Japan 2015 days 14-15: Nakano, Karuizawa, Narita and London

2 January 2016

The scenery around Nakano was very pleasant indeed and Jigodukani was just a short drive from our hotel. Arriving some time before the 09:00 opening time, we took the half-hour walk up the snowy valley at a relaxed pace, searching for birds along the way. Unfortunately there wasn't much about save the common woodland species, with Varied Tit about as good as it got.

Thankfully the Japanese Macaques proved quite entertaining. Noisy, social and characterful animals, we watched upwards of 100 'snow monkeys' engaging in activities such as feeding, fighting, grooming and fornicating for about an hour, taking plenty of shots in the process. Rich also picked up an Alpine Accentor by the main spring, which was a nice trip tick.

After that it was back to Karuizawa for the rest of the day for another shot at the specialities we'd missed. Unfortunately we couldn't find even the most likely targets, Green Pheasant and Japanese Accentor, but did enjoy further good views of the Long-tailed Rosefinch flock in the bird forest clearing. I had at least four Hwamei behind the 7-11 store and Rich had a couple more towards Kose Onsen, while he also had a pair of Japanese Wagtails and 20+ Spot-billed Ducks at a nearby pond.

Long-tailed Rosefinch 

Male and female Siberian Meadow Buntings

In the evening we journeyed back to Tokyo on a very busy Shinkansen service - evidently lots of people were heading back to the city after their holidays. From Tokyo we headed out to Narita, where we were stayed in a hotel near the airport.



3 January 2016

We'd been informed that any rough ground around Narita airport was as good a place for Brown-headed Thrush as any we were likely to visit, so we spent the first hour and a half of the day searching for the species. We actually found at least three thrushes pretty easily here, so this must be the best chance to see them if you are flying in/out of Narita. Other sightings included Red-flanked Bluetail, a couple of Japanese Bush Warblers, Black-faced Buntings, Oriental Turtle Doves and overflying flocks of White-cheeked Starlings.

Brown-headed Thrush, Narita

With that it was time to head to the terminal and reluctantly leave Japan - all three of us agreed that we could have stayed out another two weeks and done the entire trip all over again! What a wonderful country Japan is - beautiful scenery, great birding, iconic species, clean cities and towns, relaxed atmosphere, brilliant food ... and that's without mentioning the Japanese people, who are extremely friendly, helpful and courteous people - it really puts Britain to shame. I think all of us will be back at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Japan 2015 day 14: Karuizawa

1 January 2016

The New Year dawned cold and bright - though there was an almost total lack of snow around Karuizawa (very unusual for this time of year), we had at least been afforded a hard frost. As we walked down towards the bird forest our first birds of 2016 included a couple of decent flocks of Rustic Buntings and a new bird for the trip: Japanese Green Woodpecker. Meadow Buntings and Dusky Thrushes were common, as was the usual range of woodland species that we'd been encountering throughout our fortnight in Japan - more notable species included Hawfinch and Japanese Pygmy Woodpeckers.

A pair of Brown Dippers were on the river opposite 7-11 while I jammed in on a male Long-tailed Rosefinch in the scrubby area behind the store; unfortunately it had disappeared by the time Rich arrived. A male Daurian Redstart there was one of only a few encountered at Karuizawa.

We'd been given recent gen on a pair of Japanese Accentors, seen just before Christmas along one of the bird forest trails. A thorough search of the stream failed to produce the species but we bumped in to a male Naumann's Thrush, which flew up from the track and gave brief views before flying off in to the forest - another surprise bird for the trip.

While Mick went to twitch a waterfall to the north of town, Rich and I spent several hours walking the trails in the bird forest. Birds were relatively few and far between and it was by no means easy going. It seems like finding Copper Pheasant here requires luck as well as persistence and I was afforded my slice of fortune early afternoon when I flushed a female from a steep ridge - the only one seen in our day and a half here. This was quickly followed by prolonged views of Japanese Serow (resembling an oafish goat-deer hybrid), the animal seemingly just as fascinated by us as we were by it. Another new mammal here was Japanese Hare.

 Japanese Serow, Karuizawa

We found a group of at least seven Long-tailed Rosefinches in the main clearing in the bird forest, this including a couple of stunning males. Another group of 5+ was then seen back behind the 7-11 store late afternoon, but we couldn't find any Japanese Green Pheasants around the town.

Fem/imm Long-tailed Rosefinch, Karuizawa bird forest

Other notable birds seen in the forest throughout the day included at least five Japanese Grosbeaks, a couple of Red-flanked Bluetails, more Brown Dippers, Bull-headed Shrike and at least one male Bullfinch (apparently grisiventris, but it seemed to have a slight warm flush to the belly c.f. rosacea) as well as all the expected species. We didn't get a sniff of the area's winter specialities (Japanese Waxwing, Pallas's Rosefinch and the accentor) - presumably the mild winter wasn't helping and a lack of snow meant no concentrations of birds.

First-winter Bull-headed Shrike, Karuizawa bird forest

It had been a glorious and relaxing day in Karuizawa, one that I very much enjoyed despite the slow pace of birding. I think that in all honesty we could have stayed another night to give ourselves another early morning shot at the pheasants, but pre-trip planning dictated that we needed to pick up a hire car and drive the couple of hours over to Nakano for a bit of duding at the famous 'snow monkeys' the following morning. It took a while to get there due to our sat nav trying to lead us down various blind alleys but we finally arrived mid-evening. Snow-free Karuizawa had us fearing that the snow monkeys might not actually be set to a white backdrop but thankfully it was a few degrees colder in Nakano, and there was clearly at least a bit of snow on the ground.

Mt Asama looms large over the clearing in Karuizawa bird forest - Long-tailed Rosefinch here

Japan 2015 day 13: Hokkaido - Tokyo - Karuizawa

31 December 2015

Looking north from Furen

Our final morning on Hokkaido was to be spent driving south to Kushiro from Furen, taking in a few sites en route. First port of call was a woodland track between Furen and Ochisii - Take had told us it was a decent place to look for the striking grisiventris subspecies of Bullfinch, which we had not yet seen. A slow drive through the forest with several tactical spots eventually produced a Bullfinch, but alas it was a female rather than the pink-cheeked, grey-bellied male we'd been after! The woods were otherwise pretty quiet, a typical range of common woodland species (including several Japanese Pygmy Woodpeckers) and a few Steller's Sea Eagles were as good as it got.

It was pretty clear that the holiday season was in full swing on arrival in Ochisii. The harbour was totally devoid of people, let alone fishing activity, and gulls were extremely thin on the ground. A group of nine Falcated Ducks was a pleasant surprise and there were also several Black Scoters and a Scaup. With time pressing we decided to head south to Kushiro to spend the final couple of hours photographing gulls at the harbour. A quick stop in Akkeshi produced a first-winter Vega and a couple of Kamchatka Gulls among the commoner Slaty-backed and Glaucous-winged Gulls.

Many second-winter Slaty-backed Gulls tend to look quite grotesque

Given that everywhere was shut down for New Year it was no great surprise to find far fewer gulls in an eerily quiet Kushiro harbour, but the Slaty-backs kept us entertained until we'd used up our final four loaves of bread (and two bags of popcorn). There was a little more ice around the harbour which had also concentrated groups of Scaup, Goldeneye, Harlequin and Red-breasted Merganser, and so we enjoyed our final looks at these species (and our last White-tailed Eagle) before the time came to head to the airport for our 13:40 flight.

Kushiro Harbour just a short while before leaving Hokkaido

The rest of the day was spent travelling. We arrived back in Tokyo mid-afternoon, enjoyed a typically efficient breeze through Haneda Airport and were soon at Tokyo station. Before boarding the Shinkansen up to Karuizawa we enjoyed a bit of train-spotting, which I'm not ashamed to admit to in Japan. It's hard not to stand and admire the artistic beauty of the bullet trains arriving and departing with enduring precision at Tokyo station - they are some of the most extraordinarily designed machines you will ever see and I'm certainly not embarrassed to have been the excitable tourist standing at the end of the Platform 23 that afternoon.

Shinkansen at Tokyo station

We were picked up at Karuizawa station by our hosts at Pension Edohara and were enjoying yet another delicious meal soon after. New Year's Eve actually turned out to be a bit of a tame affair, as it apparently is for most people in Japan, Traditionally families spend it together, eating a nice meal and watching their favourite TV programs. So that's what we did, and New Year was welcomed in with a cold Kirin watching some sort of hybrid sport that appeared a mix of sumo, cage fighting and boxing ...