Unless an issue interrupts, expect the next two or three posts to be a further listing of birds and information about birdwatching in Tokyo. I’ve gotten quite a lot of that done in the past several days (waking up real early as well as catching the low tide), enough to do me for a little bit, at least. In September and October there are supposed to be a lot of migrating birds coming back, so on Wednesdays and Fridays, when my work schedule for the next semester doesn’t start until the afternoon, I may make it a habit to drop by the Yatsu salt marsh and the birdwatching area at Kasai Rinkai to see what’s there.

Okay. First, let’s finish with the wild bird park (東京港野鳥公園) near Haneda. There was quite a variety of birds there, including one I’m not at all sure about. That one was hard to distinguish, probably in large part because with changing plumage, a lot of the sandpiper/plover varieties can be hard to tell apart. This one was by itself (as a species) sitting amongst a horde of other mixed birds:

Here it is with other birds in the shot:

By the way, on that last one, you can see a Ruddy Turnstone in the center and a Lesser Sand Plover on the right (more on them later). But the bird I’m not sure about is some kind of sandpiper–but which one I have no idea. The white stripe from above the eye to down the neck, the dark legs, and the barred/spotted tail all seem contradictory to a half dozen different possibilities. If anyone knows this one, let me know.

[Update: It’s a Pacific Golden Plover, according to knowledgable sources.]

Here’s a Grey-tailed Tattler (Kiashi-shigi• キアシシギ):

There was a Little Grebe (Kaitsuburi • カイツブリ), some of the better-detailed shots I’ve gotten, and as a bonus, there was a young grebe in attendance:

Here are a few of Lesser Sand Plovers (Medai-chidori • メダイチドリ):

There was also a Kingfisher in attendance:

And a Black-tailed Godwit (Oguro-shigi• オグロシギ):

There’s lots more coming. Sorry about how this will likely eat up bandwidth and slow down the page. As I mentioned elsewhere, if this is a problem, one solution would be to get an RSS feed reader and subscribe to this site’s feed, and then view the stories one by one as they are submitted.

Coming soon: nice images of Egrets and Herons, yesterday’s visit to three bay parks, a review of birding spots in Tokyo, and what can be referred to as “shooting fish in a barrel” birdwatching.