Shorebird Videos

Still remember the Whimbrels from this post and the Kentish Plover and juvenile Grey-tailed Tattler from this post? Now they're back again in video format. I don't have the same video editing program that I used while I was in Thailand, which was the Cyberlink Power Director. It's a great program but like other great programs, it's not free. I didn't want to buy it again, so I just didn't do any more editing until I found that YouTube has quite a nice video editing function. All the contrast, brightness and stabilising were done by the YouTube video editor. It's very easy and the result looks satisfying. Now I don't have to bother looking for any other video editing software. Don't forget to select 1080p for full HD viewing!

Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus variegatus)

Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nihonensis)
This one was shot handheld but the stabiliser in YouTube video editor did a great job.

Juvenile Grey-tailed Tattler (Tringa brevipes)

Blue Rock Thrush

Yesterday, Russell wrote about a Slightly Silent Autumn in his blog, and I was surprised because the same thing is also happening here in Beppu. It's not that we always have such a lively autumn, but at least it has always been much livelier. The weather is also much different from the last one. It is much warmer than the same time last year. I can still wear the same clothes I wore in summer during the day and fully open my window at night without getting a cold. I was surprised looking at photos of myself taken around the same time last year wearing 2 or 3 layers of clothes. Coincidentally, I'm now reading a book called The End Of Nature by Bill McKibben. It mainly discusses about global warming and it is not pleasing at all to witness such a dramatic change in birds and weather around here, especially after having read the book with such title. The change feels almost tangible.

Female Blue Rock Thrush (Monticola solitarius philippensis)

I visited Rokushou-en on October 17, and it was one of those quiet, not so productive visits. There were only few birds along the shore, 3 Great Cormorants, 1 Common Sandpiper and a pair of Blue Rock Thrushes. That's all. At least, the rock thrushes were quite obliging enough, especially the female that came to pick up insects on the bench close to where I was sitting. The male bird was more skittish and wouldn't let me get too close. Even though it was in its non-breeding plumage, it still looked fine with its blue and chestnut plumage. The black, white and grey scales of the non-breeding plumage make it look a bit more rockier. Though the Blue Rock Thrush is quite common elsewhere, I find that I have few photos of this species. In fact, I've only photographed it properly once during the summer of 2010 when a family was found near Furuichi. Photos of the family can be seen here. I have to say that the male is quite attractive in its breeding plumage.

Non-breeding male Blue Rock Thrush (Monticola solitarius philippensis)

Terek River

So I was talking about the origin of the name Whimbrel in the last post, this post I'll be talking about another even more interesting wader, the Terek Sandpiper (Xenus cinereus). Along with the few Whimbrels that I found at Shouninga-hama beach on September 23, a single Terek Sandpiper was also found feeding in the same area as well. It seemed to be going through a moult from juvenile to non-breeding plumage. The black lines on its scapulars were still visible, but its bill base was already bright yellowish. Last year I've got one bird staying at the river mouth near my place for several days in May. Photos of the last year's individual can be seen here and here. That one was an adult almost in its full breeding plumage with very broad black lines on its scapulars and almost completely dark bill. I'm always happy to get photos of the same species in different plumage.

Terek Sandpiper (Xenus cinereus)

I've always thought that the name Terek Sandpiper is really something interesting. It reminds me of the name T.rex or Tyrannosaurus rex, one of the most iconic creatures of all time. However, it turns out that the word Terek in the name of the sandpiper originates from the name of a river in Russia. Too bad it doesn't have anything to do with dinosaurs, another disappointment for me. As described by our friend Wikipedia, the Terek River is a major river that flows through Georgia and Russia to the Caspian Sea, the largest enclosed body of water on Earth. This reminds me of another decent East Asian bird, the Amur Falcon (Falco amurensis), which was named after, yes you guessed, the Amur River in Russia (again).

Terek Sandpiper (Xenus cinereus)

The same Terek Sandpiper with a juvenile Grey-tailed Tattler (left)
and a Whimbrel in the background

The bird that I found at Shouninga-hama beach was surprisingly obliging. My impression on Terek Sandpipers has always been that they are very shy and unapproachable. I can still remember how difficult it was when I tried to photograph the one that I found last year. Surprisingly, the one you see here was nothing more difficult than the abundant and tame Grey-tailed Tattler. However, it was not too easy either as the bird was extremely energetic. It never stopped walking for even a second, well I might exaggerate a little bit here. By the way, it was quite difficult for me to get the right focus as the bird constantly walked further and in a very speedy fashion. Luckily the lighting was unbelievably good and I could shoot at 1/1000 even with ISO 200!

You can still see its worn buffish fringes on upperwing coverts

Whimbrel

Have you ever wondered how this smart looking wader got its name? I thought about it a lot, along with other names like Dunlin and Godwit as well, so I did a little bit of research through Google and came across this very interesting explanation. The website is called Bird Watcher's General Store. It contains short articles written by American birder Mike O'Connor originally published in the column called Ask the Bird Folks in The Cape Codder newspaper. Every week he answers a question about birds submitted by readers. I had a great fun going through many of his articles. He answered all the questions in a very humorous way, trying to make people become more interested in birds by connecting them to ordinary issues in our lives. He really did make birding sounds fun!

Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus variegatus)

So it turns out that the name of the bird didn't come from any particularly interesting reason. It simply came from the bird's high-pitched and whimpering voice. I was a little disappointed. I expected a little more historical and mythical explanation. Anyway, these photos of Whimbrels were taken back in September 23 at Shouninga-hama beach. I was happy to see a small number of these birds walking on the beach below the walk way. It's never easy to get close to Whimbrels as they are normally shy, so I had to lie down on the ground hiding myself behind the low fence and waited for the birds to come my way. The outcome is as you see. I can truly say that these are my best shots of Whimbrels.

A fine individual in its non-breeding plumage

This one was in a much shaggier plumage

Here's what I love about Whimbrels (apart from their very unusual name); their beautiful bluish legs. There are already redshanks, greenshanks and yellowlegs, so why not calling them blueshank or bluelegs. I heard that some people call avocets blueshank, but come on they're not sandpipers. I also took a few handheld videos of one of the birds that was bathing right in front of me, but I still haven't got the time to process them. I'll put them up later. Here's the bathing set of photos for now. Enjoy! Oh and by the way, you can clearly see its completely barred rump, a characteristic of the subspecies N.p. variegatus of East Asia.

The Last Whimbrels

I think it's about time to clear up my stocks. I've processed these photos of Whimbrels since several weeks ago and I think now all the birds should have already headed north. These are the best shots of Whimbrel I've got so far. The birds were much more approachable during my last visit and I can stop taking photos of Whimbrel for a long while.

These waders always stop and watch when a crow or Black-eared Kite flies by.

Crabs again