Apparently, Winter is the best time for birding in Japan. I’ve been going to the small park in Seiseki Sakuragaoka in the mornings this week, having found it to be a good birding spot, close to where I live. There are always a half dozen or so birders there (usually older gentlemen), and one of them mentioned this morning that while about 10% of the birds found in Japan can be seen during the summer, more than 40% can be see during the winter. So I’m birding more recently, for that reason and because I got a small book this week that details the best birding spots in the Kanto area. By the way, here’s a nice shot of the fellows at the birding spot:

Last Monday, I was able to spot a few interesting bird views along the Tama River. One of them was a flock of Cormorants that had taken up residence along power lines strung across the river. What was impressive was their sheer number. Click on the image for a larger version:

I also spotted some Eurasian Wigeons on the river, which is what prompted me to visit Inogashira earlier:

This morning, I was able to catch a few birds at Seiseki, though none of then new life birds for me. One of them was another Bull-headed Shrike:

Another was a pair of what the other said was another Shrike, but I think they were fooled by the tiny LCD display on my camera–I’m almost certain these are Meadow Buntings:

I also spotted a Kingfisher, which excited me a lot more than it did the others; these birds are always very pretty:

After that, I went down the river closer to home, and spotted some Azure-winged Magpies:

This image has an enlargement when clicked:

Further on down, I spotted a flock of gulls having landed in the distance. I spent a good ten minutes walking down to the river bed to get a good shot at them. Now, at first, I saw fishermen on the river as quaint, but since I started birding more, they’re just getting downright annoying. They’re all over the place, and take up spots where birds might be, and tend to keep them away. But today, after having walked and climbed so far just to get a shot at these gulls, this one fisherman went out of his way to walk up to them and scare them off. Pissed me off quite a bit, I am not shy to say. He probably figured he’d catch more fish with them gone, but how would he like it if he went to trouble to find a good fishing spot and I came up and threw rocks in the water and scared off his fish?

Nevertheless, I was able to walk a bit more down the river and catch a few gulls that hadn’t been scared too far. And it turns out they’re a new life bird: the Black-headed Gull (Yuri-kamome • ユリカモメ), which get their name from their Spring plumage, not their November appearance.

Before the fisherman did his dirty deed, I was able to snap off a few long-zoom shots of the flock, moments before they got shooed off; this is just park of the flock:

The above two gull shots, by the way, have enlargements when clicked.

That’s all the stuff I had backed up; tomorrow I’ll probably be at the Oi Wild Bird Park, and so there’ll probably be another bird blog entry later.