Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Redstart Season

Somewhere in between late autumn and early winter lies a season of Daurian Redstarts (Phoenicurus auroreus). The influx of this species can always be seen as the second half of October arrives. The bird will continue to be numerous until December, when most of the population will further their journey to the south. A small portion of its population lingers around until spring comes, and vanishes to the north by late March. Although they're very common around here, I can never resist taking photos of them whenever they're around. So during this time of the year, hundreds of photos of this bird are up in my external hard disk.


Male Daurian Redstarts (Phoenicurus auroreus)

These photos are of the same male Daurian Redstart at Sekino-E, taken on November 3. The bird was very tame and liked to come and perch near the farmers who were digging up the lotus roots in the field. There must be some kind of insects coming out of the ground because of the farmers, so the bird was so eager to perch around them. Last year I went to take photos of this bird in Beppu Park. The photos of last year's Daurian can be seen here.

3 comments:

Chris said...

Wow fantastic post. The first shot is simply breathtaking!!! I was just stunned! Perfect collection you got there and lucky if this is the season of the redstart.

Dominic Gendron said...

Daurian Redstarts , new specie for me, your images are outstanding!!! The first one is a piece of art!

Stuart Price said...

Nice shots, there are 3 or 4 near my flat too. They seem to stick around all winter though.........