Some Other Birds

And this post's gonna be all about the other birds I found at Rokushou-en last Saturday. A quite active day actually, both for birds and people. Low tide brought in lots of herons and egrets to the shore as well as people who went there to seek for oysters and seaweeds. The only problem for birding at Rokushou-en is that there's always too many human activities going on, which can simply disturb all the birds away.

This pair of Oriental Turtle-Dove came down to drink some water.

Grey Heron

A breeding Great Egret

The Black-crowned Night-Herons are back after a long absent during winter. There were several individuals perching on the rocks looking for food. The lower one was so lucky with that big fish.

Spring Teal

These photos were all taken on last weekend. The same flock of Common Teal was still staying at Furui-chi, but the number has slightly decreased. Common Moorhens have been back once again as usual. I saw at least 2 birds, one was a breeding adult and another one was an immature bird.

Common Teal

Turtles are back!

Mallard

Good Birding Day

Today I tried to wake up early to catch up with sunrise and I almost succeeded. I've been waking up very late for many days now, so I think it's about time that I should do some morning birdwatch. So I finally got myself out of bed around 7:30 and one hour later I was arriving at Minami Tatte-Ishi koen. It was a beautiful morning I've been yearning for for so many days. The sky was clear and blue and the cherry blossom was still quite splendid.

I just love the feeling of spring!

Mt. Tsurumi

I have a feeling that there are more Pale Thrushes than Dusky here in Minami Tatte-Ishi park, unlike Beppu park, where Dusky Thrush is notably more numerous. I tried looking for Brown-headed Thrush, which I've seen a male bird once here, but couldn't find any. Few Hawfinches were also feeding on the ground side by side with the thrushes. I walked to the center zone of the park, then a bird of a bulbul-size flew up and perch on the dead tree top. I almost ignored it, but then the bird gave a very trange call which I've never heard before so I pointed my lens towards it and bingo! it's a male Japanese Grosbeak (Eophona personata), a species I've yet to photograph. The bird perched up there and sang its short sweet song, a song I've never expected to hear from a grosbeak!

A male Japanese Grosbeak

The birds fed on cherry seeds.

I later noticed that there were another 3-4 birds feeding on a cherry tree nearby. Though the birds were not so shy, but I was too nervous and there were too many people walking all over the place, which made the birds flew out every once in a while, so I had a very hard time photographing these birds, and I still feel unsatisfied about the results.

A pair of Oriental Turtle-Dove

A male Dusky Thrush

Brown-eared Bulbul was very numerous.

A breeding male Grey-capped Greenfinch

One shy male Daurian Redstart was still presenting in the park.

Pale Thrushes here are very tame!

A breeding male Hawfinch

Other than the grosbeak, which was simply the highlight of the day, the normal stuffs were still presenting very well. Long-tailed Tits were common and Japanese(Great) Tits were singing. A Common Kingfisher flashed by quickly as usual. Lots of Grey-capped Greenfinches, very vocal and surprisingly tame. Several Japanese/White/Grey Wagtails were in a small stream in the back of the park. Lots of Barn Swallows were catching insects along the stream and a pair Siberian Meadow Bunting was showing in a small reedbed nearby. Before leaving the park, I came across an approachable male Hawfinch, so I finally have some nice shots of the species.

Little Cho Lae

So another semester has passed, I'm still surprised how fast life has moved on, and I finally have enough free time to update this blog again. One day in May, I was riding my bicycle around Kamegawa area and surprisingly found a piece of land which is covered by flooded fields and surrounded by reedbeds. It was far behind all of the tall buildings and housing area, deep into the forest edge, behind the railway. I was so excited, since I've never thought that this kind of habitat would exist in Beppu before, and it sure looks good for birding. It reminded me of a place called Ban Cho Lae, a small village in my hometown, which is one of the best places for field-bird watching. In the reedbed, a single Oriental Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus orientalis) occupied the whole area and was continuously singing its loud harsh song. A non-breeding Intermediate Egret was wandering through the flooded area. Few Common Moorhen slowly hid themselves into the reeds, when they saw me passing by.

A male Meadow Bunting singing his sweet song

At a small canal, a pair of Meadow Bunting (Emberiza cioides) flushed up from a low bush. The male bird perched on a small branch and started singing his sweet song, while the female hid inside thick bush. They seemed to be nesting somewhere around here, since the I saw the male bird caught a worm and flew into the bush again. Other birds which were feeding around the area include Oriental Turtle Dove, Cattle Egrets, Little Ringed Plover, Japanese Wagtail, and Grey-capped Greenfinches.

A Hwamei singing in thick bush

An adult Oriental Turtle Dove feeding on dry field

A family of Ruddy-breasted Crake was a big surprise for me

At the forest edge, there was a mysterious, loud and sweet song coming out from high bushes. I've never heard this kind of song before, so I walked up to find out what was singing. And the answer was a single Hwamei (Garrulax canorus), which was an introduced species from mainland China to Japan long time ago, and the species was able to survive in nature until now. I've seen Hwamei quite frequently around my campus, but this was the first time to see it in lowland. Another introduced species which I found quite often is the Red-billed Leiothrix (Leiothrix lutea). I've even seen a large flock of about 10-20 birds moving through thick bushes in small piece of forest near the city just like how they do in their native forests. However, the big surprises for me were a family of Ruddy-breasted Crake (Porzana fusca) and Greater Painted-Snipe (Rostratula benghalensis). At first, I saw only two adult Ruddy-breasted Crakes feeding at the water edge, but then out of the blue came three more little chicks. The chicks were still very small and covered with puffy black feathers. They were very active running around all the time. As for the Painted-Snipe, I was really surprised to have found it here because it is quite uncommon in Japan (actually, the crake also). There was a pair of male and female bird sitting still in the field. At first, I didn't recognise that they were having a nest, until I made the male bird flushed up from his hide and finally saw two brownish spotted eggs lying inside a bowl-like nest, so I quickly left the area, since I didn't want to disturb them anymore, and here are the pictures from that day.