Birdwatch's team blog

Leaving Japan

Two of the most special places came right at the very end of the trip. One of these, the Commander Islands, I had never visited before. Named after Commander Vitus Bering, who died there in 1741, they are the western most islands in the Aleutian chain and are home to some spectacular seabird populations.

Our first stop was at the only settlement at Nilonskoye, where the museum holds a skeleton of the extinct Steller's Sea Cow. As our Zodiacs arrived onshore we were greeted by a small group of Rock Sandpipers in splendid breeding plumage. On some nearby exposed mud were Dunlin feeding, many of them in song and perhaps breeding on the nearby tundra. With them were a few Lesser Sand Plovers of the race mongolicus with their bright orange faces. Singing from clumps of vegetation and feeding near the shoreline were Lapland Buntings in their vivid black-and-chestnut breeding colours, occasionally fluttering up in display flight, giving their delightful song.

One other important site was the rocky island of Ariy Kamen, a guano-clad islet which support good numbers of one special bird – the Red-legged Kittiwake, a species I have only seen perched at a distance or in flight. Closely related to our Kittiwake, it has a slightly darker grey mantle, a smaller head and beak, and glowing red legs. Alongside it were occasional Red-faced Cormorants, another unusual seabird of the region. Brunnich's and Common Guillemots crowded onto the ledges and there were good numbers of Tufted Puffins, although very few Horned Puffins were seen and even fewer Parakeet Auklets.

The last port of call was the Zupanova River, north of Petropavlovsk, on the Kamchatka Peninsula. This huge winding river, forming inland lakes and peppered with islands, is the perfect home for one of the world's most spectacular birds, Steller's Sea Eagle. Breathtakingly beautiful and hugely impressive, it nests in trees along the river, taking advantage of the plentiful salmon, which were just about to enter the river to spawn. Several nests were seen and this massive raptor treated us to amazing views as it soared above us.

One last treat for the birders was a lone Aleutian Tern, black-billed like the Common Terns here, but smaller and sporting a bright white forehead. The trip had recorded about 150 bird species in all and was a fascinating look at what the Eastern Palearctic has to offer. During a brief stop in Moscow on the way home it was interesting to see the city’s parks replete with Fieldfares, including a few recently hatched youngsters, rather than Blackbirds feeding on the grass.

Chris Harbard
----

This is the last of Chris's blogs from Japan and Russia, but look out next week for his tales from St Kilda, the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland. Also check out our gallery for Chris's images.

Posted by Birdwatch

Sunday Sun

June 27th; For once I was glad of the cold hide at Seaforth as the sun beat down all weekend. Normally we locals moan about the coldest hide in Britain and stand outside to bask in the sun, but today we stayed inside and welcomed the sea breeze that came in through the windows...

The birds also seemed affected by the heat with little activity taking place, and the only species of real interest was a Roseate Tern putting in a guest appearance amongst the Common Terns, while a loan Sedge Warbler sang in the reedbed.

Earlier in the week I'd maintained my butterfly interest and visited a site along the coast and seen up to 6 Dark Green Fritillaries; also plenty of Small Tortoiseshells and Meadow Browns present.

Back at the reserve 2 female Broad Bodied Chasers, 4 Large Skippers, 3 Red Admirals and good numbers of Meadow Browns were just enough to keep the camera busy while the birds are quiet.

Steve Young

Posted by Birdwatch

Heads Were Dancing

June 15th; A birdless day, not by choice but just because there wasn't anything new or different at the local patch.

A male Peregrine almost reduced our breeding Common Terns by one, but just missed and drifted away, disgruntled over the docks.

Other "highlights" included a singing Sedge Warbler...

And so I turned to insects and things like that; two female Broad-bodied Chasers still around and posing for photos, but much rarer was a female Black-tailed Skimmer.

Also photographed were; Small Tortoiseshell, Large Skipper, Large White and a Common Darter at close range that had a fascinating habit of almost dancing it's head from side to side and up and down...

Now in true insect mode it was on to bees, ants, hoverfly and finally a ladybird that wasn't our "normal"one but a Harlequin, that apparently destroys all others before it.

Stocked up my feeding station and added Speckled Wood to the photo list for the day. Sometimes its nice to get away from the birds for a while, this could become a butterfly blog soon.

Steve Young

Posted by Birdwatch

Mountains of Love

June 12th: Finally made the journey up a welsh mountain to see the singing Marmora's Warbler. A nice, showy bird in desperate need of a mate and some loving...Whinchat, Tree Pipit, Stonechat and Raven also around this very scenic area.

And then it was on to a welsh wood for the singing Iberian Chiffchaff. This is the "3rd" time I've seen this species, but neither of the others have been accepted, maybe this time I'll get lucky and add this stunning bird to my list...distinctive song, similar but not the same as my previous two, do any of these sing the same ditty?

I'd like to say they are a distinctive looker, but if they didn't sing I'm not convinced they'd ever be identified...not many autumn records are there?

Steve Young

Posted by Birdwatch

Something to auk about

The last four days have been a veritable aukfest as we travelled up the Kuril Island chain and included a visit to Yankicha Island, which hosts what must be the world’s most incredible seabird spectacular. Arriving there you are greeted by tight flocks of thousands of Crested Auklets flying past and calling. Among them are some of the smaller, and definitely cuter, Whiskered Auklets.

The island itself is a volcano caldera which has collapsed on one side, allowing the sea in. The inner slopes of it are a main breeding ground for the auklets. On the outer stacks of the islands are Kittiwakes, Brunnich’s Guillemots, while on the sea are Tufted Puffins. We sailed inside the caldera in our Zodiacs and found some more familiar birds – Common Teal, Eurasian Wigeon, Pintail and Black-headed Gulls, along with something more eastern in the form of a pair of Falcated Ducks.

We spent most of the morning and afternoon exploring the island, waiting for the phenomenal finale at the end of the day as auklets began to arrive from out at sea in their tens of thousands. An estimated 600,000 birds breed there, and this was totally believable as we watched the swirling haze of birds gather around the island. It was impossible to even attempt to count them as they performed their aerial ballet for our delight.

Other seabirds included many Laysan Albatrosses, our first Fork-tailed Storm-petrels, Red-faced Cormorants and the localised Spectacled Guillemot. The Pigeon Guillemots have been interesting as they are of the local race snowi, which has no, or little, white wing-patch. Almost every island stop along the Kurils gave us a chance to see one of the finest seaducks – the Harlequin. You just cannot see too many of these charming birds which frequent the edges of most bays and rocky shores, sometimes with Black Scoter.

Chris Harbard

Posted by Birdwatch

I've Been This Way Before...

June 9th: "So, how do we tell Swift from Swallow"? Don't worry, they weren't birders asking the question, but golfers.Every year the same question is asked in the summer months when flocks of Swift, Swallow and House Martin gather near the sewage works that border the course I regularly play on.

Try as you may, you can never really get away from birding and I often find myself calling out birds during a round as though I was out with birders; "Buzzard", shouted during someone's backswing doesn't go down too well...

Then comes the dreaded mystery bird question, usually begun with; "You know a bit about birds don't you"? There then follows a description of an unknown species seen in a garden that would defy even the BBRC to identify it.

"It was this big", (arms held three feet apart), "Grey and pink with a bit of blue in it somewhere". Suggestions of Jay are laughed off; "I know what a Jay looks like, thought you knew about birds"?

Once again the differences are explained between Swift and Swallow, but I know from the almost blank looks and "Oh, I see" comments, that it hasn't sunk in and next year we will all be here again.

Steve Young

Posted by Birdwatch

Another Day

June 5th; Another very quiet day at the local patch; bird highlights were two Arctic Terns amongst the five hundred Commons (low tide so numbers down) and a Ist summer Kittiwake, like I said...quiet.

But being a warm day there were a few butterflies out so a bit of time spent photographing some of these. We aren't blessed with any rare or scarce species here, but Large Skippers are always nice to see and good numbers of Common Blue and Small Heath were also enjoying the sun.

Also exploring the reserve were two female Broad-bodied Chasers and a Silver-Y Moth; there's always something to look at and enjoy on your patch if you look hard enough.

Steve Young

Posted by Birdwatch

Hooked on the Memory...

June 3rd: All quiet on the local patch front, with just memories of last weeks birds to keep us going.

Incredible numbers of Common Terns around at the moment, with up to one thousand birds on the causeway today and yesterday. Presumably this means that breeding has failed somewhere...

Apart from 3 Sandwich Terns couldn't find anything else with them today, not even an Arctic Tern despite five hours searching.

After discussions in the hide the two scrapes have now been re-named Plover Scrape and Phal Scrape, instead of the carefully thought out right-hand and left-hand scrapes. This follows historic naming of sites such as Blackpoll Bushes and Icky Bushes, the latter demolished some years back to make way for new storage sheds.

Plover Scrape did indeed have a plover on it today, a Lapwing following in the footsteps of the White-tailed and a LRP fed briefly, while Phal Scrape was decidedly devoid of any phalaropes, with just a Moorhen and Mallard.

So it's back to reality at our local patch and more countless hours of searching for the next scarcity or rarity, but every time any of us look at either scrape the memories come flooding back of that last week in May.

Steve Young

Posted by Birdwatch

The same but different

Clipper Odyssey docked at Tomakomai in Hokkaido on Tuesday morning (25 May) and I helped to lead a birding walk at Lake Utonai nearby. We were greeted on our arrival by a very confiding Whooper Swan, which had not yet migrated north, and soon picked out some birds of prey over the reeds and trees at the back of the lake.

Most of them were Black-eared Kites, a common bird in Japan, but one lighter-coloured bird with more angled wings proved to be an Eastern Marsh Harrier, closely related to, but distinctly different from, Marsh Harriers in Britain. All of these were suddenly dwarfed by a huge adult White-tailed Eagle, soon followed by a younger bird with a dark tail.

There were few waders, but a couple of Latham’s Snipe were seen by most and one of the best birds of the day was a Black-winged Stilt, feeding at the far end of the lake – a rarity on Hokkaido. In the trees around the lake were Oriental Greenfinch and Russet Sparrow, both familiar looking but excitingly different birds from their British equivalents.

A small bird feeding high in a tree revealed itself to be one of the few Oriental species which make it into the north of Japan – a Japanese White-eye with its bright olive-green body.

At the next stop the first sound we heard was the Hoopoe-like call of an Oriental Cuckoo which eventually showed itself. This bird is virtually indistinguishable from its common relative if silent. In the tall trees next to this lake Eastern Crowned Warblers could be heard, and one or two were seen high in the canopy.

A Brown-headed Thrush was glimpsed and one lucky passenger described a beautiful male Narcissus Flycatcher he had seen – the rest of us had to make do with the less colourful Asian Brown Flycatcher. But the highlight was a fantastic Sakhalin Leaf Warbler, picked out by resident bird expert Mark Brazil and an unexpected lifer for me!

Returning to the ship we headed north towards Kushiro during the afternoon, and having had such a good morning were now treated to an equally astonishing abundance of seabirds, passing through feeding frenzies of thousands of Red-necked and Grey Phalaropes, wheeling flocks of Short-tailed Shearwaters, a flotilla of Pacific Divers and ever-fluttering Rhinoceros Auklets with their smaller cousins, Ancient Murrelets.

The rarest bird of the day was surprising. It was a Magpie, rare in Japan and a very recent colonist to Hokkaido and difficult to find. Although superficially the same as ours, it is genetically distinct and may one day prove to be a satisfying armchair tick.

Posted by Birdwatch