Recent birding highlights - April 2007

Well apart from the Hoopoe, highlights were pretty few and far between until this Friday, when I managed to find a few minutes to take a look around Shukkein Garden, in downtown Hiroshima.

Apart from larger than usual numbers of Rufous Turtle Dove, there was also a small passage of Black-faced Buntings, around 4-5, a very confiding Short-tailed Bush Warbler who came within 2-3 meters of me, oblivious to me as he chomped on a caterpillar. Just as I had given up any hope of any other migrants, a beutiful male Narcissus Flctatcher appeared out of nowhere and diligently posed on a low post for a minute or so, before flitting off into the canpoy. I also managed to flush a Eurasian Sparrowhawk out of the canpoy, while the commoner birds of winter dwindle evermore - Dusky Thrush 2-3, Pale Thrush 4-5, Brown-eared Bulbul 1-2 and Olive-backed Pipit 1 accompanying freshly-fledged Long-tailed Tits.

On the way back from teaching in Yano I was lucky enough to hear and see 4-5 Japanese Waxwings on roadside wires and trees next to busy route 2 briefly before they flew off.

A trip to Minami-Iwakuni the previous weekend also found very few birds of note. a possible Pintail Snipe, 1 Marsh Sandpiper, 11 Pacific Golden Plover, 1Spotted Redshank, 3 Grey-headed Lapwing, Penduline Tit, Ruddy Crake, Stonechat and Grey-faced Bunting..as well as a nice male Rustic Bunting. News afterwards also reached me of a 'lucionensis' Brown Shrike.

Birding at the nearby Otagawa River, yielded 3 Chinese Penduline Tits, as well as at least 5 species of egret/heron in the henronry, as well as 20 odd wigeon and a couple of amorous Spotbill Ducks.

There were also penty of gulls for me to sift through, get confused over and fail to ID as usual. I will post some picsof gulls this winter in a future post.

Unfortunately rain, work commitments and some over- exhuberant soccer antics kept me from birding this weekend.

Well off to Mishima Island in the Sea of Japan from next Sunday..camping under the stars and hopefully finding some nice birds in good company is in order. I wil post a taster of what might be on offer in the next couple of days.

I'll finish with a few of some of my more than half decent pics...including some record shots of the big flock of 22 Great Knot that David Flack and I saw at the Yahatagawa 2 weeks ago.

Egret mystery- what is it?

This egret was in the Otagawa heronry on Sunday. I thought at first it was probably just an odd-looking Intermediate Egret, but something about the jizz of this bird suggests that it is something else. The problem is though it doesn't fit any of the other candidates - Great Egret, Little Egret, Cattle Egret, pale-phase Pacific Reef Egret or Chinese Egret.

Mystery Egret 1
Mystery Egret 2

Mystery Egret 3


I have also included some shots of Intermediate Egret, Great Egret and Little Egret taken at the same heronry on the same day.


Great Egret
Little Egret

Great Egrets
Intermediate Egret
Intermediate Egret

A Hoopoe in the neighbourhood

I got a call from my good friend Sumida-san about a possible Hoopoe in a small park, on the mountainside, just 5 minutes bike ride from my house..so how could i reseist an early morning visit just before work.

As I got to the park a dog fox trotted 20 meters in fromt of me crossing from the scrubby hillside and walking up the path with some kind of bird firmly clenched in its jaws.

I met the other gallant birders able to surface at the carck and we waited and waited for the Hoope to appear.

As we waited, various birds sung from the hillside, or briefly showed themselves..the buzzing cricket-like song of Short-tailed Bush Warbler could be heard close behind us, while Pale Thrush and Dusky Trhush skuluked in the undergrowth, along with Grey Bunting, Black-faced and Meadow Buntings, which from time to time briefly burst into song. Swallows swooped and dived overhead, while Blue-and White Flycatcher and Little Cuckoo called more distantly from on top of the mountain.

We continued to wait in what had been the favoured place of the Hoopoe the day before, a large area of open turf on top of the local waterworks, which was dotted with hungry Dusky Thrushes and Rufous Turtle Doves picking through the short turf for bits and bobs.

Teh montony of waiting was broken by the dog fox cantering bold as brass across the turf, putting everything up in its path.

Finally, we decided to walk dow to the bottom of the hill below the waterworks and what should fly up, but a glorious Black, White and Pink Hoopoe, that promptly disappeared behind a clump of bamboo before any of us could get decent pics.

We waited another 15 minutes, but it didn't return.

So I made my way back to the original spot, and was lucky enough to watch the Hoope fly across and finally settle and start feeding on the open turf. I called the other birders and they got some distant pics and then I had to leg it for work!

Mystery tringa or just bad photo of immature Greenshank?

I have posted these pics on other forums, but never really received satisfactory answers as to what this might be.

mystery bunting from the past

Anyone got any ideas on this bunting? A female of indertiminate species. I took the photos at the Long Valley in April 2003.

Chestnut-eared was mentioned by local birders at the time, but this is like no Chestnut-eared I've seen in Japan.

I am guessing that this is a 1st winter or female 'sordida' or 'spodocephala' Black-faced Bunting..with an outside chance of a Ist year Yellow-browed Bunting, though I would have thought it would have some yellow on the brow by early April if it were the latter species.

I have only seen one 1st winter Black-faced of those two races, the first UK record, the others have all been males here in Japan.

I have also never seen 1st year Yellow-browed Bunting, only adult males and females.

More spring bird higlight pics

I couldn't put these photos on before, as my camera-lead has decided to give up the ghost on me (as has my other camera..the Fujifinepix), but finally got them onto CD at Deo Deo and was happy with some of the results.

Birding this week has been restricted to the environs of Hiroshima. Managed to go out to Miyajima with David Flack, a nice birder/photographer from my part of the world... Essex. I learnt a lot about cameras and only ish I had his skil and camera..maybe one dy soon I can get the Canon D20 or D30 with a nice Sigma 500mm lend and telecoverter and one of those new snazzy Casio 10 megapixel jobs!

We saw a few birds of interest, such as Red-flanked Bluetail, Japanese Green Woodpecker, Brambling and Siskin on Miyajima, and a nice flock of 22 Great Knot at the Yahatagawa on the way back, along with 100+ Dunlin and 27 Kentish Plover.

Well anyway here are the less than perfect images I have been taking of late.










a>














I am gonna save this winters selection of gulls for the next post.

The tale of the not so funny Scaup

I found this bird at the beginning of March on a reclamation pond close to the mouth of the Yahata Riverin Itsukaichi City, Hiroshima.

I wasn't sure of it's ID, as it seemed to me from the poor views and shots that I got just before dusk to show characteristics of Lesser and Greater Scaup. It semed to have a small black nail, subtle grey vermicualtions on the flanks and quite tightly packer darker grey vermicualtions on the back all pro- Lesser. However, it did seem too round-headed and long necked for Lesser, and the bill shape/pattern at times resembled both species depending on which way the bird was facing. It seemed to spend all its time on the freshwater pool, rather than on the nearby estuary with the flock of 250+ Greater Scaup. It also seemed to swim always with it's rear end raised..however I wasn't sure which species it was..or if it might even be a hybrid. Unfortunately, the first time round I could not get any shots of the wings. The pond is on a private site and access is only really possible on Sundays, so I had to wait two more weeks until th local bird club meeting at the site to have another look.

After about 5 minutes I relocated the bird, among the other ducks,,and this time after spending 30-40 minutes I finally managed to get some shots of the wings, which prove it is not Lesser and most likely a young male Greater..though the slightness of the black nib on the end of the bill still bugs me.