Sorry, it’s taken more than the one day I planned to get this post up. To finish on my last bird post, here are the other birds, including most of the new species, that I saw at the Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park.

First, the Gulls. Previously, I had spotted a Herring Gull along the Tama River, but at the park the other day, I found two other types of gulls: First, the Black-tailed Gull, which in Japanese is called “Umineko” (ウミネコ), or the “Sea Cat”:

This one may be immature, due to its lighter tail feathers and relatively dim red tip to its beak, but it is definitely a Black-tailed. See the head detail:

And here’s another shot:

I thought I saw the same gull, very immature, as it had very light plumage, but it turns out that this is probably a completely different gull, probably the Glaucous Gull (Shiro-kamome • シロカモメ), though I am not 100% certain:

Then there were the Plovers. First, the one I’d seen before, the Little Ringed Plover; note the yellow ring around its eyes:

But there was another plover which I thought might be an immature Little-Ringed, but it turns out that instead it’s a Kentish Plover (Shiro-chidori • シロチドリ), due to the black legs (the Little Ringed Plover has yellow legs, better visible in the first of the two above photos) and other markings:

Then we have the Sandpipers: first, the Common Sandpiper (Iso-shigi • イソシギ), which I’d spotted before on the Tama River:

And then the more interesting, curve-billed Terek Sandpiper (Sorihashi-shigi • ソリハシシギ):

And to finish off the series, a few picture of the Terek Sandpiper taking a bath, while we see, walking nearby, the Little Ringed Plover:

…And with the Kentish Plover:

It was such a nice day out, I decided on the spur of the moment to head down to the Tokyo Wild Bird Park, seeing as how it had been three months to the day since I had been there last. I probably should have visited more often, especially in May, but somehow either never got around to it, or the weather was unfriendly. But I went there to\day, and picked up several new species–as well as getting some very nice shots of some old ones. I’ve divided this post into two because there were just so many birds, it’d make far too long a single post–and I’m not even displaying shots of all the birds I spotted today.

Among the species I saw but had spotted before: Little and Great Egrets, Grey Herons, Barn Swallows, Tree Sparrows, Great Cormorants, Spot-billed Ducks, Eurasian Coots, Little Terns, Little Ringed Plovers, Common Sandpipers, as well as Starlings and of course, Crows. The new species were: Greater Scaups, Terek Sandpipers, Kentish Plovers, Black-tailed Gulls and what I think was a Glaucous Gull. I heard others in the trees, but couldn’t spot them. Seventeen species in all.

First, the best: Grey Herons (Aosagi • アオサギ). There was a family of them, staking out an area very close to the 1st watcher’s blind at the east end of the park, so I was able to get some very nice pictures, as opposed to the single, far-off chance shot I had gotten before. This one is the best: the Heron is standing right in front of me, and relaxed its wings out to the sides:

Almost as if to give me a bit of a Heron fashion show, the bird turned around for a back shot…

And then a profile:

The Heron’s offspring, still with immature plumage, was off to the side but still nice visible:

Previously, as I stopped along the Tama River before going to the park, I spotted the Heron’s cousin, a Little Egret, and happened to snap it catching lunch:

From time to time, I’ll spot a bird and snap photos of it, expecting it to be a certain species, and only discovering later on that it was something else. I almost absent-mindedly shot this duck, thinking it was a Tufted Duck or some other species I’d seen before–but it turned out to be a new one for me, the Greater Scaup (Suzugamo • スズガモ).

One more before wrapping up this post, another repeated bird: the Little Tern (Koajisashi • コアジサシ). Got a few nice shots as it rested on a post in the water.

Coming later: two Plovers, two Sandpipers, and two Gulls.

Well, I haven’t done birds for a while, so let’s get back to that a bit, eh? The weather should be good over the next week, and midterms have been graded, so I might have a bit of time to do more than just the incidental birdwatching.

I visited the Tama River a few times over the past few days, and I have to say that it’s like a change in the cast of characters. The ducks are all gone (though you can still spot some garden-variety types in the now-water-filled rice paddies nearby), the egrets are rather scarce, and the cormorants have gone elsewhere. The sparrows and starlings have remained. But there are a few new species here as well. The first and most startling was the appearance of the Little Tern (Koajisashi • コアジサシ). Tokyo is pretty far north for this bird’s range, but I saw a pair fishing by the side of the river. It was hard to catch them in flight because of movement and focus, but it was fun to watch. They would fly up and down a small stretch of the riverside, and when they spotted something, they’d go into hover mode, staying in one position for several seconds (see shot below) before diving down and snatching a fish from the water below.

Next, and not quite as clear in the photos is what I am fairly sure is a Long-billed Plover (Ikaru-chidori • イカルチドリ). I saw a few Little Ringed Plovers at the Wild Bird Park, and this one is similar, but the lack of a yellow rim around the eye and the specific white-and-black coloring above the bill seems to tag this one as a Long-billed Plover. Hard to catch, I only got a few blurry shots, as you can see. This bird camouflaged extremely well into the rocks along the beach, seeming to disappear most of the time.

And here’s the definitive shot with the head coloring:

Also on hand was a Japanese Wagtail and its immature offspring.

Then there was this guy, which I’m pretty sure was an Oriental Goldfinch, but it seemed to have almost too much red for that. However, I can’t guess what else it might have been:

This one I also couldn’t identify. There are a bunch of them making an somewhat of a racket in the tall grass, but they almost never came out above it to pose for a photo. I thought it might be an immature starling (the long pointed beak and general shape of the head and body seem to match starlings), but the tail seems too long for that. I think it might be a Japanese Swamp Warbler (Oosekka • オオセッカ), as the general appearance is similar and the habitat is right–but the identification is far from certain.

This guy was a complete question mark for me; I only got the one photo. Maybe an immature wagtail? The coloring seems a bit strange for that…

I should really download the category page for my birdwatching blog entries and take my PowerBook into the Japan Wild Bird Society shop near Shinjuku. They could probably help me identify the ten or so species I haven’t been able the get yet. For later.

And then there were the swallows. Everywhere. These things are out on the river en masse, and they’re flying around all over the place. Hard to get images of them like that, too–but I found a spot where they were resting. A recently-bulldozed slope along the riverside, where the end of land suddenly slopes down maybe 30 degrees until it hits the water. The swallows were flying in there to rest, and I was able to catch a few shots.

All in all, a pretty productive few days, birdwatching-wise.

I’ve only got time to do a little blogging here today–my classes for the new semester start tomorrow, and I’ve been working on class prep for the past several days. But I took the time out today–the weather being so nice–to do some more local birding. And I got some very good results.

First, I went a bit south to Wakabadai, a newly developed area. Too developed, however, as most of the treelines to the forest were occupied by construction teams, almost a whole kilometer of them. Still, there were enough open spaces that I was able to find a few birds lurking. One of them presented itself in song long before I saw it. It skipped along the ground like a Dusky Thrush in some ways, but the Thrush doesn’t sing like this. And I was right: it turned out to be a Skylark (which I had only heard of in Japan from the name of the family restaurant here). It has a noticeable crest, though it is often kept down, and only goes up at certain times. I caught a few of those times.

I did find a nice nature trail and followed it, and I heard some interesting birds, but only saw the same old Bulbuls everywhere; I’m beginning to get very tired of them. They’re darned noisy, too. I even saw some Azure-winged Magpies up close–a pair, probably mother and nearly-full-grown child, as one seemed to be feeding the other, danced on power lines just a few meters above me, but stayed only for five or so seconds, no long enough for me to get the camera ready.

But on the way back home, I decided to try a hilly area near where I live and happened upon a road upon a high bank that overlooked the treetops of the trees from the street below–and ran into a full-fledged flock of Long-tailed Tits, or “Enaga” as they are called in Japanese. This was exciting because I’ve been trying to get the little buggers for the longest time, and only just the other day got the first halfway-decent images of them (see prior post), but this time they were all over the place, and a few even stayed still for a while. A few of the images I got are here:

You’ve got to admit, they are incredibly cute little balls of fluff.

With the weather so temperate and still, I decided to go in a new direction for birdwatching today, into the hills close to home. I simply hadn’t thought of it before. It netted me some very nice photos.

The first was one I’ve been trying to get on film since I started; a bird I had in my sights months ago, but my autofocus failed me. The Long-tailed Tit (Enaga • エナガ). The thing is so flighty, hopping from branch to branch so quickly, in trees with enough branches to cause focusing problems, that I had never been able to get it before–but this time I got lucky.

I then followed a trail about half a kilometer into a small farming valley (lots of those in Japan), and heard a high-pitched chirping song. After waiting five minutes for something to show, something did: a Meadow Bunting (Hoojiro • ホオジロ). But this time the conditions were right and I got a few very nice shots.

After that, I wandered around quite a bit, and was almost ready to call it a day, when I realized that the lens cap for my zoom lens was gone. Missing. I’d dropped it somewhere and hadn’t realized it. And I had been going for quite some distance, walking on a road along the hills, going in and out of side roads and dirt lanes. I figured my chances for finding it were not all that good, considering the road conditions, traffic and all that–I figured that by the time I found it, it’d be squashed by a car or something, if I found it at all.

But along the way, something surprising happened. As I stopped to rest on one of those beat-up old side roads, I saw a bird in the distance. It moved in a motion that was somewhat familiar, a kind of smooth start-glide-stop-start motion, almost leisurely, something I’d associated with Wagtails. The bird started out quite some distance away, but it kept getting closer, and closer, and finally, it just came up and sat on a power line right smack where I was. I got my camera out of my backpack, convinced that the bird would fly away before I could snap a photo, but it stayed there, almost as if it were giving me something to cheer up about after having been frustrated with the lost lens cap. The bird, with a bright yellow breast, had just caught a grub of some sort, and was resting before gulping it down, I can only imagine. It turns out that the bird is a female Grey Wagtail (Kisekirei • キセキレイ–named so despite the yellow), notable as a female because the males have a black chin.

It flew away when a train came along the nearby tracks, but it stayed long enough. And to make a good situation better, I found the lens cap laying on the side of the road, undamaged, just a few minutes later.

These are nothing new to me, but I got a few good photos of Oriental Greenfinches (Kawarahiwa • カワラヒワ) and a few okay ones of the relatively elusive Meadow Bunting (Hoojiro • ホオジロ). The Greenfinches were alternately perching high up in a tree and swooping down to inhabit and area of low green brush.

Click to see a larger image

The Buntings are always in the same location along the river when I go, but they’re hard to catch. They tend to get down into the brush, and are skittish to boot. But I got a few photos while one was resting in a tree, though it was against a bright sky:

And this one I caught in the brush, though it was mixed with Tree Sparrows (Suzume • スズメ) and I didn’t even notice it was a bunting until I came home and saw the full-sized image:

A few more images will be in the “continued reading” section, linked to directly below:
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A few subsequent visits to Tama Reien brought a few new species in. First, what I am pretty sure is the Brown-headed Thrush, though it does not too closely resemble what my field guides show in terms of shape and color shades–but all the signs are there.

Note the white coloring on its belly; that’s one of the telltale signs. Here’s another shot I got the following day, somewhat clearer on the front:

The other new species was, to my surprise, the Japanese Green Woodpecker, though I missed any clear shots of the bird. Still, the black-and-white stripes on the belly as well as the red coloring on the side and top of its head identify it clearly:

With the above, you can catch the belly stripes, and can just see the red spot on the back of its head, both of which might be clearer here:

And then these shots, though much less focused, show the coloring better, and one shows the red spot on the side of its head a bit more clearly.

I also happened to catch other shots of Grosbeaks (previously sighted at Reien) and a Hawfinch (which I’d only seen around Sagami):

The lighting is due to a massive dark cloud, which accompanied strong winds, both of which arrived just as I did. Other photos, taken on the next day, had better lighting, but numerous attempts at sound recording were thwarted by loud ambient noise, such as that produced by a helicopter which chose to circle the area for a full hour. Both of these have been typical nuisances for my trips to Tama Reien, which also include an uncanny knack for passers-by (usually with frisky dogs) and loud sudden vehicles to come along exactly as I’m ready to press the shutter button on an interesting new bird. My perception, I know, but it happens all too often nonetheless…

While my Sagami trip a few days ago didn’t net any actual birds in the wild, it did net me some closer looks at birds in town. On the road back from the lake, I saw some swallows resting on a power line, and soon noted that a lot of swallows were flying about in the area. It soon became clear to me that nests were in the area, and I started snapping away.

This fellow I caught in midsong (click on image to see 1000-pixel unreduced image).

The birds were also strangely drawn to the higher edge of a wall of a convenience store; why I do not know, there was nothing there for them–no nest, no food, and no good perch, unless they love hanging off of signs like this:

Here are some good images of one swallow on the single nest I was able to see:

Click on this one for a larger image

And finally, you can look at a movie of the swallows (8.6 MB AVI file), half of which shows them playing King of the Hill in a crevice in that popular wall I mentioned, the other half of the mama swallow on the nest.

There’s more, but I’ll put them into the “continued reading” area.
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I took a day trip out to Sagami today to do some birding, and didn’t have the greatest luck. A lot of nature out the way of Lake Sagami, forests, rivers and so on. I’m finding out that my vacation at least begins in a very dry birding season–as if the winter birds have gone but the spring birds haven’t arrived yet. I went to many places where there should have been a lot of birds, walked through miles of trails in forests, farmland and parks, and didn’t get very much. I probably would’ve done better at Tama Reien, now that I know where to look; I’ll probably head back there again as soon as I have a clear day.

But I did find a few things. First, in a tree by the first lake I came by, I spotted some finches. One of the finches is, I am pretty sure, an Oriental Greenfinch, same as I found on the Tama River a month or two back.

I didn’t see much of it, but got a glimpse of maybe yellow in its wings, and there aren’t too many brown-green finches out there.

But before I got on to that bird, I did catch another–so fleeting, so hidden that I didn’t get a good visual on it, but when I got home I could see that it’s a bird I’ve been looking for: the Hawfinch.

See this illustration for comparison, from this page. The white at the back of the bird’s neck is telling, if not the dark area around the eye and beak, and the orange back.

I was pleased to get it, but would liked to have gotten it more, not to mention more clearly. Maybe later.

There are a few more Greenfinch photos in the continued reading, by the way.
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I’ve found that Sengenyama Park is very good for birdwatching, and heard that Tama Reien (Tama Cemetery) was good as well. The cemetery is a vast park-like area with a great many trees and shrubs, with not too many people around. I intended to visit Tama Reien, when I discovered that it and Sengenyama Park were adjacent–I had been a stone’s throw away on a few occasions before. So I went to Sengenyama, and walked through into Tama Reien. Not a spectacular day for birdwatching, but I did get two new species and some good footage of some I’d seen before.

First, the Varied Tit. I’d seen this little guy once or twice before, always in the same area, and now I’ve got it figured out: there’s a little semi-shrine-like area, with a tiny stream coming out of a hillside, and the Tits all like to come there to bathe.

By staking out a seat just a few meters away and keeping still, I could wait and see the Varied Tit (and Great Tits) come and go, netting me a few nice photos of the Varied:

In the same area, I was able to catch the Chinese Bamboo Partridges again, probably the same pair as before. I got another few good photos:

This one has a 1000×700 version; click the photo to see it.

For a small film of these two birds and of some Grosbeaks (photos right after this), click on this thumbnail (AVI file, 9 MB, so you’ll need a fast connection–best results may be found by downloading the movie to disk and viewing it on a media player):

So on to the Grosbeaks. Japanese Grosbeaks (Ikaru • イカル), that is. When I ventured across the bridge from Sengenyama to Tama Reien, I ran into the same birders I encountered in my first visit to Sengenyama, including the guy with the camcorder with the zoom lens. He showed me the birds he got, including a shot of a dozen or so Japanese Grosbeaks. After I ventured into the cemetery, I ran into probably the very same flock–many dozens of the little buggers. The birds’ calls sounded almost like someone playing a percussion instrument, tapping on hard, thin, hollow bamboo stems. It’s hard to describe, and unfortunately I didn’t have time to get a recording–I was barely able to get off a few shots of these birds before someone came along with an energetic dog which chased them all off. But here are some of the better shots I did get:

You can see a small part of the flock here, and get an idea of their number. I realized after seeing these guys that this bird is one I often see used as a mascot or something in signs and illustrations. I’ll have to enquire more about that to someone soon.

Finally, I got a glimpse of a bird I’ve heard about quite a bit but never saw except once quickly flying by: the Azure-winged Magpie (Onaga • オナガ):

The Japanese name literally means “Long-tail,” which makes sense–when you see them in flight, the tails especially stand out, not just long and straight but slightly fanned out in the middle. Unfortunately, I had even less time with the Magpies than I had with the Grosbeaks; this time, a group of bicyclists rode through just seconds after the Magpies landed. So though I got two new species, they were both very brief encounters due to interference from passers-by. Ah, well. At least I know where to go again sometime soon for more good birding.

I took advantage of an early bout of drowsiness last night at about 9 pm to get to bed early in order to wake up early for some birding today. Maybe I went to the wrong places, but it seems to me that there are more birds in the afternoon than in the morning. Still, I did get a few good shots, and added two new species of bird to my record.

While both new species were quite interesting, the Chinese Bamboo Partridge (Kojukei • コジュケイ) was the more surprising to me. The red and blue coloring around the head and breast gave me a start when I first saw it. I thought it might have been a pigeon at first, because of the general size and the bird’s gait, but those colors made clear that this was a more unusual bird.

By the way, the partridge photos have larger images available when clicked.

You can certainly see what took me aback–that’s quite an unusual-looking bird! Apparently, it was a bit of a coup–when I later tracked the birds to a more inward location in Sengenyama Park, they started making rather loud calls (sound file here, 330 KB, 11 KHz), which attracted a fellow with a very advanced birdwatching setup–but he wasn’t in nearly the position I was to photograph the birds. But he did tell me that the calls were very distinctive, and that this was the time for the birds to be pairing–which explains the pair:

I’ll have a few more photos of the Partridge in the “Continue Reading” section, linked to at the bottom of this entry.

The other surprise find of the day just jumped right out in front of me on the path: a Varied Tit (Yamagara • ヤマガラ). This is the cousin to the Great Tit, but has more interesting coloring. As with most of the Tits, this one was not a long stayer, so the shots I got off (even more slowed than usual due to a malfunctioning shutter button!) were less than perfect–but you can still clearly make out the red shading on its sides, as well as the extra white above its beak:

That’s the best shot I got; here’s a slightly fuzzier shot, but you can see it more from the side:

Here’s a darker treed view:

And here’s a Great Tit for comparison:

Click on “continued reading” (just below) for a few more photos.
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I always wondered about the naming of some areas of Tokyo, having noted the names of train stations in those spots. For example, Ikebukuro, a major business area of Tokyo (one of its many “downtowns”) seems to translate as “Pond Bag.” Ochanomizu is “Tea Water.” And Mejiro is “White Eye.”

Well, I actually discovered the origin of Mejiro recently when I took up birding: Mejiro is a bird, the Japanese White-Eye, and it is aptly named. A picture is worth a thousand words:

Click on the image to get a full-sized version (1100×700 pixels, 136 KB).

When I visited the park nearby my place today, there were quite a few of the little things flying around the trees. The Mejiro love the blossoming trees, and seemed to be eating the nectar from the flowers:

The blossoms also make for nice decoration around the birds in the photos. The Mejiro were also surprisingly tame; you could walk right up to a tree the buggers are in and be standing just a few meters away, and they would just as happily bounce about from branch to branch. I had my usual focusing trouble with my camera because the Mejiro were always in the midst of a host of twigs, blossoms and branches, but because they were relatively stable in location and not skittish about human company, I was able to get some nice shots of the birds.

I also spotted some Long-Tailed and Great Tits, as well as a Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker, but none stayed still long enough to get any pictures worth sharing.

I also was able to record some Nightingale song just outside my apartment building. The audio clip (332 KB, WAV format) is an amalgam of seven different calls I recorded over about ten minute’s time.

And before I go, one more Mejiro photo.

It’s a three-day holiday weekend, and the reason is that Monday is the first day of Spring. The weather certainly agreed with the change of season, it being a clear day with a relatively warm temperature in the mid- to high-60’s. I got to sleep early the night before, and woke up relatively early (for me, on a Saturday, before noon is early), and was able to get out the door just as the afternoon started, so I figured it was optimal timing to go out birding. I hit three parks today–Sengenyama, Koganei, and Inogashira.

The first one was one I just stumbled over when looking at a map, it being on the route to Koganei Park–but it turned out that Sengenyama is probably the best birding park I’ve found so far. At least, that’s what other birders seem to think–I found a gaggle of them standing in the center of the park. Very nice guys, they chatted with me for a while.

One of them, pictured above with the camera on the tripod, had set up his digital video camera as a birding device. I had not thought of that–that you could get a zoom lens (in addition to the already very good zoom) and document birds that way. This guy had some excellent footage, too, stuff that I couldn’t match, certainly. The downside to the video approach, of course, is resolution–NTSC video is just 525 lines tall, less than that showing on the screen. My digital camera gets images three times taller, better resolution by almost a factor of ten. But then again, I lack zoom capability, and many of the shots I take I crop down to well below NTSC resolution anyway. Something to think about.

These guys claimed, by the way, that they had spotted a White-bellied Green Pigeon in that park just a week before, and that they could only be seen once every three years or so. But then, a few elderly ladies who engaged me in conversation elsewhere in the park claimed that many such Green Pigeons were often seen in the park, and they had spotted a couple just a few minutes before. I would tend to take the birders more seriously, but then, I didn’t know their credentials, and they did seem rooted in only one location. One of them certainly had a big enough camera….

Anyway, the first moment I walked into the park, right on the periphery, I spotted two, maybe three new species (the third I couldn’t identify and it flew off too quickly). One of the ones I caught on film was the Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker, which it turns out was all over the park. Not especially loud, nor big for that matter, it still had the distinctive woodpecker back-stripes and bark-clinging stance.

Also in that area was the Long-tailed Tit, a very small, distinctive bird. It was hard as hell to catch one on film, because they just would sit still for more than five seconds. Finally, I got into the swing of things and got what should have been six or seven perfect shots–only to find out that my autofocus had failed me. As it has in the past, the danged camera focuses on the farthest thing away in the field of view, and so my great shots were of branches with a blurry bird in the foreground. Since manual focus on this camera is even more dicey than the autofocus, there may be no way to fix it. But I did get at least one halfway-decent shot:

Okay, a less-than-halfway-decent shot. The Long-tailed’s cousin, the Great Tit, was all over the place; and though it also has a tendency to bounce around, I was able, finally, to get one clear, unobstructed shot of one.

There was also one bird I thought was a Dusky Thrush when I snapped it, but it seems to be something else–but even in the detail of the full photo on my computer, I can’t ID it. It seems to have a completely black head, which would seem to rule out a Gray Starling (though it’s white cheeks may be just hidden by its wing…). But I can’t figure out what it might be if not that. Anyone got an idea?

I’ll have to go back to Sengenyama Park, at least in late April and Early May, when apparently it’s peak season for migrational birds there. Today, however, I wanted to get moving, so off I went to Koganei Park.

This has the second of three bird sanctuaries I’d found on the map, and though I’m still disappointed that there is little done at these places to facilitate birdwatching, I was able to find a few new species. The first is one that I’m fairly sure that I saw at Meiji Shrine but couldn’t get close to: the Black-faced Bunting. I was surprised when I noted a pair on the ground just inside the chain-link fence that surrounded the sanctuary; I was able to get within a few feet of the little guys, and get this shot:

Just as I was finishing up with the bunting, I heard some “oohs” and “ahhs” from a group of people on the same path, looking over a pond opposite from the sanctuary. It turns out that they had spotted a Common Kingfisher, the same bird that I had spotted flashing by at Inogashira weeks ago; this time, the bird was sitting still. First, I got a less-than-perfect shot of its back, and from this you can see what I’m talking about with the green flash:

Then it changed position, and again I had the same problem as before: I couldn’t focus on the danged bird. It was perched halfway between me and the closest background I could catch. Finally, I figured out what should have been obvious: focus on the base of the tree on which it was perched, then hold the focus while shifting the shot to the bird. That netted this shot before the Kingfisher flew off:

That was pretty much it for Koganei. Next was Inogashira Park. Now, only one new species presented itself there: the Eurasian Coot. I was kind of surprised by it just at the end of my walkaround. It’s a black waterbird, but with a white normal-shaped bill (as opposed to a duck’s or goose’s large distinctive bill), and a white dallop of feathers just above the beak:

I was also able to get some shots of other birds which I’ve already found, better shots than I’ve posted before. But in the interest of keeping the main page of this blog only humongously heavy in terms of kilobytes, I’ll put the extras in the “Continue reading” area of this post. Click the link if you’d like to see.
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So I decided to try out one of the three major parks in the West Tokyo area with a bird sanctuary. First, I stopped by the ever-reliable Tama River, and got to see a few new species. The first was a gull, hard to identify since so many of them appear identical; nevertheless, I think this one is a Herring gull.

I caught it first in the water, and then later on a concrete ledge near a dam, about ten meters away from a cormorant sitting on the same ledge. As a side note, by the way, I first identified the cormorants I saw as Great Cormorants, and then later as Japanese Cormorants, noting my first ID as an error–but now I believe that I did indeed see both. More on that later, perhaps.

Next, I caught some wagtails. I thought they were the usual White Wagtails, but as is often the case, when I get home and take a closer look at the photos, more details become apparent. I didn’t get a really good look, but this one is unmistakably a Japanese Wagtail, from the mostly black feathers about the head.

In the same area, I caught sight of what I might from here on out call a “brown bird,” that is to say, a bird with a brown back and pale breast of medium or indeterminate size, which could be any one of many possible birds–unidentifiable because it was too far away to get the details. This one looks like it might be some sort of Pipit, maybe a Tree Pipit. Anyone have an ID on this one?

When I got to the sanctuary, I was a bit let down–as is with most places in Tokyo, the Jungle Crows absolutely dominated the place–and other species were quite a bit harder to spot. I did get lucky, though, and after seeing a Dusky Thrush (turns out that’s a pretty common bird), I spotted another bird nearby–which I thought might be a female Dusky, but turned out to be a different species–a Pale Thrush.

I did get to see some other birds I’ve snapped before, including some Great Tits (still elusive, though–no clear photos of them yet), but I did spot one bird that I haven’t cataloged a photo of yet–the Oriental Turtle Dove. I’d photographed one before, long ago, that had perched at my window, but couldn’t find the photo I’d saved. But there were several at the park. I was trying to get close enough to the one I had spotted in the brush to take a halfway decent photo when I heard a rustling behind me just off the jogging path. Oh no, I thought–some kid who’ll make noise and scare the bird away. But then I noted the quality of the sound, which was less human-like, and turned to see another dove right behind me.

So, not a bad day of birding, though the sanctuary was not exactly a treasure trove of birds. The gull, the new wagtail, the new thrush, and the dove, not counting the “brown bird” I couldn’t identify. Nevertheless, the coming spring will hopefully bring more species to the area.

I got up early yesterday morning so I could get a bit of birding on, and the day proved a fine one to do it–clear and warm. I figured that the river is always a good bet, so I stopped there on the way in, and sure enough, there were the cormorants–this time resting on the banks with an egret. I also figured out that good lighting helps with the long-range photography, at least with my camera, and got the best views of the cormorants yet. And that they are Japanese Cormorants, not Greats as I though–they have white chin and breast feathers, while the Great Cormorants are all black.

And in this last one, I even caught a Little Grebe passing through–this being a 3-bird combination that’s probably not too common…

After the river, I headed on into Tokyo proper, and went to Meiji Shrine before going to work. I did spot one new bird–a Siskin, I think–but I didn’t get a photo or even a very good look. But all the rest were birds that I’d seen before. I didn’t catch the Great Tits (I’m still getting used to saying that) that I saw in the brush–they moved too quickly. But I did get great shots of Tree Sparrows and a Wagtail:

But the big surprise was in the ducks. After I spotted a relatively ordinary Mallard…

…I spied a pair of Mandarin Ducks by the lakeside, and got some great shots of one, and of the pair:

Amazing-looking creatures, those. I still have yet to figure out what those tan flaps are on their sides, how they work… you have to wonder at how this duck developed, it’s so ornate. But then I got a surprise. I followed one into the brush beside the lake… and happened into a whole flock of them resting on the shore. The following is just a part of the flock, more than a dozen males and some females.

Quite a sight if you’re not expecting it.

I just had the one day off this weekend, but decided to spend a few hours of it birding again, just checking to see what the local area had. The forest park just around the corner was pretty much empty, but the riverbanks delivered as usual. Saw the Widgeon and Teals again, as well as a Cormorant or two. In a small river offshoot, I got a much closer look at a nice Little Egret. It gave me an even closer look when it flew up and rested on a telephone wire:

But the big surprise of the day was a flock of Oriental Greenfinches, feeding in the shallow, muddy ponds along the banks, formed by recent snow. It was hard as heck to get close enough to get decent shots, making me wish for a 20x optical zoom, but I was able to get some fair pictures of them. But I had to sneak up, and when I got too close, they’d fly a bit more down the riverbank, until they decided it was too far, and then they flew back to the original end. I must have followed them back and forth four or five times, till my finders almost froze, snapping away.

Their bodies have a greenish-grey color, but most impressive is the flash of bright yellow on their wings and tails. Here’s a slightly better, closer view of a few:

A better shot still, and a chance to note that the Greenfinches mixed together with local sparrows; take a close look, and you’ll spot a few of the finches’ plainer cousins:

Or a much better view here, with a finch and sparrow caught next to each other in flight:

Now, the value of digital cameras comes in the number of shots you can take without cost. I must have taken a hundred and fifty shots of the Greenfinches, and most were no good. But the benefit of taking so many shots is that you’re bound to get at least one great one–and here it is, a cropped version shown here, of a shot I got of the flock flying past me, in good focus, many with wings beautifully spread:

If you want to see a larger image, here’s one at 1000 pixels wide, and here’s the full-sized original (444 KB).

If I can get myself up early enough tomorrow, I’m going to try to stop by Meiji Shrine–I understand some interesting birds can be found there, and it’s almost right on my way to work anyway.

I went out today to see if I couldn’t get some birding done. Since I got the 10x Canon digicam, it’s a lot easier to take photos of the local wildlife as you don’t have to get too close to get a good shot. In particular, I’ve been wanting to get a good shot of a Wagtail, a nice black-and-white bird I’ve seen around town for some time, but have never gotten a decent snap of. So I went to the neighborhood park and to the Tama River to see what I could find. Here are the results:

When I first arrived at the local park, I saw a small flock of these birds, which resembled sparrows or chickadees. It is, in fact, the Great Tit (hey, I don’t make up these names); this is the best shot I could get of one. Despite hanging back to a distance of 10 meters or more, the birds were all rather skittish, and it was hard to get a good, clean shot.

The next bird was a pleasant surprise:

This is a Red-flanked Bluetail, also known as an Orange-flanked Bush-Robin. I was surprised to see such a colorful bird, though at first I didn’t even notice the flash of blue in the tail, or even the yellow spot under the wing:

This next bird is common enough:

The Jungle Crow, which sometimes seems to me like it’s got hair around its beak. These are big, loud pests all throughout Tokyo, cawing from the first stroke of dawn, and getting into the garbage left out for pickup and making a mess of it. Huge birds, these, and sometimes quite bold.

This bird was a bit of a surprise: the Brown-eared Bulbul. Never heard of it before, and had a bit of trouble identifying it, but there it was. A pair, actually, resting in a tree. Its feathers can stand out and look spiky at times.

This pretty little fellow had me fooled for a while–I thought it was some kind of wagtail–but it’s not, it’s a Dusky Thrush. I found it hopping along the ground outside the local tennis courts, cocking its head to listen for insects in the grass.

Then there were the usual ubiquitous Tree Sparrows, one of which I caught in flapping motion:

And finally, down near the river, gliding quietly atop the wind, a trio of Black Kites. Though I only caught solo photos, the three sometimes met up and tangled in the air–shots I missed and wished I hadn’t.

Not at all a bad collection for just spending a few hours within a kilometer of home. I never did get a Wagtail–next time, maybe–but I was pleasantly surprised by the variety I found. I always considered local birds to be limited to just a few–crows, sparrows, pigeons, and the occasional Wagtail or Kite. But looking at a variety of birding sites in Japan, it seems like there is a lot more out there than those birds and the Bluetail, Bulbul, Tit and Thrush. Come to think of it, we do get some Swallows from time to time–but they’re very hard to catch in flight.

The photos, by the way, are generally not reduced much in size, if at all–many are just cropped, and some are cropped and reduced.

I’m hoping to get out a bit more often, see if I can’t find some good birding spots, and get some more photos. Who knows, this could even turn into a hobby again–I used to belong to the Audubon Society when I was a kid.