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!

Shorebird Watch at Ariake Sea

So the Christmas & New Year holiday has started, I immediately went out for a bird trip! Ariake Sea is the largest inland sea located in Kyushu island. It connects 3 prefectures including Saga, Nagasaki and Kumamoto. I decided to visit the Saga part since it seems to be the easiest concerning about what Mark Brazil's book has stated. Saga is the ugliest city I've seen so far in Japan. It made Beppu feels like heaven. The city is grey and filled with strange emptiness. So many constructions were going on and that made everything worse. Anyway, it has the largest concentration of Black-billed Magpie (Pica pica) in Japan and they can be found almost everywhere.

Black-billed Magpie

The city isn't even ready to be a city.

I arrived at Saga Eki around noon, put my luggage in one of the lockers then took the No.12 bus from eki to Sumiyoshi（住吉） stop, from there it's a 3 km walk south to the shoreline. Along the way are the vast dry fields which attract many Grey Herons and egrets. There were many Black-billed Magpies along the way and 2 Common Kestrels were found being constantly harassed by the crows. In small canals there were Common Moorhens and Common Kingfishers and the Oriental Turtle-Doves and Daurian Redstarts were common.

An immature Grey Heron

I finally made it to the shore around 2pm and the sun was just right in front of me. The sea level was far too low that the majority of the birds were gathering about 1km away from where I stood. There were several ten thousands of ducks and waders which couldn't really be told which species. However, several hundreds of Common Shelduck (Tadorna tadorna) were still presenting quite close to the walkway. Ariake Sea is the only main wintering ground of this duck is Japan. But what really surprised me was the number of Saunders's Gull (Larus saundersi) which is listed as vulnerable in the Red Data Book, it was an OMG number! They were flying around all over the place, calling, chasing, harassing other small waders for food. I even thought they were the common Black-headed Gull at the first place.

Common Shelducks like to feed around the mudflat rather than water edge.

Shame the light wasn't that good.

An immature Saunders's Gull; note the black tail tip

They mainly fly around over the mudflat looking for crabs, sea worms or mudskippers.

When they detect a prey, they make a turn in midair and stoop down to catch it with their beak.

I walked to the western part of the mudflat and surprisingly found a super cute Japanese Weasel (Mustela itatsi) feeding along the shoreline. The color of its fur was so bright that it could be seen easily from a distance. I also spotted 7 Spoonbills sleeping on mudflat extremely far away. Along the way back I got a female Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus), many Dunlins and Grey Plovers. It was not that bad for the fist day, especially only a few hours before sunset. I really wished for higher tides and more birds closer to the walkway on the next morning. That night I stayed at Toyoko Inn which was just right in front of the Saga Eki thus very comfortable and also not expensive, 5040yen per night single room.

The cute Japanese Weasel

A female Reed Bunting near the walkway

A very worn first-year Saunders's Gull

And an adult

Dunlin is one of the few waders which stays here for the whole winter.
Spring is the best time for waders.