November 3

Well, in case you're getting bored of those Bean Geese, here's some photos of other birds from a nice morning at Sekino-E. The area proved to continually be productive since the start of the month with an influx of Daurian Redstarts and thrushes. I even came across a pair of Chinese Penduline-Tits (Remiz consobrinus) at the edge of the reedbed near the lotus field. It's the first record for Beppu, but I've already seen many of them in Saga. Too bad the birds were too active and I couldn't get any record shot of them. A female Common Kestrel was also presenting in the area, but was constantly chased by the crows. I was quite surprised to see several Red-rumped and Barn Swallows still lingering around instead of migrating to the southern hemisphere.

My best shot yet of the Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)

Male Daurian Redstart (Phoenicurus auroreus)

I was very pleased to get the above shot of the kingfisher. It was something really unexpected, as the bird always flew off before I could get any closer than 20 or 50 metres. However, for some reason the bird in the picture didn't seem to notice me, and gave me a rare chance to photograph it at close range and in good light. The redstarts, on the other hand, are so easy to get photos of. They always stay within their territories and are much less wary than the kingfisher.

Female Daurian Redstart

Hot, Hot Summer

When it stopped raining, it just keep on getting hotter and hotter. The other day, I met a friend of mine who works as a lifeguard at one of the beaches in Oita and his skin colour has dramatically changed. His original colour was the same as typical Japanese, now it's almost like the colour of people from South Asian countries. By the way the point is, because of the heat and the sun ray, I now prefer to keep staying inside my room rather than going out birding even though I do have some time. So here we go with some old photos of the Chestnut-eared Buntings I took last week. A couple seemed to be nesting somewhere close to the entrance of the campus. The male bird was guarding and singing all through the morning and I found the female carrying a very yummy-looking caterpillar for the youngs.

Chestnut-eared Bunting

It was during my very first week of arriving Japan, that I found many Chestnut-eared Buntings (Emberiza fucata) around the entrance of my university. I couldn't take any decent photo of the birds back then, and I even forgot to make any effort in getting better shots of them either. It just popped up in my mind again last week, when I was sitting in the bus and staring directionlessly out of the window and one of this bunting just suddenly caught my eyes. The bird was perching and preening on the fence by the roadside. Few days later I rushed up to the campus early in the morning and I found that I was surrounded with several couples of this bunting. Several males were still actively singing on open bushes and the females were feeding in low vegetations. Can't believe how I totally forgot about this pretty bird that lives just in front of my campus! Though the males always came out to sing on open perches, they were not easy to get close at all. The song is a sweet warbling song, which is slightly softer and sweeter than that of the Meadow Bunting. The latter also presented well as usual, but not quite active in singing. Since the females always foraged under thick vegetations, they usually came up to the top of the bushes to dry their feathers up once in the while. They seemed to stay close to their mates and gave soft bunting-ish tzit tzit call to contact with the males. Hope the weather's better soon, so I can get some more shots in a better light.

Male bird is much brighter with greyer head. Female bird has duller buffish colouration.

Birdscapes

Not really sure if the word even exists in English vocabulary or not, but it seems to me that many Thai bird photographers are now using it very often. It refers to any photo which shows both the bird and its surrounding environment. Don't really know if there's any specific Japanese word to this kind of bird photography or not, but it seems to be very typical among Japanese photographers. Lately, the trend of "big bird" is slightly becoming less popular among Thai bird photographers and this new trend of small birds with habitat is gaining its popularity. Personally, I'm pretty happy to see this change, partly because I like to see this kind of photos, and I think it also benefits the birds as well because they will be less disturbed. However, I still like to get photos with large birds in the frames whenever I can, but this can be the new alternative which can entertain me no less than the former one.

PS. All photos were taken on last Sunday at the front entrance of my campus. There were several singing male Chestnut-eared Buntings in a small piece of grassland around the area.

What a busy winter...

And I have one more thing to do this winter...going back home on New Year's Eve. Actually I decided not to go back this winter vacation since I feel like I'm going back too often. The plane ticket was already sold out for almost the whole week so I have no choice to choose the date. It's okay though because I like going back to Thailand, but what's annoying me a lot is about the ticket price and the many other expenses for this winter...Oh I have start saving up my money SERIOUSLY now!