My best ever ringing recovery!

While at Choshi Port, Japan, in late January I happened across a ringed, but somewhat unhealthy looking, adult Vega Gull. My assumption was that this might have been ringed locally but, when it transpired that it didn't belong to a Japanese scheme, my ears were pricked.

I've just had word back from the Bird Ringing Centre in Moscow that this is a Russian bird. It was ringed in the Chaunskiy district of Chukotka, Russia, on 22 July 2017 and my sighting at Choshi is the first since then. More impressively, Choshi is 4,107 km from where this bird was ringed - quite incredible, and easily my 'furthest' recovery. In London, where we deal mainly in Herring Gull rings, I usually see London-ringed birds, that have just about flown across the breadth of the capital, or, more exotically, birds from Suffolk or Yorkshire. Occasionally there's a more interesting Common, Lesser Black-backed or Great Black-backed from elsewhere in Europe.

To get such a recovery on this Vega perhaps isn't too surprising given where they breed, but I was nevertheless flabbergasted when I opened the email first realised just how far away from Choshi this bird had been ringed!

How far the Vega Gull has travelled - so far that you can see the corners of the earth in this Google Earth screenshot!

Adult Vega Gull 'G4Y' - looking rather worse for wear. Perhaps not much left in the tank for this bird.

Japan 2015 day eight: cranes at dawn, White's at dusk

26 December 2015

One of the numerous must-see wildlife spectacles of Hokkaido is the early morning roost of Red-crowned Cranes in the river viewed from Otowa bridge, south of Tsurui. We'd heard that the temperature needs to reach around -15c for steam to rise from the river and 'fortunately' Boxing Day morning proved one of those ball-clenchingly cold starts.

Though we all felt that the crane photo opportunities were a little overrated, there was no doubt that the hoar frost provided an impressive sight. Despite all my layers, I was freezing and extremely glad of the car and subsequent breakfast back at the hotel!

After breakfast we headed back to Kushiro harbour for another gulling session. Seven Harlequins showed included a showy drake while additional species to yesterday included a group of eight Black-necked Grebes and a number of Pelagic Cormorants.

Gull numbers were similar to the previous day although three hybrid Glaucous-winged x Glaucous Gulls were new, while the ubiquitous and characterful Large-billed Crows never failed to entertain.

Slaty-backed Gull 

Large-billed Crow

After having had our fill (and chilled to the bone by the biting wind) we decided to head back inland. Roadside fields along Route 240 just south of Tsurui held an impressive minimum of 195 Red-crowned a Cranes as well as half-a-dozen Whooper Swans.

Continuing north we were thoroughly disappointed to find Lake Kussharo entirely ice-free - a testament to the extremely mild winter experienced on Hokkaido up until the previous week. This unfortunately meant that the Whooper Swan opportunities were somewhere between sub-optimal and absolutely rubbish, although the birds themselves were brilliantly tame. Neighbouring woodland was quiet except for Treecreeper, Great Spotted Woodpecker and both Willow and Marsh Tits.

A little deflated, we made the short journey to our accommodation that night - the very quaint Gustaf Papilio guesthouse. On getting out the car I was thrilled to see a White's Thrush fly up in to a nearby tree, and soon we had all enjoyed views of the bird perched high up, watching us intently.

Over the next hour we were treated to simply stunning views of the thrush as it fed to within 10 metres of us. As with all thrushes a lack of movement and sound from us seemed to ensure the bird was more trusting and, despite the awful late afternoon light, we all managed some pleasing photos - definitely one of the birds of the trip!

White's Thrush - just stunning!

Japan 2015 day six: Arasaki and back to Tokyo

24 December 2015

Conditions had improved considerably overnight and Christmas Eve was a vast improvement on the previous day's wind and rain. Our first port of call were the houses near Arasaki crane centre, where we could see a flock of Eastern Rooks were gathered. We were extremely fortunate to find that one of the closest birds was a Daurian Jackdaw - the only individual we saw all day, despite searching the Rook flocks repeatedly.

Pleased with this early fluke, we headed around the extensive reedbed on the west side of Arasaki. This is a regular spot for Chinese Penduline Tit and so it proved - at least six gave reasonable views and were best located by call. Reed Buntings and Japanese Bush Warblers were common while other buntings included several each of Chestnut-eared, Black-faced and Meadow. A juvenile Hen Harrier flying past proved the only one of our trip.

 Japanese Bush Warblers were readily heard but extremely difficult to see well

Chinese Penduline Tit - unobtrusive and well camouflaged

The rest of the morning and early afternoon was spent exploring the fields and visiting the crane centre. The crane spectacle was even more impressive in the drastically improved weather conditions, but we were all in agreement that obtaining nicely composed shots of them was a challenging task - messy backgrounds, muddy fields and the like made it difficult. Nevertheless cranes are enigmatic, beautiful, characterful and downright noisy birds, and the views from the crane centre's tower viewpoint certainly confirmed that.

Thousands of Hooded and White-naped Cranes being fed at Arasaki

Hooded Cranes were by far the most numerous and generally tended to show closest to the various roads that intertwine the mosaic of agricultural fields.

White-naped Cranes were also numerous although due to their size I found profile shots difficult with my 400mm, so I made do with close ups.

Once again several Sandhill and the two Common Cranes were seen as well as an even greater number of what were presumably hybrids - several of the latter were seen and photographed although admittedly I'm not sure on the parentage of some of them.

Sandhill Crane

Anyone got any ideas? Common x Hooded, Sandhill x Hooded, or just pale Hooded?

The highlight of the morning, though, was the discovery of a Savannah Sparrow just east of the main bridge/channel. Flying from the road it landed some 20 metres away on a bund running through the adjacent field, thankfully unobscured. I'll admit Savannah Sparrow simply wasn't on my radar when in Japan and I kept trying to turn it in to a Yellow-browed Bunting - yellow on the supraloral and clean underparts being the train of thought, but several things didn't look right and both Rich and I said "Savannah Sparrow" in unison - but surely not?! As it transpired with a quick Google search, the species is a rare but reasonably regular winter vagrant to Japan - no mega find, but a nice bonus nonetheless.

After this it was back to Akune Harbour for another quick photo session with the Black-tailed and Vega Gulls. The gulls were decent enough but it was once again the Black-eared Kites that stole the show, putting in entertaining performances as they came in and picked morsels of popcorn and bread from the water. Our first truly confiding Dusky Thrush gave great views in a nearby park, although unfortunately was flushed by a Bull-headed Shrike all too quickly.

Finally - a showy Dusky Thrush in Akune

Black-eared Kite lacking a tail

A multitude of kites fixated on the floating popcorn 'slick'

We headed west to Kogawa Dam mid-afternoon. The gen suggested that the river bridge before the reservoir itself could be good for Crested Kingfisher, and we saw our only individual of the trip looking west from here. At least three Brown Dippers were showing quite well on the rapids to the east while a Japanese Wagtails was seen in flight. The reservoir itself was a bit of a disappointment but we saw our first Mandarins of the trip as well as the ubiquitous Black-faced Buntings.

With an hour or so to spare we decided to give Satsuma another go. Retracing our steps from yesterday we again drew a blank on Scaly-sided Merganser but had four Mandarins from the Route 397 bridge and Japanese Wagtail again from the main bridge in Satsuma.

With that it was back to Kagoshima airport for our flight back to Tokyo. As ever with the Japanese internal flights, everything went extremely smoothly and we were in our hotel, near Haneda airport, by 21:30 and were feeling pumped for what would hopefully be an exciting Christmas Day.

Japan 2015 day five: Arasaki, Satsuma ... and plenty of rain

23 December 2015

We awoke to strong winds and drizzle - not ideal birding weather but at least the gale had cleared the awful stench from Izumi's streets. Every cloud and all that!

Heading west from Izumi we soon found our first Hooded and White-naped Cranes feeding in roadside fields near Arasaki. The light was atrocious and we barely bothered to lift our lenses, instead continuing west to the coast at Akune where a handful of Slaty-backed Gulls were found among the usual Vega and Black-tailed.

After making our way down an almost impassably narrow street just south of Akune, which took us several minutes to get out of having finally managed to turn round, we ended up at Ushinonama harbour. A few more Slaty-backed were noted here while Mick picked up an adult Brown Booby mincing around offshore.

Looks that only a mother could love: Slaty-backed Gull at Ushinonama 

The low cloud and occasional rain were showing no signs of improving so, deciding it was the perfect weather for ducks, we headed inland to Satsuma, where Scaly-sided Merganser has been regular in recent winters. Alas a search of the Sendai River from various bridges and bends in the sometimes atrocious conditions drew a blank with the mergansers, but a couple of drake Falcated Ducks were nice among decent numbers of commoner duck and both Japanese Bush Warbler and Eastern Water Rail were new for the trip.

A couple of Japanese Wagtails gave good views from the Route 507 bridge in Satsuma while two White-bellied Green Pigeons showed well by the river not far south of the Route 397 bridge. Two flocks of Russet Sparrows were noted in the area, each numbering approximately 200.

Heading back to the coast and Arasaki, the weather briefly showed signs of brightening up before settling back in to the more familiar light rain/heavy rain pattern. Even the weather cannot dampen the spectacular sight of thousands of cranes in the area, and we marvelled at the throngs of both Hooded and White-naped Cranes feeding in the roadside fields to the east of the main bridge, many giving stupidly good views.

Cranes and wildfowl at Arasaki

White-naped Crane 

Hooded Cranes in the rain 

Closer scrutiny revealed seven Sandhill (a singleton and a group of six) and two Common Cranes, one of the latter seemingly paired with an hybrid adult and with two hybrid juveniles in tow!

Mutant family: adult Common Crane, adult(?) Common x Hooded Crane and two hybrid juveniles 

Sandhill Crane

But it wasn't just cranes - thousands of dabbling ducks were also feeding in the fields and we soon found at least 20 Falcated Ducks scattered among the mainly Mallard, Pintail and Wigeon. They were extremely skittish and almost continually spooked, this playing in to our hands a little as it allowed us to check different groups as they landed. We were fortunate enough to pick out a stunning drake Baikal Teal among one of the closest groups but, all too soon, they were back in the air - this proved the only individual we saw in Japan.

Drake Baikal Teal - the only individual of the trip

Rich also picked out what at first looked promising for an American Wigeon, but it soon revealed itself to be a hybrid with clearer views. This was one of two hybrids we saw, the other on a pond slightly inland on the east side of the main channel (no pure individuals were seen).

Two different hybrid American x Eurasian Wigeons in the Arasaki area

The estuary at the east end produced three Black-faced Spoonbills but almost constant scrutiny of the large flocks of Eastern Rooks failed to produce one of our target species, Daurian Jackdaw. Despite the rain passerines appeared quite active along the roadsides, and we enjoyed decent views of a couple of Chestnut-eared Buntings among the groups of the much commoner Meadow Buntings. A couple of large flocks of Russet Sparrows were doing the rounds, with good numbers in the visitor centre area and plenty more near the channel at the west end, and we had one or two Bull-headed Shrikes.

Chestnut-eared Bunting attempting to hide

All too soon the light was fading and with the rain still falling, we called it a day early and headed back to our hotel in Izumi.