Amami Nature Observation Forest

The Amami Nature Observation Forest might sound as though it's more geared to showcasing natural Amami to tourists than as a must visit site for serious birders. However, the well maintained trails from the visitor centre at the top of the mountain offer excellent access into the forest. Plus there were very few visitors judging by the total of only 4-5 parked cars over four visits. I never actually saw anyone on the trails. The forest also sweeps right down the western slopes to the coast and, though patchy, continues south along the ridge. It's far more extensive than might be inferred from a cursory glance at the map.


I visited this site four times yet still didn't really do it justice. Though I spent far more time in total further south, admittedly mostly nocturnal and in rainy weather, I ended up with a slightly larger number of species seen/heard from this site. Two visits were largely diurnal and in sunny weather (the only non-rainy periods of the trip), this probably accounts for the greater number of bird species recorded.


The first visit was purely because it provided a convenient place to get some birding in before checking into my hotel after arriving on the island mid-afternoon (March 31). Likewise it was conveniently in the general direction of the airport on departure day (April 5), though I did start birding pre-dawn on that occasion. I also paid a nocturnal visit here on the first day of the trip and spent an 'easy-paced' day on April 2. This easy day because I realised I was overdoing things and needed to get some sleep. Two hours sleep out of 36 was becoming stupidly counter productive so I cut short my April 1 nocturnal jaunt and had a long sleep at my hotel followed by a relaxing morning at this site before a little more sleep to adjusted my routine to going to bed at about 2pm and getting up around 9:30 pm. This worked fine for the rest of the trip.


There were three species I found here that I didn't connect with at all further south plus a couple more I only saw at this site: the three birds only encountered here were Black Woodpigeon, there were always 8-10 along the road near the visitor centre, a ficedula calling briefly down a steep slope off the road running down to the west coast of the island was a presumed Ryukyu Flycatcher which I couldn't get to see despite my best efforts. I can't confidently rule out a migrant Narcissus but Ryukyu is far more likely given the date and place. The third was an out-of-the-blue Ijima's Warbler, more of that later. The other birds of note were Ryukyu Robin which though very common everywhere I went was only seen in the early morning here. The same could be said of Ryukyu Green Pigeon, though a frequently heard bird further south, two birds usually feeding in trees along the roadside here were the only birds I actually saw.


On the other hand I didn't see Amami Thrush here. I did hear one from the road near the foot of the mountain on the east slope while driving up pre-dawn and another, which would have been in the forest hills just south of here, while drinking my early morning coffee at the Family Mart in Tatsugo on Route 58.


If I were to start a convenience store chain list, Amami Thrush is a bit of a blocker as far as the other national chains are concerned as Family Mart seems to be the only big name currently on the island.


One other point of note; on the final morning Grey-faced Buzzards were taking advantage of the fine weather and between about 8:15 and 8:30am I counted 164 passing over the narrow valley I was in. After driving down to the coast and then into another valley further south, there were more Buzzards on the move. If birds were leaving from across the island as a whole, the total number involved would have been vast.

Black Woodpigeons were easily seen, not so easily photographed. The white eye here being the result of the fill-in flash, this still before sunrise.

Ijima's Warbler, the one and only phyllosc of the trip.

I have to thank Yusuke (comment below) for setting me straight with this one. Walking along one of the forest trails, I was initially drawn to an unfamiliar call and on realising it seemed to be coming from a phyllosc dashing around high in the trees high overhead my first thought was whether this could have been Ijima's Leaf Warbler. Surprisingly the bird came down to eye level and sat motionless (when do they ever do that!) offering a totally unexpected chance to get a series of images. Unfortunately they were all more or less head-on and I then made two important errors with the identification; firstly I forgot about the unfamiliar call, or at least carelessly supposed it must have been a different and unknown bird and ignored it, and secondly I imagined I could see the rear crown stripe in the images whereas in fact there's only a greyish tint across the whole of the crown, almost producing grener lateral crown stripes. This imagined crown stripe along with yellowish undertail coverts ruled out both Ijima's and Claudia's Leaf warblers and led to the erroneous identification of Western Crowned on my back of the camera check in the field, one that I gave no further though to.


I've only been to Myakejima once where, I apart from a few glimpses, I only saw one Ijima's Leaf Warbler so this bird is a very good sighting indeed as far as I'm concerned.


A common bird of forest, forest edge, and even not all that close to the forest it would seem, is White-backed Woodpecker Dendrocopos leucotos owstoni. leucotos, ouch, it's such a cracking bird it deserves to be split for that reason alone, but sadly the IOC don't see it that way. What is genuinely surprising though, is why did I only see females? It's not just the four different individuals below, I never saw a male the whole time I was there.

This was almost the first bird of the trip, I had to unpack my bins and camera for this bird chipping away noisily at the roadside. I was even lucky enough to capture a chipped chip in this shot!

This nest was also right by the road and only about 150m from the previous bird. Not sure what ufo I captured here, definitely not a chipped chip.

Demolishing a branch in the forest, they really hammer away. Note the sunshine in this shot, arguably the biggest rarity of the trip.

Demolition moves on apace.

No series of White-backed images would be complete without at least one bird on the ground. There it is.

White-breasted Waterhen wasn't uncommon however, this bird at the top of the mountain aside, they were all in lowland areas, around market gardens, rivers, marshy bits and so on. These images are to try to restore some balance, there have been way too many dry images in this post. Water; water hanging in the air, water failing through the air, water dripping from everywhere, water pooling on the ground... that's what I'll remember. 

Hegurajima bookends for May

Unbelievable, already the 27th... where did May go?


Well, wherever it went, Northern Hawk Cuckoo singing over my house a few nights ago spurred me to visit Ashyu Forest (central Kyoto prefecture) for the first time this spring as soon as I had time. Time turned out to be the weekend, when I also managed to get out to Hegurajima for only the second time of the season.


I didn't have any offshore plans for Golden Week this year but instead I had hoped to make day trips to Hegurajima. This isn't ideal for several reasons. First, the huge number of birders/photographers present during Golden Week means you're never alone on a trail, the best you can hope for is that you aren't part of a shuffling line spaced about 30 metres apart - that actually happened when I was there on May 1st, I almost felt I had to indicate and wait for a gap in the birder traffic when I exited woodland onto the main north/south trail. Second, the ferry only gives you the least optimal midday period on the island to find the birds. Finally, and worst of all, will the ferry even sail? Ferry cancellations aren't unexpected in autumn when the Japan Sea is less friendly, whereas spring is usually less risky. Of course 'usually less risky' doesn't mean sailings can be relied on as spring of last year proved and this year hasn't been any better, last week was the first time there were more sailings than cancellations.


My visit to Ashyu was really enjoyable, it was great to be in the field and not see another soul in 18 hours! Of course I heard many more birds than I saw but Grey Nightjars were good with two birds sitting on the road in the early hours and a third high overhead in display flight after first light. The heard only highlights were a Japanese Night Heron and a Japanese Scops Owl.


Ruddy Kingfishers were singing early in the morning but as it was sunny, apart from a few calls, it was as if they hadn't existed shortly after the sun crested the hills. Cuckoos, Northern Hawk, Oriental and Lesser vanished in the same way. One bird that never even appeared was Asian Brown Flycatcher, where were they? But a much bigger question was raised. I heard a Kamchatka Leaf Warbler singing in the forest and for an instant when it started singing I was delighted thinking it was Japanese Leaf. The only previous occasion I've heard 'Japanese Leaf' here was before the Arctic complex was split and now I wonder whether that too was a passage Kamchatka. It seems this area is just outside the Japanese Leaf range.

One of several Grey Wagtails around the car park in the forest. 'Car park' means a broad muddy turning area where the road finally ends.

On the not-a-bird front this monster earthworm was a stand-out.

At about 40cm long this would give any early bird pause for thought. Note the 10 Yen coin next to it for scale. 

Shortly after I saw this hummingbird hawk moth daylight was gone and a bigger surprise was an otherwise invisible bush across steep dark ravine lit up by glow worms like a ghostly Christmas tree.

After nightfall on the second day I drove north to Wajima as it seemed very likely the ferry would be operating the following morning.


There was a time, a long time in fact, I'd be out on the ferry deck from port to port but after multiple sailings each year, year after year, with very little to show for it I tend to catch up on sleep nowadays. Admittedly I visit the island more often in autumn than the more productive spring. When I went out on May 1st I did try for seabirds and the trip produced about 30 Ancient Murrelets in small parties, at least two Japanese Murrelets, ever present Streaked Shearwaters and the Pelagic Cormorants which are still around at that time of year. I had also hoped for good numbers of phalaropes, Red-necked can be common and usually there are a few Grey (Red) thrown in. In the event there were only a handful of Red-necked. This time, two days ago, I did sleep on the crossing but still managed a single Red-necked Phalarope through the window.

One of several small fly-by parties of Ancient Murrelets.

A few were slightly closer.

Red-necked Phalaropes with an Ancient Murrelet.

On the island at the beginning of the month this Sakhalin Leaf Warbler was the only bird of interest I managed good shots of. That was my first ever trip to Hegura when I was glad to be taking the ferry back to the mainland, I've never seen the place so birdless.

Strictly speaking I ought to call this a Sakhalin/Pale-legged Leaf as I didn't hear it but Sakhalin is the overwhelming favourite here.

I wasn't terribly optimistic about this trip, even though there have been some really good birds between my visits, because the weather hadn't looked too productive all week. However the hill behind Wajima harbour was thick with Kamchatka Leaf Warblers which put me in a much better frame of mind before the ferry left. Kamchatka were absolutely everywhere on the island, Asian Brown Flycatchers were pretty common too. No wonder there were none at Ashyu, they're all still on vacation!

Kamchatka Leaf Warbler

A clean looking Asian Brown Flycatcher, even paler in the sun. 

Asian Brown looking dark.

No amount of sun is going to make a Dark-sided Flycatcher look pale.

The best/rarest birds on the island were Black-naped Oriole, a flock of Common Crossbills and a Dollarbird; hmmm so okay, nothing major. But there were so many birds around, and such a variety of scarce stuff, there surely had to be something important waiting to be found. If there was, neither I nor anyone else found it during my four hours on the island.


Cuckoos were fairly obvious, Lesser and Common at any rate.

Lesser Cuckoo.

Black Woodpigeon is ever present but it's not often they sit about in the open like this.

Ashy Drongo and Black Woodpigeon

I'm falling behind on my Hegura posts; I spent two nights on Hegura the weekend before last, which as the first overnighter I've managed for three years but before I could post all about that visit I've been out on two one-day trips. I was due to stay on the island again but because of the impending typhoon the minshyuku had closed early to allow the owners to go on their planned trip to the mainland. This was a great pity. Obviously it's so much better to stay on the island as it eliminates the time pressure that comes with a day trip. And for me there's nothing better than sitting with a coffee as the first hint of light begins to throw the eastern clouds into relief, thinking about which spots to check first and what new birds the day could bring.


I've already posted on my personal highlight of the first trip, Pechora Pipit, but another personal second record for the island and one that almost got away was Ashy Drongo. As I was making my way to the return ferry someone told me there had been an Ashy Drongo at the south end an hour earlier so after dumping my pack at the harbour I dashed down there and could grab a couple of record shots before departure time.

Rather distant views of an Ashy Drongo. This is a first winter bird, though the images aren't good enough to see much detail, the white face patch of the adult is ghosted on a clearer view, the tail isn't fully grown and there's a very distinct moult contrast in the greater coverts.

I think I was lucky it was on view when I arrived as I only had a few minutes to spare before heading back for the ferry.

Three years ago and three days earlier in the month this Ashy Drongo was at the school...

To anyone who's visited Hegurajima, there's no mistaking where this is.

A much better view of the short-stayer three years ago.

October always brings returning winter visitors, finches, buntings, thrushes and Daurian Redstarts. Often there might be ones or twos one day then they'll be everywhere the next, only for numbers to dwindle until the next big arrival. Two of the most reliable, and obvious, October birds are Rook and Greater White-fronted Goose. There were 12 Rooks on the first visit then half a dozen the following two trips, all immatures. Greater White-fronts never stay long, the lack of suitable habitat soon persuades them to move on.

Immature Rook can look quite like Carrion Crow, a species I've never seen on Hegurajima.

Greater White-fronts in the harbour area.

While hunting for migrants on the island it's not unusual to come across Black Woodpigeons, though getting good views is a different matter altogether; I'm still waiting since I buying a camera. This time I came close and the following shot was the most unobstructed I'd managed to date. Then as failing light and driving rain forced me back to my minshyuku I found this second bird right outside my window! Because of poor light and shooting through glass the result isn't as good as I'd like but I'm slowly getting there.

Almost a clear shot of Black Woodpigeon.

A through-the-window shot, still not quite the standard I want yet.

Island alive with Kamchatka Leaf Warblers

Last Sunday I visited Hegurajima and was surprised by how many Kamchatka Leaf Warblers were on the island. I went back to the island this week (10 June) and found there were even more, far more in fact. They really were everywhere; from sprigs of emergent vegetation amongst the harbourside pebbles, through dense, nigh impenetrable hip-high coastal vegetation to the island's woodland spine. I posted Quite a few images of examinandus in the the last post so just a single bird this time.

It seems that this may be peak time for these north-bound birds. They're also late going the other way in autumn, passing after the vast majority of locally breeding Japanese Leaf and Eastern Crowned Warblers are long gone. Incidentally, I don't see much difference in plumage between autumn migrants and these, presumably more worn, birds in June.


Black Woodpigeons were still prominent and if I'd had the luxury of time, I think it would've been possible to get some good images of these birds that were sitting up far more often than autumn birds seem to do. As it is I'll have to make do with this.

I did get some shots of the Pigeons flashing iridescence in the sun but never a whole bird; a neck here, a belly there, perhaps a crown peeking over some foliage. Four hours on the island isn't long enough to worry about the prefect Pigeon picture.


A female Japanese Paradise Flycatcher was an altogether different challenge. It wasn't afraid to show itself but there weren't two consecutive seconds that bird wasn't on the move.

Everyone's due a little luck sometime and this male (it was singing) Lesser Cuckoo sat up nicely for me.

A 2CY male perhaps? It has a striking rufous hind collar and brownish pale-tipped coverts.

As usual the ferry journey was disappointing, lots of Streaked Shearwaters but nothing else to speak of. Not even a cormorant. Nevertheless, it's always good to see any details of any shearwater plumage.