What's Left?

So I've been away from this blog for quite a while...here's the final post for the Japanese stuff I took before flying back to Thailand. Nothing much, just a bunch of common birds and some landscape shots from the top of Mt. Tsurumi. The Chinese Plum in Beppu Koen was already starting to bloom since February 2. There were a few trio; Japanese, Varied, Long-tailed Tits, hopping here and there among the plum trees. The Japanese Tits were concentrating on singing their sweet songs and trying to attract the females.

Japanese Tit (Parus minor)

Varied Tit (Parus varius)

At the Beppu Ropeway bus stop, I was a bit surprised to see a pair of Varied Tit busily looking for a place to build a nest. One of the bird, possibly a male, was very tame and vocal, while another bird flew up and down the roof checking anything with holes that could fit its body. Seems like spring has already made its appearance and the breeding season has finally arrived once again. There were lots of Meadow Buntings feeding on the small lawn near the ropeway station as usual. Among them were a few Black-faced and Yellow-throated Buntings. I noticed that most of the male Meadow Buntings had brownish eyestripe instead of black, almost like the subspecies found in China. I guessed it's a matter of breeding/non-breeding plumage.

Varied Tit (Parus varius) "Anyone knows when's the next bus?"

Male Meadow Bunting (Emberiza cioides)

As the cable car went up towards the summit of Mt. Tsurumi, I could see many Sika Deer feeding out in the open down below. They seemed to favour grassy area among the forest. I could grab a few shots as the car was moving. At the summit, I spent time taking some landscape shots as the scenery and the weather were just brilliant. There was some common stuff around as well, including the Long-tailed, Coal and Willow Tits, Japanese Pygmy Woodpeckers and Meadow Buntings. I also saw my first Red-flanked Bluetail (Tarsiger cyanurus) for a few minutes. It was a female bird perching far in the woods.

Sika Deer (Cervus nippon)

Mt. Yufu viewed from the top of Mt. Tsurumi
Willow Tit (Parus montanus)

Kitsuki

Now here's the photos from that trip to Kitsuki I mentioned in the previous post. The weather was extremely good, sunny though a bit too windy at the sea. It took just about 20 minutes or so from Beppu to Kitsuki by train, and the scenery along the way was pretty spectacular. The rice fields were all looking beautifully golden, and the sky was so blue. I enjoyed taking lots of landscape and other non-bird shots a lot. Here's a selection.

Cold autumn breeze with warm morning light made my morning walk perfect.

The river looks really nice, though there were not so many birds.

Non-breeding Intermediate Egrets (Mesophoyx intermedia)

Eurasian Skylark (Alauda arvensis)

Male Meadow Bunting (Emberiza cioides)

Birds along the river were good in number, but not quite so in variety. There were lots of Intermediate and Little Egret perching on the river banks and Skylarks. A few couples of Zitting Cisticolas were also flitting in the rice paddies, as well as the numerous Meadow Buntings. A few Mallards and Spot-billed Ducks were floating in the river, with lots and lots of wigeons. Black-eared Kite was not surprisingly the only raptor seen.

Summer Sunshine

Finally the sun shows up once again in a very long while. After weeks and weeks and weeks of rain, I almost forgot how blue sky looks like. Though it's nice to see all these bright colours once again, I'm not really sure if I'm really happy with that cos it's freakin' hot here! We reached the maximum of 36°C few days ago, and will still continue to be around 33-35. Since I was so excited to see sunshine again, I went back to the campus to photograph the buntings again. The main target, Chestnut-eared Bunting, has somehow become too shy for me to get any better shot. However, I came across this beautiful male Meadow Bunting, which was singing bravely on the treetop by the roadside, and it didn't seem to be any bothered by my presence, so I could get pretty close to it and come back with loads of nice shots.

Meadow Buntings

So I just dug up some old photos in the hard disk again... Looking through the photos I took during my fist year in Japan, I found that I had taken quite a lot of photos of the Meadow Bunting (Emberiza cioides). It's one of the very first birds that I took photos of in Japan, along with the Dusky and Pale Thrush, and the Japanese Wagtail. The bunting, the thrushes and the wagtail often came to the small playground of the university's dorm, where I could take photos of them just from my window pane, since my room was on the first floor. The buntings often came around with their soft tzit tzit calls, like a signal for me to get my camera ready to take their pictures. Even after I moved out from that dorm, I still continue to take photos of them whenever they come around. It's hard not to press the shutter button, when they're so cute and tame like this.

I also found that the bunting was shortly called Meadow Bunting in the Oriental Bird Club Image Database (OBI), not Siberian Meadow Bunting like I usually call it. Maybe that's the new official name for it. I also found that the subspecies in China and Korea looks quite different from the one we get here in Japan. Male bird of the subspecies E.c.ciopsis of Japan has black ear coverts as you can see here, while the male bird of other subspecies in the mainland has chestnut ear coverts. Personally, I think black ear suits the bird more.... Below are some photos of the bird which I took during my first year in Japan!

House of Martins

As I have mentioned earlier in the previous post that a large flock of Asian House-Martin was found hanging around in my campus, today I went to the campus early in the morning in order to pick up my forgotten documents. This time I brought a camera with me, and surprisingly the birds still showed up in the same area, so after I picked up my things, I quickly grabbed some photos of the martins that were flying and perching on the clock tower at the center of the campus. Too bad there was no way for me to get close to the birds, so these shots are just for the record.

I noticed that juvenile birds took up almost 70-80% of the whole flock. They have distinct grey breast band and much duller upperparts, while adult birds have no distinct band on the breast with glossy black upperparts. All the birds flew out of the clock tower around 10am and dispatched to other area. While I was walking around trying to find their new roost, I came across several individuals of Red-rumped Swallow swifting around the football field, along with Barn Swallows and some of the Asian House-Martins. I later found their new roost and it was a high steel tower far away down the hill below the campus. It also seemed like the number of the bird has increased. There were around 200 birds perching all along the wire with many flying all over the places. Pretty soon this flock should disappear to the south as part of the autumn migration. A new phase of birding has started warming up already!

A Bunch of Everything Else

So this post will be a mix of photos I took within last month. There are many photos I've taken and processed but haven't put up here in this blog. Last month's birding mainly covered around Furui-chi and Sekino-e area. There were some interesting migrants passing by during the last week of May. These included Pheasant-tailed Jacana, Whiskered Tern, Cattle Egrets, Red-rumped Swallows and House Swifts. Most of these had already gone except the swift and the swallow which seem to be nesting somewhere around here.

I like the Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis coromandus). It looks so beautiful in the breeding plumage. Too bad there are not so many in Beppu. I only saw 2 birds feeding in the field. One was still in its non-breeding plumage and another one, which is the one in the above photos, has already completed its moult.

About 4-5 male Oriental Reed Warblers (Acrocephalus orientalis) were singing in the reeds both around Furui-chi and Sekino-e areas. These birds are extremely shy. I think they're much more approachable in their wintering grounds like Thailand, for example. I got many photos of this species in Thailand but those shots are not very attractive because the birds always stay close to the ground with messy backgrounds. I have to try harder to get some better shots of them while singing.

I took quite a lot of photos of this Whiskered Tern at Sekino-e. The bird only stayed for 2-3 days but it was quite obliging comparing to other special birds around there. It allowed me to get pretty close to it and often flied close to me. I tried capturing some flight shots but the results were not so good.

It used the rock in a small pond near the field as a resting spot.
Before taking off, the bird always stretches its wings first.

Here's a photo of the lotus field at Sekino-e.

Intermediate Egret

House Swifts

And the below shots were all taken at Asami on the same day I took photos of the Green Pheasant. The place was a small cultivated area located on the hill and bordered with thick forest and city. In the forest, I found several flocks of Red-billed Leiothrix, Siberian Meadow Buntings and surprisingly a Common Kingfisher. It was perching around a small stream in the forest. I've never seen the species in habitat like this before. Lots of Oriental Bush Warblers were singing on treetops in the morning and followed with lots and lots of Lesser Cuckoo's songs.

Red-billed Leiothrix

Oriental Bush Warbler

Here's a fledgling of the Meadow Bunting.

This female Grey Wagtail was very busy collecting foods for her youngs. It seemed like the nest was very far away so I just couldn't follow the bird to see its chicks.

And a panoramic view of Asami area where I photographed the pheasant to finish up with.