddle shade, the legs and wing-tip markings making it worth the attention.