This is one of the three parks I made it to late last week. It’s the largest of the mud flat parks I’ve visited along the bay, at least that I’ve visited. Located in Funabashi, not too far east of Kasai Rinkai, the birding is mostly along the south-western edge. There’s an observation center (not very well air-conditioned), and some outdoor sighting spots which were much better for birding the day I went.

One bird I saw better than at the Oi/Port Wild Bird Park was the Black-tailed Godwit (Oguro-shigi• オグロシギ):

A new catch for me was the Grey Plover (Daizen• ダイゼン):

And this is likely a Sanderling (Miyubi-shigi• ミユビシギ)–identified with some help from members of the Bird Forum:

Next, there was a flock of Ruddy Turnstones (Kyoujo-shigi• キョウジョシギ) towards one corner of the park. An elderly gentleman explained to me in English about how they got their name by, of course, turning over stones to get at the morsels below. I saw one of these at Oi/Minato a few days before, but it was only one, and it was a good distance away. These guys were very close up, and as you can see, in good number (this photo is only one part of the flock):

Here are a few of the better close-ups:

However, I had some trouble: these birds blend in to the background surprisingly well sometimes:

So not bad–two new life birds, and the first good look at two others, in one visit.