Unravel

Great Crested Grebe Influx

2012-02-06T17:27:00.015+09:00

Few weeks ago, there was a Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) influx around my dorm. I once counted 26 birds in one group and there were also many others scattering in the sea and small ports. Most of them didn't let me get close as usual, but I found 1 individual in a small port in Kyomachi that was obliging enough for me to get some decent shots at close range. Several days later, the number of the individuals in that port increased to the maximum of 7 birds. However, all of them has recently disappeared from the port after the weather has worsened. I just hope that they'd come back again and stay until they fully moult into their beautiful breeding plumage.

Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) in non-breeding plumage

At first it was not easy to get close to the bird at all, since it kept staying in the middle of the port once it saw me. I sat and waited until the tide became lower and the bird seemed to become more interested in feeding along one of the shallow corners where it caught quite many small fish. I used the same technique that I've always used when trying to photograph birds that like to dive, which was running further as the bird begins to dive and stopping at a spot where the bird is likely to pop up from underneath. This technique mostly works since the birds wouldn't be able to see us when they're diving, so we can move freely to the point where they're assumed to appear again. However, some birds like the Pacific Loon in this post, are exceptional since they can dive for a longer period of time and the places where they pop up are totally random.

Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) in non-breeding plumage

I was able to observe an interesting behaviour of the Black-tailed and Vega Gull. The gulls seemed to favour staying closely to the grebe. I was wondering why they always seemed to follow the grebe around until I finally realised that they were trying to steal the fish that the grebe caught. I didn't see them successfully taking any fish from the grebe though, since the grebe could always dive into the water. Sometimes the harassment seemed very serious but the grebe could always get away from the gulls. Few days later I didn't see the gulls following around the grebes anymore.

Below is a series of the same bird swallowing its own feather!

Visitor From North America

2012-02-02T22:06:00.029+09:00

On January 29th, I went to Oita River with two of my Thai friends. It was the first time for me to find other Thai students who are also interested in birding in Beppu. We arrived there quite late and were disappointed to find many people paddling in the river. It seemed like they belong to some sort of a Sunday canoe club. Most of the ducks that were roosting along the riversides were flushed up and flew upstream. The paddlers were there for about half an hour and finally went further downstream. However, since we were late and the birds were disturbed, we didn't get to see many decent birds. I tried to look for the Green Pheasants which I found last time, but the grassy area along the river seemed to be cut recently and was too open for the pheasants, so we didn't see any. At least I managed to introduce many Great Crested and Little Grebes, Eurasian Wigeons, Northern Shovellers, Grey-capped Greenfinches, Great Cormorants and Ospreys. My friends had to leave around 10:30AM, so we said goodbye and I walked back to my favourite spot where I photograph the ducks.

Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca carolinensis)

After I arrived at the spot, all of the ducks flushed up and landed in the middle of the river. I set up my hide and waited for them to come back to the feeding area. As I was scanning through the flocks of ducks in the middle of the river, my heart suddenly dropped when my eyes caught a single male Common Teal with shining white stripes of the sides of its breast. I was really surprised to find that I was looking at a Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca carolinensis), a very scarce winter visitor from North America. I've never expected to find this taxa in Oita before, so I was extremely happy. I kept waiting silently inside the hide hoping that the bird would come closer to the feeding site and it finally did, along with the other Common Teals and Northern Shovellers.

Adult male Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca carolinensis)

At first, the bird seemed to be more wary than the others and even flew out once it noticed my lens moving for the first time, but it later became more accustomed to it and finally came swimming right in front of the hide without feeling intimidated. It was really interesting to be able to observe both subspecies of Common Teal at close range. The white vertical stripes on the breast sides of the Green-winged Teal were much more obvious than I thought. I could see them clearly even from the distance. The bird also lacks the white horizontal line on the lower scapulars which is another critical identification point for distinguishing it from the male Common Teals. I also noticed that the breast seems to be more buffish than the Common Teals as well.

Comparison between Green-winged Teal and Common Teal

Adult male Common Teal (Anas crecca crecca)

Adult male Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca carolinensis)

Excuse me for posting too many repetitive photos of the same bird, but I don't think there will be many chances for me to photograph this rarity here in Japan, especially at this close range. The bird seemed to have exactly the same feeding behaviour with the Common Teals; dabbling in shallow water and occasionally walking on the banks. Wikipedia says that according to the DNA research, the Green-winged Teal is actually more closely related to the totally different looking Speckled Teal (Anas flavirostris) of South America than the Eurasian Common Teal. I find this information quite unbelievable. It is one of the reasons why many authors regard it as a full species. However, the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) is still considering it as a subspecies of Common Teal.

Adult male Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca carolinensis)

God knows if any of these are female Green-winged Teals.

Other Birds From Fukuoka

2012-01-30T23:56:00.023+09:00

This will be the final post for my trip to Fukuoka during the year's end and new year vacation. I found Imazu a very nice place for birding, even though I couldn't get any photo of the Black-faced Spoonbill in close range. Apart from the c. 100 Falcated Ducks in the earlier post, there were tonnes of many other ducks staying at the river mouth. Most of them were Mallards and Chinese Spot-billed Ducks, but I also found interesting species like 1 male Baikal Teal and at least 5 Common Shelducks among the flocks as well. Northern Pintails and Eurasian Wigeons were also numerous, with some Red-breasted Mergansers, Northern Shovelers and Common Teals. I believe that if I had a telescope with me, I'd be able to pick out some more.

A view of Zuibaijigawa (瑞梅寺川) at Imazu

Chinese Spot-billed Ducks (left) and a male Baikal Teal (right)

A flock of Great Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo)

Two resting Common Shelducks (Tadorna tadorna)

A crappy record shot of a 1st-winter Saunders's Gull (Larus saundersi)

On my second visit to Imazu, I also spotted a first-winter Saunders's Gull (Larus saundersi) resting on a sandbar along with the ducks. It is another globally endangered species which occasionally spends its winter in Kyushu. I've seen quite many of them back in 2009 when I visited Ariake Sea in Saga Prefecture. On the right side of the river, there were patches of rice fields where a pair of Tundra Swans was spotted earlier in December. Unfortunately, I wasn't lucky enough to see them. There was a flock of about 10-15 Northern Lapwings (Vanellus vanellus) in the rice fields though. I've never been able to get close to this shy species. Below are my best attempts of getting their photos.

Northern Lapwings (Vanellus vanellus)

They liked to hide among the dried grass.
Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica japonica)

Non-breeding Dunlins (Calidris alpina)

Eurasian Magpies (Pica pica japonica) were occasionally found in people's garden and along the roads. However, they were not as easy to photograph as I thought. After all, I could only get one (relatively) decent shot of it standing on the grass while picking up the food. In one of the small canals that flows into Zuibaiji River, I found a flock of about 50 Dunlins (Calidris alpina) resting and chirping like little chicks. I've never heard their voices before, but they seemed to be especially vocal at the time that I found them. They later flew out and made a nice aerial show for a few minutes before landing on the opposite side of the canal.

Female Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) carrying quite a huge lunch

An adult Eastern Great Egret (Casmerodius modesta) with nice breeding plumes

A young female Common Shelduck (Tadorna tadorna)

Juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)

Non-breeding Dunlins (Calidris alpina)

From the little research that I made before going to Fukuoka, Tataragawa River (多々良川) seems to be another great place to see Black-faced Spoonbills at close rage. I went there by walking quite a distance from the Kaizuka Station and asked local people about the area where the spoonbills are normally seen. I could finally find the place where the spoonbills are said to come and roost, but there was no spoonbill in sight. I waited until it was almost completely dark despite the biting cold wind and rain, but still no spoonbill came to the roosting site. Finally I had to leave for a warmer place and go back to the city without any photo of the spoonbill. To end this long post, below is a video of Dunlins that I took while waiting for the spoonbills at Tataragawa. I certainly need to pay a second visit to Fukuoka!

Ducks in Ohori Park

2012-01-30T01:51:00.019+09:00

January 1st in Fukuoka was overcast with constant showers. I went to a park called Ohori Park (大濠公園) which is located not very far from Tenjin Station. It is a big park with a large pond inside. Despite the rain, I was quite satisfied with the photos of ducks that I got during my brief visit. There were lots of Common Pochards (Aythya ferina) staying in the pond with a some 20 Tufted Ducks (Aythya fuligula). Some of them were really tame and even seemed to be asking for food. However, it seemed like the park doesn't encourage people to feed these ducks. There were signs telling what will be the negative impacts if the ducks are fed (for example, they will become so fat that they cannot walk!).

Part of the Ohori Park (大濠公園)

Male Common Pochard (Aythya ferina)

Since I've never got any decent shot of both Common Pochard and Tufted Duck, I enjoyed taking photos of them up close despite the rain. I think there were approximately 100 Common Pochards in the pond. Most of them were staying in the middle of the pond though, so I mainly focused on the ones that came to ask for food. It was interesting to see that most of them were males. I just realised once I got back to the hotel that I took very few photos of the females and they were not nearly as good as the males'.

Female Common Pochard (Aythya ferina)

Male Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula)

There were much fewer Tufted Ducks in the pond but most of them were even more approachable than the pochards. Again, most of the were males with only a few female birds. I didn't even get any decent shot of the females. All of the them seemed to be pretty lazy and slept throughout most of the time, except for the ones that came begging for food. Because the light was really bad and it's really difficult to get the correct exposure, I decided to use flash which, as a result, helped bring up the feather details both in the shadow and highlight parts.

Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)

There were also many Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) staying in the pond as well. There was a large tree in the middle of the pond and it was all covered with cormorants' droppings. It was quite shocking for me, as I first thought that it was some kind of lichen. Other birds found in the park included a pair of Gadwalls, some Eurasian Wigeons, lots and lots of Black-headed Gulls and Mallards.

Falcated Ducks

2012-01-25T20:51:00.015+09:00

On my first day of visiting Imazu in Fukuoka Prefecture, I was really pleased to find that there was a good number of Falcated Ducks (Anas falcata) staying at the river mouth. This beautiful species of duck is one of the species that I've been yearning to photograph the most in Japan. It is a rare vagrant in Thailand and I have only seen a few females there. In Japan, I've seen them several times before in Kitsuki, Oita and Ono River, but never got a chance to get any good photos of them. Furuso-san has even found a male and a few females in Beppu. This time at Imazu, a flock of them was found sleeping just behind the sea wall. I could take photos of them quite easily from behind the wall. I just love the glossy head feathers of the male birds!

Male and female Falcated Ducks (Anas falcata)

Some more shots of the same group of birds

The birds flushed up as an old man came walking along the sea wall

The birds flew out into the middle of the river and stayed there for a while. They even began to perform their courtship display. The male birds became so excited with their heads held high, crests fluffed up and cocked up tails. They swam around the female, gave out their weird whistling call followed by a series of springing its body up and down. I took several videos of them doing the courtship display. One of the videos can be seen below. I was surprised to find that female birds also performed the dance ritual. I've never seen a female duck performing courtship display before. I think this is pretty weird.

Falcated Ducks sleeping and stretching

Male and female birds performing courtship display

Male birds demonstrating the courtship ritual

This group is part of the total of approximately 100 individuals

I waited for the birds to move closer to the sea wall, and they did. Even though they were not that tame or confiding, they came close enough for me to get some decent shots with my short lens. I just love how the glossy green and purple shades of the drakes' head feathers change rapidly according to the angle. It reminds me of male sunbirds or hummingbirds. I had a nice time taking photos of them as they slowly passed by in front of me. Even though they seemed to be sticking around in the same area behind the sea wall, I chose to move on since I was still on the search of spoonbills. If I had known that I wouldn't be able to get photo of the Black-faced Spoonbills up close, I would have chosen to stay a little longer with these gorgeous ducks.

Love the colour shifting head feathers of the drakes!

Pacific Loon

2012-01-22T17:37:00.008+09:00

The weather has been terrible for many days. I have lost most of my motivation to go birding. Fortunately, as I was checking the small port behind my dorm from the fourth floor's kitchen, I spotted a single loon swimming in the port. I quickly grabbed my camera and went down to the port. To my surprise, the bird was not easy to find and photograph at all. It could dive into the water and come up on the surface hundreds of metres away from the original spot. At first, I thought that the bird was a Black-throated Loon since it's the only loon I've ever seen in Beppu so far. Indeed, it was a Pacific Loon (Gavia pacifica), a lifer for me!

Non-breeding Pacific Loon (Gavia pacifica); Note the 'chinstrap'

The bird was relatively wary and wouldn't let me get close to it. I thought that the Pacific Loon would be distinctly smaller than Black-throated, but I didn't really feel that it was that much smaller. It has distinct dark 'chinstrap' which is one of the main characteristics of Pacific Loon, along with the thinner, sharply-pointed bill and less white on the flanks while swimming. Unfortunately, I couldn't get any decent shot of it since it was really cloudy and the sun was setting. I just hope that the weather will be better and the bird will still be around tomorrow, so I can get some more shots. I was even able to hear its loud eerie call. I didn't know why it gave the call, but it was one of the most distinctive calls for waterbirds.

The bird giving its loud eerie call
One of the 3 Great Crested Grebes (Podiceps cristatus) that were staying nearby

Roosting Spoonbills

2012-01-17T20:30:00.013+09:00

As I said in the earlier posts, the actual main target for my short trip to Fukuoka was the globally endangered Black-faced Spoonbill (Platalea minor). I did see it and in a good number too, but all of them were staying just too far out in the river. Before going on the trip, I made a little research about where to see the spoonbills, and I found that a good number of them can be seen constantly at Imazu. I came across several videos on YouTube showing the spoonbills resting on a small island in the middle of a huge river. I recognised the island easily as soon as I arrived at the place in Imazu. On the small island, there was a medium-sized flock of white birds roosting motionlessly. I was surprised by how easy these birds can be found here in Fukuoka. I began to settle down waiting for the birds to wake up and start feeding. From what I saw in the videos, these birds feed along the river banks close to the footpath, so I thought that once they wake up, it'd be easy for me to get photos of them closely. However, it turned out that they mostly spent the time on the island. Otherwise they just flew out and disappeared into the distance.

Roosting Black-faced Spoonbills (Platalea minor)

On the first day, I counted 25 spoonbills at once. At least 3 of them were Eurasian Spoonbills (Platalea leucorodia), but there might be more since I couldn't check every individual whether it was Black-faced or Eurasian because many of them were sleeping with their bills hidden in the feathers. I believe that there would be even more birds at dusk once they all come back to roost. On the second day, there were only 18 birds. I tried waiting until the evening but none of them came feeding along the river banks. I was really surprised that they were really lazy birds. Most of them didn't wake up from their sleep at all! Only a few of them began to preen and bath when the sun began to set. At least I found one of their feeding sites as mentioned in the earlier post here. Hopefully, I'll be able to see a few Black-faced Spoonbills at this feeding site during my next visit.

An adult Eurasian Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia)
among the smaller Black-faced Spoonbills (Platalea minor)

Adult (right) and juvenile (left) Eurasian Spoonbills

The only active juvenile Black-faced Spoonbill

A subadult Eurasian Spoonbill coming back to the roosting site

Here's a video showing Black-faced and Eurasian Spoonbills bathing and preening at their roosting site at sunset. Don't forget to select 1080p for a better viewing!

The Panda Duck

2012-01-09T01:26:00.011+09:00

Before I went to Fukuoka, I read that a small flock of Smew (Mergellus albellus) was found at Imazu but I didn't really expect that I would find it. I was too focusing on how to get photos of the Black-faced Spoonbills up close. However, it turned out that I failed to see the Black-faced Spoonbill at close range, but I got Smew as my latest lifer instead. Even though I've never been chasing after this smart black and white duck before, somewhere deep in my birding heart humbly wished that I'd be able to see it at least once in my life. It's not one of those extremely rare bird but it's a bird with charisma. If someone asks me to name one of the coolest ducks on earth, I'd definitely say Smew. In Japan, it is widely known for another quite appropriate and lovely name, the Panda Duck or パンダガモ (panda-gamo) in Japanese.

Male Smew (Mergellus albellus)

The black marks on its white body make the male bird look like the Giant Panda, especially when the bird is facing towards the camera. There was 1 male bird in a group of 3 females. At first, I found them swimming in a large lotus pond along with some hundreds other ducks. All of them flushed up after I tried to approach and landed in a small fishing pond nearby where the Eurasian Spoonbill in the earlier post was found. They seemed to be more relaxed and a bit more approachable here. After floating around back and forth in the pond for about half an hour, they began to feed by diving into the water just like other diving ducks. There were about 20-30 Common Pochards in the pond as well and I had much fun watching all of them diving up and down in the small pond.

Female Smews (Mergellus albellus)

Even though they became more approachable once they moved into the fishing pond, they still kept a good distance from me. These photos are quite heavily cropped so the sharpness and the quality of them might not be as good as in the other posts. It was quite difficult for me to get the right focus on the birds as well, since I was using the lowest f-stop that I could (f/5.6) because I want the background to be blurry, so the birds would become more outstanding. There wouldn't be any problem about focusing if the birds were in close range, but because all of them were far out in the pond, so most of the time my camera focused on the water ripples in front of the birds or behind them instead. Anyway, I already feel really satisfied with the result of this unexpected find. Hope they'll be staying in the same area when I go back there again soon.

Revealing

2012-01-06T22:02:00.014+09:00

So Russell and John did a great job on guessing what a white bird in my earlier post was. However, it's actually not a Black-faced Spoonbill, no matter how much I wanted it to be. Indeed, it's the closely related Eurasian Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) and it is not my lifer. I've seen both species of spoonbills already when I visited Ariake Sea in 2009. The lifer was actually a much smaller Smew (Mergellus albellus). My main target for the trip was actually the endangered Black-faced Spoonbill, one of birds that I want to photograph the most, and I didn't fail to see it though. Indeed, I saw many of them roosting in the middle of a huge river called Imazu (今津) where they can be seen regularly every winter. There were about 20 something Black-faced Spoonbills and only a few Eurasian Spoonbills resting on a small island in the river.

However, they were much too far away for my lens. After 2 days of searching, I finally found their feeding sites. They were a medium-sized lotus pond filled with all kinds of ducks and a small fishing pond nearby. These sites were about 800m away from their roosting site. I don't know if I was lucky or unlucky, but the spoonbills that I found feeding at the feeding sites were all Eurasians. There were more than 20 Black-faced Spoonbills in the river with only a few Eurasians (like 2 or 3), but there was no Black-faced Spoonbill at the feeding sites at all! Even though I waited until the sun set, still no Black-faced came to the feeding site. It was quite a crazy moment when I didn't know whether I can be happy or not. However, I've already made up my mind to go there again either in February or March. Hopefully, I'll get the Black-faced Spoonbill up close just like the one that I got this time.

Adult non-breeding Eurasian Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia)

I was quite surprised to find that this adult Eurasian Spoonbill was quite obliging. It looked a bit wary at first when it was sandwiched by another birder and me. But after that birder left and I sat very still behind the reeds, it became much more relaxed and started feeding. I slowly approached while it was enjoying feeding among the aquatic vegetation. It has a cute way of swaying its head left to right searching for food just like any other species of spoonbills. I saw it catching lots of preys but couldn't really tell what were they. After a while, it seemed to accept me as part of the scenery and didn't mind me going as close as approximately 15m even without a photographic hide! It was a really nice experience to be able to observe a spoonbill feeding at close range without being in a hide. There were a few other birds feeding close to the spoonbill as well. One immature female Common Shelduck (Tadorna tadorna) was swimming near by and a beautiful Eastern Great Egret (Casmerodius modestus) was standing motionlessly throughout the time that I was taking photos of the spoonbill.

Adult non-breeding Eurasian Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia)

I just love all of the birds with spoon-shaped bills like these spoonbills and the tiny Spoon-billed Sandpiper. I read that the spoon-shaped bills of the spoonbills help the birds to sense and grab food items as they pass between the flattened tips of the mandibles (David Sibley, 2010). Not only that these flattened bills help the birds to catch more food items, they also make the birds look unmistakably stunning. I hope that when I return to the place again in February or March, some of them will begin to moult into their breeding plumage which is even more elegant and beautiful. I still haven't seen the Black-faced Spoonbills in their breeding plumage before, but I've seen plenty of the Eurasian Spoonbills in breeding plumage during my first visit to Bharatpur in India in 2005.

A video of the same Eurasian Spoonbill resting and yawning (?)

Adult non-breeding Eurasian Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia)

The same bird looking at the ducks flying over its head

A recently split Eastern Great Egret (Casmerodius modestus)

Fourth Year

2012-01-04T02:53:00.004+09:00

I first started this blog in January 2009. Can't believe it's already my fourth year here in Blogger. My first post was published on January 6th showing my lens pointing towards the cranes under the morning light at Izumi, Kagoshima Prefecture and a short welcome note. Four years have passed and many things in this blog have changed. Thanks to all the readers who visit this small blog and share with me some of your thoughts. All of your comments are part of the very important reasons that keep me posting. I'm sure that I'll be posting more and more throughout 2012. Lastly, I'd like to share with you a photo I took from my most recent trip to Fukuoka during the New Year vacation. I had a great time seeing many species of birds that I don't normally see here in Beppu or Oita. I even got 1 lifer from this trip. Stay tuned. This post is to be continued.

Baikal Teal & New Year

2011-12-31T03:08:00.006+09:00

This will be my final post for the year 2011. As I said in the earlier post, I visited Ono River on December 29th looking for the rare vagrant Scaly-sided Merganser which, however, didn't show up. I waited from dawn to dusk but still failed to see the bird. At least, a beautiful male Baikal Teal (Anas formosa) showed up just about an hour before sunset. It was my first Baikal Teal for this season. I could get a bit closer to the bird than the last time I saw it in Kaku. However, the lighting was awful since the sun was almost behind it. In this case, Shadow/Highlight function in Photoshop did help me a lot.

The Baikal Teal is widely praised as being one of the 3 most beautiful ducks in the world along with the Mandarin and Falcated Duck. Fortunately, I have seen all of the three and the Baikal Teal is my most favourite. I just love the facial pattern of the drake. Those stripes and patches of colours are so interesting and artistic. It even shows a white X mark when viewing from the back of its head. It's used to be listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species but was recently changed to Least Concern after the population has recovered due to strong conservation campaigns, especially in Korea. Its facial pattern also serves as the logo of Birds Korea website. I'm going to Fukuoka in a few hours for birding and enjoying the New Year vacation. Hope to see this beautiful duck again in Hakata Bay, one of its major wintering sites in Japan. Happy new year to all of my readers. See you in 2012!

The National Bird

2011-12-29T18:42:00.016+09:00

More than 40 countries now have their own national birds. I was a bit surprised when I first learned that the Green Pheasant (Phasianus versicolor) is Japan's national bird. Usually when thinking of a Japanese bird that can represent Japan well as a whole, I'd think of the Red-crowned or Japanese Crane (Grus japonensis). Just look at its scientific name and those cliches of white large birds dancing in the snow. However, to my surprise, the Red-crowned Crane is actually China's current national bird. And because of the scientific name issue, I've heard people said that China might choose a new national bird. The Golden Pheasant is among the top candidates. I actually agree with this choice. Either the Golden Pheasant or Mandarin Duck would suit fine as their national bird. Anyway, in Japan it seems like the image of the Green Pheasant is not as widely celebrated as the cranes or eagles. I barely see photos of the pheasant in general media, while every winter there are photos and footage of the cranes, both in Hokkaido and Kagoshima, almost everywhere. It's the reason why I haven't been aware that the Green Pheasant is actually the Japanese national bird.

Male Green Pheasant (Phasianus versicolor)

On December 27th, I visited Oita River hoping to photograph some wintering ducks as usual. There were not so many ducks in the river, however. The star bird that completely stole the show of the day was actually the male Green Pheasant that was feeding along the river bank. Actually, there were at least 3 of them. They were quite vocal and once I thought I was about to witness the real cockfight when 2 of the birds began to scream at each other very seriously. It turned out that both of them chose to stay in the shade and scream at each other for about 10 minutes attracting the attention even from the pedestrians before they both stopped and disappeared into the dense vegetation.

Looking from the photos above, you might think that it's an easy job to photograph the bird as it seems to be out in the open, but actually it wasn't easy at all! Even though the birds seemed to favour foraging in the open and neglecting the pedestrians and bikers, they were certainly scared of me pointing large gun-like object towards them. They don't fancy flying much, so most of the time they just slowly (or sometimes quickly if I got really close) crept into the bush. Once they're in, it's not an easy job to get their photos. I had to listen to the sound of them walking through the grass and figure where and when will they come out. It was a fun experience though.

Their typical 'checking out' look

It's really difficult to get the whole body into a frame!

Sometimes they liked to cross the street too, but it's still not easy to capture them while they're switching on their high speed gear. I think the best way to photograph them is to be in a car, since they seemed to neglect vehicles like motorcycles or bicycles and people who were running. It was quite a crazy moment when I was running around chasing after a pheasant that was running wild on the open street. I wonder if anyone saw the whole sequence of that they'd be laughing their heads off. Just running after a pheasant on the street is already funny enough, not to mention of trying to photograph it. Below is how the bird behaved. You can see that it clearly doesn't care standing in the bright light if the people just keep on passing by, not stopping in front of them with a bazooka their hands.

Just keep passing, people!

Today I went to Ono River at Shimohanda because someone found a male Scaly-sided Merganser (Mergus squamatus) since about 2 weeks ago. I just found the news this morning and hurried out of the room to get there as soon as possible. The Scaly-sided Merganser is one of my most yearning birds. The last record of it was on Monday December 26th, only 1 day before I went to Oita River to get these shots of the pheasants. I kept thinking to myself I should've known this news earlier, since the bird didn't show up today. It was even published on the local newspaper! This is the first record of this endangered species in Oita Prefecture in 4 years. I even met the guy who first found the bird and he took me to the place where he normally used to observe it, but it wasn't there. Just looking at the photo of it in his website makes me feel a little heartache. I was a totally failed twitcher today. Even though I found a beautiful male Baikal Teal and a flock of 10+ Mandarin Ducks, they didn't make me feel any better.

Best of 2011

2011-12-25T01:16:00.032+09:00

One more year has finally come to an end. 2011 has been another fruitful year for birding, although not specifically for Beppu.This year saw me changing my camera body twice. The first time from an old Canon EOS 350D, which I'd been using for over 5 years, to a new EOS 550D in March. This new 550D unfortunately dropped into the mud at Sekinoe in May, and I was left birding without any camera for roughly 4 months before I got another 550D to replace the former one. It was the biggest tragedy that happened for me in 2011. At least it made me become much more conscious about the safety of my equipment.

The highlight of January was the 2 Black-necked Grebes (Podiceps nigricollis) that showed up in a small port behind my dorm. Both of them were in their non-breeding plumage with one of the birds having strangely deformed upper mandible. Photos and stories of the first individual can be seen here, and here for the second individual.

I also discovered another great birding place in Oita where over 100 Mandarin Ducks (Aix galericulata) gathered along with a few other species of ducks. It was a quiet curve of Oita River sheltered by large oak trees near Taromaru. Even though I couldn't get close to the birds, it was an absolutely wonderful experience observing them performing courtship display and relaxing in the afternoon light. More photos can be seen here.

The pair of Bean Geese (Anser fabalis) that was staying at Sekinoe since late October 2010 was still presenting well until early March. It was sad that I couldn't observe them until they left because I had to go back to Thailand during the spring vacation starting from February. The above photo was taken on January 15, showing the smaller Tundra Bean Goose (Anser fabalis serrirostris) on the left and the Taiga Bean Goose (Anser fabalis middendorffi) on the right. More photos taken on that day can be seen here.

February kicked in with a great surprise at the top of Mt. Tsurumi. A flock of Asian Rosy Finches (Leucosticte arctoa brunneonucha) was found feeding on the small lawn next to the cable car station. I first found them on February 2, but the weather was not good for photography. I decided to visit the place again on Febrary 3, only one day before I flew back to Thailand, and finally got a great bunch of decent shots of both male and female birds. More photos and stories can be viewed here.

Shortly fter arriving in Thailand, I visited Nam Kham Nature Reserve in Chiang Rai to look for the rare Chestnut-crowned Bush-Warbler (Cettia major) and the White-tailed Rubythroat (Luscinia pectoralis tschebaiewi), which had been seen visiting the water hole by other birders. The trip was half successful since I only saw the bush-warbler but not the rubythroat. However, it's always a nice experience visiting Nam Kham because you'd get to see many secretive species that normally wouldn't come out into the open. More photos from that visit can be watched here.

I also visited Chiang Dao during mid February to see the tiny but extremely colourful Pin-tailed Parrotfinch (Erythrura prasina). A large flock of these wonderful little birds came to the salt lick every morning to get sodium. I was lucky to get photos of them up close in the morning before they flew back to feed in the forest. Only about a month later, the number of the birds decreased and they became more difficult to see and photograph. More photos of them can be seen here.

I went out birding almost everyday during the time that I was staying at home in Chiang Mai during February and March. I liked to ride my bicycle to my favourite local patches in my neighbourhood. I took too many photos that I became too lazy to do anything with them. The above photo of the Wire-tailed Swallows (Hirundo smithii filifera) was shot near the Taeng River that flows through my hometown. It is my most favourite species of swallow. I took lots of photos of them at close range by using a small mobile hide that I recently bought.

Every winter, starting from January, the brightly coloured flower called the Flame of the Forest (Butea monosperma) blooms and attracts lots of nectar-eating birds in the forest behind my house. The one in the photo above is the large and aggressive Hair-crested Drongo (Dicrurus hottentottus). If you look carefully, you can see its long hair-like feathers growing on its forehead. I had a great fun taking photos of them and a few other species of birds that visited the flowering tree. I plan to post more photos of them in the near future.

As I said, I took lots of photos during my stay in Thailand. Another trip I made in February was a short one-day trip to Fang Hot Spring to see the gorgeous black-and-yellow Spot-winged Grosbeak (Mycerobas melanozanthos). A large flock of this colourful bird can be seen visiting the hot spring regularly every morning during the dry season to obtain salt and sulphite. More details about this magnificent bird and its interesting habit can be viewed in this post.

March arrived and I was still carrying on my daily birding around my neighbourhood. I surprisingly discovered a small flock of Crested Buntings (Melophus lathami), an enigmatic species of bunting that migrates to northern Thailand every winter. It has a striking look unlike any other bunting with its contrasting black and chestnut plumage and high spiky crest. Female bird is drabber with blackish plumage replaced with mottled brown, but still with a remarkable crest. After a few days of trying, I could finally get some decent shots of this shy bird. More photos and details will come soon. I promise.

I had my biggest trip of the year in late March. My dad and I, accompanied with 2 other birding friends from Chiang Mai, visited Malaysia for about 10 days. Our trip was extremely successful with the help of our nice friends from Malaysia. We visited two places, which are Fraser's Hill and Merapoh. Trip reports for the first 2 days can be viewed here. To read the whole trip reports just continue clicking on the Newer Post button at the bottom of the page, or select the word tag Malaysia. The bird in the photo above is the brilliant Garnet Pitta (Pitta granatina coccinea) from Merapoh. It is a scarce species, which was a star bird for our trip.

At the very end of March, I arrived back in Beppu waiting for the spring semester to start. I was kindly led by Furuso-san, who has always been generous about sharing information of birds in Beppu, to a place where a pair of Eurasian Woodcocks (Scolopax rusticola) used as a roosting site. We only found 1 bird on that day. I was lucky enough to photograph it before it disappeared on the next day. More photos of the bird can be watched in this post.

I didn't do much birding in April due to many factors. May saw me resuming my birding. I regularly visited the Mochigahama Beach to photograph a family of Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nihonensis). The chick was extremely cute. It always tried to camouflage when I got close, even when sometimes it's just too obvious like in the photo above. More photos of the plovers, as well as the fist Greater Sand-Plover for Beppu, can be seen here.

After my camera dropped into the mud, I didn't take any photo of birds until the end of July when a friend of mine kindly lent me her Canon 5D Mark II. I've read about a flock of White-bellied Green-Pigeons (Treron sieboldii) coming to drink sea water near Nishi-Oita since the last year. So I decided to make a visit to Shiraki, the place where the birds were seen, and I was so happy to find that there were even more birds than I thought. More photos of the green-pigeons can be watched here.

Just before I returned the wonderful 5D Mark II to my friend, I got the news from Furuso-san about the nesting Red-rumped Swallows (Hirundo daurica japonica) at Asami. I've never got any decent photo of this species of swallow before, so I hurried there and could get some good shots of the birds while they're perching on the electrical wire before flying into the nest. Photos and stories of photographing this swallow can be viewed here.

I went back to Thailand again in August. I actually intended to stay in Japan throughout the whole summer vacation, but I needed to fix my camera, and it's better to just fly back and have it repaired in Thailand, so that I could stay with my family as well. Unfortunately, it couldn't be fixed, so I just had to buy a new one. After getting a new camera, I continued birding in my local patch as usual. August might not be a great month for birding, since it's still rainy season and there are not many migrants, but it's a good month to see many resident birds raising their chicks. The above White-breasted Waterhen (Amaurornis phoenicurus) was seen feeding on the muddy road early in the morning with its mate and chicks. I encountered many waterhen families with young chicks during August. More photos of the waterhen can be seen here.

September came and I was pleased to get many good shots of the rarely seen perching Black Baza (Aviceda leuphotes syama) at Mae Hia. The bird seemed to be a bit exhausted. September is a good month to see migrating raptors. The bird was a female of a migrating race judging from its barring pattern on the underparts. More photos of the same bird preening and sun bathing can be viewed in this post.

I also got my first ever shot of the cute Collared Scops-Owl (Otus lettia) that has been residing in my house area for many years in September. This species is much shyer and more difficult to find than the numerous Asian Barred Owlet, and I haven't even seen it before. In the early morning of September 18, I heard one of this scops-owl calling near my garage, so I tried using playback. The bird responded and showed up in front of me. I only took a few shots before it flew out into the dark. Few more photos of this cute owl can be seen here.

On the same day that I got my first photo of the Collared Scops-Owl, I visited Doi Inthanon, the highest mountain in Thailand. At the highest summit, I had a great fun taking photos of little birds that were flicking around in the bush along the road. The one in the photo above is an Ashy-throated Warbler (Phylloscopus maculipennis), which can be found only at the summit of Doi Inthanon. Normally, it's a really difficult bird to photograph. Surprisingly, I could get many decent shots of it on that day along with a few other small birds. Photos and stories of these little brown jobs can be viewed in this post.

I came back to Beppu again in late September just like the migrating waders. I had a great time photographing many waders up close at Rokushoen after my arrival. The above shot of a Terek Sandpiper (Xenus cinereus) is my most favourite shot of the year. I've never seen such a tame Terek Sandpiper before. The bird was really cooperative and I got many satisfying shots of it. More photos of this bird can seen here in this post.

I visited Shiraki again in October to take photos of the White-bellied Green-Pigeons (Treron sieboldii). I almost gave up after hours of waiting since there were only a few birds left and all of them stayed far from the place where I set up my hide. However, fortunately one male bird touched down right in front of the hide. I was very excited since I've never seen one that close before. It was so close that I had to clone the tail of the bird from the other shot, and put it together with the rest of the body to make the above photo. More photos of the green-pigeons can be seen here.

Winter seemed to be much delayed. Even in November, it was still relatively warm. I didn't do much birding since it was so dull everywhere. I tried exploring some new places like the Ueno Cemetery Park in Oita, but I didn't find many interesting birds. At least, I was still lucky to come across a huge Ural Owl (Strix uralensis fuscescens), which was being mobbed by a flock of Brown-eared Bulbuls. More photos and stories of the owl can be viewed here.

A pair of male Kentish Plovers (Charadrius alexandrinus nihonensis) at Mochigahama Beach kept me entertained throughout the late November. It's interesting to see that one of the birds was so tame that I could get closer than 5m easily without using a hide. I enjoyed taking both pictures and videos of the birds under the warm evening light. The photos and videos can be seen in this post.

Even in December, it is still really dull here in Beppu and Oita. I visited Oita River in Kaku and was surprised to find that there were still not many ducks in the river. The winter of 2011/2012 doesn't seem to be good for birding at all comparing to the last one. At least I've got my best shot of the Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis poggei) during my visit to Kaku.

I still don't have the mood to go out birding that much, since it's always been quiet wherever I went. I'll be celebrating the New Year's Eve in Fukuoka looking for the endangered Black-faced Spoonbills. If lucky, I'll be able to share with you some photos of them. Beppu city just had a great firework show for Christmas at the beach next to my dorm and it was just wonderful. Merry Christmas everyone! Thank you for visiting my blog throughout 2011. I wish you all have a great 2012!

Hayabusa

2011-12-21T22:33:00.010+09:00

Yesterday, I visited Hamawaki to check if there's anything interesting or not. I unexpectedly met Furuso-san along the way, and she told me that a few days ago there was a Long-billed Plover at the river, but the bird has already gone. She also showed me photos of a Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus japonensis) that seems to be staying in the area since autumn. I've seen the bird several times when I was going to work but never managed to photograph it. There was 4 Chinese Spot-billed Ducks resting at the river along with another Vega Gull. I checked the river mouth and found nothing but a flock of gulls including Black-tailed, Vega and 'taimyrensis' Gulls. There was a female domesticated Mallard staying at the port as well. I saw an old lady bringing some food for it and the cats that were staying nearby.

Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus japonensis)

I thought there wouldn't be anything else interesting, so I began to ride my bicycle back to my dorm. Then I thought, maybe I should at least try to look for the Peregrine Falcon because it should be staying somewhere in this area. I searched through the top of the buildings that it usually perched, but failed to find it. As I was riding my bicycle back along the street, I suddenly spotted a large greyish spot on the top of a mansion above the busy street. I knew exactly right then that it was the Peregrine Falcon that I was searching for. Unfortunately, the bird was way too high up on the building and it was also facing against the wall, so I could only get photos of its backside. It seemed to be very relaxed and kept preening from the time that I found it until the sun began to set. It didn't seem to be hungry or eager to hunt, or even to move, at all. Indeed, it was as if it just had a nice full meal and was getting ready to go to sleep.

Japanese people call Peregrine Falcon 'Hayabusa' which simply means 'falcon'. I personally think that it is one of the coolest Japanese names for birds. The sound of the name fits well to the appearance of this iconic bird of prey. Most Peregrine Falcons in Japan are of the resident race F.p.japonensis, but I believe that the Siberian Peregrine Falcon or the subspecies F.p.calidus also winters in Japan as well. These 2 subspecies are very similar and I didn't know how to distinguish each of them. So I consulted a raptor expert and got a few useful notes about how to distinguish the two. F.p.calidus normally has thinner moustache than F.p.japonensis (except female birds), with pure white breast unlike F.p.japonensis that usually has pale pinkish wash. The spots and barring patterns on the underparts are also different. F.p.japonensis has much more extensive barring starting from lower breast, while F.p.calidus has more restricted area of barring, mostly at the thighs. Judging from all these key features, the bird that I found here seems to be an F.p.japonensis, a resident and nominate race of Japan.

Not Many

2011-12-18T23:15:00.024+09:00

Like I said in the earlier post, there were not as many ducks in Oita River as the last winter, and I was disappointed. Seems like this winter is going to be really dull for birding around here. The first snow finally covered Mt. Tsurumi on December 12, and we just had a series of semi-blizzards a few days ago. I just hope that the cold wind will continue to bring in some good migrants, especially the Baikal Teal. On the early morning of December 13, I took a train to Kaku and walked to the area where I found the Baikal Teal last year. No Baikal Teal was found. Instead, I got a decent shot of a male Common Teal (Anas crecca), and many shots of the Little Grebes as you can see in the earlier post.

Full moon setting behind Mt. Tsurumi

Male Common Teal (Anas crecca)

Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus trivirgatus)

There were usual stuff along the river, a small flock of 3 Long-tailed Tits (Aegithalos caudatus trivirgatus) feeding near a fruiting tree that looked more like a flowering tree, a few Dusky Thrushes, Oriental Turtle-Doves, Bull-headed Shrikes and Black-faced Buntings. There were not so many birds in the river, except for the Little Grebes which seemed to be everywhere. The number of Common Coot (Fulica atra) seems to be much lower than the last winter, but at least there were still quite many of them swimming in the dam on the upper stream. In contrast, this winter I found Common Coots showing up in different places in Beppu for the first time. I even recently saw one feeding in a small port next to my dorm.

Common Coot (Fulica atra)

A pair of Eurasian Wigeons (Anas penelope)

Female Common Merganser (Mergus merganser)

There were more ducks at the dam, and I also found a female Common Merganser (Mergus merganser) for the first time in this area. After scanning through the flocks of sleeping ducks, I was sad to find nothing special. Most of them were Eurasian Wigeons (Anas penelope), Mallards, Common Teals and Chinese Spot-billed Ducks. All of the ducks seemed to be quite lazy and didn't move even until 11:00AM. The merganser was swimming in the middle of the dam, but even after hour of waiting it still didn't come any closer. The coots and Little Grebes were swimming closer to the bank than most of the ducks though

Common Coot (Fulica atra)

Eating fresh leave picked up from the surface of water

Male and female Common Teals (Anas crecca)

Male Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)

Male and female Eurasian Wigeons (Anas penelope)

Unidentified female Wigeon

The above female wigeon got me puzzled. Its head speckles look a bit odd for normal Eurasian Wigeon, so I took photos of it while it was swimming pass my hide. I posted a few photos of it in Bird Forum and few people who made a comment said that it looks like a female American Wigeon (Anas americana) but they can't be definite until they see the bird's axillaries. American Wigeon has white axillaries, while Eurasian has barred axillaries which make them look greyish. There have been a few records of American Wigeons in Oita River by other birders. All of them were, of course, male birds. I wonder how many female American Wigeons have been overlooked each winter.

Little Grebe

2011-12-16T21:26:00.008+09:00

Last Tuesday saw me visiting Oita River in Kaku area looking for Baikal Teals, which I found at least 3 individuals (1 male and 2 females) last winter. To my surprise, the river was almost empty, another major disappointment for this winter. Only a few small flocks of Mallards and Common Teals flushed up from the river banks as I arrived. I set up my hide and waited in hope of something to show up. In fact, I was waiting in vain. No duck came back to the area where I set up my hide. A group of 1 male and 2 female Common Teals and at least 2 pairs of Little Grebes (Tachybaptus ruficollis poggei) were all that I found and photographed. At least, I could get some better shots of the grebes.

Non-breeding Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis poggei)

Little Grebe seems to be abundant in this area of the river. I hardly see any of them near the river mouth where they are replaced by the much larger Great Crested Grebes. Here in Kaku, they scatter in every 100 metres along the river. I've never come here in spring or summer but I believe that they also breed along the reedbeds. I heard from Furuso-san that they also breed in lakes on high mountains near Beppu as well. I wonder how they migrate up there, where the lakes are located among the forest on the mountain top, completely isolated from any body of water.

Non-breeding Little Grebes (Tachybaptus ruficollis poggei)

Even with a photography hide, the grebes were still relatively wary. Unlike the Common Teals which came swimming only about 10m away from of the hide, the grebes didn't come any closer than at least 20m. I sat there waiting from about 9:30AM until 10:30AM. As you can see from the photos, the light has changed from the warm yellowish morning light to normal midday light. One interesting thing was that the grebes were quite vocal. Its call was very loud and distinctive. All of them seemed to be staying in pairs as well. I'd love to come back again in March and take photos of them in their breeding plumage.

A Bunch Of Unproductiveness

2011-12-10T21:41:00.025+09:00

Even though I have already complained about the lack of birds during this winter in a few other posts, this post is also dedicated to the same topic. Sekinoe kept disappointing me so bad that I have lost my motivation to visit it again. I've been thinking of going to Oita River for a few days now, but I also fear of not seeing any decent bird. This winter seems to be much delayed too, so I am not sure if interesting migrants like the Baikal Teal that I found last winter or the Japanese Waxwing that I missed, have already arrived or not. Anyway, at least I have found 2 Beppu's firsts during this season, which are the Japanese Sparrowhawk (Accipiter gularis) that I found both at Hamawaki and Rakutenchi, and the Common Coot (Fulica atra) at Sekinoe and Furuichi.

Juvenile Japanese Sparrowhawk (Accipiter gularis) at Hamawaki on December 6, 2011.

Possibly different juvenile Eurasian Sparrowhawks (Accipiter nisus) at Sekinoe

The only Accipiter hawk that I've found in Beppu has always been the Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus). This winter has been a little bit different because 2 Japanese Sparrowhawks were found in the southern part of Beppu including Hamawaki and Rakutenchi entrance. I was actually unsure about the identification of the bird in the first picture at first, but after sending it to a raptor expert, I was confirmed that it is a juvenile Japanese Sparrowhawk. It has different streaking and barring pattern on the underparts with a much shorter tail. Juvenile Eurasian Sparrowhawk has no vertical streaking on the breast with a much longer tail.

Male Common Teal (Anas crecca)

A flock of Common Teals resting in the afternoon

Eclipse male and female stretching wings

Comparing to other years, the number of waterfowls at Sekinoe is quite disappointing. Normally, a large flock of Common Teals (Anas crecca) would be filling the whole lotus fields by late November. However, this year there were only about 20 birds. There was a pair of male Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) among the flock of Common Teals and a single Common Coot (Fulica atra) swimming in the river.I was so shocked to see the emptiness of the fields. Only a pair of Common Sandpipers, a lone Buff-bellied Pipit, a Grey Wagtail and a pair of Japanese Wagtail were found feeding in the fields at Sekinoe. Things are a little bit better on Furuichi side. I flushed up a single male Greater Painted-Snipe and an extremely shy Ruddy-breasted Crake was seen moving and calling in the grass.

Male Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos)

Ruddy-breasted Crake (Porzana fusca erythrothorax)

Male Daurian Redstart (Phoenicurus auroreus)

And the female

This year even the Daurian Redstart (Phoenicurus auroreus) which normally passes through Beppu in a large number seems to be fewer than ever. I've always got decent shots of this species during autumn either at Sekino or Beppu Park easily without much effort. However, this year it was more difficult for me to get any decent shot of the birds. Apart from these usual migrants, I also found a single Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) soaring above Sekinoe field and a few Black-faced Buntings (Emberiza spodocephala personata) flicking within the reeds. It's the species that I'm still waiting to get a decent shot of. On my recent visit on December 4, I also found another Common Coot feeding in an open lotus field along with a small flock of Common Teals at Furuichi.

Common Coot (Fulica atra)

Male Bull-headed Shrike (Lanius bucephalus)

Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)

Female Black-faced Bunting (Emberiza spodocephala personata)

Chinese Spot-billed Ducks

2011-12-07T21:49:00.014+09:00

It might be the commonest duck in Japan, but it's quite a special one for Beppu. I've seen this duck many times elsewhere in Japan, including the nearby city, Oita, but I've only seen it once in Beppu at Sekinoe flying over my head. Last winter I saw photos from Furuso-san taken at the river near Hamawki. She photographed a small flock of Spot-billed and a female Falcated Duck, another species that is surely among my top wishlist. Even though I've seen a small number of Falcated Ducks both at Kitsuki and Oita River, I've still yet to get a decent shot of this extremely beautiful duck. So on November 26, I went to Hamawaki to check if there's any interesting ducks around. I found no Falcated Duck, which was not surprising, but at least there were 6 Chinese Spot-billed Ducks (Anas zonorhyncha) presenting at the river.

Chinese Spot-billed Duck (Anas zonorhyncha)

The ducks were relaxing and bathing in the river. They are super tame just like any other Spot-billed Ducks I've seen elsewhere. Well, maybe except the ones in Oita River where they are not very accustomed to human. I had fun taking photos of them bathing with high speed. The results look quite funny as you can see from the pictures above. I especially like the one where the bird puts its legs up splashing the water. I also took lots of videos the birds. Below is a compilation of the videos I took.

Chinese Spot-billed Ducks bathing and resting

Chinese Spot-billed Duck (Anas zonorhyncha)

The bird was once treated as a subspecies of the Spot-billed Duck (Anas poecilorhyncha) which is now called Indian Spot-billed Duck. The Indian Spot-billed has a much different facial pattern, lacking the dark line at the base of the lower mandible, with bright red spot on the lores. I also believed that the speculum of the Chinese Spot-billed is much bluer than the Indian Spot-billed, which is typically greenish, but from what I saw, the colour of speculum is hugely affected by angles and light. The late afternoon light really made the speculum look genuinely green. At least a visit to Hamawaki gave me a chance to get some decent photos of this common duck in a kind of light that I want.

Greater Painted-Snipes

2011-12-06T13:28:00.013+09:00

The afternoon of May 11th saw me sitting still for hours trying to get some good photos of the extremely shy Greater Painted-Snipes (Rostratula benghalensis) at Sekinoe. A pair of male and female birds was found staying closely together in the lotus fields. Even though never been so numerous, these birds can be found regularly each year during late spring and summer. Sometimes they can be found during winter too. In fact, I just flushed up a male bird from a flooded grassy field a few weeks ago at Furuichi. Anyway, they're much easier to see during summer since they normally build nests in the lotus fields either in Sekinoe or Furuichi. This year, sadly because my camera dropped into the mud, so I was unable to get some photos of them at the nest. Unfortunately, I heard from Tonai-san, another birder that regularly visited the nest, that the nest failed because the eggs were swallowed by a snake.

Male Greater Painted-Snipe (Rostratula benghalensis)

Male (left) and female (right)

If asking me to make a list of most difficult birds to photograph, this beautiful Greater Painted-Snipe would definitely be in the list. It's just so cryptic and extremely difficult to get good photos. Although some people might be lucky to get decent shots without much effort, these birds have never been so easy for me. It's the bird that I need to try to take photos of it everytime that I come across. Apart from being so shy and camouflaging, these birds have another thing that makes photography even more difficult, their patience. They're the most patient bird I've ever seen. They can sit still, even in water, for hours. I tried to compete with their patience but I've always lost. I've always ended up moving a bit forward, which always consequently made them flush.

Male Greater Painted-Snipe (Rostratula benghalensis)

After sitting still for almost half an hour, the male bird in the above photo decided to relax and stood up but it also decided to fly away shortly afterward. These are my best attempt for May 11th. There was 1 female bird in the fields with at least 2 males. You can see that the female bird, which is strikingly beautiful, is much more hideous than the male. The dull and slightly smaller male bird is also the one that takes care of incubation and the chicks, just like the phalaropes. And even though they look like snipes, they're actually more related to rails!

Female Greater Painted-Snipe (Rostratula benghalensis)

Can you find both of the birds in the above photos?

I went back again on the next day trying to get some better photos, but not only was I unable to get any better shot, my camera and lens also fell off the tripod and dropped into the mud while trying to follow them. I'll surely remember these birds forever. Finally, I'd like to end this post with a photo and video of them performing their courtship display at dusk. These birds are also nocturnal, so they become more active when the sun goes down. I had to push the ISO up to 3200 so please bare with noise. In the video, you can see the birds doing their creepy rituals of nodding their heads and tails, before the male bird climbs up on the female's back and falls off so miserably. My apologies for the size of the birds, but this is the only distance which they feel comfortable enough to move themselves around freely.

Kentish Plovers

2011-12-03T16:40:00.017+09:00

These photos of male Kentish Plovers (Charadrius alexandrinus nihonensis) were taken a while back during the last week of November. I heard the news from Furuso-san that there were 2 Kentish Plovers, a male and female, staying at the Mochigahama beach. I went there several days later and found 2 male birds instead. One was staying in the Kotsu Center side and another one around Mochigahama side. Both of them were quite obliging but the one near Kotsu Center was especially tame. I've never seen any Kentish Plover as tame as this one before. I took a few videos of it too and you can see how close I was able to approach it.

Male Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nihonensis)

Here's the video of the tame one. It seems to be in an almost full breeding plumage. It's interesting how these plovers moult into breeding plumage so fast. The population that winters in Thailand and South-east Asia wouldn't have the same orange cap and black marks at this time of year. Male and female birds would normally be looking the same in the wintering grounds. Maybe it's because these plovers in Japan don't migrate? Some of them might migrate to eastern parts of SE Asia (like Borneo), but some might stay in Japan throughout the whole winter (like the ones in Beppu) and begin to mate earlier like other resident birds?

The race 'nihonensis' or 'eastern' Kentish Plover seems to be much paler than the nominate race 'alexandrinus' that winters in most parts of SE Asia. I've never seen any male bird in Beppu that has completely rufous crown in breeding plumage like ones that winter in Thailand. The legs are also much paler. Most of the birds that winter in Thailand look like this when they moult into full breeding plumage. Below are some more pictures of the same male bird taken a few days earlier exactly at the same spot.

The same male Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nihonensis)

This photo was taken by the 18-55mm lens. I was about 5m from the bird.

The other bird I found that was staying on the Mochigahama side was still possessing more non-breeding feathers. Its black bands on the breast sides, face and forecrown were still not as dark and clear as the one near Kotsu Center. It was a little more skittish and didn't let me get as close as the other one. I was wondering about where did the female bird go. I've never seen a female bird at Mochigahama Beach before, but I've seen quite a lot at Sekinoe Beach, but all of them are so shy over there. It seems like I've had enough photos of the males. Now it's time for me to get some decent shots of the ladies.

Another male Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nihonensis)

Shorebird Videos

2011-11-25T16:55:00.004+09:00

Still remember the Whimbrels from this post and the Kentish Plover and juvenile Grey-tailed Tattler from this post? Now they're back again in video format. I don't have the same video editing program that I used while I was in Thailand, which was the Cyberlink Power Director. It's a great program but like other great programs, it's not free. I didn't want to buy it again, so I just didn't do any more editing until I found that YouTube has quite a nice video editing function. All the contrast, brightness and stabilising were done by the YouTube video editor. It's very easy and the result looks satisfying. Now I don't have to bother looking for any other video editing software. Don't forget to select 1080p for full HD viewing!

Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus variegatus)

Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nihonensis)
This one was shot handheld but the stabiliser in YouTube video editor did a great job.

Juvenile Grey-tailed Tattler (Tringa brevipes)

House Swift

2011-11-22T18:27:00.006+09:00

These are old photos taken during summer of this year just before I dropped my 3 month old 550D into the mud. There's a small nesting colony of House Swifts (Apus nipalensis) near my part-time job restaurant in Hamawaki (浜脇). There were roughly about 5-7 pairs. They built nests made of dry grass, sticks and other birds' feathers. I personally think it's interesting how these birds collect that much amount of feathers. They don't use their own feathers, but seem to collect them from the muddy river banks nearby. I secretly observed the birds when there was no customer in the restaurant and there was nothing else for me to do. Sometimes I brought my camera with me and took some times taking photos of the swifts after work.

However, it was not easy at all to photograph these birds even at the nests. Because the nest is like a football attached to the ceiling with hollow inside. When the bird arrives at its nest, it mostly just enter through a tiny hole and disappear into the nest. The only time when I could get the whole body of the birds was when they perch at the entrance. Sometimes they spend a long period of time perching there to rest, especially in a rainy day, but normally they don't perch there for too long, so I could only get a few shots with full body. Below set of photos were actually taken by my friend's 5D Mark II. The equipment was great but the birds were not cooperative at all. That day, all of them just kept staying inside their nests.

House Swift (Apus nipalensis)

Just look at the variety of feathers the birds have collected. Isn't it interesting?

No Bird, No Bird

2011-11-17T23:30:00.007+09:00

I haven't been out birding for more than a week now. Most of the time I became busy with some other things else and when I finally had the time to go out, the weather sucked. Last time I went out birding was on November 3. I went to Sekinoe and it was strangely quiet. Normally, the lotus fields would be filled with flocks of Common Teals and Daurian Redstarts, but I didn't see any of the former and only a couple of the latter. There were just 1 Little Egret and a pair of Japanese Wagtails walking around skittishly in the field. I didn't have any motivation to go back again since then. Until yesterday, the weather was extremely fine and I finally made up my mind to explore new places in Oita. I planned to visit the Ueno Cemetery Park (上野西山公園) near the southern exit of Oita Station. This morning I woke up and saw that the clouds were back again, covering most part of the sky, blocking nice sunlight which is crucial for photography. I was a little bit upset but decided to go anyway because I won't have much free time next week as well. As I arrived at the park, it was very dark and quiet. Not a single bird, except the crows, came into sight. I thought I'd have to go back without getting anything, but then I heard a noisy flock of Brown-eared Bulbuls screaming insanely in the bamboo forest nearby. I assumed that they might be mobbing some sort of raptor, so I followed the voice into the bamboo. Then a large bird silently soared out from a dense bamboo shrub and softly perched on a bare branch about 15m away from me without a sound. It turned around and faced me and the camera. I was excited to see that it's a Ural Owl (Strix uralensis fuscescens).

Ural Owl (Strix uralensis fuscescens)

Oriental Bush-Warbler (Cettia diphone cantans)

The owl stayed on the same perch for about 1-2 minutes before flying off over my head disappearing into the bamboo leaves. The flock of noisy bulbuls continued to follow the owl relentlessly. I was left standing among the bamboo shoots checking the photos and smiling by myself. My earlier encounter of the owl was just noticing a big object silhouetting swiftly through the night sky at Beppu Park. Even though it seems to be quite common and I've seen photos taken by Furuso-san at Rakutenchi entrance before, the bird proves to be really difficult to find. It seems to be easier in Hokkaido though, assuming from the many great shots taken by Stu. Here in Kyushu where leaves are dense year round, the common owl can become quite rare. The subspecies found in Kyushu is also different from the one in Hokkaido. In Kyushu (as well as southern Honshu) we have the subspecies S.u.fuscescens that seems to be a little more brownish than the subspecies S.u.japonica of Hokkaido. After the owl and bulbuls have already gone, I fired a few shots of the 2 Oriental Bush-Warblers (Cettia diphone cantans) that were hanging nearby, and I didn't press the shutter release button since then. The park seems to be a perfect setting for birding in spring. It must be a really good place for flycatchers, warblers and stuff but it's just not today. I returned home much earlier than I thought, but at least it wasn't a complete waste of time.

Autumn Passage

2011-11-06T15:16:00.014+09:00

Every autumn, there are large flocks of starlings gathering around my place in Kyomachi. This year was no exception. Most of them are the abundant White-cheeked Starlings (Sturnus cineraceus) with some smaller and more colourful Chestnut-cheeked Starlings (Sturnus philippensis). Last year I also found a few Red-billed Starlings (Sturnus sericeus) mixing in the flocks as well. This year, due to the bad weather and timing, I couldn't go out and check the flocks until the second week of October, which is considerably late for Red-billed and Chestnut-cheeked Starlings. So, as a result, I could only find a few Chestnut-cheekeds, no Red-billed, and lots and lots of White-cheeked Starlings.

Migrating flock of White-cheeked Starlings (Sturnus cineraceus)

The birds normally start gathering around 5:30pm. Flocks of about 10 birds usually come flying in from the west and perch together on the wires above the river near my dorm. After they can gather up to around 50 birds, they begin to fly down to the river and bathe. As it gets darker, more and more birds join the flock until there are several hundreds birds. It's quite a spectacular phenomenon and attracts a lot of attention from the locals. Sometimes in a negative way too. When these birds gather together in a large number on the electrical wires, their droppings drop like rain. It's become really challenging for the pedestrians to walk across the road without getting the birds' poops on their heads. However, all of them will fly out to the tall Beppu Tower as it gets almost completely dark and roost there all through the night.

Male Chestnut-cheeked Starling (Sturnus philippensis)

Immature male Chestnut-cheeked Starling (Sturnus philippensis)

White-cheeked Starlings (Sturnus cineraceus)

Note the amount of white on their head

Can you spot the Chestnut-cheeked Starling in these photos?

Female Chestnut-cheeked Starling (Sturnus philippensis)

Juvenile White-cheeked Starling (Sturnus cineraceus)

Blue Rock Thrush

2011-11-04T05:37:00.006+09:00

Yesterday, Russell wrote about a Slightly Silent Autumn in his blog, and I was surprised because the same thing is also happening here in Beppu. It's not that we always have such a lively autumn, but at least it has always been much livelier. The weather is also much different from the last one. It is much warmer than the same time last year. I can still wear the same clothes I wore in summer during the day and fully open my window at night without getting a cold. I was surprised looking at photos of myself taken around the same time last year wearing 2 or 3 layers of clothes. Coincidentally, I'm now reading a book called The End Of Nature by Bill McKibben. It mainly discusses about global warming and it is not pleasing at all to witness such a dramatic change in birds and weather around here, especially after having read the book with such title. The change feels almost tangible.

Female Blue Rock Thrush (Monticola solitarius philippensis)

I visited Rokushou-en on October 17, and it was one of those quiet, not so productive visits. There were only few birds along the shore, 3 Great Cormorants, 1 Common Sandpiper and a pair of Blue Rock Thrushes. That's all. At least, the rock thrushes were quite obliging enough, especially the female that came to pick up insects on the bench close to where I was sitting. The male bird was more skittish and wouldn't let me get too close. Even though it was in its non-breeding plumage, it still looked fine with its blue and chestnut plumage. The black, white and grey scales of the non-breeding plumage make it look a bit more rockier. Though the Blue Rock Thrush is quite common elsewhere, I find that I have few photos of this species. In fact, I've only photographed it properly once during the summer of 2010 when a family was found near Furuichi. Photos of the family can be seen here. I have to say that the male is quite attractive in its breeding plumage.

Non-breeding male Blue Rock Thrush (Monticola solitarius philippensis)

White-bellied Green-Pigeon

2011-10-28T10:25:00.013+09:00

I've been thinking of going to Shiraki to take photos of the White-bellied Green-Pigeons (Treron sieboldii) ever since I came back to Japan. Too bad time and weather never quite cooperated. Whenever I'm free, the weather always sucked. Finally, I could pay a visit there on a sunny afternoon of October 27. I arrived at the place around 1:45pm. The light was perfect, the colour of the ocean was perfect. The only thing missing was the bird! Wait, no, the small ladder that I used to climb down to the shore 10m plus below was also missing. I thought I could just go down by myself without the ladder and I even gave it a try, which I failed miserably. It was too high and dangerous for me who's never done something quite acrobatic. So I kept looking for an alternative and I finally found another ladder some hundreds metres away, so finally I could go down to the shore (even though I had to hop along the strange looking rocks used to absorb tsunami for hundreds metres until I could finally reach the place where the birds are and this part was the most exciting, I could break my legs if I had just a slight slip!)

Male White-bellied Green-Pigeons (Treron sieboldii)

I set up my hide as soon as I reached the spot and kept on waiting. Time went by for almost an hour and still no bird came to the rocks. Normally there should be large flocks circling all through the sky, but today there was none. I almost thought I wouldn't get any picture back. But then 2 birds appeared on the rock in front of the hide. They were a pair of male and female birds. Although they were a bit too far, the colours were amazing. The male didn't stay for too long. It flew away before coming any closer. The female stayed much longer and even came a bit closer. I kept asking myself why there weren't any more birds. Maybe they don't need much salt during winter?

Female White-bellied Green-Pigeons (Treron sieboldii)

After the female bird has left, nothing came to the rocks for more than an hour. I kept waiting hoping that there might be a big flock coming before sunset. Instead, there was just 1 male bird came flying down from the forest above and perched on the rock just a few metres away from the hide. I was the closest I've ever got to these birds (well, except the sick one that I found felling off from a tree at Mt. Takasaki). The bird was so close that in one of the shots, the one on the header, I had to clone the tail from another photo because I couldn't fit its whole body into the frame! It stayed for about 5 minutes before flying back into the forest leaving me with nothing until sunset. So that's the story of my return to Shiraki this autumn. Seems like summer can surprisingly be much more productive.

Male White-bellied Green-Pigeons (Treron sieboldii)

Not In Kent

2011-10-26T21:06:00.016+09:00

This will be my last post about this year's autumnal passage waders. I have posted photos of Whimbrel and Terek Sandpiper, so here I'll be posting photos of the other 2 regularly seen waders in Beppu, the Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nihonensis) and the Grey-tailed Tattler (Tringa brevipes). After photographing the Terek Sandpiper in the earlier post at Shouninga-hama beach, I made a short visit to Mochiga-hama beach to check if there's any interesting migrant. There I found a lone first-winter Kentish Plover sitting in a shallow hollow on the sandy beach trying to blend itself into the environment. I just wished that it was the same juvenile bird that I found earlier in summer.

Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nihonensis)

The bird proved to be quite obliging and I didn't have to crop these images much. The light was also perfect and I took these shots at ISO200 only. I searched through the internet about the origin of the name Kentish Plover and sadly found out that the bird doesn't breed in Kent or the rest of UK anymore. It seems to be just a scarce visitor now. It reminds me of a similar case of a mammal called White-thighed Surili (Presbytis siamensis) that I saw at Fraser's Hill earlier in March this year. Photos and story of it can be view here. Its scientific name siamensis refers to the former name of Thailand, Siam. However, the species is not found in what is called Thailand today. Similar but not the same, the reason why the White-thighed Surili is not found in Thailand anymore is because the area where the species was first described in 1841 by Müller & Schlegel, which was then occupied by Thailand, was sold to England in 1908 as part of Malaysia. So, equally strangely, we now have an animal with the name that refers to Thailand but cannot be found in Thailand anymore.

Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nihonensis)

Interesting effect caused by different backgrounds!

This is how the bird was first found!

On the next day, I visited Shouninga-hama beach again in hope of getting some more shots of the waders, but it turned out to be a bad day for photography. Most of the birds stayed out on the artificial sea walls far from the shoreline. There was only a few Grey-tailed Tattlers running along the small beach. I spotted one individual with fishing net tied to its legs. It seemed to have difficulty walking and couldn't step its left foot firmly on the ground. It allowed me to get as close as a few feet away but not close enough to catch it, so I couldn't help unravel the net from its legs. It later flew away and joined the group which was perching on the sea wall. I just wished that it will survive even with both legs tied up.

Juvenile Grey-tailed Tattler (Tringa brevipes)

Terek River

2011-10-18T06:21:00.014+09:00

So I was talking about the origin of the name Whimbrel in the last post, this post I'll be talking about another even more interesting wader, the Terek Sandpiper (Xenus cinereus). Along with the few Whimbrels that I found at Shouninga-hama beach on September 23, a single Terek Sandpiper was also found feeding in the same area as well. It seemed to be going through a moult from juvenile to non-breeding plumage. The black lines on its scapulars were still visible, but its bill base was already bright yellowish. Last year I've got one bird staying at the river mouth near my place for several days in May. Photos of the last year's individual can be seen here and here. That one was an adult almost in its full breeding plumage with very broad black lines on its scapulars and almost completely dark bill. I'm always happy to get photos of the same species in different plumage.

Terek Sandpiper (Xenus cinereus)

I've always thought that the name Terek Sandpiper is really something interesting. It reminds me of the name T.rex or Tyrannosaurus rex, one of the most iconic creatures of all time. However, it turns out that the word Terek in the name of the sandpiper originates from the name of a river in Russia. Too bad it doesn't have anything to do with dinosaurs, another disappointment for me. As described by our friend Wikipedia, the Terek River is a major river that flows through Georgia and Russia to the Caspian Sea, the largest enclosed body of water on Earth. This reminds me of another decent East Asian bird, the Amur Falcon (Falco amurensis), which was named after, yes you guessed, the Amur River in Russia (again).

Terek Sandpiper (Xenus cinereus)

The same Terek Sandpiper with a juvenile Grey-tailed Tattler (left)
and a Whimbrel in the background

The bird that I found at Shouninga-hama beach was surprisingly obliging. My impression on Terek Sandpipers has always been that they are very shy and unapproachable. I can still remember how difficult it was when I tried to photograph the one that I found last year. Surprisingly, the one you see here was nothing more difficult than the abundant and tame Grey-tailed Tattler. However, it was not too easy either as the bird was extremely energetic. It never stopped walking for even a second, well I might exaggerate a little bit here. By the way, it was quite difficult for me to get the right focus as the bird constantly walked further and in a very speedy fashion. Luckily the lighting was unbelievably good and I could shoot at 1/1000 even with ISO 200!

You can still see its worn buffish fringes on upperwing coverts

Whimbrel

2011-10-12T02:35:00.017+09:00

Have you ever wondered how this smart looking wader got its name? I thought about it a lot, along with other names like Dunlin and Godwit as well, so I did a little bit of research through Google and came across this very interesting explanation. The website is called Bird Watcher's General Store. It contains short articles written by American birder Mike O'Connor originally published in the column called Ask the Bird Folks in The Cape Codder newspaper. Every week he answers a question about birds submitted by readers. I had a great fun going through many of his articles. He answered all the questions in a very humorous way, trying to make people become more interested in birds by connecting them to ordinary issues in our lives. He really did make birding sounds fun!

Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus variegatus)

So it turns out that the name of the bird didn't come from any particularly interesting reason. It simply came from the bird's high-pitched and whimpering voice. I was a little disappointed. I expected a little more historical and mythical explanation. Anyway, these photos of Whimbrels were taken back in September 23 at Shouninga-hama beach. I was happy to see a small number of these birds walking on the beach below the walk way. It's never easy to get close to Whimbrels as they are normally shy, so I had to lie down on the ground hiding myself behind the low fence and waited for the birds to come my way. The outcome is as you see. I can truly say that these are my best shots of Whimbrels.

A fine individual in its non-breeding plumage

This one was in a much shaggier plumage

Here's what I love about Whimbrels (apart from their very unusual name); their beautiful bluish legs. There are already redshanks, greenshanks and yellowlegs, so why not calling them blueshank or bluelegs. I heard that some people call avocets blueshank, but come on they're not sandpipers. I also took a few handheld videos of one of the birds that was bathing right in front of me, but I still haven't got the time to process them. I'll put them up later. Here's the bathing set of photos for now. Enjoy! Oh and by the way, you can clearly see its completely barred rump, a characteristic of the subspecies N.p. variegatus of East Asia.

Whose Pipits?

2011-10-09T22:28:00.021+09:00

Once in a while I get worried about all those images I took and still haven't put up in this blog. So here I am writing about photos of birds I took back in March this year. I barely updated my blog during March, only 5 posts to be exact, but I birded almost everyday and that made my hard disk full of photos I still haven't given a second look. Anyway, I've been trying to finish up all those images and today I've chosen to write about a particular set of photos I took from Mae Hia Agricultural College, a famous place for grassland birding in Chiang Mai. These photos are of the 2 very similar species of pipits, the Richard's and Paddyfield Pipit, which gave me headaches trying to figure out which is which. They even made me a pipit-person for a month before I came back to Japan where pipits are not nearly as easy to find as in Thailand.

Richard's Pipit (Anthus richardi)

I'll start off with the more interesting one, at least for me, the Richard's Pipit (Anthus richardi). Craig Robson described it in his Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South-East Asia as being "larger than Paddyfield; longer bill and tail, heavier breast-streaking" which, to be honest, none of which can actually be used to identify when you're birding in the field. Features like postures and voice are much more useful in my opinion, especially the latter. Richard's Pipit might normally have longer bill and tail with heavier breast-streaking like what Robson wrote in his book, but who would be able to know what exactly is longer or heavier. In fact, I've seen a few Richard's Pipits that have shortish bill and some Paddyfields that actually have a pretty long bill. So the main criteria that I choose to believe in is the voice.

Richard's Pipit (Anthus richardi)

The Richard's Pipit you're seeing here in this blog was identified by its flight call, which is much different from the Paddyfield's. I downloaded the call of both species and put them into my iPod, so whenever the bird flushed up and called, I quickly compared it to the mp3 files I have. The call of Richard's is much stronger and louder than Paddyfield's. It was actually not that difficult once you are familiar with their calls. However, it's extremely tricky and almost impossible to identify the two when they're on the ground, not calling, since the Richard's Pipit that I found actually looked more like a typical Paddyfield, with a quite shortish bill and the Paddyfield Pipit that I photographed below actually looked more like that typical, guidebook-type Richard's, with that striking long bill.

Paddyfield Pipit (Anthus rufulus)

Quite luckily there was one more thing that I could use to help identify the birds, the courtship song. Since most resident birds in Thailand starts pairing up around March and the Paddyfield Pipit is a very common resident bird, while the Richard's is a scarcer winter visitor, so I can be pretty sure when I see a pair of pipits following each other around with one of them constantly sings its sweet song that they are Paddyfields. The one in the photo above was also singing as well. It was actually taken at my local patch in Mae Taeng. There were several pairs at Mae Hia too, but they were all too shy. Luckily, the other similar species, the Blyth's Pipit, is so rare in Thailand, that I can almost eliminate it from the possible candidates for the identification, though I really wish that it will actually pop up someday. Dave Bakewell of Dig Deep once found and nicely photographed one in Malaysia last year! I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to tell once I find it. I'm well-prepared!

Doi Inthanon: September 18

2011-10-04T23:19:00.021+09:00

It was a cloudy early morning as me and my dad were going up hill heading to Doi Inthanon with our birding friend, Mam, sitting in the back. We made a stop at the second checkpoint and were surprised to find 4 more birding colleagues having coffee and breakfast in the back of their cars. We greeted and slowly started our birding around the checkpoint. There were not so many birds as there were very few moths around the checkpoint unlike how it used to be in the past, but we enjoyed killing time by talking and following some common birds. There was a pair of Flavescent Bulbuls (Pycnonotus flavescens vividus) perching in the hill near the checkpoint as usual. After a while, a small flock of Spectacled Barwings (Actinodura ramsayi) also came up to dry themselves on the same perch.

Spectacled Barwing (Actinodura ramsayi)

Flavescent Bulbuls (Pycnonotus flavescens vividus)

Male Short-billed Minivet (Pericrocotus brevirostris neglectus)

And the equally colourful female

I spent a lot of time trying to get a decent shot of the Mountain Tailorbird you see in the earlier post, but I still couldn't get the shot that I wanted. There were many swifts flying above our head in the morning. After roughly scanning through all of them, I identified the migratory Apus pacificus pacificus race of the Fork-tailed Swift, the much smaller Himalayan Swiftlets, the House Swifts and the migratory Asian House-Martins. Unfortunately all of them were flying too high up in the sky and it was also too cloudy, not a good condition for BIF shots, so I concentrated on birding along the road. There was a pair of the striking Short-billed Minivets (Pericrocotus brevirostris neglectus) coming down to the lower branches on the roadside. It is never easy for me to get a good photo of the minivets, as they normally stay up in the canopy, so I was very happy to finally get some good shots of them.

Dark-sided Flycatcher (Muscicapa sibirica rothschildi)

Sunbathing White-throated Fantail (Rhipidura albicollis celsa)

A Crested Goshawk (Accipiter trivirgatus indicus) doing courtship display

You can see its fluffy undertail feathers as one of the courtship features.

I expected to see some migrants and was happy to find 2 Dark-sided Flycatchers (Muscicapa sibirica rothschildi) staying close to each other. Unfortunately both of them were occupying a very high perch, so I couldn't get any decent shot of them. Instead, I got quite a nice birdscaping shot of it. Other birds we found along the way include a flock of Grey-cheeked Fulvettas, White-throated Fantails, Davison's (White-tailed) Leaf-Warblers and a Crested Goshawk (Accipiter trivirgatus indicus) perching in the distance performing a courtship display. We assumed that there must be another bird perching somewhere behind the tree.

My dad later came and told us that he found a big flock of Doi Inthanon's star bird, the Green Cochoa (Cochoa viridis), on the side of the road to Mae Jam. He also saw a male Red-headed Trogon and several Slaty-bellied Tesias as well. He always the one who finds the good birds it seems. So we went there as found at least 4 Green Cochoas perching and flying deep in the forest on the roadside. These birds are so difficult to find because they sit very still among the leaves and rarely come out to the open. I assumed that it was a family group, as I only saw 1 adult male bird but several immatures. Immature birds have white stripes on the sides of the throat with brownish scales. I even luckily came across a very young juvenile bird sitting on a low branch just a few metres from the road on my back to the checkpoint. It turned out that its right wing was broken. There's a very small chance that it will be able to survive at this very young age, but I really hope it will.

Juvenile Green Cochoa (Cochoa viridis) with a broken wing

An older immature bird

Pallas's Squirrel (Callosciurus erythraeus)

We stayed around the checkpoint until almost noon, then we headed up to Kew Mae Phan to have lunch at the restaurant in front of the entrance. In the back of the restaurant, we even found a first-winter Ferruginous Flycatcher (Muscicapa ferruginea), a species I haven't seen for a long time. After our meal, we went up to the highest summit to photograph some common species as well as the LBJs in the earlier post. Birds at the summit are extremely tame, this time especially the Silver-eared Laughingthrushes (Garrulax melanostigma ), which were hopping everywhere inside the coffee shop. They even stole some sugar from the box! Other Doi Inthanon's star birds like the endemic subspecies Aethopyga nipalensis ankanensis of the Green-tailed Sunbird, the Bar-throated Minla, the Ashy-throated Warbler and the Dark-backed Sibia were also showing well. I even came across a quite approachable male Mrs Gould's Sunbird (Aethopyga gouldiae dabryii) which was feeding on small flowers by the roadside. It's such a striking little bird that I can never get tired of watching.

Mrs Gould's Sunbird (Aethopyga gouldiae dabryii)

It's never easy to get the glossy feathers.

Another shot of the Pallas's Squirrel

Bar-throated Minla (Chrysominla strigula castanicauda)

Dark-backed Sibia (Heterophasia melanoleuca)

Silver-eared Laughingthrush (Trochalopteron melanostigma)