Japan for Bird's Wildlife & Nature Tours - Day 1: 5th February 2025

An early rise with a grand view towards the city and the gleaming Mount Fuji before catching the bus into town to the station.  I am not a urbanite but could not fail to be impressed by the sheer colossal scale of place with its towering office and housing blocks crammed into any available vertical space, offset by sweeping elevated roads and bridges, curving monorail and gleaming waterways.  Everything was clean and shiny.  We were efficiently deposited at the railway station to catch the Shinkansen to Karuizawa.

The exceptionally well organised taxi rank

Getting a sense of the speed of the Bullet beast was difficult until we were out in the countryside and at that point we topped at 277kph.  Little was seen as the landscape hurtled by but Fuji was still unobscured by cloud.

We arrived in snow and picked our way through the skiers and snowboarders to the first vans of the trip. Travelling out of town, we made our first 7-11 lunch stop where the magical world of a Japanese convenience store was laid out before us.  Grub in hand we moved just up the road and stopped in the shadow of recently dormant volcano by a traditional red bridge. 

Grey-capped Greenfinches, Tree Sparrows and Brown-eared Bulbuls were around us and the reed fringed river held several Teal and a mixed flock of Rustic and Meadow Buntings that then moved into the adjacent field to feed on the grasses poking through the snow.

Rustic and Meadow Buntings

Onwards to Lake Toden and the stony, braided Chikuma River where we hoped to find the scarce Long-billed Plover amongst other things.  It was now windy and bitterly cold but it was a good first session in the field and we soon found two of our target waders pretending to be river cobbles.  Duck were everywhere with all the regular dabblers and our first flouncy Falcated Ducks. 

Long-billed Plover

Long-billed Plover - Dave Farrow

Long-billed Plover - Dave Farrow

Pintail

Falcated Duck

The lake held a large number of Spot-billed Ducks along with Goosanders, 14 Smew and other dabbling ducks while a huddle or Grey Herons hunkered down on the bank out of the wind. 

Spot-billed Ducks

Smew and Teal

Grey Herons feeling the cold

Black-eared Kites scoured the river for scraps with our first Oriental Crows in tow and the ever present Thick-billed Crows kronking away. A pale Eastern Buzzard – like a small Rough-leg – hovered overhead and was buzzed by a Peregrine. 

Black-eared Kite

 Eastern Buzzard

Oriental Crow

There was plenty of small bird action too with raspy Japanese Wagtails and chiswicking Black-backs, a stunning adult male Bull-headed Shrike, Rustic Bunting and a male Daurian Redstart down in the willow margins.

Japanese Wagtail

With the cold getting through and a drive ahead of us we retraced our steps and spent a few minutes watching Grey-capped Greenfinches around the car park where White-cheeked Starlings and Tree Sparrows were feeding in the shrivelled Persimmons on a tree there.

White-cheeked Starling

White-cheeked Starling

Tree Sparrow

Tree Sparrow Tree

The weather soon deteriorated and we cut through countless tunnels between valleys with different levels of snow cover.  It was quiet bird wise but thousands of White-cheeked Starlings swirled over the road in response to a male Goshawk. It was dark and snowing by the time we arrived at our hotel in Udanaka where a lavish Kaiseki banquet awaited us.  It was a little daunting but we were now in no doubt that we were visiting a very different culture to our own.

The tatami mat rooms were exquisite but I required more than one floor mattress to get myself comfy!