Latham's, Swinhoe's and Pintail... a good month for snipe.

September was very much a staying local month, covering a small stretch of my old patch at Ogura. Mainly because I didn't have the time to do otherwise, and not seeing that much for my efforts if truth be told. I've seen some quite spectacular wader passages here over the years but 2022 won't be going down as one to remember.

I covered a relatively small part of the overall area on nine dates through the month, seeing snipe other than Common on eight of them; this after making several visits throughout August when no migrant snipe were recorded. Actually, my first non-Common snipe were two birds (probably Swinhoe's) in Mie on 2 Sept though I had already seen a party of three Latham's there in August.

As far as confirming ID was concerned, all the following birds were 'tail-checked'. I saw a total of six Latham's, four Swinhoe's, one probable Pintail and a few swintail. As I only covered a relatively small area, it's reasonable to infer numbers passing through would have been much greater. There were also many Common, up to 10 per visit but even these disappeared in October suggesting all were migrants rather than birds that will winter here.

LATHAM'S SNIPE

(5 Aug - three adults together)

(8 Sept - two adults together)

(20 Sept - single adult)

PINTAIL SNIPE

(21 Sept) Flushed by a Siberian weasel soon after I found it. I already suspected this could prove to be a Pintail and this image taken just before it takes flight appears to show pins in the spread tail. The weasel's ears are visible in the grass just to the left of the tail.

SWINHOE'S SNIPE

(22 Sept)

(28 Sept) The only juvenile/first winter.

(28 Sept) Adult

(30 Sept)

COMMON SNIPE

(20 Sept) They did exist!

Finally, I can't resist throwing this in just because it has 'snipe' in the name. These are local breeders and there were males with tiny chicks running round in September.

Greater Painted Snipe

 

Typhoon visitors in Kyoto

Tuesday's typhoon was the strongest to pass through this area in over 50 years. All four old houses in my row sustained roof damage but fortunately nothing more serious. It was strange to feel the kitchen floor pushing up against my feet, less so was the upstairs walls bowing inwards almost two inches.


When I made a quick early morning visit to Ogura yesterday, I was a little surprised to find the rice fields looking as if nothing had happened. The rice is getting close to harvest in this area and the crop was looking great, upright and ready for cutting. The same couldn't be said of some of the farmers' structures dotted across the fields. Metal frameworks covered with plastic sheeting don't stand up to typhoons quite as well as the rice it seems. This one looks more like an art installation.

This shot also hints at some of the development that has taken place over the years. When I first arrived in Kyoto there was a huge uninterrupted area of excellent birding habitats just south of the city. Alas, no more.

I haven't had time to do so much birding recently and heading down to Ogura early in the morning is one way to keep my had in. I was down a few days before the typhoon and saw these two regulars. Kestrels used to be a winter visitor in this area but now it's a reasonably common feature of summer birding too. Greater Painted Snipe breed here but being Painted Snipe you're unlikely to know that they breed here; they aren't exactly cooperative as a rule. That particular day I saw a female dash for cover then this less shy male.

I'm not sure where the local pair of Kestrels nest, perhaps on the elevated roads that criss-cross the fields.

If you're really lucky, you can find some quite large post-breeding gatherings on the fields. The key is finding a suitable field that will attract the birds, unfortunately there might not be such a field every year.

The main reason for heading down yesterday morning was to look for Red-necked Phalarope. It's a scarce, very scarce, visitor to Kyoto which first off requires a suitably flooded field to bring a passing bird down, that's rare enough in itself but there is one at the moment. The second requirement is a large dose of luck...  or a typhoon.


Better still is a typhoon and luck, and my luck was in for once. After first checking the Painted Snipe field pre-dawn without success, I watched the early morning arrival of migrant Eastern cattle and Intermediate Egrets from their roost sites then made my way to the river embankment and along to the flooded field. I could already see three large waders while driving bumpily along the embankment and stopping to check showed them to be Stilts with, much more interestingly, some small stuff. Black-winged Stilts aren't by any means rare in Kansai, nevertheless it isn't a species I ever expect to see at Ogura. It all comes back to the problem of an absence of suitably inundated fields at just the right times of year. Even more encouraging than the small waders, those two parked cars across another field weren't early morning farmers as I had assumed... there were two photographers already sitting right by the flooded field!


There were nine Red-necked Phalaropes on the field. A flock! And a personal best for Kyoto. Apart from the Stilts there was also a fairly confiding Long-toed Stint on the field and I heard flyover Common Greenshank and Common Snipe while I was there.

The three Stilts flew off at about 06:45 proving that the early birder catches the goodies.

I'd planned to add Stint shots but they'll have to wait. Though today is supposed to be a day off I still have to go in, otherwise I'd have been birding. At least it gives me the chance to get an infrequent blog post done.

Greater Painted Snipe with chicks

Some more shots from my Mie trip last week.


This male Greater Painted Snipe with chicks was a surprise find, at first they were too close to get a shot off, but they dashed away so quickly I still couldn't get a good in focus image before they made it into cover.




Initially they were at my feet and I was too startled to think of the camera. After a short dash they paused as if to assess which way to the best cover.

Mind made up, off they went again. They almost look like a family of ducks here.

Sticking with waders I saw six Greenshank, two parties of three, in various stages of moult from breeding to non-breeding plumage. All adults, no sign of any juveniles coming down yet.

The hind bird had the most advanced moult of any Greenshank I saw.

I saw 15 species of waders, it's early days yet, but most were too far out on the mud for photography. A pity as there was a cracking Sanderling and some smart Red-necked Stints too. The only really close birds were Grey-tailed Tattlers.



Waders aside there wasn't too much to get excited about, a few terns were passing but mostly too far out to ID (there were Little and Common for sure), plenty of shearwaters off-shore too but all the expected Streaked. This male Northern Goshawk was less camera-shy than many though and was quite happy sitting on this exposed branch while Oriental Greenfinches occasionally buzzed it.

There were torrential downpours throughout the day, they didn't matter too much as most birding in this area is from inside the shelter of my van. However by mid-afternoon I'd had enough and decided to try the mountains on the way home. On the face of it, it sounds pretty daft given I could see from the coast that clouds were down to nearly the base of the range, but often one side will be bathed in sunshine while the other is getting a right royal soaking. It didn't quite pay off and I was limited to hearing birds in the fog, but sure enough a couple of kilometres beyond my birding area it was clear skies all the way back to Kyoto.


One final shot from the coast as it's a little unusual to see racoon dog out and about in daylight. As a rule they there's nothing much about them that suggests 'dog' to my eyes (unless it were a very overweight corgi), but with only the head poking up it does indeed have a dog-ish feel to it.