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.

The final day in Kyushu

December 31st was my final day in Kyushu, I'd stayed at Tamana as there was plenty do there on the birding front. The weather was changing according to the forecast with rain from about 9am. As it turned out the rain didn't arrive till early afternoon but when it did it came in style with a howling wind and lightning flashing all around. Not too good for birding in open fields.

Apart from trying for the Shrike first thing I had look at the estuary in the morning then focused on the fields with pipits a particular target. Kyushu has a good track record with rare pipits in winter and there were very impressive numbers of them as well as wagtails and larks everywhere.

While waiting for the Shrike in the very early morning, before the sun had risen above the mountains I spotted a Peregrine coming across the fields towards me. That may not be unusual but I wasn't expecting it to land on the post directly above my head! After getting a few shots up its nostrils I had to walk back to try to get a more typical angle but the bird wasn't having any of that and off it went again.

It's been good for birds of prey but as yet I'd only had two accipiters. Both had been rapid flybys and neither identified for sure, though I suspected one of each. This powerful juvenile Northern Goshawk left no room for doubt.

 
A very pleasant surprise was finding Daurian Jackdaws, three birds, among the Rooks. There have been so many Rooks I've been puzzled by the lack of Jackdaws so it was great to connect at last. Crane numbers were down today, only 10 White-naped and no Hooded. I wasn't so worried about numbers, when they look this good a flock is almost too much. This bird was one of a party of five and in this shot it wouldn't look out of place replacing a Peacock on some stately lawn.

And the Lapwings looked even better in the morning sun...

With a little sun the Northern Lapwings looked even more stunning the previous evening.

As I mentioned, sifting through the pipits was one of my aims for the day. I'd already had a Richard's and heard a couple of Red-throated two days earlier but I was hoping to find something really spectacular, Rosy or Water. Why not aim high? There were Buff-bellied Pipits everywhere, you could stop at any field and there'd be birds creeping around. I'd seen flocks of over 100 birds rise two or three times when spooked by a raptor. In the first field I tried there were 5-8 Red-throated fairly close to the road and there could easily have been more further out. The second spot I stopped at had two more. No megas I'm afraid but if I said I only scratched the surface that would be laughable - I did far less. I could spend days on end happily going through these birds and it really puts my 20-30 Buff-bellied a day around Kyoto into perspective. No wonder there are more rare pipits found in Kyushu.

A Buff-bellied on a pile of what looked like wood-chip but was probably waste from clearing maize fields. This mainly attracted White Wagtails but there were always a few pipits there. In this early morning shot there is still a lingering covering of frost. 

Below are shots of some of the Red-throated Pipits. It's interest how different the birds look, some pale brown and finely marked appear similar to breeding plumage while others are more black and white, strongly marked and definitely winter plumage birds. First a series of the former type, simply because it came closest.

Next a colder black and white bird with bold breast and flank markings.

Finally another dark winter bird followed by another pale brown breeding type.

The terrible weather that struck suddenly in the afternoon was bringing an early dusk and effectively brought my time in Kyushu to a dramatic close. And now back in Kyoto there is deeper snow in the city than I've ever seen, only 15-20cm but a shock nevertheless, and according to the Met Office there's 1.5 metres at the north of Lake Biwa so between that and other commitments it looks like New Year birding is over.

Species seen at Tamana over the 30th and 31st:-
Green Pheasant
Common Shelduck
Eurasian Wigeon
Mallard
Eastern Spot-billed Duck
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Eurasian Teal
Common Pochard
Tufted Duck
Red-breasted Merganser
Little Grebe
Black-necked Grebe
Black-faced Spoonbill
Grey Heron
Great White Egret
Intermediate Egret
Little Egret
Great Cormorant
Eurasian Kestrel
Merlin
Peregrine
Osprey
Black Kite
Hen Harrier
Northern Goshawk
Eastern Buzzard
Common Moorhen
Common Coot
White-naped Crane
Hooded Crane
Northern Lapwing
Grey-headed Lapwing
Grey Plover
Kentish Plover
Common Snipe
Common Greenshank
Green Sandpiper
Common Sandpiper
Dunlin
Vega Gull
Black-headed Gull
Saunder's Gull
Feral Rock Dove
Oriental Turtle Dove
Common Kingfisher
Bull-headed Shrike
Great Grey Shrike
Magpie
Daurian Jackdaw
Rook
Carrion Crow
Large-billed Crow
Japanese Skylark
Zitting Cisticola
Brown-eared Bulbul
Japanese Bush Warbler
Japanese White-eye
White-cheeked Starling
Common Starling
Pale Thrush
Dusky Thrush
Daurian Redstart
Blue Rock Thrush
Russet Sparrow
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
White Wagtail
Japanese Wagtail
Richard's Pipit
Red-throated Pipit
Buff-bellied Pipit
Oriental Greenfinch
Meadow Bunting
Chestnut-eared Bunting
Rustic Bunting
Black-faced Bunting
Reed Bunting

Another try for Isabelline Shrike

I'm getting rather behind with trip posts, which is surprising considering there's only about eight hours of good birding light per day, but between overnight drives and trying to get a little sleep in the car there still just aren't enough hours in the day.

On the morning of the 30th I was at Kadogawa to the north of the Greater Spotted Eagle site but a thorough scan of the harbour and the surrounding sea failed to produce the hoped for Japanese Murrelet. There was very little on the sea in fact, just a few Great Crested and Black-necked Grebes but Black-tailed Gulls in the harbour was an addition to the trip list.

Whatever the mechanic did to the car battery seems to have done the trick, it is charging now and the engine can be safely switched off. Though I'm still a little nervous every time I come back to the car and turn the key.

After the early morning failure I headed back across the island to the east coast to give the Isabelline Shrike another try; I now had a precise location. Though I found one in October it is nevertheless the rarest  bird in Kyushu as far as I'm aware of and more difficult to see than Scaly-sided Merganser in Japan. The only other bird of interest I've heard of is a Shore Lark in Fukuoka.

The expanse of fields at Tamana is huge, but far more manageable than that at Isahaya Bay. I must say I like this place, a good estuary, the fields of course but with more scrub and trees than Isahaya, plus some natural (un-concreted) ditches. The only thing it lacks is a good reedbed.

I don't know how long ago these fields were 'reclaimed' it must have been a long while ago as the overspill village outside the defensive 'Great Wall of Tamana' is itself old.

What must once have been the sea wall, it runs several kilometres across the area, behind it is mostly residential with discontinuous pockets of arable land. It makes quite a landmark.

Shots bravely taken from the untamed side of the "Great Wall".

The place is far less manicured than Isahaya Bay, lots of scrub, more natural drainage ditches and the fields have a greater variety of crops. 'Blessed with' and 'overhead wires' aren't expressions you'll see in the same sentence too often but they provide an excellent network of perches. Just ask anyone looking for Great Grey Shrike! That white blob in the centre is a Black-faced Spoonbill, there were four in this ditch when I was here two days ago.

How are the fields here different from my local fields at Ogura? Hmmm...

I arrived at about 2pm and immediately went to the Isabelline Shrike location I'd been given. There was only one shrike on that stretch of river bank and initially to looked promising but it was both mobile and difficult to approach. I could see it when it flew onto the wires but when it dropped down it tended to be out of sight. Though it looked good at times, at others it looked far more like a female Bull-headed which ultimately I decided it must be. It would have helped if I'd known the gender or age of the Isabelline.

After a while I decided to look for the Great Grey again and see if I couldn't get any better shots while light was still good. Luckily it was in a track-side bush rather than on wires across the open fields though it meant I had to view it through the windscreen.

There wasn't time to check many other areas but I had to have a look at one or two good looking fields popular with pipits last time I was here. But was side tracked by the Lapwings, I can never resist looking at Northern Lapwings, they're such beautiful birds. They can be hard to approach but there was a flock at the edge of a field which were quite unperturbed by my presence. There was even a Grey-headed Lapwing further out, a scarce bird in Kyushu.

Just catching the last rays of the sinking sun.

Northern Lapwing; my favourite wader.

As I live in the heart of Grey-headed Lapwing country this wasn't so interesting for me but many people will visit Kyushu without seeing one.

As a postscript, I've heard that though the previous winter there was an Isabelline Shrike here it's a Brown rather than Isabelline at the site this winter.