MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
Japan Oct 2005: Eastern Hokkaido, Tokyo, and the Ferry
Japan: Eastern Hokkaido, Tokyo and the ferry
Fish Owls, Albatrosses and Whales
3rd – 14th October, 2005
by Mike Kilburn
7th October Having made the decision to go to Hokkaido, everything started badly when I left it too late to get to the 23:45 ferry by taking a slow train from Tokyo to Mito and misdirecting the taxi driver in a place he knew and I didn’t. Stupid. Anyway I got onto the ferry from Oarai to Tomakomai through the truck door with five minutes to spare . . . then failed to sleep because of the snorer in my 6-bed berth. At times the noises were so tortuous I thought he might be gasping his last breath. No such luck, which meant a dreadful night’s sleep. I overslept and missed the first hour of daylight for seawatching.
8th October I went on deck to find a grey and overcast sky, the distant coastline shrouded in mist, but relatively calm seas. The first bird to appear was a Streaked Shearwater – easily recognised by its pale head and bill as is tilted first one way then the other – the first of ten thousand or more on the day! And that was all there was for the first few hours, except for the odd Black-tailed or Slaty-backed Gull, until a pale phase skua shot south at speed, allowing time, however, for its, front-heavy, big-shouldered structure, flashes of white on both sides of the wing, and broad breast band to be noted – Pomarine! – a very, very long-awaited tick!
The situation stayed the same for the next couple of hours – with occasional groups of Streaked Shearwaters numbering in their thousands the major highlight. After Sendai a few more Poms passed – curiously going north, as were a couple of small groups of Red-necked Phalaropes. But the big excitement came from the two albatrosses - Black-footed (3 birds in total) and a single Laysan, both species with wings that seemed to go on and on forever. Like all albatrosses they left me in awe as they slid effortlessly past, dwarfing the Streakers (and everything else).
The standout birds in terms of quality, if not charisma, were the three dark pterodroma petrels when stayed with the ship for over three hours. They were dark smoky grey-brown, (looking lighter and browner in bright sunshine) and all had distinct white facial patches, which positively gleamed in full sunlight. About 20% smaller that the Streakers, two birds in particular held station on the right side of the vessel, giving excellent views of a head darker than the body, a clear white patch on the base of the underwing primaries and primary coverts, divided by thin, but distinctive, crescents of dark edges to the coverts. The best-looking bird had no white on the upperwing except for the faintest hint of a covert bar, probably caused by wear. This bird appeared not to need to flap its wings – I counted just two beats in the full three hours. A second bird appeared to be moulting its inner primaries, showing distinct white feathering on the upper primaries, but not on the shafts. I can only speculate that this is an aberrant, moult-related plumage. This bird’s wings correspondingly looked more pointed, and it was evidently having to work much harder – giving a least a few flaps on every pass.
All birds had pale bellies (the moulting bird noticeably more so) and short, almost square, tails which projected less than the head. Leg colour was not noted. The bill and eyes were black. On first inspection these features appear to suggest Providence Petrel, a rare bird in Japan but, having seen the still unidentified pterodroma in Hong Kong in March 2001, I take nothing for granted and look forward to hearing more informed opinions!
The other highlight of the ferry trip was two pods of Baird’s Beaked Whale, totally unexpected but a real pleasure, especially as they had the good manners to surface fairly regularly and were readily indentifiable by the beak and the sheer size – impressive creatures.
My good fortune with time held true as I was offered a lift from Tomakomai port to Sapporo city – from where I caught an 11:15 night bus to Kushiro in eastern Hokkaido (NB there is also a 10pm bus directly from Sapporo to Nemuro which arrives at 6:30am). After an uncomfortable, but not unbearable, night I changed buses in Kushiro, benefiting from the early arrival to get the 6:05am bus on to Nemuro. On the way the road passed through a wonderful diversity of marshland, forests and protected areas – it ought to be stunning in a week or two as the leaves turn red. I was able to get off at Tobai (8:15am), the town for Lake Furen, rather than carrying on into Nemuro and retracing my steps. A 5 minute walk saw me at Matsuo-san’s Lodge Furen (email: matsuo-t (at) plum.plala.or.jp) on the lake-shore.
9th October Knackered, but eager to get birding, I kicked off with a juvenile Peregrine whizzing overhead, disturbing the 25 Eurasian Oystercatchers roosting on the other side of the sea wall. Matsuo-san kindly dropped me about 1 km west at the Onneto Bridge before going back to his ringing. I was preparing to sort out all the 1,000+ duck (mostly Pintail and Eurasian Teal, with Mallard and the odd Shoveler) but was spared by the constant distraction of good birds! The first of these were a couple of Japanese Cranes, which strolled into view. They looked as majestic on the ground, picking carefully along the edge of the water, as they had gliding past the Lotus Hills in Beidaihe, where I first saw them 15 years ago!
My attention was distracted from the cranes by an immature White-tailed Eagle, which was slouched on the ground about 300m from the roadside. Before I could get closer it came to me! – flying low over the water in an attempt to surprise some of the feeding ducks on the other side of a low spit. I have also seen Imperial Eagle fail with this rather clumsy-looking technique, and wonder seriously how these big eagles actually feed themselves. This was the first of at least eight and possibly as many as 16 White-tailed Eagles on the day. One of these flew past as I was having lunch in a funky-looking pink restaurant overlooking the Onneto Bridge and the bay!
A group of loafing gulls in Onneto’s small harbour revealed two Glaucous-winged Gulls amongst a group of Black-tailed and Slaty-backed Gulls. These were my first adults, and I was pleased to pick out their pale grey wing-tips quickly amongst the darker-tipped Slaty-backed Gulls. Later in the day I found several Glaucous Gulls on rocks at the river mouth. The Glaucous looked bigger and chunkier, and the all-white primaries stood out distinctively. Curiously, all were adults except for a single all-white second winter bird.
Passerines in the area included several very smart lugens White Wagtails (also known as Black-backed Wagtail) flashing lots of white in the wing, Olive-backed and Buff-bellied Pipits, a couple of Siberian Stonechats and a jangling group of Oriental Greenfinches. The Onneto trail was stuffed with Black-faced Buntings, but amongst them were couple of female Long-tailed Rosefinches – my first since that same 1990 autumn in Beidaihe!
I also had good views of Coal, Great and Marsh Tit, as well as Eurasian Treecreeper, the elegant Hokkaido race of Eurasian Nuthatch (muted colours and fine white supercilium), and both Japanese Pygmy and Great Spotted Woodpeckers. I also had brief views of what I immediately assumed was Brown Shrike, only to discover from Matsuo-san that this is a rare bird here and it is usually the reddish race that appears, rather than the dirty buffy-grey lucionensis colour this bird showed. Bull-headed is the regular shrike here.
On my way back to the minshuku I surprised a pair of Japanese Cranes just 30 metres away, and had tremendous views of them flying down to the river’s edge from the field where they had been feeding.
Matsuo-san had kindly offered to take me to a nearby site for the iconic Blakiston’s Fish Owl, which also had a Ural Owl territory nearby. The BFO depends on small streams with close trees and shrub cover, where it roosts during the day. We waited from before dusk for the birds to start calling, which they did with a low “boo-oo”, followed by a deeper “oom” every three to four minutes. As I waited as close as possible to where I though the noise was coming from, one rose heavily from its invisible perch onto an unobstructed branch less than 40 metres in front of me!
There was enough light for me to see every detail of its plumage, but I was initially transfixed by the unblinking yellow eyes staring straight at me down the scope. Its sheer bulk was apparent from the moment it lurched onto the branch like a demonically animated heap of grey-brown leaf litter! The head was distinctly narrower than the body, and I was surprised by how distinctive the white throat patch was, especially as it called. After a while it turned round, crapped, and flew off to a more distant, but still visible branch from where it continued its duet with the female for another 20 minutes or so, before it took off, and first one bird, then the other flew almost directly over my head - big and bulky - and not a little menacing. A wonderful end to a superb day!
10th October This morning I started off by again looking at the gulls by the bridge, and failing to resolve the puzzle of the mongolicus types or the looming Slaty-backed-like Vega gulls, but pix will, I hope lead to a solution. I was dropped deep in the forest by Mrs Matsuo as my plan was to walk to Ochiishi Headland in search of more seabirds.
However the forest itself produced close views of a third winter White-tailed Eagle perched on a tree and five close Crossbills, including a rather drab male and some streaky females, feeding silently in the top of a conifer. I also added more standard forest birds – Wren, Goldcrest, Long-tailed Tit and Bullfinch before starting my route march to Ochiishi, adding little except for a rather white-bellied Common Buzzard.
Ochiishi is a fishing port set in a cliff-hemmed bay protected by a formidable set of breakwaters. The cliffs themselves are impressive – 100 metres high and including an arch and several stacks around the mouth of the harbour. Equally impressive were the huge numbers of gulls – at least 3,000 covered the sea and every breakwater. However I gave them short shrift, as my target here was Harlequin, which I found by walking out to the northern promontory and looking down into the sea below. The eight birds I saw included one wonderful male showing off its outrageous plumage – a kaleidoscope of white spots and broad white lines against a deep grey-blue and dark chestnut body – as good, in its way, as the fish owl yesterday!
I also found a Pelagic Cormorant here, but was disappointed to rush against the clock to the lighthouse on the island, only to dip on Spectacled Guillemot, Rhinoceros Auklet, and Red-faced Cormorant, only to rush back another 4 km to catch the last train back to Tobai. I stopped for 2 minutes to scan the bay to the south of the town and scored well with several small flocks of Black Scoter – a new species for me – and a single Red-necked Grebe. I also enjoyed the spectacle of an adult White-tailed Eagle causing havoc as it flew down the length of the longest breakwater, filing the air with a snowstorm of angry gulls. My last good birds of the day were a pair of Whooper Swans in the Onneto River – the remainder of 32 seen by Matsuo-san - and the first arrivals of the autumn.
11th October The morning started with thick sea-mist over the river and as a result very few birds – only a few Japanese Skylarks on the path in the fog and I flushed an adult White-tailed Eagle from the sea wall, which later sat in full view on the appropriate dead Sakhalin Spruce. Despite the shortage of birds, the walk itself was beautiful – with the dew heavy on the grass, and making complex string-pearl filigrees of the cobwebs suspended between the taller seed heads. Most odd was a “fog-bow” - like a colourless rainbow - which arched across the spit in front of me.Just before heading out to Nosappu Headland I had three Goosanders and a couple of Greater Scaup just in front of the house.
The headland itself was windless and bathed in the warm sunshine of the continuing high-pressure system. I found none of the hoped-for Spectacled Guillemot or Rhinoceros Auklet, but there were lots of Pelagic Cormorants and, even better, I enjoyed close views of a couple of female Harlequin, and close fly-bys by four different drakes – a truly outstanding duck! I also had a single sawbill and half a dozen Black Scoters, and half a dozen Long-tailed Ducks. It was nice to see more Kittiwakes and a couple more Glaucous-winged Gulls – again loafing on the rooftops. Raptors were represented by a single Peregrine, an old female Kestrel perched on the giant lighthouse, and a couple of White-tailed Eagles sitting on a cormorant rock a kilometre out to sea to the north of the point. A school of Pacific White-sided Dolphin and a few Kuril Seals added some extra interest. The seal especially is interesting as its name indicates that this is where the Kuril Islands, which act as a major migrant corridor from Kamchatka, come within sight of the Japanese mainland, and bring so many good birds to the area
The bus arrived back in Tobai just before dusk and I counted 26 Glaucous Gulls on the roost just outside the entrance to the river, their pale backs and pure white primaries standing out clearly in the last rays of light.
As the sun dropped I watched the sunset spreading the finest palette of mauve and gold across the water, the rising tide sending a steady flow of ripples across the inlet. As the light faded darker, older colours appeared – reds, oranges and progressively deeper blues and purples slid slowly towards black, leaving just enough light to provide a backdrop for the silhouettes of several herons poised to strike at the final meal of the day.
12th October Next morning there was no mist, so an early start in the woods brought the immediate reward of three thrushes: Eye-browed, Brown and Dusky, all of which behaved like all thrushes should, but usually don’t - they flew up from cover into the bare branches of nearby trees – and showed wonderfully! The same wood held a trio of Wrens on the moss-carpeted floor, and another trio – this time of Red-flanked Bluetails, including a fine male - and a pair of Crossbills in the treetops.
A spell on the watchtowers produced good views out to sea, including double figures of both Red-necked and Black-necked Grebes, several Red-throated and several more Pacific/Black-throated Divers, plus lots of Black Scoter and a single male Velvet Scoter. A pond inland of the dunes held a pair of Japanese Cranes and a good mixed flock of duck including Greater Scaup , Common Teal and the first four Goldeneye of the autumn. More exciting than any of these was watching the attempt by a male Goshawk to nail any of them in an abortive sweep out of the nearest trees.
Other random additions to the list included a Fantail Snipe and a group of about 40 Dunlin, which disappeared out to sea at high speed. Other migrants included impressive numbers of Buff-bellied Pipits – over 150 were in the dunes – and a pair of Whooper Swans, which flew in off the sea. My final bird in Furen was a fine adult White-tailed Eagle, which soared overhead as I waited for the bus, its tail shining out against the background of the chilly azure sky.
13th October I again overslept on the ferry and missed the first ninety minutes in the “Hokkaido Sea”. I woke up to Laysan Albatrosss going past before I even got outside, and when I did immediately got onto a pteradroma petrel which turned out to be one of at least three, and it seemed highly likely were the same birds I’d seen on the northward passage! Most persuasive in this respect was a bird with absent inner primaries and clearly visible white feathers showing through underneath. This bird also showed a clear line of wear along the coverts as a thin white bar. More significantly I was able to confirm that there was no white shafts to the primaries, which should eliminate Kermadec Petrel and leave Providence as the only likely contender. Other key features of all the birds I saw included a darker head than the body, especially compared with the undersides, a white facial patch around the bill and the pale under-primaries and coverts. As before, the birds held station with the ship for up to 90 minutes, only leaving the ship as it approached the Honshu mainland and left the fishing fleet behind.
Other top birds included a group of three Black-footed Albatross, including a white-rumped juvenile and 25 more Laysans, but, perhaps because of the late start, there was little variety – only one southbound Pomarine Skua, and close to dusk an all-dark shearwater that looked bigger than the Streakers.
14th October The effort of getting up early to go to Kotoku-numa paid off when I had a flash-by Green Pheasant from the train (from Mito station) and then another in a field on the road to the reservoir, which gave longer views. The reservoir had few ducks but an excellent variety – 30-odd Chinese Spotbills, and a few each of Wigeon, Teal, and Mallard, plus a lone female Gadwall and a pair of Tufted Duck. Other new birds for the trip here included a couple of juvenile Night Herons, a few Japanese Bush Warblers, a loudly duetting pair of Chinese Bamboo Partridge, an unidentified phyllosc with an odd call that half-flicked both wings, and four Bull-headed Shrikes.
Two birds stood out, however. The first was a Meadow Bunting which was singing from a tree in the middle of the marshy valley, and the other a female Narcissus Flycatcher, which came in very close to investigate me, and gave fine views of its uniform olive upperparts, rufous-tinged tail and lemon-tinted underparts. Later, another bird was chased off by a male, which showed only briefly.
I added a few more list fillers from the train and the bus to the airport to bring the total for the fortnight to 100 species, but in reality this trip was all about the quality of the top birds rather than the number of ticks or the total list. I should add that 2 morning trips to Tokyo’s Meiji Shrine on 5th and 7th produced three target species – Brown-eared Bulbul, Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker, and the charismatic Varied Tit. I also found a curious female Siberian Thrush (just a week after having a very shy one at home in Ng Tung Chai in Hong Kong). Other birds in the park included a couple of Kingfishers, Oriental Turtle Dove, a flyover Northern Goshawk and a small group of Mandarin in a wooded pond on the east of the park.
Many thanks to Richard Lewthwaite for lending me Mark Brazil’s, essential, out-of-print, but still remarkably current site guide for Japan, to Bando-san from Birdlife Asia for helping me with details for the ferry (Lonely Planet was worse than useless!) and to the Matsuos at Furen-ko for their expertise in finding the key species, being kind enough to drive me to hard to access places nearby, and for the huge feasts of seafood and the six kinds of home-made jam for breakfast! All told a fabulous trip.
Happy to answer any questions you may have.
Cheers
Mike
Japan: Eastern Hokkaido, Tokyo and the ferry
Fish Owls, Albatrosses and Whales
3rd – 14th October, 2005
by Mike Kilburn
7th October Having made the decision to go to Hokkaido, everything started badly when I left it too late to get to the 23:45 ferry by taking a slow train from Tokyo to Mito and misdirecting the taxi driver in a place he knew and I didn’t. Stupid. Anyway I got onto the ferry from Oarai to Tomakomai through the truck door with five minutes to spare . . . then failed to sleep because of the snorer in my 6-bed berth. At times the noises were so tortuous I thought he might be gasping his last breath. No such luck, which meant a dreadful night’s sleep. I overslept and missed the first hour of daylight for seawatching.
8th October I went on deck to find a grey and overcast sky, the distant coastline shrouded in mist, but relatively calm seas. The first bird to appear was a Streaked Shearwater – easily recognised by its pale head and bill as is tilted first one way then the other – the first of ten thousand or more on the day! And that was all there was for the first few hours, except for the odd Black-tailed or Slaty-backed Gull, until a pale phase skua shot south at speed, allowing time, however, for its, front-heavy, big-shouldered structure, flashes of white on both sides of the wing, and broad breast band to be noted – Pomarine! – a very, very long-awaited tick!
The situation stayed the same for the next couple of hours – with occasional groups of Streaked Shearwaters numbering in their thousands the major highlight. After Sendai a few more Poms passed – curiously going north, as were a couple of small groups of Red-necked Phalaropes. But the big excitement came from the two albatrosses - Black-footed (3 birds in total) and a single Laysan, both species with wings that seemed to go on and on forever. Like all albatrosses they left me in awe as they slid effortlessly past, dwarfing the Streakers (and everything else).
The standout birds in terms of quality, if not charisma, were the three dark pterodroma petrels when stayed with the ship for over three hours. They were dark smoky grey-brown, (looking lighter and browner in bright sunshine) and all had distinct white facial patches, which positively gleamed in full sunlight. About 20% smaller that the Streakers, two birds in particular held station on the right side of the vessel, giving excellent views of a head darker than the body, a clear white patch on the base of the underwing primaries and primary coverts, divided by thin, but distinctive, crescents of dark edges to the coverts. The best-looking bird had no white on the upperwing except for the faintest hint of a covert bar, probably caused by wear. This bird appeared not to need to flap its wings – I counted just two beats in the full three hours. A second bird appeared to be moulting its inner primaries, showing distinct white feathering on the upper primaries, but not on the shafts. I can only speculate that this is an aberrant, moult-related plumage. This bird’s wings correspondingly looked more pointed, and it was evidently having to work much harder – giving a least a few flaps on every pass.
All birds had pale bellies (the moulting bird noticeably more so) and short, almost square, tails which projected less than the head. Leg colour was not noted. The bill and eyes were black. On first inspection these features appear to suggest Providence Petrel, a rare bird in Japan but, having seen the still unidentified pterodroma in Hong Kong in March 2001, I take nothing for granted and look forward to hearing more informed opinions!
The other highlight of the ferry trip was two pods of Baird’s Beaked Whale, totally unexpected but a real pleasure, especially as they had the good manners to surface fairly regularly and were readily indentifiable by the beak and the sheer size – impressive creatures.
My good fortune with time held true as I was offered a lift from Tomakomai port to Sapporo city – from where I caught an 11:15 night bus to Kushiro in eastern Hokkaido (NB there is also a 10pm bus directly from Sapporo to Nemuro which arrives at 6:30am). After an uncomfortable, but not unbearable, night I changed buses in Kushiro, benefiting from the early arrival to get the 6:05am bus on to Nemuro. On the way the road passed through a wonderful diversity of marshland, forests and protected areas – it ought to be stunning in a week or two as the leaves turn red. I was able to get off at Tobai (8:15am), the town for Lake Furen, rather than carrying on into Nemuro and retracing my steps. A 5 minute walk saw me at Matsuo-san’s Lodge Furen (email: matsuo-t (at) plum.plala.or.jp) on the lake-shore.
9th October Knackered, but eager to get birding, I kicked off with a juvenile Peregrine whizzing overhead, disturbing the 25 Eurasian Oystercatchers roosting on the other side of the sea wall. Matsuo-san kindly dropped me about 1 km west at the Onneto Bridge before going back to his ringing. I was preparing to sort out all the 1,000+ duck (mostly Pintail and Eurasian Teal, with Mallard and the odd Shoveler) but was spared by the constant distraction of good birds! The first of these were a couple of Japanese Cranes, which strolled into view. They looked as majestic on the ground, picking carefully along the edge of the water, as they had gliding past the Lotus Hills in Beidaihe, where I first saw them 15 years ago!
My attention was distracted from the cranes by an immature White-tailed Eagle, which was slouched on the ground about 300m from the roadside. Before I could get closer it came to me! – flying low over the water in an attempt to surprise some of the feeding ducks on the other side of a low spit. I have also seen Imperial Eagle fail with this rather clumsy-looking technique, and wonder seriously how these big eagles actually feed themselves. This was the first of at least eight and possibly as many as 16 White-tailed Eagles on the day. One of these flew past as I was having lunch in a funky-looking pink restaurant overlooking the Onneto Bridge and the bay!
A group of loafing gulls in Onneto’s small harbour revealed two Glaucous-winged Gulls amongst a group of Black-tailed and Slaty-backed Gulls. These were my first adults, and I was pleased to pick out their pale grey wing-tips quickly amongst the darker-tipped Slaty-backed Gulls. Later in the day I found several Glaucous Gulls on rocks at the river mouth. The Glaucous looked bigger and chunkier, and the all-white primaries stood out distinctively. Curiously, all were adults except for a single all-white second winter bird.
Passerines in the area included several very smart lugens White Wagtails (also known as Black-backed Wagtail) flashing lots of white in the wing, Olive-backed and Buff-bellied Pipits, a couple of Siberian Stonechats and a jangling group of Oriental Greenfinches. The Onneto trail was stuffed with Black-faced Buntings, but amongst them were couple of female Long-tailed Rosefinches – my first since that same 1990 autumn in Beidaihe!
I also had good views of Coal, Great and Marsh Tit, as well as Eurasian Treecreeper, the elegant Hokkaido race of Eurasian Nuthatch (muted colours and fine white supercilium), and both Japanese Pygmy and Great Spotted Woodpeckers. I also had brief views of what I immediately assumed was Brown Shrike, only to discover from Matsuo-san that this is a rare bird here and it is usually the reddish race that appears, rather than the dirty buffy-grey lucionensis colour this bird showed. Bull-headed is the regular shrike here.
On my way back to the minshuku I surprised a pair of Japanese Cranes just 30 metres away, and had tremendous views of them flying down to the river’s edge from the field where they had been feeding.
Matsuo-san had kindly offered to take me to a nearby site for the iconic Blakiston’s Fish Owl, which also had a Ural Owl territory nearby. The BFO depends on small streams with close trees and shrub cover, where it roosts during the day. We waited from before dusk for the birds to start calling, which they did with a low “boo-oo”, followed by a deeper “oom” every three to four minutes. As I waited as close as possible to where I though the noise was coming from, one rose heavily from its invisible perch onto an unobstructed branch less than 40 metres in front of me!
There was enough light for me to see every detail of its plumage, but I was initially transfixed by the unblinking yellow eyes staring straight at me down the scope. Its sheer bulk was apparent from the moment it lurched onto the branch like a demonically animated heap of grey-brown leaf litter! The head was distinctly narrower than the body, and I was surprised by how distinctive the white throat patch was, especially as it called. After a while it turned round, crapped, and flew off to a more distant, but still visible branch from where it continued its duet with the female for another 20 minutes or so, before it took off, and first one bird, then the other flew almost directly over my head - big and bulky - and not a little menacing. A wonderful end to a superb day!
10th October This morning I started off by again looking at the gulls by the bridge, and failing to resolve the puzzle of the mongolicus types or the looming Slaty-backed-like Vega gulls, but pix will, I hope lead to a solution. I was dropped deep in the forest by Mrs Matsuo as my plan was to walk to Ochiishi Headland in search of more seabirds.
However the forest itself produced close views of a third winter White-tailed Eagle perched on a tree and five close Crossbills, including a rather drab male and some streaky females, feeding silently in the top of a conifer. I also added more standard forest birds – Wren, Goldcrest, Long-tailed Tit and Bullfinch before starting my route march to Ochiishi, adding little except for a rather white-bellied Common Buzzard.
Ochiishi is a fishing port set in a cliff-hemmed bay protected by a formidable set of breakwaters. The cliffs themselves are impressive – 100 metres high and including an arch and several stacks around the mouth of the harbour. Equally impressive were the huge numbers of gulls – at least 3,000 covered the sea and every breakwater. However I gave them short shrift, as my target here was Harlequin, which I found by walking out to the northern promontory and looking down into the sea below. The eight birds I saw included one wonderful male showing off its outrageous plumage – a kaleidoscope of white spots and broad white lines against a deep grey-blue and dark chestnut body – as good, in its way, as the fish owl yesterday!
I also found a Pelagic Cormorant here, but was disappointed to rush against the clock to the lighthouse on the island, only to dip on Spectacled Guillemot, Rhinoceros Auklet, and Red-faced Cormorant, only to rush back another 4 km to catch the last train back to Tobai. I stopped for 2 minutes to scan the bay to the south of the town and scored well with several small flocks of Black Scoter – a new species for me – and a single Red-necked Grebe. I also enjoyed the spectacle of an adult White-tailed Eagle causing havoc as it flew down the length of the longest breakwater, filing the air with a snowstorm of angry gulls. My last good birds of the day were a pair of Whooper Swans in the Onneto River – the remainder of 32 seen by Matsuo-san - and the first arrivals of the autumn.
11th October The morning started with thick sea-mist over the river and as a result very few birds – only a few Japanese Skylarks on the path in the fog and I flushed an adult White-tailed Eagle from the sea wall, which later sat in full view on the appropriate dead Sakhalin Spruce. Despite the shortage of birds, the walk itself was beautiful – with the dew heavy on the grass, and making complex string-pearl filigrees of the cobwebs suspended between the taller seed heads. Most odd was a “fog-bow” - like a colourless rainbow - which arched across the spit in front of me.Just before heading out to Nosappu Headland I had three Goosanders and a couple of Greater Scaup just in front of the house.
The headland itself was windless and bathed in the warm sunshine of the continuing high-pressure system. I found none of the hoped-for Spectacled Guillemot or Rhinoceros Auklet, but there were lots of Pelagic Cormorants and, even better, I enjoyed close views of a couple of female Harlequin, and close fly-bys by four different drakes – a truly outstanding duck! I also had a single sawbill and half a dozen Black Scoters, and half a dozen Long-tailed Ducks. It was nice to see more Kittiwakes and a couple more Glaucous-winged Gulls – again loafing on the rooftops. Raptors were represented by a single Peregrine, an old female Kestrel perched on the giant lighthouse, and a couple of White-tailed Eagles sitting on a cormorant rock a kilometre out to sea to the north of the point. A school of Pacific White-sided Dolphin and a few Kuril Seals added some extra interest. The seal especially is interesting as its name indicates that this is where the Kuril Islands, which act as a major migrant corridor from Kamchatka, come within sight of the Japanese mainland, and bring so many good birds to the area
The bus arrived back in Tobai just before dusk and I counted 26 Glaucous Gulls on the roost just outside the entrance to the river, their pale backs and pure white primaries standing out clearly in the last rays of light.
As the sun dropped I watched the sunset spreading the finest palette of mauve and gold across the water, the rising tide sending a steady flow of ripples across the inlet. As the light faded darker, older colours appeared – reds, oranges and progressively deeper blues and purples slid slowly towards black, leaving just enough light to provide a backdrop for the silhouettes of several herons poised to strike at the final meal of the day.
12th October Next morning there was no mist, so an early start in the woods brought the immediate reward of three thrushes: Eye-browed, Brown and Dusky, all of which behaved like all thrushes should, but usually don’t - they flew up from cover into the bare branches of nearby trees – and showed wonderfully! The same wood held a trio of Wrens on the moss-carpeted floor, and another trio – this time of Red-flanked Bluetails, including a fine male - and a pair of Crossbills in the treetops.
A spell on the watchtowers produced good views out to sea, including double figures of both Red-necked and Black-necked Grebes, several Red-throated and several more Pacific/Black-throated Divers, plus lots of Black Scoter and a single male Velvet Scoter. A pond inland of the dunes held a pair of Japanese Cranes and a good mixed flock of duck including Greater Scaup , Common Teal and the first four Goldeneye of the autumn. More exciting than any of these was watching the attempt by a male Goshawk to nail any of them in an abortive sweep out of the nearest trees.
Other random additions to the list included a Fantail Snipe and a group of about 40 Dunlin, which disappeared out to sea at high speed. Other migrants included impressive numbers of Buff-bellied Pipits – over 150 were in the dunes – and a pair of Whooper Swans, which flew in off the sea. My final bird in Furen was a fine adult White-tailed Eagle, which soared overhead as I waited for the bus, its tail shining out against the background of the chilly azure sky.
13th October I again overslept on the ferry and missed the first ninety minutes in the “Hokkaido Sea”. I woke up to Laysan Albatrosss going past before I even got outside, and when I did immediately got onto a pteradroma petrel which turned out to be one of at least three, and it seemed highly likely were the same birds I’d seen on the northward passage! Most persuasive in this respect was a bird with absent inner primaries and clearly visible white feathers showing through underneath. This bird also showed a clear line of wear along the coverts as a thin white bar. More significantly I was able to confirm that there was no white shafts to the primaries, which should eliminate Kermadec Petrel and leave Providence as the only likely contender. Other key features of all the birds I saw included a darker head than the body, especially compared with the undersides, a white facial patch around the bill and the pale under-primaries and coverts. As before, the birds held station with the ship for up to 90 minutes, only leaving the ship as it approached the Honshu mainland and left the fishing fleet behind.
Other top birds included a group of three Black-footed Albatross, including a white-rumped juvenile and 25 more Laysans, but, perhaps because of the late start, there was little variety – only one southbound Pomarine Skua, and close to dusk an all-dark shearwater that looked bigger than the Streakers.
14th October The effort of getting up early to go to Kotoku-numa paid off when I had a flash-by Green Pheasant from the train (from Mito station) and then another in a field on the road to the reservoir, which gave longer views. The reservoir had few ducks but an excellent variety – 30-odd Chinese Spotbills, and a few each of Wigeon, Teal, and Mallard, plus a lone female Gadwall and a pair of Tufted Duck. Other new birds for the trip here included a couple of juvenile Night Herons, a few Japanese Bush Warblers, a loudly duetting pair of Chinese Bamboo Partridge, an unidentified phyllosc with an odd call that half-flicked both wings, and four Bull-headed Shrikes.
Two birds stood out, however. The first was a Meadow Bunting which was singing from a tree in the middle of the marshy valley, and the other a female Narcissus Flycatcher, which came in very close to investigate me, and gave fine views of its uniform olive upperparts, rufous-tinged tail and lemon-tinted underparts. Later, another bird was chased off by a male, which showed only briefly.
I added a few more list fillers from the train and the bus to the airport to bring the total for the fortnight to 100 species, but in reality this trip was all about the quality of the top birds rather than the number of ticks or the total list. I should add that 2 morning trips to Tokyo’s Meiji Shrine on 5th and 7th produced three target species – Brown-eared Bulbul, Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker, and the charismatic Varied Tit. I also found a curious female Siberian Thrush (just a week after having a very shy one at home in Ng Tung Chai in Hong Kong). Other birds in the park included a couple of Kingfishers, Oriental Turtle Dove, a flyover Northern Goshawk and a small group of Mandarin in a wooded pond on the east of the park.
Many thanks to Richard Lewthwaite for lending me Mark Brazil’s, essential, out-of-print, but still remarkably current site guide for Japan, to Bando-san from Birdlife Asia for helping me with details for the ferry (Lonely Planet was worse than useless!) and to the Matsuos at Furen-ko for their expertise in finding the key species, being kind enough to drive me to hard to access places nearby, and for the huge feasts of seafood and the six kinds of home-made jam for breakfast! All told a fabulous trip.
Happy to answer any questions you may have.
Cheers
Mike
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