Japan for Bird's Wildlife & Nature Tours - Day 11 & 12: 15th & 16th February 2025

15th February: 

I was down early at Yoroushi Onsen for breakfast and had the place to myself.  It was blue and sparkly outside with fresh snow on the ground.  A Brown Dipper was the first bird of the day and a pair were seen throughout breakfast. The bird tables were topped up and the locals soon came in with gangs of rather stunning Brandt’s Jays with stick on orange heads and grey backs looking so different from the white-eyed Honshu birds and our own back home.

Brown Dipper

Brown Dipper

Brown Dipper

Brandt’s Jay

Brandt’s Jay

Brandt’s Jay

Japanese and Marsh Tits came and went but the latter were truly very confusing.  They were as pallid as the Willow Tits but also had the tell-tale pale wing panel.  To make matters more interesting they called like Willow Tits but were quite clearly a Marsh Tit structurally and plumage wise in other respect even down to the pale silvery bill cutting edges.  I think some further work is needed on these confusing birds.

Marsh Tit

Marsh Tit

Marsh Tit - Simon Stirrup

The local ‘clara’ Nuthatches were also dashing in and out but unlike the ‘hondoensis’ Honshu birds, these were strikingly different being almost just steely blue and white with almost no under tail covert marks, a shorter looking bill and a long white supercilium that swept around and over the bill. They felt quite different and smaller compared to the pale Scandinavian birds I have seen before.  So much to learn. 

‘clara’ Nuthatch

‘clara’ Nuthatch

Great Spotted Woodpeckers were regular and seemed to have less white on the scapulars but more on the coverts and dusky cheeks but of the expected white-headed Long-tailed Tits there was no sign at all.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker - Simon Stirrup

I headed out to check the river for Solitary Snipe but I saw nothing really, other than some Bulbuls, Siskins and a Wren.  We shall not talk too much about the fraught ten minutes  after realising the van keys had fallen out of my pocket in the snow somewhere.  I got very lucky and found them sitting on to of some deep snow I had stumbled in!  

Epic tidal wave of icy wonderment

In the meantime I had missed a Crested Kingfisher from the warmth inside but did find a female Hawfinch munching Maple seeds upon my return.  A tufty Red Squirrel worked its way down the wooded slope to get to the feeders. 

Hawfinch

Hawfinch

Red Squirrel 

Red Squirrel - Simon Stirrup

Sadly it was time to leave and hit the icy roads as we wiggled our way back down to the coast.  Both Eagles were seen on the way along with many Sika and several fluffy Foxes.

Red-crowned Crane, Red Fox, Oriental Crow and Human all co-existing

A quick roadside stop at the lagoon at Hamahaka gave us three families totally 16 Whooper Swans and the usual dabblers.  The Pintail looked particularly smart.  A flock of Goosanders did not tolerate our presence and soon moved on and the lack of feeling in our fingers saw us leaving soon too.

Whooper Swan

Goosanders

Wigeon & Pintail

Whooper Swans

We continued on to the car park at the end of Cape Kiritappu Misaki where the views across the bays on either side were magnificent. A quick scan before heading out revealed Great Crested Grebes, Mergansers, Goldeneye, Harlequins and Red-throated Divers but the wind was bitter so we walked out to the very end where the path dropped slightly and actually left us out of the breeze and able to enjoy the seascape around us.

The first scan produced several Red-necked Grebes which seemed longer necked and heavier and longer billed than our own all fitting with ‘holbollii’ that winters here.  There were more duck and a couple of Steller’s Sea Eagles were perched up on random sea stacks.

Holboll's Red-necked Grebe

Down at the very end there were Slaty-backed and Glaucous-winged Gulls on the outcrops where the sea was cold enough for the waves to have frozen like some extreme icy cake topping on the rocks. Sea Otters were very high on the ‘want’ list for here and Dave picked one up between the stacks below.  I was not expecting them to be so big! Yet another TV moment ‘ Sea Otter swimming on back banging rock on belly’.  Two were seen but they were very mobile and covered a large area.  Two Harbour Seals bobbed around.

Sea Otter

A few Pelagic Cormorants were feeding close in and a little further back we found two Spectacled Guillemots and a Pigeon Guillemot that showed the diagnostic white wing patch with dark internal comma. A final life tick for me for the trip.

Pigeon Guillemot - Dave Farrow

A Rainham Marshes double for those that believe...

The cold had found its way down to us so we clambered back up and had lunch lurking in the vans before surreptitiously cruising the little roads trying not to stop and look at the flock of about 150 Asian Rosy-finches that came up on the wires around a garden that we were forbidden from looking at, even from afar.

Asian Rosy-finches

There was just time for us to head down to Hamanaka harbour to scan the gulls and ducks.  There was some more quality gulling with a splendid adult Thayer’s amongst them and the Eagles watched us from the harbour wall.

Steller's Sea-eagle

The harbour tsunami gates

White-tailed Sea-eagle

Starting to freeze

Thayer’s Gull with Slaty-backs

Thayer’s Gull with Slaty-backs

Thayer’s Gull with Slaty-backs

Slightly puzzled by this brute - thoughts welcome

Slaty-backs with Glaucous-winged left and Glaucous right

Slaty-backs & a monster Glaucous Gull

A final look at a group of Greater Scaup and Tufted Ducks revealed a gleaming pale sleeping male duck amongst them.  Surely not?  I radioed Dave in front to take a look too and we moved the vans a little closer. I got out and walked over to his window.  ‘You’re not thinking Canvasback are you?’ I most certainly was.  Scopes out and one dark red head was noted, firmly buried in the mantle feathers.  The colours and angles were good but it would not lift its head but as we left it briefly lifted a gleaming black ski-slope of a bill.  It seems that Canvasback is about annual in Japan but of all the birds for me to find this was the one that made me smile.

Harbour Seal

Canvasback - Dave Farrow

It was time to head back to Kushiro aiport and the final bird in the last rays of the already set sun was a Steller’s Sea Eagle heading off to roost.  How fitting.

The flight back to Haneda in Tokyo was painless but it was a long evening and it was gone midnight before my brain would turn off and let me get some sleep.

16^th February:

A final breakfast at the Royal Park Hotel and then after some fond farewells some of us headed the few hundred yards into the Departures to get our long flight home.  Having one of the party in Business Class somehow gave us a free pass to speedily get through check in, bag drop and security as her Minions and we were soon supping coffee by the gate.

Goodbye Toyko

The flight was smooth and trouble free but I have to admit that it did my head in completely as we had seen the sun come up in Tokyo, flown east into the day then north to avoid Russia, gone over the top and into the dark of a sunset (somewhere) and then watched the sun rise again at 7am over Greenland (which was truly spectacular from 31000 feet) before landing four hours later at 3pm at Heathrow where the sun once again set a couple of hours later!  And I wondered why I had trouble readjusting for a three days!

Venus (far right) at dawn over Greenland

Greenland at dawn - truly the most astonishing view from a plane

Sea ice

But what a trip.  It was never about the number of species seen but about the wildlife moments experienced. I have said so already but it was an adventure where childhood TV moments came to life and mingled with a unique culture in a country full of superb scenery, super polite people and absolutely no roadside rubbish whatsoever!  I hope to get the chance to visit again one day.  Would love a spring visit!

	Species	Scientific Name
1	Whooper Swan	Cygnus cygnus
2	Tundra Bean Goose	Anser serrirostris
3	Mandarin Duck	Aix galericulata
4	Long-tailed Duck	Clangula hyemalis
5	Stejneger’s Scoter	Melanitta stejnegeri
6	Black Scoter	Melanitta americana
7	Common Goldeneye	Bucephala clangula
8	Smew	Mergellus albellus
9	Goosander	Mergus merganser
10	Red-breasted Merganser	Mergus serrator
11	Harlequin Duck	Histrionicus histrionicus
12	Common Shelduck	Tadorna tadorna
13	Common Pochard	Aythya ferina
14	Canvasback	Aythya valisineria
15	Ring-necked Duck	Aythya collaris
16	Tufted Duck	Aythya fuligula
17	Greater Scaup	Aythya marila
18	Northern Shoveler	Spatula clypeata
19	Baikal Teal	Sibirionetta formosa
20	Eurasian Teal	Anas crecca
21	Falcated Duck	Mareca falcata
22	Gadwall	Mareca strepera
23	Eurasian Wigeon	Mareca penelope
24	Eastern Spot-billed Duck	Anas zonorhyncha
25	Mallard	Anas platyrhynchos
26	Northern Pintail	Anas acuta
27	Copper Pheasant	Syrmaticus soemmerringii
28	Green Pheasant	Phasianus versicolor
29	Red-throated Diver	Gavia stellata
30	Pacific Diver	Gavia pacifica
31	Little Grebe	Tachybaptus ruficollis
32	Holboll’s Red-necked Grebe	Podiceps grisegena holbollii
33	Great Crested Grebe	Podiceps cristatus
34	Black-necked Grebe	Podiceps nigricollis
35	Black-faced Spoonbill	Platalea minor
36	Eurasian Spoonbill	Platalea leucorodia
37	Eastern Cattle Egret	Bubulcus coromandus
38	Grey Heron	Aredea cinerea
39	Great Egret	Ardea alba
40	Little Egret	Egretta garzetta
41	Pacific Reef Heron	Egretta sacra
42	Brown Booby	Sula leucogaster
43	Pelagic Cormorant	Phalacrocorax pelagicus
44	Great Cormorant	Phalacrocorax carbo
45	Japanese Cormorant	Phalacrocorax capillatus
46	Western Osprey	Pandion haliaetus
47	Northern Goshawk	Accipiter gentilis
48	Black-eared Kite	Milvus lineatus
49	White-tailed Sea Eagle	Haliaeetus albicilla
50	Steller's Sea Eagle	Haliaeetus pelagicus
51	Mountain Hawk-Eagle	Nisaetus nipalensis
52	Eastern Buzzard	Buteo japonicus
53	Ruddy-breasted Crake	Zapornia fusca
54	Common Moorhen	Gallinula chloropus
55	Eurasian Coot	Fulica atra
56	White-naped Crane	Antigone vipio
57	Red-crowned Crane	Grus japonensis
58	Common Crane	Grus grus
59	Hooded Crane	Grus monacha
60	Sandhill Crane	Grus canadensis
61	Black-winged Stilt	Himantopus himantopus
62	Northern Lapwing	Vanellus vanellus
63	Long-billed Plover	Thinornis placidus
64	Little Ringed Plover	Charadrius dubius
65	Kentish Plover	Charadrius alexandrinus
66	Dunlin	Calidris alpina
67	Spotted Redshank	Tringa erythropus
68	Greenshank	Tringa nebularia
69	Common Sandpiper	Actitis hypoleucos
70	Green Sandpiper	Tringa ochropus
71	Black-headed Gull	Chroicocephalus ridibundus
72	Saunders's Gull	Saundersilarus saundersi
73	Black-tailed Gull	Larus crassirostris
74	Kamchatka Gull	Larus canus kamtschatschensis
75	Vega Gull	Larus vegae
76	Heuglin’s Gull	Larus heuglini taimyrensis
77	Slaty-backed Gull	Larus schistisagus
78	Glaucous-winged Gull	Larus glaucescens
79	Glaucous Gull	Larus hyperboreus
80	Thayer’s Gull	Larus glaucoides thayeri
81	Pigeon Guillemot	Cepphus columba
82	Snow’s Guillemot	Cepphus snowi
83	Spectacled Guillemot	Cepphus carbo
84	Japanese Murrelet	Synthliboramphus wumizusume
85	Rock Dove / Feral Pigeon	Columba livia
86	Japanese Black Woodpigeon	Columba janthina
87	Oriental Turtle Dove	Streptopelia orientalis
88	White-bellied Green Pigeon	Treron sieboldii
89	Ural Owl	Strix uralensis
90	Blakiston's Fish Owl	Bubo blakistoni
91	House Swift	Apus nipalensis
92	Common Kingfisher	Alcedo atthis
93	Crested Kingfisher	Megaceryle lugubris
94	Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker	Dendrocopos kizuki
95	White-backed Woodpecker	Dendrocopos leucotos
96	Great Spotted Woodpecker	Dendrocopos major
97	Japanese Green Woodpecker	Picus awokera
98	Common Kestrel	Falco tinnunculus
99	Peregrine Falcon	Falco peregrinus
100	Ryukyu Minivet	Pericrocotus tegimae
101	Bull-headed Shrike	Lanius bucephalus
102	Japanese Jay	Garrulus glandarius japonicus
103	Brandt’s Jay	Garrulus glandarius brandtii
104	Daurian Jackdaw	Corvus dauuricus
105	Eastern Rook	Corvus pastinator
106	Oriental Crow	Corvus orientalis
107	Large-billed Crow	Corvus macrorhynchos
108	Coal Tit	Periparus ater
109	Varied Tit	Sittiparus varius
110	Marsh Tit	Poecile palustris
111	Willow Tit	Poecile montanus
112	Japanese Tit	Parus minor
113	Japanese Long-tailed Tit	Aegithalos caudatus trivigatus
114	Northern Long-tailed Tit	Aegithalos caudatus caudatus
115	Japanese Skylark	Alauda japonica
116	Brown-eared Bulbul	Hypsipetes amaurotis
117	Barn Swallow	Hirundo rustica
118	Asian House Martin	Delichon dasypus
119	Japanese Bush Warbler	Horornis diphone
120	Zitting Cisticola	Cisticola juncidis
121	Red-billed Leiothrix	Leiothrix lutea
122	Warbling White-eye	Zosterops japonicus
123	Asian Goldcrest	Regulus regulus japonensis
124	Eurasian Wren	Troglodytes troglodytes
125	Eurasian Nuthatch	Sitta europaea hondoensis
126	Eurasian Nuthatch	Sitta europaea clara
127	Eurasian Treecreeper	Certhia familiaris
128	Common Starling	Sturnus vulgaris
129	White-cheeked Starling	Spodiopsar cineraceus
130	White's Thrush	Zoothera aurea
131	Brown-headed Thrush	Turdus chrysolaus
132	Pale Thrush	Turdus pallidus
133	Dusky Thrush	Turdus eunomus
134	Red-flanked Bluetail	Tarsiger cyanurus
135	Daurian Redstart	Phoenicurus auroreus
136	Eastern Blue Rock Thrush	Monticola philippensis
137	Brown Dipper	Cinclus pallasii
138	Russet Sparrow	Passer cinnamomeus
139	Eurasian Tree Sparrow	Passer montanus
140	Japanese Accentor	Prunella rubida
141	Grey Wagtail	Motacilla cinerea
142	Eastern Yellow Wagtail	Motacilla tschutschensis
143	Japanese Pied Wagtail	Motacilla grandis
144	Black-backed Wagtail	Motacilla alba lugens
145	Richard's Pipit	Anthus richardi
146	Olive-backed Pipit	Anthus hodgsoni
147	Red-throated Pipit	Anthus cervinus
148	Siberian Pipit	Anthus rubescens
149	Brambling	Fringilla montifringilla
150	Hawfinch	Coccothraustes coccothraustes
151	Japanese Grosbeak	Eophona personata
152	Long-tailed Rosefinch	Carpodacus sibiricus
153	Asian Rosy Finch	Leucosticte arctoa
154	Grey-capped Greenfinch	Chloris sinica
155	Eurasian Siskin	Spinus spinus
156	Chestnut-eared Bunting	Emberiza fucata
157	Meadow Bunting	Emberiza cioides
158	Grey Bunting	Emberiza variabilis
159	Yellow-throated Bunting	Schoeniclus elegans
160	Ochre-rumped Bunting	Schoeniclus yessoensis
161	Common Reed Bunting	Schoeniclus schoeniclus
162	Masked Bunting	Schoeniclus personata
163	Rustic Bunting	Schoeniclus rusticus
	Other Species	Scientific Name
1	Eurasian Red Squirrel	Sciurus vulgaris
2	Japanese Squirrel	Sciurus lis
3	Red Fox	Vulpes vulpes
4	Harbour Seal	Phoca vitulina
5	Sea Otter	Enhydra lutris
6	Japanese Weasel	Mustela itatsi
7	Wild Boar	Sus scrofa
8	Japanese Macaque	Macaca fuscata
9	Sika Deer	Cervus nippon
10	Japanese Serow	Capricornis crispus
11	Harbour Porpoise	Phocoena phocoena
12	Holly Blue	Celastrina argiolus