Other Birds From Fukuoka

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!

Baikal Teal & New Year

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!

Oita River

January 2nd saw me catching a train to Oita since early morning. I wanted to take some photos of the tame ducks at the same spot I took last year. Unfortunately, the tide was too low and the ducks were all floating far in the middle of the river. A few Common Teals and Northern Shovelers were swimming around closely in the area though, but they happened to be so much shier than last year, so no photos taken. The weather was great, by the way. A bit windy, about 10km/hr, but not very cold, and the sun was shining brightly for most of the time too. There were lots of Great Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo) roosting on the rocks along the river. As the sun slowly rose up, even more of them came flying in from the sea direction.

Great Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo)

I remember seeing the description for the Great Cormorant in a Japanese Bird Guide, which I borrowed from my birding pal, noting Oita Prefecture as one of the well-known breeding sites of this species in Japan. I think that's the only line where the name Oita is mentioned in the book. Anyway, that's just me trying to feel good about having just a few other birds to photograph on that morning other than the cormorants.

Beppu Ropeway viewing from Oita River

Even more photos of the Great Cormorants

Male Baikal Teals (Anas formosa)

Oita River

If you can still remember, I made a visit to Oita River earlier this month and found a small group of Baikal Teals around Onozuru area. This post will be about any other birds I found on that day. There was quite a good number of ducks, mainly Mallards and Common Teals. There were also a couple of Coots, a lone female Greater Scaup and a female Common Pochard, the 2 species I've never seen in Oita before. Apart from the ducks, the numbers of finches were also remarkable. There was quite a big flock of Eurasian Siskins feeding in a small grassy patch on the river side, as well as many dispersed flocks of the Grey-capped Greenfinches. This winter has proved to be good for Siskins.

A view of Oita River (大分川) from the bridge to Kaku (賀来)

It was the first time for me to catch a train from the South Exit of the Oita Station.

A flock of ducks in the river

I've got a few better flight shots of the Eurasian Siskins here.

There were several Little Grebes feeding in the water in front of my hiding place. These birds were too shy though. Even though I sat very still behind the bush waiting patiently, they never seemed to come any closer than 20-30 metres or so. Though the Little Grebes were a bit tamer than the ducks, they were still too small in size to fill in the frame. Hope next time I can get some better shots of them.