This morning was all about the Japanese Macaques and we made
sure that we arrived as early as we could at Jigokudani but as usual there had
been birds along the drive in with a posing female Hawfinch with a flock of
flighty Japanese Grosbeaks.
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| Hawfinch |
The track up through the Cedars was no where near as icy as
last year and the snow cover was not as deep but there were very few people
about and you could hear any movement in the trees and we soon picked a roving
flock of Coal Tits and Asian Goldcrests and several vociferous Japanese Jays with
their glowing white eyes.
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| Japanese Jay - G g japonicus - Jim Wilett |
Further along we found another roving flock with the
additions of Willow Tit, Long-tailed Tits, Japanese Tits and two bouncing
Japanese Pygmy Woodpeckers. A Eurasian Sparrowhawk spooked the flock and Brambling and Siskin were noted.
Once at the hot pools with their simian inhabitants we got
to spend some quality time with them as they went about their morning ablutions. They are always entertaining and behave like
you are not there. There was a good
crowd of largely well behaved visitors with only one or two selfish tripod wielders
causing consternation. Whilst kneeling
down the ground began to rumble and we could feel this minor earth tremor
rumble up through us for a good thirty seconds!
It was amazing how many people never felt it.
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| ' Did you just drop your bum?' |
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| The younger Japanese Macaques were using the two pipes as a slide to get to the river bed |
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| Bundle! |
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| And three from Jim Willett too |
Dave somehow found a Japanese Serow sitting in the early
sunshine high up above us and then followed this up with an Alpine Accentor
that some of the group saw. As we
regrouped he then found two Japanese Accentors just below us where they
shuffled around on invisible feet looking like smoothed out warm looking
Dunnocks. A lot of the Macaques were moving away from the pool and up through the
trees on the steep slopes until they found the first rays of the sun. Some even joined the Serow on his
platform. They could be seen way above
us sunning in the highest canopies.
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| Japanese Serow - Jim Willett |
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| Japanese Accentor |
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| Japanese Accentor |
We opted to start making our way down and were shocked to
see a queue of about 200 people waiting to check in. I can only imagine how chaotic that would have
been around the pool and a sure sign that going early is a must! Mahoosive hot apple turnovers were acquired just
before the vans.
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| Thanks Lex! |
We re-joined the main road for the 90 minutes back to
Karuizawa and had a pleasant drive through the multitudinous tunnels seeing
Eastern Buzzards, Black-eared Kites, OTDs, Hawfinches, Japanese Jays, flocks of
White-cheeked Starlings and Dusky Thrushes, a ball of sixty Japanese Waxwings
and a dashing female Merlin on the way.
Our 7-11 stop was a quality experience and I spied an
Japanese Hawk-Eagle circling above and had to dash back inside and extract the
tail marker shoppers but thankfully everyone saw this impressive raptor.
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| Japanese Hawk-Eagle - Chris Darby |
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| Japanese Hawk-Eagle - Chris Darby |
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| Japanese Hawk-Eagle - Chris Darby |
The woods were our playground for the rest of the day but
the lack of snow was always going to make things trickier. We began at our hotel – Shiotsubo – so that
we could drop the bags and eat our lunch while watching the plump Varied Tits
on the table along with Japanese Tits, Grey-capped Greenfinches and a small
group of Long-tails. The resident
Sturgeon in the lake below even cruised into view for us.
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| Varied Tit |
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| Varied Tit |
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| Japanese Jay |
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| Japanese Tit |
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| Japanese Tit |
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| Varied Tit - Jim Willett |
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| Sturgeon - Chris Darby |
Back out again and up to the forest pond near the art
gallery where as hoped there were a variety of dabblers paddling around. There
were 11 gleaming Falcated Ducks, 16 Wigeon, six Mallard, three Teal and a
single drake Gadwall. The Falcateds are
quite simply the most gaudy, extravagant, punked up ducks out there.
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| Falcated Duck - Jim Willett |
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| Falcated Duck - Chris Darby |
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| Falcated Duck - Chris Darby |
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| Falcated Duck - Chris Darby |
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| Falcated Duck |
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| Falcated Duck |
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| Gadwall |
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| Mallard |
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| Wigeon |
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| Wigeon - Jim Willett |
Our walk up through the snowless woods was pretty quiet this time with Great Spotted and Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker and a drumming White-backed although we could not see it. Brown-eared Bulbuls moved through in noisy groups and a flock of 25 Bramblings were in some Birches but we could not find any Japanese Accentors this time and I suspect the weather had not pushed them down low enough.
Back near the lake we found a pair of Long-tailed Rosefinches calling although seeing them well was somewhat tricky. The male was very pink but they just melted into the low undergrowth. Whilst stalking them a male Daurian Redstart dropped in and tail shivered before I heard a ticking that sounded a little ‘off’. It flicked up and I clapped eyes on a male Yellow-throated Bunting but it dropped down just a few seconds later and only Jacqui saw it. It disappeared into the same stuff as the Rosefinches and likewise was swallowed into the sticky void.
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Long-tailed Rosefinch - Chris Darby
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Onwards and down to the start of the Kose Rindu track although the signs made it vert clear that we could not drive up it this time due to various bridge works. We could still walk up and it was immediately more birdy. There were plenty of Tits including a couple of silvery Willows and the local hondoensis race of Nuthatch showed well going down the trees while two pairs of buzzing Japanese Pygmy Woodpeckers went the other way. There was very little size difference between them.
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| Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker - Chris Darby |
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| 'hondoensis' Eurasian Nuthatch - Chris Darby |
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| Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker - Chris Darby |
Down by the river groups of quiet chacking Dusky Thrushes came up before heading off to roost and four more Japanese Waxwings flew over. No Brown Dippers or Solitary Snipe were found but we did get a chocolate brown fumigatus Wren and Alison and Jenny found a Red-flanked Bluetail feeding on tiny berries about thirty feet up a tree. Thankfully it paused for a whole minute so that everyone could see it.
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| Red-flanked Bluetail - Chris Darby |
The light was going so we ambled back for the very short drive back to the hotel.
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