More from the woods

My birding seems to be completely in idle. I'm still busy with my studies and other activities in the campus, not to mention about the weather...... So here are some more photos I took during the walk around the forest near Beppu Ropeway earlier this month. It was actually a nice day for birding and I found species I don't often see like Japanese Green Woodpecker and Japanese Thrush. Lots of cuckoos were calling all day, both Eurasian and Oriental and Lesser. I flushed the Lesser Cuckoos several times but I couldn't get any photos of them. One time I heard a noisy aggressive call of the Red-billed Leiothrix from the bush behind me and out of the blue came a single Lesser Cuckoo flying out towards me. Surely, the bird quickly flew away as soon as it noticed my presence, so no chance for photographing as usual.

A male Blue-And-White Flycatcher with its young

My first ever shot of the Japanese Green Woodpecker
This one is a male.

And the star of the day, the Winter Wren

It's a tiny bird with a big heart!

The common Red-billed Leiothrixes were singing as usual.

I came across one secretive female Narcissus Flycatcher so I stopped to see if there was any male bird around. Suddenly I heard a sound of an animal walking on the forest floor so I searched through the area and found this Japanese Badger or Anaguma(アナグマ) in Japanese walking slowly in the hill below. It was my first time to see this Japanese animal.

A Eurasian Nuthatch

A juvenile Long-tailed Tit

I then found a group of small birds feeding together fastly along the treetops. I spotted a species which I have only seen once last year, the Willow Tit. Among the species of tits that can be found around here in Beppu, this one is be the scarcest of all. I found one bird feeding along with many Long-tailed, Japanese and Coal Tits and Eurasian Nuthatches. The photo with flash shows its pale wing patch. Too bad the flash was still charging when I took the one which shows the bird's head.

My best shot of the Eurasian Nuthatch so far. This is the only one with flash on.

Others were like this. Without flash the colours look so dull.

And a Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker to finish off with.
The lower photo shows the bird sunbathing on a nice perch.

Blue-And-White Flycatcher

Here's another post with photos from my last visit to Beppu Ropeway few weeks ago. Though I found quite many individuals of this beautiful Blue-And-White Flycatcher as usual, only few of them still remained singing. I found two different female birds along the way uphill, but couldn't take any photo of both. It's the first time for me to see the female of this species in Beppu. I also found one male bird feeding a fledgling as well.

This is one of the few male birds that were still singing.

And this one is another individual which was busy finding food for its young. It looks a bit worner than the individual above. Below is a video showing a male bird singing beautifully on an excellent perch under an excellent light, something I really wish to come across once. Thanks to 222momotarou for this nice sharing.

Lively Spring

Sorry for posting multiple entries altogether but I just don't want to keep them for so long. So here are some bird photos I've taken in the forest around Beppu Ropeway last Saturday. The forest was full with birds and their sweet songs. The Blue-and-white Flycatcher's song was the main soundtrack of the day, combining with the songs of Eastern Crowned Warblers, Winter Wren, Japanese Thrush, Coal Tits and Oriental Cuckoos! Another new experience for me birding in this small Beppu.

Blue-and-white Flycatchers were numerous and very vocal.

Male Siberian Meadow Bunting

An Oriental Cuckoo; nice distance, but terrible surroundings.

And here's a very nice surroundings with terrible distance!

Red-billed Leiothrix

Juvenile Long-tailed Tits

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Male Japanese Thrush

I found lots of new species for my Beppu list as well as one personal lifer, a Japanese Thrush. The additions to the list include one female Siberian Thrush, Eyebrowed Thrush, Oriental Cuckoo, White-backed Woodpecker, Eastern Crowned Warbler and Eurasian Jay.

A chubby-looking Black-eared Kite

Eastern Crowned Warbler with prey

And some singing shots

More Blue-and-white Flycatcher

A record shot of the Eyebrowed Thrush

Japanese White-eye

Coal Tits were also actively singing.

They also have small crests too. Reminds me of the Taiwanese subspecies I've seen.

The bird on the left is a female. It kept begging another bird for more preys,
even though it could also catch preys for itself.

And a nice view of Beppu city to end this entry.