BIRDING JAPAN: Hokkaido Day One

From Tokyo, we took an early morning flight into Kushiro, before driving to the Hickory Wind Wilderness Lodge. Along the way were many black-eared kites, and I got my first look at some stunning red-crowned cranes. In the woodland around the lodge itself was a small mixed flock of Eurasian nuthatches and marsh tits. We left the lodge for lunch, before heading off on a guided canoe trip down the Kushiro River.

BLACK-EARED KITE Milvus lineatus

RED-CROWNED CRANE Grus japonensis

EURASIAN NUTHATCH Sitta europaea asiatica

MARSH TIT Poecile palustris hensoni

On the canoe trip itself we saw several flocks of black-faced buntings and many black-eared kites overhead. A distant grey-headed woodpecker was heard but not seen. We got great views of 2 white-tailed eagles scanning the river for prey. An American mink and many Sika deer were also seen.

WHITE-TAILED EAGLE Haliaeetus albicilla

BIRDING JAPAN: Tokyo Disneyland

Both days in Tokyo were spent in and around Disneyland, thus birding opportunities were limited. A fair number of species was still present in the park grounds: very tame Oriental turtledoves, white-cheeked starlings, Eurasian tree sparrows, feral pigeons and brown-eared bulbuls were abundant. A pond next to the castle held my first Eastern spot-billed duck, and was being used as a bath by a flock of white-cheeked starlings. 

WHITE-CHEEKED STARLING Sturnus cineraceus

EASTERN SPOT-BILLED DUCK Anas zonorhyncha

EURASIAN TREE SPARROW Passer montanus

BROWN-EARED BULBUL Hypsipetes amaurotis

BIRDING JAPAN: Kyoto and Surrounds

My family and I recently travelled to Japan. We spent our first few days in Kyoto, followed by a day in Tokyo, 5 days in Hokkaido and another day in Tokyo.

The morning of our first day in Kyoto was spent walking to a stretch of the Kamo River, for our first taste of Japan's birds. Throughout the city, Eurasian tree sparrows were extremely common, along with large-billed and carrion crows. Once we arrived at the river, I immediately spotted a beautiful Japanese wagtail searching a nearby pile of rocks for food. The river also held several white wagtails, mallards, grey herons, great egrets and little egrets. While walking, a black-eared kite flew overhead, mobbed by several crows. Finally, as we left the river a lone white-cheeked starling was seen. 

JAPANESE WAGTAIL Motacilla grandis

CARRION CROW Corvus corone orientalis

WHITE WAGTAIL Motacilla alba lugens

MALLARD Anas platyrhynchos

GREAT EGRET Egretta alba

GREY HERON Ardea cinerea jouyi

LARGE-BILLED CROW Corvus macrorhynchos japonensis

Our next destination was the Imperial Palace, which we reached quickly by subway. In the gardens, there were several large, mixed flocks of eastern great tits and long-tailed tits. 2 Japanese pygmy-woodpeckers were the highlight of the day. In the palace itself were several grey herons and 2 Oriental turtledoves. 

LONG-TAILED TIT Aegithalos caudatus trivirgatus

JAPANESE PYGMY-WOODPECKER Yungipicus kizuki nippon

ORIENTAL TURTLEDOVE Streptopelia orientalis

On our second day in Kyoto, we caught the train to Nara and visited Nara Park. Though this was not very productive bird-wise, it gave us close views of the resident, tame Sika deer.

SIKA DEER Cervus nippon

On our third day, we visited Arashiyama Monkey Park and a nearby bamboo grove. Along with many  Japanese macaques, a small feeding flock of Japanese white-eyes and long-tailed tits was seen, along with a single Japanese pygmy-woodpecker. On our way down from the park, we saw our first brown-eared bulbuls. The grove itself held no wildlife of interest, though a lone Temminck's cormorant flew overhead as we were walking.

JAPANESE MACAQUE Macaca fuscata

BROWN-EARED BULBUL Hypsipetes amaurotis

Our final day in Kyoto was spent visiting the Hiroshima Peace Museum, and, aside from a few Eurasian tree sparrows, no birds were seen.

Birding Lake Lorne

Today I visited Lake Lorne with a few friends, hoping to show them a variety of waterbirds. In particular, I wanted to get better photos of freckled and blue-billed ducks.
Almost immediately upon arriving at the lake, we observed large numbers of freckled ducks and pink-eared ducks, resting on a distant island, while many chestnut teal and Pacific black ducks were swimming closer to shore. A few little pied cormorants were perched high in trees on this island, and a group of Eurasian coots were grazing nearby. A lone purple swamphen was also seen. Shrubs around the lake held superb fairy-wrens, little wattlebirds, spotted turtledoves and noisy miners.

Several pink-eared ducks shared this branch with a lone freckled duck

We walked around the lake, and were able to get close views of a flock of pink-eared ducks. While passing some reeds, we spotted 2 nearby blue-billed ducks, an Australasian grebe, some black swans and several hardheads. As we finished our walk, several dusky moorhens and Pacific black ducks were seen on the lakeshore.

The pink-eared duck is a very social bird, rarely seen alone

The blue-billed duck is part of a group of ducks which all have stiff tail feathers

The Australasian grebe is one of 3 species of grebe in Victoria

Weekend in Portland

Since school holidays had begun last week, I spent this weekend in Portland. My family and I stayed one night in the town, leaving late the next day. Our main goal was to search the Lee Breakwater area for brown skua, a bird that sometimes visits the breakwater in winter. Though we were unsuccessful, we still saw a variety of other birds.

Most birdwatching was done along Lee Breakwater Road, and at the breakwater itself. Around the breakwater were many black-faced cormorants and silvergulls. A lone Pacific gull was also seen on the breakwater. We visited the breakwater 4 times, but were unable to find the skua. We later heard from a local fisherman that the skua hadn't been seen for a while. The foreshore around the breakwater held masked lapwings, kelp gulls, crested terns, little black cormorants, little pied cormorants and Australian pied oystercatchers.

The crested tern is Victoria's commonest species of tern

Kelp gulls are a recent arrival to Australia, colonising southern Victoria in the 1940s

This immature kelp gull looks totally different to the adult

The Australian pied oystercatcher is one of two oystercatchers in Australia

Black-faced cormorants are endemic to Australia

We also visited the gannet colony at Point Danger, where we saw large numbers of Australasian gannets, both at the colony and at a distance on Lawrence Rocks.

Point Danger has Victoria's only mainland colony of Australasian gannets

Thousands of Australasian gannets were resting on Lawrence Rocks

Returning to Long Forest

After a long while, today I decided to visit Long Forest Conservation Reserve, with my father and some friends. This time, we walked along the Happy Valley Track. On the way to the reserve, we saw a large flock of red-rumped parrots perched on a fence beside the road.
Initially, few birds were seen. A small flock of brown thornbills, a lone flame robin and 2 weebills quickly moved through the forest as we walked along the trail. A common bronzewing startled us when it suddenly flew out of the bushes and landed in a nearby tree, allowing us to get some photos.

The common bronzewing is one of 3 bronzewing pigeons in Australia

We then came into a gully filled with flowering gum trees. Immediately, we were surrounded by calling yellow-tufted honeyeaters, as well as lifer brown-headed honeyeaters. A single scarlet robin darted into a distant tree, as several 'yellow-rumped' spotted pardalotes searched the tops of trees for food.

Victoria's national bird is a rare subspecies of the yellow-tufted honeyeater

The brown-headed honeyeater feeds mainly on insects

As we headed back to the carpark, we came across several large bull ants and took a few photos of them.

Most bull ants have very large eyes for their size.

Back to the Bluff

For the Easter weekend, we decided to drive down to Barwon Bluff and explore the rockpools again. We were unable to explore the intertidal platform, but we did get a look at various species on the basalt platform. Rocks high up on the beach were encrusted in blue periwinkles, ribbed top shells, false limpets, variegated limpets, tube worms and striped conniwinks. A rock lower down to the shore also held a few wine-mouthed lepsiellas. We searched several large rockpools in the basalt boulder field, and were able to find a few large zebra fish in one of the deeper pools, though they quickly hid underneath some algae when we approached. A little later, after the tide had swept over much of the boulder field, we spotted a few young zebra fish, as well as two biscuit stars and a single common seastar hiding in crevices. Some of the basalt boulders were coated in honeycomb barnacles, and black nerites hiding in small gaps. Bird-wise, some crested terns and silvergulls were flying overhead as we searched through the rockpools.

Large honeycomb barnacles joined black nerites and false limpets on this rock.

We saw many ribbed top shells throughout the beach

As always, periwinkles were abundant, clinging to rocks high on the beach

The wine-mouthed lepsiella feeds on barnacles and tube worms

Biscuit stars vary greatly in colour: compare this star to the one below.

This biscuit star, in contrast to the last one, was bright pinkish-red

Striped conniwinks were common pretty much throughout the beach

Hundreds of tube worms and false limpets were clinging to this rock

Just as before, we saw a great variety of marine animals. However, this time we saw far fewer seabirds, probably because it wasn't as windy, so shearwaters and gannets weren't being driven towards the shore.