Ono River

Late December excited me with the discovery of a male Scaly-sided Merganser (Mergus squamatus) at Ono River. On January 29, I went there to look for the bird but failed to see it. The bird proved to be nomadic. It disappeared from the first location where it was found and was later spotted many kilometres upstream several days later. I followed the news with the help from other birdwatchers in Oita but still couldn't manage to see it. I failed twice and felt so discouraged that I stopped following it. Last month, the bird was spotted again with a female! The pair was found staying in a lake up on the mountain in Yufu city. The place seems to be accessible only by private cars, so I had no chance to see them. Anyway, this post is all about the other birds that I found and photographed during my visits to Ono River.

Probably non-breeding male Long-billed Plover (Charadrius placidus)

Probably a female bird

Ono River (大野川) seemed to be a very good place to see Long-billed Plovers (Charadrius placidus). They were numerous along the rocky riverbanks in the area where I was looking for the merganser. Almost all of them were staying in pairs. I noticed that one of the birds in each pair would have more black on its face and breast band, and another one would have plainer face. I assumed that the darker one might be a male bird and another is a female. Even though they were numerous, it was really difficult to photograph them. They were shy and would normally fly away before I reached a certain range that is good enough for my lens. I finally found the trick that made me more successful in photographing these shy birds. I noticed that they would try to camouflage by lying low among the rocks when I walked with my back straight, but tended to fly away when I tried to approach by crawling towards them. This is quite opposite to most birds that feed on the ground, which tend to be less comfortable with any vertical matter than moves horizontally, i.e. human. So I tried walking indirectly towards them with my back straight and when I got to the acceptable distance, I would sit down and wait for the birds to rise up and move freely.

More individuals with blackish face and breast band

Another bird that I tried to photograph while I was waiting for the merganser was the Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis poggei). There were about 3-5 pairs staying in the same area. Like the Long-billed Plovers, they were numerous but clearly moved in pairs. With a photography hide, I could take some photos of them in a close range since they tended to favour shallow water near the banks. I also noticed that one of the individuals in each pair would be slightly darker than another one as well. The darker individual would have darker brown cap and upperparts. These darker individuals might as well be the male birds.

A non-breeding Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis poggei)

A darker individual

A non-breeding Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)

Black-eared Kite (Milvus lineatus)

Apart from the Long-billed Plovers and Little Grebes, there were not so many other birds in the river. I feel like even Oita River seems to be a much better place for general birding. Birds in Ono River seemed to be much more wary and less numerous. Other birds found on my 2 visits included a Eurasian Sparrowhawk, an Osprey, Black-eared Kites, Little and Great Egrets, distant Mandarin and Falcated Ducks, a female Common Merganser, Great Cormorants and lots of Common Teals. The transportation fee is quite expensive, so I don't think that I'll make another visit to look for the Scaly-sided Merganser again. Hopefully, I'll be able to see it someday in the future before it becomes even more endangered than it is now.

31 December

This really long winter break makes me feel almost too lazy to do anything, even updating this blog! Anyway, the school will finally start again this coming Tuesday and I just have to clear up all the homeworks I have. These photos were all taken on the super fine December 31st. I got up earlier than usual and found that the Spa Beach outside was totally white with snow. The sun rose as I walked down to take photos of the beach. It was such a great moment, a perfect sunrise from a snow-covered beach, especially on the year end. I later caught a train to Kaku in hope of getting some better shots of the Baikal Teals.

You can still see the blizzard roaming behind my dorm!

I arrived at Kaku as another blizzard started to hit the area. A lone Northern Goshawk and another Peregrine Falcon were seen flying through the snow storm as I walked down to the river. However, the wind was so strong that the blizzard was blown away very fast. What's left was a nice view of snow-covered fields against blue sky. There was a big flock of about 50+ Eurasian Skylarks in the field. A female Common Kestrel also came patrolling by and stopped briefly on the electric pole. There were fewer ducks in the river than the last time. Much worse, there was not a single Baikal Teal in the flock. The number of Eurasian Wigeon increased a lot, and there was even 1 male Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula), a new species to my local list, joining in the flock, though.

Mt. Takasaki (高崎山) is seen in the background

A flock of Grey-capped Greenfinches (Carduelis sinica) on the river bank

Long-billed Plovers (Charadrius placidus)

There was a flock of 7 Long-billed Plovers on the rocky bank of the river. I've only seen 1 of this bird in the lower stream last January, and it's quite a rare bird in Thailand, so I shifted my focus from finding a Baikal Teal to taking photos of these plovers. Unfortunately, they were all too shy and skittish and I couldn't get close to them. One or two birds seemed to be juveniles, while others were all in adult plumage. I can only hope that they will breed around this area, so I can come back to photograph them again in spring, which I think should be a bit easier.

Asian House-Martins (Delichon dasypus)

There was a big flock of more than 50 Asian House-Martins (Delichon dasypus) swifting over the river. A small number of House Swift (Apus affinis) also joined the flock. At first, I didn't even want to try photographing these fast martins, but since there was no other bird to photograph, I just had to try taking photos of them. The 4 photos above were the few acceptable shots out of the total several hundreds I took.

Japanese Wagtail (Motacilla grandis)

Rustic Bunting (Emberiza rustica)

Because there were so few birds to photograph, I decided to walk all the way to Oita, which was almost a wrong decision. I walked almost 10 kilometres from Kaku through the crazy wind and occasional light blizzard. At least, I came across a big flock of Rustic Buntings (Emberiza rustica) somewhere near Nanase-kawa. I've only seen this species once in Sekino-E in December 2009. I even found a few more smaller flocks along the way to Oita. They all seemed to feed on the ground, and have the habit of flying up to a dead tree when disturbed, which was good because I could get much closer to them than when they're on the ground. I finally reached Oita around 6pm and caught a train back to Beppu with my exhausted feet. I wished I could just go back and sleep at home, but my friends were all insisting me to join the count down party, so I went there like a zombie and that's how I ended my 2010.