7th February:
It was an early snowy start to the day and a pre-breakfast jaunt took us in search of secretive Copper Pheasants in the broadleaved woodlands along the Old Route 18. The scenery was spectacular as the watery sun rose creating overlapping triangular hillsides topped with skeletal winter trees that looked a water colour painting. I am sure there is a word for the hazy line that divides such boundaries between receding hills. It never shows properly in photos so I took some of the hillsides when the sun eventually reached them.
The snow increased as we climbed, in theory making pheasant
discovery easier but alas we were thwarted and finding then against the
identically coloured leaf litter would have been just pure luck. There were birds though and a good stop at
the only car park revealed several drumming White-backed Woodpeckers that
eventually gave themselves up. Japanese
Pygmy buzzed over – they do make a very strange call.
Our first white-eyed Japanese Jays were found in fast moving
gangs. They seem skinnier than our own
and have black eye make-up accentuating the white irises. The ‘usual’ Tits were
all encountered and Nuthatches were heard again.
There was other wildlife too with 13 Sika on the slopes and
we were lucky enough to find two separate Serow methodically searching through
the leaf litter although I am not quite
sure what they were after. The one we
stopped for was completely un-phased and watched us with big dark eyes. A bit like Chinese Water Deer; there is an almost
Wombatesque feel to the faces of these hirsute ungulates.
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| Serow |
Back up and down again for breakfast and a chance to watch
the Jap Jays and Varied Tits coming to the table while we got lucky and a
Japanese Squirrel briefly came in looking like a small grey Red Squirrel with a
Grey Squirrel patterned tail if that makes sense!
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| A ghostly Willow Tit |
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| Japanese Tit |
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| Japanese Jay G.g. japonicus |
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| Grey-capped Greenfinch |
It started to snow again as we headed out for the morning but we were descending to a lower elevation to investigate an area of farm fields around Hochi and thankfully it had let up before we reached there. Buntings were immediately obvious and we quickly picked up several groups of beautifully marked Meadow Buntings. In flight you get a Yellowhammer vibe with the long tail. There were a few Rustic Buntings and Tree Sparrows with them and a female Long-tailed Rosefinch put in a brief appearance.
Our main target here was Japan’s national bird – the Green
Pheasant and this is a tricky time of year to see them but luck was with us and
we found two splendid males in one spot although they were very skittish and
were soon gone.
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| Meadow Bunting |
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| Meadow Bunting |
Time
to head back into town for lunch and then just outside town for another walk in
the woods. It was snowing again when we got out at forest pond. It was full of dabbling duck and we were pleased
to find that amongst the Wigeon were 14 Falcated Ducks. It was like being at an
Epping Forest pond where normally wild and nervous wildfowl suddenly become
used to people and just get on with doing ducky things. There were Shoveler, Gadwall and Mallard too.
A drake Falcated always feels like it has been put together out of duck spare
parts with its curious pied neck choker, white frontal spot above the bill,
stupidly long tertials and expended crested nape. It was good to see the females close too with
their boxy head and all black bill in a Wigeon-like body. We also heard the males whistling – a double
type note with a Curlew type quality. How wondrous.
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| Just remember this picture of a pond covered in 'tame' duck next time you are worrying about wildfowl provenance. |
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| Wigeon |
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| Shoveler |
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| Mallard |
Japanese Pygmy Woodpeckers put on a show around us and a Great
Spotted Woodpecker was our trip first.
Two Japanese Accentors could be heard calling and a female Daurian
Redstart was in the willows.
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| Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker |
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| Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker |
We soon set of into the trees and soon found our main prize
here when two male and three female Long-tailed Rosefinches hopped out on the
path side to feed in the grassy remnants there. We could never get close but
they were cracking little birds. The
males all decked out in red, pink, black and white and the buffy females
obviously sporting two bold white wing bars.
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| Long-tailed Rosefinches |
There was more Woodpecker action and Japanese Green showed
briefly again and we at last got a view of the local ‘amurensis’ Nuthatches
which looked like our own but with a far fainter apricot wash on the ventral
area. Treecreepers were also seen well along with many Coal Tits and Long-tails
high in the Larches.
We also got very lucky with more Japanese Accentors with a calling
bird one side and three more fossicking in brush piles on the other. Dave said he almost never sees more than one
so to have six at one site was very notable.
The pitch of the call is slightly different to our own but you would
recognise it as a Dunnock and plumage wise they are ‘smoother’ looking if that
makes sense and a shade paler all over.
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| Japanese Accentor |
Back at the vans the Falcated Ducks were now shining in some
sunshine and required another session.
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| Falcated Ducks, Wigeon and Gadwall |
The Old Route 18 was tackled again afterwards but despite a
good walk down the road we failed to find any Copper Pheasants but we knew that
this was an incredibly difficult species to find so just enjoyed the
Woodpeckers again including an obliging Green and best of all a Red-flanked
Bluetail flashing that tail in a roadside clearing. This was my first outside of the UK. A young Red Fox watched us from the bank as we
made our way back to the hotel for dinner.
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| Japanese Green Woodpecker |
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| Japanese Green Woodpecker |
8th February
It was going to be another very heavy travelling day so we
made a final run at the Karuizawa snow road in town before breakfast. It had snowed overnight and we were the first
vehicles up the road. It was -7c but
still and crisp and at least here a Copper Pheasant would stand out if it moved
even slightly.
The 17 Mandarins were still on their pool and the first of
six Brown Dippers were seen along with three Woodpecker species, Tits and
Nuthatches but we had to wait till almost at the top of the road before I glanced
down and saw a stonking male Pheasant at the streamside. He lingered long
enough to get my bus on to him and I radioed Dave ahead. It soon scuttled up
the bank and thankfully ran in his direction allowing his crew to also see it.
You make your own luck.
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| Copper Pheasant thumbs! |
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| Loved the four light colours of blue sky, golden trees, white snow and blue-grey shadow |
It was time to move on and so began an interesting exercise in
Japanese travel. We dropped the vans back off and walked across the road to
catch the Shinkansen back to Tokyo but the normally to the minute departures
were delayed by severe weather at the north end of Honshu and we were about 30
minutes late leaving. The Bullet train was loaded with blanks that day and top
started its way back to the capital with each station stop becoming longer.
Plan B was enacted and we abandoned the Bullet in the northern outskirts and
made our way onto the Underground (which like the London one is above ground
out of town) to jiggle our way to the Central station. From here we changed up the tickets and got
the monorail to T1 to catch our flight back south to Kagoshima airport on
Kyushu.
Fuji was again looking majestic and a landscape of rolling wooded hills surrounding rounded volcanos appeared as we descended to land. We had dinner in the airport where the menu in its constructed state had been somehow encapsulated for posterity making choosing an option a somewhat more visual experience!
A quick bus to the new vans and then we were off again on the drive to Kadogawa for the night although I have to admit I can remember nothing about where we actually stayed.
