Oita River

If you can still remember, I made a visit to Oita River earlier this month and found a small group of Baikal Teals around Onozuru area. This post will be about any other birds I found on that day. There was quite a good number of ducks, mainly Mallards and Common Teals. There were also a couple of Coots, a lone female Greater Scaup and a female Common Pochard, the 2 species I've never seen in Oita before. Apart from the ducks, the numbers of finches were also remarkable. There was quite a big flock of Eurasian Siskins feeding in a small grassy patch on the river side, as well as many dispersed flocks of the Grey-capped Greenfinches. This winter has proved to be good for Siskins.

A view of Oita River (大分川) from the bridge to Kaku (賀来)

It was the first time for me to catch a train from the South Exit of the Oita Station.

A flock of ducks in the river

I've got a few better flight shots of the Eurasian Siskins here.

There were several Little Grebes feeding in the water in front of my hiding place. These birds were too shy though. Even though I sat very still behind the bush waiting patiently, they never seemed to come any closer than 20-30 metres or so. Though the Little Grebes were a bit tamer than the ducks, they were still too small in size to fill in the frame. Hope next time I can get some better shots of them.

Non-breeding Great Egret (Casmerodius albus) with Mt. Yufu in the background

A female Common Pochard and a pair of Baikal Teals; can you spot them all?

The first female Greater Scaup (Aythya marila) I found in Oita

A pair of Eurasian Wigeons (Anas penelope)

Female Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus)

Great Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo) coming back to their roost

Oriental Turtle-Dove (Streptopelia orientalis)

Dusky Thrush (Turdus eunomus) warming itself before sunset

Brown-eared Bulbul (Ixos amaurotis)

And a birdscape shot of a sleeping female Mallard to finish up this entry. The flock of ducks flew upstream as the sun began to set behind the mountain range. All through the day, there were at least 1 female Eurasian Sparrowhawk and 1 juvenile Northern Goshawk came disturbing the ducks away. One Common Kestrel, a few Black-eared Kites and Ospreys were also seen flying pass the area. The Northern Goshawk is actually one of my targets for this winter, but I still haven't come across any possibility so far. So now I'm looking forward to going back to the place again during the vacation.