Ruddy Kingfisher... the invisible voice of summer

A couple of weeks ago I took visiting ABA Young Birder of the Year Adam Dhalla (and his dad) out to find some local forest specialities. As the locally famous breeding Fairy Pitta has been a no show this year Copper Pheasant and Ruddy Kingfisher were the main targets.


Dad's primary role was encouragement, support and most importantly... carrying the tripod. Rent-a-Dad could be the next big thing in birding.  

Well that wasn't too difficult, was it? Plus it came with a bonus pair of Japanese Paradise Flycatcher in the same group of trees.

Ruddy Kingfishers are quite common in the forests here, they're singing everywhere first thing in the morning, throughout the day in fact if the weather is wet and miserable, but they are notoriously difficult to see well. Make that to see at all. I never seem to have any problems with the resident bangsi in the far south of Japan but this race, major, seems a different matter altogether.


Copper Pheasant was less cooperative but it's rare if not impossible to see all the forest birds in a single visit. I did actually glimpse a female slip off the roadside and disappear down the steep slope on a recce a few days prior to our visit (I needed to check whether the narrow mountain road was passable after recent heavy rain) and then subsequently heard a frustratingly close displaying male.


My three recent visits to this area were all brief for one reason or another but nevertheless produced some good birds such as White-backed Woodpecker which doesn't occur in Kyoto city and Japanese Woodpecker which does but is far more common in the hills. In addition to the birds I also saw Japanese hare (twice), red fox, boar, sika deer, masked palm civet, Japanese marten and Japanese serow.


As this post is otherwise brief it seems an opportune moment to post some old images from the same site which never made it into previous posts. Both Eurasian Nuthatch and Eurasian Treecreeper are widespread in the hills to the north and west of Kyoto city but can be difficult to see. Also Varied Tit which is common everywhere and Willow Tit which is common in the hills but only winter visitor to immediate surrounds of the city.

Eurasian Treecreeper

Eurasian Nuthatch

Willow Tit

Varied Tit

Copper Pheasant purple patch

After flushing three female Copper Pheasants and hearing a drumming male three days earlier I was really keen to get back to the same area in the hope of managing a photograph of them. I ought to say it was a very optimistic hope, this is a species I've never been able to get a shot of. I used to see them regularly in fact, often very well at that, behind a house I lived on Mt Inari in Kyoto city. That was a good few years ago now, in pre-camera times, and those Pheasants have long since been extirpated from that location. They can still be found on other hills close to the city but I prefer going further north where there are additional species such as White-backed Woodpecker that I'm not likely to see close to home.


In the end I was successful, well partly successful, and managed to get a couple of blurred shots of a male as it ran up a hillside. Nevertheless I'm delighted to have even these blurred images to show for my first ever attempt to target this species.

Copper Pheasant: not great shots but it's a start.

I arrived well before dawn, stopping in exactly the same spot as the previous visit. Still no Ural Owl but where there'd been just a single Japanese (Collared) Scops Owl "singing" now there were six. A week prior to this there hadn't been any; spring has clearly arrived as far as the local Scops Owls are concerned.

Heading into the woodland I ignored the throb of Copper Pheasant display coming from the same direction as on the last two visits. It simply isn't possible to make a stealthy approach through deep leaf litter on these vertiginous slopes, but instead of immediately repeating the ridge top trail walk that's proved quiet productive recently I detoured down a steep side path. I soon heard, almost felt, the resonant throb of another male Copper Pheasant displaying. The sound of its beating wings continued intermittently from the same general area as far as I could judge but after a while it fell silent so I sat and waited in case it came creeping along the slope below. 

The patient approach didn't pay dividends so I retraced my steps up the hill then along the ridge trail. It was rather quiet, no sign of the recent Common Crossbill, no roving parties of tits, not even flocks of Siskins which have been such a constant of late. I did hear a Japanese (Eurasian) Skylark passing overhead which must have been migrating and likewise a party of White Wagtails that crossed the ridge. Disappointing; even the usual persistent Pheasant had stopped displaying as I made my way back to the van.

As I approached the small car park at the end of the service road up the mountain a Japanese macaque slipped easily off the pavement onto the steep downward slope. It was part of a small troop moving through the forest, well spaced and calling as they went, contact calls I imagine. I've never seen macaques here before and these were wilder than any macaques I've seen in Japan. At best the macaques I usually encounter are so habituated to people they can suggest a visit to the zoo, at worst they can be an absolute menace because they associate humans with food. These were different, aware of my presence they bolted across any open spaces to and from cover calling loudly each time. Though I only saw eight animals in total, they took almost as many minutes to pass. The subdued vocalisations as they moved steadily along the hillside added to their purposeful, even predatory air. This seemed an authentic encounter, how very different to sometimes needing to step around animals on the path in the Kyoto area.

I'd driven about half a kilometre and reached my early morning owl spot when something else seemed to catch my eye, I wasn't even certain if it was real or imagined, just a hint of something pouring itself over the lip of the road. I suspected a smaller, stealthier animal, perhaps a Japanese marten, but I couldn't see anything when I got there. Martens are usually bolder than this. As happens so often in this sort of situation just as I began to relax thinking "it's gone" or "it was nothing" a female Copper Pheasant burst out of the only scrap of vegetation just below me. It blazed across the narrow valley, rounded a crag and vanished. A spectacular but unphotographable experience. It was only then I noticed the male Pheasant, the one that allowed me to snatch a couple of blurry shots, standing at the foot of the crag. A half-hearted, silent wing flap was his undoing, if he'd remained motionless I'd probably never have noticed him. But as soon as he was aware I had, he scurried up the bare slope beside the rocky outcrop, found cover, then he was gone. All the way to the top as a burst of full-blooded wing throbbing display attested - it seemed like unwarranted defiance to me. 



The next male I came across was lower down the mountain. I was intent on a pair of displaying Japanese Woodpeckers putting on a great show when it flew from the track ahead of me. A full 100 metres and round a curve ahead of me! I'd never have seen it if not for the explosive burst of wing beats as it launched off the hillside. As it was I just glimpsed it through the crowns of the cedars, so steeply does the hillside fall away that after only 20 metres of direct flight it was already in the canopy of lower trees.

Willow Tit: a bird I infrequently see around Kyoto city in winter is quite common here.

Coal Tit: along with Eurasian Siskin this is one of the most obvious species on the mountain.

The morning had been excellent but towards noon it was time to head down to Lake Biwa.



Neither the Smew nor Eurasian Spoonbill I'd seen three days earlier were present on the pond near Lake Biwa so I made my way south to Saino-ko, another lake close to Biwa. This has a winter harrier roost, good numbers of Eastern Marsh and Hen. When I arrived my expectations were deflated by extensive reed cutting underway. The reeds on my local marsh in Kyoto are cut in December, then burnt off to promote new growth in spring. I suppose this later cutting at Saino-ko allows the harrier roost to go undisturbed throughout winter but that it is cut at all is a pity. Not really encouraging for breeding bitterns prospects.

Eastern Marsh Harrier.

I was far too early for harriers coming in to roost but while I was there two Eastern Marsh Harriers and one Hen did fly by. Another fly-by was my first Kansai Barn Swallow of spring, on schedule I'd say. I heard both Eastern Water Rail and Ruddy-breasted Crake, the later singing, and a striking male Long-tailed Rosefinch at a feeding station was good. A Siberian weasel was having noisy fun under the van but views through the windscreen were brief when it finally came out because another car happened along and stopped just at the wrong moment. Yet another point of interest was watching a Little Grebe struggling with a fresh water shrimp of some kind. It was thrashing its prey around for a couple of minutes then I got distracted when a male Merlin dashed by and perched briefly so I never got to see whether it actually ate this shrimp or not.

 

 

Little Grebe with shrimp. Breeding plumage accentuates the stunning white eye of poggei.

List of species recorded:-
Copper Pheasant   2 males plus 2 others heard, 1 female
Gadwall   15+
Falcated Duck   6
Eurasian Wigeon   common, though numbers greatly reduced
Mallard   30+
Eastern Spot-billed Duck   fairly common
Northern Shoveler   25-30
Eurasian Teal   c15
Common Pochard   1
Tufted Duck   c100
Little Grebe   several
Great Crested Grebe   10+
Grey Heron   several
Great White Egret   5
Little Egret   1
Great Cormorant   common
Merlin   1 male
Osprey   1
Black Kite   common
Eastern Marsh Harrier   4
Hen Harrier   1
Eastern Buzzard   1
Eastern Water Rail   1 heard
Ruddy-breasted Crake   1-2 heard
Common Coot   very common
Grey-headed Lapwing   1 heard
Long-billed Plover   1 heard
Common Gull   c10
Black-headed Gull   1
Rock Dove   c40
Oriental Turtle Dove   several
Japanese (Collared) Scops Owl   6
Common Kingfisher   1 heard
Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker   common
Great Spotted Woodpecker   1
dendrocopos sp   several heard
Japanese Woodpecker   2 plus 1 heard
Bull-headed Shrike   3
Jay   c6 heard
Carrion Crow   common on arable
Large-billed Crow   common, especially in forest
Great Tit   common, the only tit common along the lake side as well as in the mountains
Coal Tit   common
Varied Tit   fairly common
Willow Tit   common
Barn Swallow   1
Long-tailed Tit   common
Japanese (Eurasian) Skylark   several
Brown-eared Bulbul   several
Japanese Bush Warbler   many singing
Wren   2-3 plus many heard
White-cheeked Starling   common
Pale Thrush   c10 including 1 singing
Dusky Thrush   common on arable land
Daurian Redstart   1
Blue Rock Thrush   1
Eurasian Tree Sparrow   common
White Wagtail   fairly common
Japanese Wagtail   1heard
Buff-bellied Pipit   several
Brambling   2-3 heard
Oriental Greenfinch   common
Eurasian Siskin   common
Long-tailed Rosefinch   1
Eurasian Bullfinch   3 parties heard
Japanese Grosbeak   3 heard
Meadow Bunting   common
Rustic Bunting   4
Black-faced Bunting   fairly common
Reed Bunting   common

waxwings & tits

Japanese Waxwing is irregular in Kyoto, some winters they can arrive in large flocks and disperse into smaller parties as berry supplies are exhausted. In other years they are totally absent. In waxwing years there is usually a small number of Bohemian amongst them. Where they may fetch up is unpredictable but the botanical gardens area is fairly reliable as there are a number of good berry trees in the area. The shots below are of two flocks that were faithful to some excellent berry bushes in the respective winters of 2011 and 2013 but in both locations the bushes were removed the following spring. I suspect the residents didn't appreciate the impressive mess that can be made by a few hundred waxings with a large supply of purple berries.

This flock of Japanese Waxwings remained in this location for over a week to my knowledge. Spot the lone Bohemian in the line up! 9 February 2013.

A flock near the botanical gardens 6 January 2011. In this case the size difference between these first winter  Japanese and Bohemian seems extreme.

Adult Japanese and Bohemian in the foreground, looking much closer in size.

First winter Japanese, near Kyoto city 9 February 2013.

Spread wings of adult (bottom) and first winter (Top), the first winters have a white dash towards the tip of the outer web of the primaries whereas the adults have a broad white tip to the inner web and a small spot on the tip of the outer web that can be red or white but is often a compromise pink.

All the breeding Honshu tits occur in Kansai but Willow is only a winter visitor to the hills immediately surrounding Kyoto, though it does breed quite commonly at higher elevations in the region. Eastern Great, Varied and Coal can all be found in the city parks as well as the surrounding hills, all are common but the former two are conspicuously so.
Chinese Penduline Tit used to be regular in the reedbeds along the Uji/Yodo River but I haven't seen any for several years. If this is only due to the massive reduction in suitable habitat they might still be expected in the area but I suspect they aren't wintering here as frquently as they were a few years ago.

Eastern Great Tit in the botanical gardens, Kyoto city 10 January 2014.

Eastern Great Tit along the Katsura River in Arashiyama, Kyoto city 17 January 2011.

Southern Great Tit on Iriomote, Yaeyama Islands. 3 April 2013.

Coal Tit in the botanical gardens, Kyoto city. 15 March 2013.

Coal Tit in the hills west of Kyoto city, 30 March 2013.

 

Juvenile Coal Tit on Mt.Misen, Nara. 28 June 2013.

Varied Tit in the botanical gardens, Kyoto city. 15 March 2012.

Varied Tit near Kyoto city. 30 March 2013.

Marsh Tit is restricted to Hokkaido in Japan so that's one fewer identification problem to worry about in Kansai. This bird near Abashiri, 19 August 2012.

Willow Tit near Ashyu Forest. 19 July 2009.

Willow Tit on Mt.Misen, Nara. 28 June 2013.