Pacific Loon

The weather has been terrible for many days. I have lost most of my motivation to go birding. Fortunately, as I was checking the small port behind my dorm from the fourth floor's kitchen, I spotted a single loon swimming in the port. I quickly grabbed my camera and went down to the port. To my surprise, the bird was not easy to find and photograph at all. It could dive into the water and come up on the surface hundreds of metres away from the original spot. At first, I thought that the bird was a Black-throated Loon since it's the only loon I've ever seen in Beppu so far. Indeed, it was a Pacific Loon (Gavia pacifica), a lifer for me!

Non-breeding Pacific Loon (Gavia pacifica); Note the 'chinstrap'

The bird was relatively wary and wouldn't let me get close to it. I thought that the Pacific Loon would be distinctly smaller than Black-throated, but I didn't really feel that it was that much smaller. It has distinct dark 'chinstrap' which is one of the main characteristics of Pacific Loon, along with the thinner, sharply-pointed bill and less white on the flanks while swimming. Unfortunately, I couldn't get any decent shot of it since it was really cloudy and the sun was setting. I just hope that the weather will be better and the bird will still be around tomorrow, so I can get some more shots. I was even able to hear its loud eerie call. I didn't know why it gave the call, but it was one of the most distinctive calls for waterbirds.

The bird giving its loud eerie call
One of the 3 Great Crested Grebes (Podiceps cristatus) that were staying nearby

Ospreys And More

Since the discovery of the White-winged Scoter, I've been going to Sekinoe beach much more often. However, the bird never came any closer to the shore, so I've still got zero better photo of it. While walking around the area, I spent my time photographing a small group of Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) that were feeding in the harbour. I believe there were more than 3 different individuals. They came to the small harbour nearby to catch small fish at low tides along with a pair of Black-eared Kites and a small Common Kingfisher. I could get lots of their flight shots at close range as I was hiding behind a bush. Sometimes they even came too close for me to fit into the frame. Photographing birds in flight can surely be fun!

Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

Most of the catches were successful and I guessed that's why they liked to stay around in the area. There must be a very good number of fish near the harbour at low tides, when they become very easy to see from the sky. However, I still haven't managed to get a decent series of diving shots of the bird. It's always exciting and fun watching them stooping down into the sea and come flying up with a fish in their talons. Once they caught something, they always flew away really far. I just wished that they'd perch and eat the prey somewhere near, so I can also take photos of them while perching as well...

Male Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)

Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus)

Not only big birds like Ospreys and Black-eared Kites that were taking advantages of the abundance of fish at low tides, a single male Common Kingfisher was hanging around in the area as well. But as any Common Kingfishers around here, it was wary and didn't let me get close to it. The above Great Crested Grebe was from the Spa Beach in front of my dorm. You can see that it was already moulting into a breeding plumage. This year doesn't seem to be good for this species, and this individual always stayed far in the sea as well. To finish this entry, below is a sequence of shots of an Osprey catching a fish. This was the best I could get, but the light was awful. It'd have been much better, if there were a little bit of sunshine.

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.