Japan for Bird's Wildlife & Nature Tours - Day 6: 10th February 2025

A pre-breakfast drive out to Arasaki to watch the Cranes leaving their roost site and heading out into the fields to feed on the grain put out for them.  Despite the gloomy sunrise it was a very special experience as 12000 huge birds bugled over our heads.  The majority were the small sooty grey Hoodeds but the much larger and paler White-naped were obvious amongst them.

Mesmerised

We soon moved down the road to the viewing area where the majority were dropping in and quickly managed to find three Sandhill Cranes feeding right at the front of the flock on the road which was good news as they were even smaller looking than the Hoodeds.  Careful scanning saw us picking up four Common Cranes amongst the throng but there were no vagrant species this winter.

Sandhill Crane and Hoodeds

Spot the Common Cranes

Towering White-naped Crane

A Crane trio

Sandhill Crane

White-naped Cranes - so majestically elegant

Sandhill Cranes and friends

Two Tundra Bean Geese were with some Shelduck on the flooded field and 12 Lapwing moved through while up above we added a flock of 23 Daurian Jackdaws and our first Eastern Rooks.  Both Crows and Grey Herons were on the roads with the Cranes and Black-backed Wagtails and Siberian Pipits fed around the edges too.

Small groups of Japanese Skylarks milled around and although the books suggest little difference with our own ones they certainly sounded very different and felt a little smaller and slimmer.   The drainage channel behind us held a Common Sandpiper and an odd looking Common Snipe and a couple of ticking Chestnut-eared Buntings although getting a good on the deck view was tricky! 

Common Snipe

Common Snipe

Breakfast beckoned (there were some rolls and jam! And on tap coffee!) and so we headed back with the sound of Cranes lodged firmly in our heads.

We headed back out to Arasaki after refuelling and stopped to check several fields on the way where many small birds were gathering although it was the Eastern Rooks that caused us to actually pull over. Grey-capped Greenfinches, Chestnut-eared, Masked and Meadow Buntings were in the weedy areas with Pale and Dusky Thrushes venturing out into the ploughed fields.  Siberian and a couple of calling Red-throated Pipits joined some previously invisible Japanese Skylarks in a field and a cloud of 300 or so noisy Russet Sparrows came up and sat on the wires.  Cracking little birds and the females are particularly smartly marked. 

Russet Sparrows

Eastern Rooks

Eastern Rooks

Eastern Rooks - I do love Corvids

Russet Sparrows

Tree Sparrows were around the small traditional houses and Oriental Turtle Doves powered through while an almost sum plum Brambling called and then sat up for scope views.  I loved the combination of the familiar (or vaguely so) and the new.  Every day was a proper education.

The visitors centre beckoned and we spent a fantastic session scoping the fields from the top of the observation tower.  Hooded and White-napes were everywhere and the a wall of sound greeted you.  Amongst them we found a group of roosting Eurasian Spoonbills, Great and Little Egrets and a few more Shelduck but there was no sign of the Swan Goose. We had much better views of the Eastern Rooks and a Goshawk and Peregrine spooked the corvids and revealed a few Daurian Jackdaws amongst them which included at least two pied adults – most we saw were dusky immatures.

12,036 Hoodeds, 948 White-napes, 3 Sandhill, 4 Commons and 1 Common hybrid

Black-eared Kites cruised by us at eye level and a couple of Kestrels were seen.  They looked darker than our own. Some of the Hooded Cranes were close to the car park and were unphased by us watching them and the Camelia hedge held Pale Thrushes and Warbling White-eyes.

Where ever you went there were roadside Cranes

From here we headed towards the west fields and the river mouth which was controlled by a sluice.  The breeze had got up and it was a wee bit chilly but we were immediately warmed by a sleepy Black-faced Spoonbill while two of its European cousins loafed on the back with a Grey Heron.  There were Teal, Shoveler, Wigeon, Mallard, Coots and Moorhens and Japanese Bush Warblers tacked and moved through the reed base.

Black-faced Spoonbill 

Eurasian Spoonbill 

We followed the riverbank and there was plenty of Bunting action although getting good views of any of them was hard work.  A male Meadow Bunting gave itself up and even started singing and Masked were the most common species.  There were thick-billed Reed Buntings and a couple of Chestnut-eared and a brief views was had a what seemed to be a female type Ochre-rumped Bunting – a small pallid, stripy, buff rumped bird.   A Brambling was with some Greenfinches and Black-eared Kites, Peregrine and Eastern Buzzards were up over the forested treeline.

Meadow Buntings

The fields were scanned for that goose again but with no joy but we did find a Common Crane again out with the Hoodeds feeding there. We walked back to the vans and found seven Dunlin on the mud – all very long billed birds, and a single Common Sandpiper while Ospreys circled and attempted to hunt.

Lurking Common Crane with the Hoodeds

Osprey

Dunlin

The Black-faced Spoonbill had moved out onto the estuary and was feeding alongside hundreds of Mallard way off in a shallow margin and a couple of Vega Gulls loafed around. Back at the vans everyone was loading up when I saw a plump dove fly into the trees above us.  I put up my bins and it was green.  A quick shout and emergency scoping had us onto a fine male White-bellied Green Pigeon.  We he turned round you could even see his lilac shoulders.

Mallards

White-bellied Green Pigeon

Back to Izumi to pick up lunch passing at least 60 Falcated Ducks on the river from the road bridge before looping back inland and up to Kogawa where we had the White’s Thrush the previous evening. We started with lunch at the Crested Kingfisher bridge and annoyingly we could hear them as we got out but they vanished immediately once again.  A couple of female Red-flanked Bluetails were flycatching from rocks in the stream and there were Grey and Japanese Wagtails and several Daurian Redstarts.  I wandered off to ‘be with nature’ and found several more Bluetails including my first ever stunning male decked out in shining blue but could not relocate the Crested Kingfishers.  However I did discover a trio of Ryukyu Minivets which was one of the species we were after here and whistled at the crew up on the bridge to walk my way.  A couple of them connected but they are an arboreal species and the weather was not helping. 

Red-flanked Bluetail

A large Carp

Japanese Wagtail

Japanese Wagtail

Japanese Wagtail

Grey Wagtail - still my favourite bird and always a delight to see wherever I go

A White’s Thrush and a couple of Pale Thrushes came up from the path side and we heard both Japanese Pygmy and Green Woodpeckers. After more Bluetail and Wagtail watching we packed up and made our way up to the reservoir where a series of stops on our circumnavigation gave us some memorable moments.  A raft of dabblers out in the middle looked odd in my bins and I heard Dave on the radio say ‘Teal’.  We pulled over at the next bridge and scopes came out.  I had not heard the first word ‘Baikal’.  There were hundreds of them and we counted at least 540.  Not only were the males smart but it was my first encounter with the subtly marked females.  That loral spot is visible from a great distance. Twelve Mandarin flew out to join them and the Spot-billed Ducks before cruising off on their own.  There were Pochard, Tufted Ducks and Mallard too.  We could heard Varied, Long-tailed and Coal Tits in the trees around us.

A small part of the 540 Baikal Teal flock

Baikal Teal

More atmospheric Mandarins

The ladies in the back of my bus saw a Wild Boar in the trees as we followed the road around through vast stands of Giant Bamboo with glaucous ribbed stems. 

Pyrrosia piloselloides - a curious rook hugging fern with Pennywort like leaves and Adder's Tongue-like spore thingies!

Grey Bunting was another target here but their call is an incredibly high ‘tick’ so I took point on a stealthy search and soon picked up a couple of calls that Dave and most of the others could not hear and with some fieldcraft and patience we managed to see them well and get most of the party onto this secretive species.

Back at the vans there were clearly Buntings in the dead vegetation on the bluff above the river and again with some quiet and stealth we saw Masked, Meadow and Rustic and even a brief female-type Yellow-throated but the light was fading and we were getting cold too.

A noisy Crested Kingfisher saw us off.  They almost look blue in flight and not far down the road Dave’s van flushed a Pale Thrush and a Bunting from the track. They landed and we briefly stopped only to see a female Grey Bunting grovelling below us before it realised we were there and scooted off!

It had been quite a day and dinner was taken at local family restaurant where the thin pan fried pork with ginger was superb!