Red-rumped Swallow

August 1 was my last day with the 5D Mark II, so I hurried to Asami area to photograph a pair of Red-rumped Swallows (Cecropis daurica japonica) which was nesting in a building on the roadside. Furuso-san told me about this nest while we met at Shiraki few days earlier. She told me that the nest was very close and showed me some photos of the adult birds at close range taken by her digital compact camera. The birds still seemed to be building the nest when she took those photos, so they could still be seen even when they perched at the nest. As I arrived there in the morning of August 1, I could only see the head of a parent bird popping up from the already finished nest. I knew right then that it was not going to be easy anymore, and it really wasn't.

Red-rumped Swallows (Cecropis daurica japonica)

The bird's nest was located above the second floor's balcony. I really wished I could go up to the second floor and photograph the birds at eye level, but I just couldn't enter the building, so I had to take their photos from below. The birds seemed to be incubating the eggs and hardly showed up at the entrance of the nest. Parent birds switched their turns to incubate every 20 minutes or so. It was so difficult to take photos of them because even when they came back to the nest, they never stopped in front of the nest, but went right through into it. I almost gave up, but then around noon, one of the parent birds came perching on the wire in front of the nest to preen and sing. It constantly flew out and came back in 20 or 30 minutes. That's the only time when I could get some decent photos of it.

Parent bird singing and preening

I've always believed that Red-rumped Swallow has complete rufous nucal collar, different from its South-East Asian counterpart Striated Swallow (Cecropis striolata). Apart from being a bit larger and having bolder streaks on underparts, I've always thought that Striated Swallows can be distinguished from Red-rumpeds by its dark bluish nape. However, I was convinced that Red-rumped Swallows also don't necessarily have nuchal collar. Even when the bird turned its hind neck to me, I still couldn't see the rufous nuchal collar that many field guides illustrate. Now I begin to realise how difficult it actually is to distinguish the two species. Here's a nice photo of a Striated Swallow from Indonesia for comparison.

Getting in and going out!

Hello 2011

So 2011 has officially arrived, and this blog is going to be 3 years old in just a few days. Still I find it hard to believe how fast time has gone by. It's my first post here in January 6, 2009 after my first solo trip to Arasaki in Kagoshima Prefecture for migratory crane watching. Those memories are still fresh in my mind. I still have no idea about my future after graduation. If I decide to leave Japan, 2011 will be my last full year here in this country. Anyway, let's start the year with these cheerful photos I took earlier in December at Asami. Of course, these brightly coloured Ginko leaves have already disappeared by now, but these photos somehow give a cool refreshing feeling which suits well to the New Year vacation.

Yatsusaka Shrine (八坂神社)

As I walked around the Yatsusaka Shrine, I came across a fruiting persimmon tree which attracted lots of thrushes and white-eyes. The thrushes were very shy, so I could only get a few photos of them. There were about 20 Dusky Thrushes and around 5 Pales Thrushes. The Japanese White-eyes were, on the other hand, very friendly and visited the tree almost in every 3 minutes. A few Brown-eared Bulbuls also came to the tree, but they were all too shy to stay for long. The brightly coloured persimmons contrast well to the clear blue sky of winter, making the photos look very bright and cheerful. I wished I could take more photos of the thrushes though.

Dusky Thrush (Turdus eunomus)

Brown-eared Bulbul (Ixos amaurotis)

Male Daurian Redstart (Phoenicurus auroreus)

Japanese White-eye (Zosterops japonicus japonicus)

Still Dipping

Another set of photos of the Brown Dipper (Cinclus pallasii) from Oyukaeri-kawa. This one was taken on the morning of November 28. This time I brought the external flash with me and used it to photograph the bird. I found that it really helped open up the details in the dark feathers of the bird. But there's still one problem I'm still struggling about, the problem of angle. Because the area is very limited, there's only a few places where I can sit and wait for the bird, while it can't notice me. All of the places are high up in the river bank, 2 or 3 metres above the river, so I just couldn't get any low angle shot of the bird. I can't use very low speed to make the water smooth as well, as the bird is always active. This is the only problem I've got to solve!

Brown Dipper (Cinclus pallasii pallasii)

You can tell it quite easily which photos used and didn't use flash. The bird's plumage looks really dark without flash light. With flash, the dark chocolate brown pigment of the feathers is brightened up. There are actually several open perches where the bird often perches on, but it is very difficult to get close to the bird while it is perching in the open. I think it would be a bit easier if I use a hide. The thing is I don't have one.

Working On It

Last week saw me repeatedly visiting Oyukaeri Kawa (おゆかえり川) in Asami 3 Chou-me almost every afternoon. The place is far from my place and I had to walk a long way to get there, but I still wanted to go because of one little bird, the Brown Dipper (Cinclus pallasii). Although considered a common species in Japan, it is an extremely rare vagrant with no single record in the recent decades in Thailand, so I was really excited to see it. I've actually seen the bird many times before in India, but I still couldn't get any decent shot of it. The Brown Dipper in India is also a different subspecies from the one in Japan, C.p.tenuirostris is the Indian subspecies, while C.p.pallasii is the Japanese one.

Brown Dipper (Cinclus pallasii pallasii)

There were 2 individuals living along the Oyukaeri river, one on the upper stream, and another one around the lower stream. I only concentrated on the latter because the former was much shier and harder to photograph. Although it was not difficult to find the birds, it was super difficult to get close to them. Though I said that the one in the lower stream was less shy, I didn't mean that it wasn't shy at all. I had to hide and wait for them for hours just to get a few shots. I often walk to the area around 11 after checking Beppu Koen, and finish as the sun set behind the mountain around 2:30. I noticed that when it starts to get darker, the bird seems to be less wary and comes out to the open to preen and bath, but that also means that the light is not good. I still haven't got the most satisfiable shot so far, so I still have to work on it. Or maybe I'll have to wait until spring, when the birds breed and nest.