Finally finished processing the pics from Wednesday morning at Beppu Koen. Lots and lots of thrushes that day, especially the Dusky Thrush (Turdus (naumanni) eunomus). A flock of about 30 birds was moving around in circle between the pine trees and a small pond in front of the park. They were mainly sunbathing on the top of the trees when I first got there, but after a while they started to come down to the pond and drink water. Around 10.00 all the birds started to move into one fruiting tree on the other side of the park. It's not a large tree but for some reason very popular among these thrushes. There are more trees which produced the same kind of purplish fruits like this tree all around the park, but I saw no bird coming to eat the fruits from them, didn't know why, location might be the best answer.



Watching the birds flying in and out the fruiting tree, eating berries altogether was really fantastic. I've actually never seen the
Dusky Thrush being this gregarious before. I'm thinking of going up to Mt.Tsurumi someday after finishing the exam. There must be more fruiting trees, I guess. There was a female
Naumann's Thrush (
Turdus (naumanni) naumanni) mixing in the large flock of Dusky also, the first time for me to see this form. Unfortunately, I couldn't get much of a decent shot of her. The
Pale Thrushes (
Turdus pallidus) were also in a good number. They look very different from those Dusky/Naumann's in flight. The wings and tail are much longer and the shape looks really different.


The best I could get from this female
Naumann's Thrush

And this one seems to be an integration of
eunomus x
naumanni
Pale Thrush (
left),
Dusky Thrush (
right)


The pattern of these
Dusky Thrushes is very variable.

Another shot of the
Naumann's Thrush visiting the fruiting tree


What about other birds other than the thrush, a single female
Hawfinch, a pair of
Daurian Redstart, of course, male and female, Oriental Turtle-Dove, Brown-eared Bulbul, White-cheeked Starling, few Grey-capped Greenfinches, pigeons and crows and surprisingly a female
White-bellied Green Pigeon, which I saw flying out of another fruiting tree. I've got some shots of the birds that came down to the small stream to drink water, mainly thrushes and bulbuls.

The male
Daurian Redstart was still doing well there.

A male
Pale Thrush
A record shot of the female
Hawfinch


These
Brown-eared Bulbuls were more wary than the thrushes.

A male
Pale Thrush (right) with another
Dusky Thrush (left)

Another shot of the
Brown-eared Bulbul
Ahh...only 3 days left and my spring vacation is going to be started. Actually I feel like time flies so fast these days, much faster than before. I'm still feeling like I've just spent my New Year eve in my hometown and now January is almost over, pretty soon I'm gonna go traveling to Hokkaido too, and when the spring break is over, I'm gonna be a 3rd year student and that's even a harder thing to believe how fast time has passed by living here in Japan.
2 comments:
Some wonderful colourful photographs. Love those Dusky Thrushes and Brown-eared Bulbuls. Jealous of that sunllight too.
Jealous of your weather, Pale Thrushes (I've yet to photograph one) and those long long long holidays students get........................
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