Its that time of the month again! In many ways this past month has been the least-fulfilling of my stay in Japan thus far. In some ways it has flown past, in others it has dragged on. Looking back, the amount of decent bird photos to come out of April has been shockingly low. Not always for lack of trying, either.
At the very beginning of the month, just after my trip to Hokkaido, I took off with my grandparents for a tour of a mountain-side onsen (hot baths) at Kusatsu. Here I worked very hard on relaxing in the baths and in the short time I allocated for birding managed to pick up my first Brambling and Eurasian Siskin.
The very next day it was off with the Kamakura birding group down to Jogashima, in search of murrelets. On the way we stopped to twitch Japan's first Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle race). This in itself was quite an experience and had me thinking of what I imagine England would be: 150 people lined up in a semi-circle, backs to the sea and watching a small bird flying to and fro along a sea wall. The collection of cameras in this group was something fearsome: everything from weird telescope-camera contraptions to full pro bodies with whopping 800mm lenses. Down at Jogashima itself, we had great fun picking out Ancient and Japanese Murrelets as well as a Pacific Diver. Disappointingly, in one of those moments that occasionally occur in group birdwatching, two members of the group got onto a possible Long-billed Murrelet (uncommon-rare) and whilst we were all trying to relocate it, a Rhinoceros Auklet turned up just to confuse things and it wasn't sighted again.
Then it was back to school. The second level, beginner's level two, has been a lot harder than the first level. The teachers, although not as good as in the previous level, are still good. The kanji characters are a killer though. We are studying a lot more of them now, and it is hard to keep them all in the immediately accessible part of the brain (or to keep them at all for that matter...)
Over the course of the month I did, however, manage to add most of the commoner migratory waders to my list. Between Yatsu-higata and Sanbanze, I managed to see Bar-tailed Godwits, Great Knots, Red Knots, Lesser Sand Plovers, Whimbrels, Eastern Curlews, Eurasian Curlews, Common Greenshanks, Common Sandpipers, Grey-tailed Tattlers, Ruddy Turnstones, Red-necked Stints, Dunlins, Little Terns, a Green-winged Teal (rare) and even a very tired Arctic Jaeger. For many of these species, it was the first time I had seen them in proper breeding plumage, and it was quite a sight. Completely different birds from the largely brown ones we get (most of the time) in Australia.
On the 11th I rode out to Honda airport in search of some good bird photos but again came away with nothing. For my troubles, however, I did see a beautiful male Brambling and a pair of Northern Goshawks that probably had a nest somewhere in the vicinity. Two trips to the regular stomping ground at Meiji Jingu failed to yield any photos. So far, it seems that the forests around Meiji have declined somewhat in bird activity unfortunately. It looks like I will have to go elsewhere for proper woodland birds.
One of the few vaguely productive trips in the latter part of the month was to a place called Shinrin Koen. Although reasonably busy, it has a collection of woodlands and it was there that I saw my first Narcissus and Blue-and-White Flycatchers (the males of both are stunning birds) and Olive-backed Pipits. I was suitably impressed with the place and am thinking of returning there again, when possible.
And that was about all she wrote for April. However, I will sneak in a bit of early May and bring this report back to where it started: at the onsens. Golden Week is a string of holidays in late April to early May during which huge amounts of Japanese people take a week off to go travelling, visiting relatives etc. During this week, the population of Tokyo itself declines, but the trains and planes going out of Tokyo are more than full. My grandparents decided to go out to visit some relatives at Kanazawa, about 5 hours from Tokyo by train on the west coast of Honshu. So it was that 1st of May we boarded a ridiculously early shinkansen and headed off to visit some of my numerous (and hitherto unknown) relatives, most of whom spoke very fast in an accent that bordered on unintelligible. After a dinner over which everyone got drunk (Japanese custom) we took another train to an onsen-hotel along a mountainside river. Although I didn't bring the camera, I couldn't resist a bit of birding and set off on a promising looking track, only to find it devoid of birds. Then, coming back somewhat dejectedly, I stood out on the small verandah of the hotel, strategically overlooking a bend in the river, and over the course of the next 2 hours, saw 3 spectacular new birds: Mr Awesome (Crested Kingfisher), Mr Beautiful (Eyebrowed Thrush) and Mr Weird (a Brown Dipper). All fantastic birds, in particular the first two which are uncommon and not always easy to see.
Well, that is about it for this month. So far, I have seen 168 species over the course of the 4 months I have been here, not a bad effort I think. I had serious trouble thinking about a photo for this month though. I could literally count on one hand the number of acceptable photos I got, and none of those were great. Rather disappointing, but I guess its just a case of waiting for better times. In the end, I have included this one of a stunning male Narcissus Flycatcher, just because he is a beautiful bird. The noise is horrible here, due to the very dark habitat he was skulking in. At least he wasn't at the top of a tree though...
Until next month!
Cheers
Tobias
