Tokyo area - June 2017 (1 Viewer)

I head out to my yearly meeting to Tokyo again, and I am doing the usual of staying the weekend after the meeting to do some birdwatching. I have decided on a couple of places, although this may change.

As I fly early into Haneda on Sunday 11th, I thought I would revisit the Tokyo Wild Bird Park. The last time I was there, I had only just started birdwatching. It was a nice little park and they do seem to give current recent sightings on the website. If my bag cannot fit into a coin locker at Ryutsu Center Station, I will try and be cheeky and ask if I can put it in their office rather than carry it around. After, I will head to the hotel.

On the Saturday and Sunday of the following weekend, the days are interchangeable depending on the weather. One of the days, I am hoping to return to Hayama, a nesting site for Japanese Paradise Flycatcher (Sancocho). Although, this time I am going to go for a walk through the Futagoyama Nature preserve. There has not been many reports in this area, but they keep it quite undeveloped, so it would be interesting to see.

On the other day, I am thinking about Kasai Rinkai Park, Tama Cemetery or Meiji temple. I have not done these local ones before, and could be good option if weather is not nice for going off the beaten track.

Miyakejima is still on my to do list, as well as the Fuji area, but I normally look up data too late. At least Google Translate has improved for websites!

I'd recommend Kasai Rinkai koen - it's been one of the best places my wife and I have been as far as we are in and around Tokyo. As they're just around the bay from each other, they're quite convenient (as long as you can find a locker!). It can be good to get to Kasai Rinkai koen quite early.

Also around the Tokyo area, Ueno park is quite good, having the ponds as well as the forest areas. Very busy, so I've found it good to go on a jetlagged weekday morning - get there early, back to the hotel for breakfast, then start the day.

Wish you a great trip.

Had almost point-blank views of perched Goshawk at the Meiji Temple last August.

Oops - time flies - it was 2015, not last year....

Thank you Moadib and Welsh Peregrine for the replies.

Moadib - I am staying at Tachikawa, so not sure if I will be able to do cheeky visits in the weekday, as typically leaving for meetings at 0800. I may have a look at the rivers near the work though. I will check out Ueno park though, if I have time on one of the days. And yes, early out is always good idea.

Wow, you're more East than me, I'm normally in Kokubunji area if not on business. From the west side Takao I've found to be an interesting place to visit. First train westbound is 4:40am, so can be birding at Takao by 5am Spend an hour or two on the mountain and back for breakfast!

Agree birding in central Tokyo weekday sounds tough - you'd be hitting rush hour on the way back to Tachikawa by the time you were done!

Actually I've found many of the parks to be good - Toritsu higashimurayama was small and close by where we were staying, with many interesting birds, also the cemetery at Hagiyama. Sometimes worth just picking a nearby park and heading there with bins.

Another couple of interesting places if you haven't been;
There's a fun little birding store in Kanda area, just on Yasukuni-dori. It's on the 3rd (I think) floor - look for the sign outside and take the lift up (it's on the left of a Subway AFAI remember).
https://goo.gl/maps/LPpV6RAPyTz

Another great place is of course Tokyu Hands. Each of them is different, and the one in Ikebukuro seems the most 'outdoorsy', and has lots of things useful for birding (boots, backpacks, little seats, you name it - they have it).

My work is at Akishima, so it is a shorter trip back and could always eat breakfast on the go.

I did go to Tamashinrinkagakuen, but that opens fairly late (0900 I think), as do a lot of parks. I did a few walks around the outside of Showa Kinen Park, at back of hotel. Kiji mocked me by calling from inside though.

I may look into some morning trips after I get work day 1 out of the way.

Thank you

I will try to update this weekend about the trips I did in detail. Weather was on my side, and only had one day of rain in the middle of the week. I never got out midweek before the meetings due to having to deal with emails that came in overnight from UK.

Short overview
On arrival, on Sunday, went straight to Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park. Nothing out of the ordinary.

The following Saturday, I went to Futagoyama Nature Preserve at Hayama. Key species here ended up being the Japanese Bush Warbler. I was able to learn the call when they were staying in one place, and also the call when they were moving. I managed an ID shot, and with at least 30 heard throughout the walk, it could be a good site to stake out, although only 4-5 made the "on-the-move" call. Other species included Japanese White-Eye, Chinese Hwamei (interesting flight along branches). Another one, which I have got a video of the call, I will need to upload to BF to help ID, but for now I am calling it the "Japanese Jiggle Pig". The call sounded similar to when you shake a moo-stick, and it sounded to be ground-based.

On Sunday, I went to KasaiRinkaiKoen, which was overcast. Best bit of this site was the white wagtail feeding young. Missed out on a good picture of the Japanese Reed Warbler.
I moved on to Meiji Shrine, and struggled with lighting under the tree canopy on the main walk. The Meiji Jingu Gyouen (Garden) was where it improved. Patience proved worthwhile with Varied Tit coming back to a tree, after being chased off by a tree sparrow. Then after about 5 failed attempts throughout the trip at getting a decent photo of a Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker, I was rewarded by one, kindly directed by a small flock of Long-Tailed Tits.

Only two new photographed species for me this trip, (Japanese White-Eye and Varied Tit). As mentioned, I will write up further on weekend, with some pictures.

if you have the chance for another visit there is currently an active staked-out japanese paradise flycatcher nest in futagoyama. Will be almost impossible to find on your own unless you know the call and listen out for the birds returning to the nest to do a changeover but there will almost certainly be loads of photographers/birders there. Just keep walking the trail until you find them.

general details for the site are here

http://www.japannatureguides.com/kanagawa-prefecture/

however note that although it is easy to catch a taxi from zushi station to the trail head, it's more difficult in the return direction, and it's a rather walk up and over a quite large hill.

with an early start this site can be combined with terugasaki (short walk from Oiso station; details lower down on the same link) for white-bellied green pigeon visiting offshore rocks to drink seawater. Aim to arrive about 0645.

cheers

James

James, I agree. I did both in the same day last year. The White-Bellied Green Pigeons were spectacular. Japannatureguides gave perfect directions for both sites and managed to thank Mark Brazil at the Bird Fair last year.