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Japan Feb/March 2016 (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter birdboybowley
- Start date
MacNara
Well-known member
Hi Adam.
This is a very interesting thread, even for those who live in Japan. For myself, I'm very glad that you had such a good and basically successful time.
I'm sure you're busy, but I really hope you will continue through to the end of your trip. If the photos are what takes the time, then fewer photos but anyway tell us what you saw and where you saw it. Please.
This is a very interesting thread, even for those who live in Japan. For myself, I'm very glad that you had such a good and basically successful time.
I'm sure you're busy, but I really hope you will continue through to the end of your trip. If the photos are what takes the time, then fewer photos but anyway tell us what you saw and where you saw it. Please.
wolfbirder
Well-known member
Wonderful report, truly one of the best!
Cheers Mac, Nick. I will finish...just been manic at work lately (and just come back from a long weekend in the Picos too! 
) Sorry it's dragging and thanks for reading
) Sorry it's dragging and thanks for reading
29th Feb – Had a quick look around the cabin this morning and had my first gorgeous Japanese Grosbeaks, about 6 in total. Also around was a nice male Rustic Bunting, Willow, Coal and Jap Tits, Oriental Greenfinches, Great Spot and a Dusky Thrush. Walking back to Yacho-no-mori we had a couple of Meadow Bunts, Jap Jays, Brown-eared Bulbuls and lots of Tree Sparrows. Along the river we again saw the Grey Heron and Brown Dipper.
We arrived early at the reserve entrance on the Kose Rindo and wandered along the gravel road. Up near where the green armco starts I just happened to look at the bank opposite and there was a stonking male Copper Pheasant walking up through the leaf litter....wow!! He saw us and quickly disappeared over the ridge and never reappeared. We walked back down the road a little to see if we could get a better angle when suddenly 2 females burst out of the undergrowth and followed the male back up into the forest. Well, that was easy!!
We wandered further up the Kose Rindo where we found a couple of female-type Red-flanked Bluetails along with several Long-tailed Tits, Varied Tits and c6 Nuthatches. Plenty of Jap Pygmy-Woods were seen, their unique calls the first clue to their presence. A Wren was seen down near the river whilst Eastern Buzzard and Black-eard Kite were seen overhead. We walked up the middle path towards Akagera Resthouse which passes the grassland clearing that is supposedly good for rosefinches....when they're around! As we walked back down to the entrance we had another flock of 8 Jap Grosbeaks which was nice too.
The weather had now begun to change for the worse so Dawn decided to wander back down to the little shopping area by the main road whilst I nipped back up to Shiotsubo Onsen. The rain began to fall a little more steadily as I reached the carpark and took shelter under the trees. Same birds as yesterday were attending the feeder and a pair of Eastern Spot-billed Ducks was on the pond. Things weren't looking great so in desperation I played the tape.....and amazingly got a response from the conifers opposite. Running over I was soon able to see a bit of movement in the higher branches and then it finally popped out into view – a Japanese Accentor! Admittedly a little underwhelming as it's basically a Dunnock!! (And, probably the only Japanese bird that responded to the tape!)
I refound Dawn inside the coffee shop where we partook in some cake before wandering back to Bell's via the long way through the town itself as the rain eased a bit. We found the 'famous' 7-11 along the main road and had a good look behind it but found no greenies of any sort, pheasant or woodpecker. Later that afternoon we got the local train back to Karuizawa where we had a car pre-booked with Nippon opposite the station. Unfortunately, the two birds I thought we'd be twitching in it had both done a runner...namely Sibe Crane and Scaly-sided Merg, both were present on the western coast. No sign of them for about a week now so that was annoying. Still, it was nice being mobile once again. We ate in the steakhouse by the shopping centre and it was pretty good. As the temperature dropped to -8oC tonight the rain turned to heavy snow....
We arrived early at the reserve entrance on the Kose Rindo and wandered along the gravel road. Up near where the green armco starts I just happened to look at the bank opposite and there was a stonking male Copper Pheasant walking up through the leaf litter....wow!! He saw us and quickly disappeared over the ridge and never reappeared. We walked back down the road a little to see if we could get a better angle when suddenly 2 females burst out of the undergrowth and followed the male back up into the forest. Well, that was easy!!
We wandered further up the Kose Rindo where we found a couple of female-type Red-flanked Bluetails along with several Long-tailed Tits, Varied Tits and c6 Nuthatches. Plenty of Jap Pygmy-Woods were seen, their unique calls the first clue to their presence. A Wren was seen down near the river whilst Eastern Buzzard and Black-eard Kite were seen overhead. We walked up the middle path towards Akagera Resthouse which passes the grassland clearing that is supposedly good for rosefinches....when they're around! As we walked back down to the entrance we had another flock of 8 Jap Grosbeaks which was nice too.
The weather had now begun to change for the worse so Dawn decided to wander back down to the little shopping area by the main road whilst I nipped back up to Shiotsubo Onsen. The rain began to fall a little more steadily as I reached the carpark and took shelter under the trees. Same birds as yesterday were attending the feeder and a pair of Eastern Spot-billed Ducks was on the pond. Things weren't looking great so in desperation I played the tape.....and amazingly got a response from the conifers opposite. Running over I was soon able to see a bit of movement in the higher branches and then it finally popped out into view – a Japanese Accentor! Admittedly a little underwhelming as it's basically a Dunnock!! (And, probably the only Japanese bird that responded to the tape!)
I refound Dawn inside the coffee shop where we partook in some cake before wandering back to Bell's via the long way through the town itself as the rain eased a bit. We found the 'famous' 7-11 along the main road and had a good look behind it but found no greenies of any sort, pheasant or woodpecker. Later that afternoon we got the local train back to Karuizawa where we had a car pre-booked with Nippon opposite the station. Unfortunately, the two birds I thought we'd be twitching in it had both done a runner...namely Sibe Crane and Scaly-sided Merg, both were present on the western coast. No sign of them for about a week now so that was annoying. Still, it was nice being mobile once again. We ate in the steakhouse by the shopping centre and it was pretty good. As the temperature dropped to -8oC tonight the rain turned to heavy snow....
Go on Mike...you can post another Green one if you want!
1st March – In lieu of disappearing rarities, today was going to be a touristy day! The weather was good, with a nice dusting of snow from the night before. We punched the phone number for our destination into the satnav and off we set for the c70min northwards drive to the famous snow monkeys at Jigokudani Yaen-Koen. I have to admit, this was one place I really wanted to visit on this trip as I, like many others, have seen them so often on TV documentaries that I had to see it for myself.....and it didn't disappoint!
The road conditions on the way up weren't too bad – I only lost the car once as we came off the motorway onto a steep sliproad.....so very carefully stuck it in L and rolled down slowly – as did everyone else behind me after they saw my back-end swing round!! Fun fun fun! As we drove through Nakano we had the first White-cheeked Starlings of the trip and saw quite a few throughout the day. The road up to the carpark was pretty steep but thankfully clear of snow and ice.....unlike the carpark itself!! Quite fun watching a few people slip and slide on the incline
The 1.5km walk to the actual hot springs was as picturesque as you can imagine – like a winter wonderland from out of Narnia! Birdwise there wasn't alot happening around the place with a few Long-tailed and Coal Tits in the evergreen forest and Japanese & Oriental Crows loafing about the springs. No other mammals were seen, even though we kept scanning through the trees for serow. The path wove through the forest, snow falling and perfect powder beneath our feet – good for a few well-placed snowballs of course! As we reached Korakukan Ryokan with its steaming geyser and massive icicles hanging off the eaves we entered the park proper and soon could see the Japanese Macaques around the stream and pools.
We spent several hours here watching the family groups of macacques interact with one another...and us: at one stage I was kneeling down photographing a particularly pathetic-looking youngster that had obviously pissed its mother off as she kept turning her back on her snow-covered progeny no matter how much it cried when I felt something on my back. Thinking someone had barged into me (again – it does get busy here!) I was somewhat bemused when a little furry hand appeared over my hood and its owner clambered around on my shoulders! I was lucky though as another guy had a larger male jump on his back and then bounce up and down on him with enough strength to force the guy down to his knees!
We watched as they bathed in the thermal pools with the lower one nearer the river the most productive. The higher, man-made and TV famous pool was very busy with us larger apes but only a couple of macaques were hanging around it. Still amazes me that they don't freeze to death as they leave the warm water! A truly wonderful experieance and I urge anyone who visits Japan in winter to definitely partake
After leaving the monkeys we decided to head southwards and visit Matsumoto Castle. Again the satnav proved invaluable and we were treated to some more awesome winter panoramics as we drove up through the mountains. A stop at a motorway services with a particularly jaw-dropping view across the valley gave us a flock of c15 Brambling. Other pitstops gave us Jap Grobeaks, Jap Jay, more White-cheeked Starlings and Meadow Buntings.
The castle itself was very impressive and in its capacious moat there were many Eastern Spotbills, several Gadwall and Teal, a male Pintail and a couple of Little Egrets. A pair of Mute Swans complemented the castle perfectly and the absolutely huge koi swimming around were also very impressive! A Sparrowhawk flew over whilst we were looking out of one of the higher windows and a Dusky Thrush was hopping around in the gardens which also held Oriental Greenfinches and Oriental Turtle Doves.
A quick visit to the town itself was a nice bit of culture with Tree Sparrows, Black-backed Wags and Brown-eared Bulbuls everywhere. We left the bustling town and headed off southwest towards Lake Suwa. Upon our arrival I felt the leaflet had lied: I was expecting more Lake Windemere but it was more akin to Lake Geneva! Still there was a good number of Goosander, Goldeneye and Coots out on the lake itself, with Wigeon and Pochard present too. Along the various canals and ditches we had a single White-fronted Goose with a Wigeon flock, Little and Great Crested Grebes and several Grey Herons and Eastern Great Egrets. The surprise bird here though was an adult Kittiwake flying around the lake which actually landed right in front of us where we could see it was unfortunately entwined with fishing line. So as evening began to fall we headed back towards Karuizawa where we had dinner at Il Sogno, an Italian restaurant on the shopping centre.
The road conditions on the way up weren't too bad – I only lost the car once as we came off the motorway onto a steep sliproad.....so very carefully stuck it in L and rolled down slowly – as did everyone else behind me after they saw my back-end swing round!! Fun fun fun! As we drove through Nakano we had the first White-cheeked Starlings of the trip and saw quite a few throughout the day. The road up to the carpark was pretty steep but thankfully clear of snow and ice.....unlike the carpark itself!! Quite fun watching a few people slip and slide on the incline
The 1.5km walk to the actual hot springs was as picturesque as you can imagine – like a winter wonderland from out of Narnia! Birdwise there wasn't alot happening around the place with a few Long-tailed and Coal Tits in the evergreen forest and Japanese & Oriental Crows loafing about the springs. No other mammals were seen, even though we kept scanning through the trees for serow. The path wove through the forest, snow falling and perfect powder beneath our feet – good for a few well-placed snowballs of course!
As we reached Korakukan Ryokan with its steaming geyser and massive icicles hanging off the eaves we entered the park proper and soon could see the Japanese Macaques around the stream and pools.We spent several hours here watching the family groups of macacques interact with one another...and us: at one stage I was kneeling down photographing a particularly pathetic-looking youngster that had obviously pissed its mother off as she kept turning her back on her snow-covered progeny no matter how much it cried when I felt something on my back. Thinking someone had barged into me (again – it does get busy here!) I was somewhat bemused when a little furry hand appeared over my hood and its owner clambered around on my shoulders! I was lucky though as another guy had a larger male jump on his back and then bounce up and down on him with enough strength to force the guy down to his knees!
We watched as they bathed in the thermal pools with the lower one nearer the river the most productive. The higher, man-made and TV famous pool was very busy with us larger apes but only a couple of macaques were hanging around it. Still amazes me that they don't freeze to death as they leave the warm water! A truly wonderful experieance and I urge anyone who visits Japan in winter to definitely partake
After leaving the monkeys we decided to head southwards and visit Matsumoto Castle. Again the satnav proved invaluable and we were treated to some more awesome winter panoramics as we drove up through the mountains. A stop at a motorway services with a particularly jaw-dropping view across the valley gave us a flock of c15 Brambling. Other pitstops gave us Jap Grobeaks, Jap Jay, more White-cheeked Starlings and Meadow Buntings.
The castle itself was very impressive and in its capacious moat there were many Eastern Spotbills, several Gadwall and Teal, a male Pintail and a couple of Little Egrets. A pair of Mute Swans complemented the castle perfectly and the absolutely huge koi swimming around were also very impressive! A Sparrowhawk flew over whilst we were looking out of one of the higher windows and a Dusky Thrush was hopping around in the gardens which also held Oriental Greenfinches and Oriental Turtle Doves.
A quick visit to the town itself was a nice bit of culture with Tree Sparrows, Black-backed Wags and Brown-eared Bulbuls everywhere. We left the bustling town and headed off southwest towards Lake Suwa. Upon our arrival I felt the leaflet had lied: I was expecting more Lake Windemere but it was more akin to Lake Geneva! Still there was a good number of Goosander, Goldeneye and Coots out on the lake itself, with Wigeon and Pochard present too. Along the various canals and ditches we had a single White-fronted Goose with a Wigeon flock, Little and Great Crested Grebes and several Grey Herons and Eastern Great Egrets. The surprise bird here though was an adult Kittiwake flying around the lake which actually landed right in front of us where we could see it was unfortunately entwined with fishing line. So as evening began to fall we headed back towards Karuizawa where we had dinner at Il Sogno, an Italian restaurant on the shopping centre.
And the prize for the most forlorn looking macaque on the planet goes to.......
2nd March – Today should've been the day we werescouring the west coast after a successful twitch but seeing as we didn't go we had another lazy day....and I gotta admit it was actually quite nice to lessen the pace a bit. I headed into Yacho-no-mori early (nice to drive it! ) and parked up by the entrance. The usual birds were present with 3 Siskins flying over a new addition. As I neared the green armco again I noticed a darker shape sitting at the base of a roadside tree. Raising my bins I was very happy to see the gorgeous male Copper Pheasant again as he sat there watching me watching him. I sat down on the armco and he began to feed until he suddenly spooked and ran up the hillside and disappeared over the brow. A previously unnoticed female then bolted out of a bush and followed her mate – awesome!!
I made another quick drive up to Shiotsubo Onsen and again had the Japanese Accentor but it was just as unconfiding as previously. Deciding that it wasn't going to get any better than this I made my way back to Bell's Cabin for breakfast – eggs benedict, yum! As I sat by the window I could look out at the improvised bottle feeder on the verandah that was attracting Varied, Willow and Jap Tits, Oriental Greenfinches and a smart female Brambling. As breakfast was served I glanced out the window and there was a lovely female Hawfinch sifting seeds from the feeder – wow, slightly better views than I'm used to!! After she departed and we got back to eating, breakfast was again interrupted by the arrival of a stonking Japanese Grosbeak that totally dwarfed the Oriental Greenfinch next to it – double wow!
After we finished it was time to pack up and say goodbye to our friendly host Kiyofumi and as we had the car til later this afternoon we had a little toodle around Kariuzawa and its environs searching for our missing Greenies. We had a good look behind the 7-11 and had nice views of a male Daurian Redstart and 3 Meadow Bunts. We stopped at a couple of parks that held not alot and then at a centre that was being done up for some environmental meetings this September. I played the tape and got a response from the Green Woodie but alas that was as close as I came....dammit! There were c12 Rustic Bunts here aswell as more Meadows. We had several Black-backed Wags around the area and also one Japanese Wagtail on a fast bit of river.
We looked around the golf courses but nothing so drove up the highway northwards to visit Shiraito Falls which were pretty spectacular – a full 180o of waterfalls around a mountainside pool. We also had great views of the smoking Mt Asama on the way up too. Soon it was about time to drop the car back and catch the ultra-smooth shinkansen back to Tokyo Central. Now it was time for the bit of the holiday that I'd especially been looking forward to.....Dawn, maybe not so much though!
So we jumped onto the Tokyo Metro and got off at JR Hamamatsucho station where we stowed our bags in the pay lockers and made our way down to the ticket office at Takeshiba-sanbashi for our journey to Miyakejima in the Izu Islands. The desk didn't openagain until 2000 so we wandered back out and found a lovely little restaurant and had dinner by ordering our food on a machine and then have it brought out....cool! We bought supplies for the following day and headed back into the departure area, bought our tickets and tried to sleep but it was impossible. The foyer soon filled up with people but most were getting onto the other ship that goes to a different set of islands.
2200 finally arrived and we boarded the very yellow ferry and made our way to our room. We had the whole place to ourselves so we lay down on the hard floor and managed a little bit of sleep between us.....not alot though! Night night
) and parked up by the entrance. The usual birds were present with 3 Siskins flying over a new addition. As I neared the green armco again I noticed a darker shape sitting at the base of a roadside tree. Raising my bins I was very happy to see the gorgeous male Copper Pheasant again as he sat there watching me watching him. I sat down on the armco and he began to feed until he suddenly spooked and ran up the hillside and disappeared over the brow. A previously unnoticed female then bolted out of a bush and followed her mate – awesome!!I made another quick drive up to Shiotsubo Onsen and again had the Japanese Accentor but it was just as unconfiding as previously. Deciding that it wasn't going to get any better than this I made my way back to Bell's Cabin for breakfast – eggs benedict, yum! As I sat by the window I could look out at the improvised bottle feeder on the verandah that was attracting Varied, Willow and Jap Tits, Oriental Greenfinches and a smart female Brambling. As breakfast was served I glanced out the window and there was a lovely female Hawfinch sifting seeds from the feeder – wow, slightly better views than I'm used to!! After she departed and we got back to eating, breakfast was again interrupted by the arrival of a stonking Japanese Grosbeak that totally dwarfed the Oriental Greenfinch next to it – double wow!
After we finished it was time to pack up and say goodbye to our friendly host Kiyofumi and as we had the car til later this afternoon we had a little toodle around Kariuzawa and its environs searching for our missing Greenies. We had a good look behind the 7-11 and had nice views of a male Daurian Redstart and 3 Meadow Bunts. We stopped at a couple of parks that held not alot and then at a centre that was being done up for some environmental meetings this September. I played the tape and got a response from the Green Woodie but alas that was as close as I came....dammit! There were c12 Rustic Bunts here aswell as more Meadows. We had several Black-backed Wags around the area and also one Japanese Wagtail on a fast bit of river.
We looked around the golf courses but nothing so drove up the highway northwards to visit Shiraito Falls which were pretty spectacular – a full 180o of waterfalls around a mountainside pool. We also had great views of the smoking Mt Asama on the way up too. Soon it was about time to drop the car back and catch the ultra-smooth shinkansen back to Tokyo Central. Now it was time for the bit of the holiday that I'd especially been looking forward to.....Dawn, maybe not so much though!
So we jumped onto the Tokyo Metro and got off at JR Hamamatsucho station where we stowed our bags in the pay lockers and made our way down to the ticket office at Takeshiba-sanbashi for our journey to Miyakejima in the Izu Islands. The desk didn't openagain until 2000 so we wandered back out and found a lovely little restaurant and had dinner by ordering our food on a machine and then have it brought out....cool! We bought supplies for the following day and headed back into the departure area, bought our tickets and tried to sleep but it was impossible. The foyer soon filled up with people but most were getting onto the other ship that goes to a different set of islands.
2200 finally arrived and we boarded the very yellow ferry and made our way to our room. We had the whole place to ourselves so we lay down on the hard floor and managed a little bit of sleep between us.....not alot though! Night night
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