Not Many

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.

Oita River

These photos were all taken earlier in January at Oita River. I started my day by dropping out at Kaku Station, then made my way upstream along the river to Onozuru and Taromaru. The scenery of Mt. Yufu and Mt. Tsurumi was perfect in the warm morning light. I just wished there were more snow on the mountains. Along the reeds, there were many Reed Buntings (Emberiza schoeniclus), but they mostly kept hiding inside the reeds and rarely popped out into the open. A small flock of Common Teals and Mallards were resting in the rivers, as well as a pair of Ruddy-breasted Crakes, which I heard them making weird sounds inside the reeds.

A view of Mt. Yufu (left) and Mt. Tsurumi (right)

Non-breeding Reed Buntings (Emberiza schoeniclus)
Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis)

Carrion Crow (Corvus corone orientalis) calling

Around Kaku area, I spotted a single Northern Goshawk soaring high up in the sky. The bird later landed into a very thick bush on the river side. There was another female Common Kestrel flying around the area as well. Actually, the target of the visit was the Japanese Waxwing, of which a small flock was photographed a few days earlier. I searched through the area but found nothing but the common stuff, including a flock of Long-tailed Tits, Meadow Buntings, Japanese Grosbeaks and Oriental Turtle-Doves.

Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus trivirgatus)
Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos)

Oriental Turtle-Dove (Streptopelia orientalis)

Twitcher

I hadn't been to Beppu Koen for such a long time, until yesterday. While I was walking to Sekino-E on the evening of Sunday 21 November, I came across Furuso-san who was about to leave the place. She excitingly told me that yesterday she found a flock of Eurasian Siskins (Carduelis spinus) at Beppu Koen, and showed me the photos of them. I know most of you wouldn't be excited about this, but I was. I've never seen a Siskin before and from the expression of Furuso-san, I can be sure that it is not something ordinary for her, and Beppu as well. So I hurried to Beppu Koen on the morning of Tuesday 23 in search of the Siskins. From the photos in Furuso-san's camera, I could recognise the place where the birds gathered. It was a tree near a small stream where most of the finches like to come down to drink and bath. After I arrived at the park, I walked straight to the stream and sat down and waited for them. After a while, I spotted a large flock of small birds came swirling passed over my head and landed near the big pond in front of the park. I was sure that were them, so I ran right to the pond, and on the dead treetop, there were more than 50 of these small Eurasian Siskins, my latest lifer!

Eurasian Siskin (Carduelis spinus)

I tried to take photos of them while they're drinking water from the pond, but they were so wary and flew off before I could get any decent shot. They're much more approachable and still while perching on the trees. There were several of their favourite perches. One is near the small stream and another two on the different sides of the pond. They always perched on these trees before coming down to drink. The tree near the stream was also fruiting, and they seemed to enjoy eating the fruits.