YOUNG BIRDER'S NOTES: BIRDING JAPAN: Hokkaido Day Five

The first birds of the day were seen right after breakfast, when Mr. Take showed us some birds he had caught for banding earlier, and released them. A red-flanked bluetail, black-faced bunting, grey bunting and winter wren were all released before us.

RED-FLANKED BLUETAIL Luscinia cyanura

WINTER WREN Troglodytes troglodytes fumigatus

BLACK-FACED BUNTING Emberiza spodocephala personata

Then, we drove to Ochiishi for a cruise around the nearby islands, where several auks could apparently be seen. We were unlucky on our cruise, as the weather was extremely calm and all our views were extremely distant. Some sea otters and harbour seals that I couldn't get a good look at were seen by others. Bird-wise, many slaty-backed gulls, pelagic cormorants, Temminck's cormorants and black-tailed gulls were abundant, but only one group of auklets was seen: a small flock of rhinoceros auklets that briefly dashed past the boat.
On our return to the harbour, we set off on a guided trip with Mr. Take to Cape Nosappu. Along the way, we stopped at several small lakes that were full of waterbirds. Eurasian wigeons, Northern shovelers, spot-billed ducks, common teal and a lone tufted duck were seen, along with a black-necked grebe and a fishing gull-billed tern. In the scrub around one of these lakes were several Siberian stonechats. We also stopped at some sites Mr. Take knew to be good for gulls, and were able to find an immature glaucous-winged gull, along with some glaucous gulls. Finally, we reached Cape Nosappu and immediately spotted a stunning male Harlequin duck in the distance, with a few females swimming much closer in. With Mr. Take's scope, we also saw a pigeon guillemot: a rare bird in Hokkaido! On the way back, we scanned several areas where cormorants were resting, but were unable to find our target (the red-faced cormorant), though pelagic cormorants and Temminck's cormorants were seen in large numbers.