Winter in Japan for Bird's Wildlife & Nature - Day 3 & 4 - 7th & 8th February 2026

7^th

A chilly and grey pre-breakfast walk took us out of the car park and along a small brook where I hoped to find Solitary Snipe but once again had no joy.  There were Hawfinches and Bramblings in the trees and a single Japanese Grosbeak too while Varied and Japanese Tits began foraging as the light improved.  Dusky Thrushes were leaving their roosts and at the end of the brook where hot steaming water poured from a pipe we found Grey and Black-backed Wagtails. 

Japanese Grosbeak 

It was beginning to look familiar and I soon realised that we were on the opposite side of the river to the Kose Rindu track and took the chance to scour the river here too but not even a Brown Dipper was seen but there was recompense with Great Spotted and several very obliging Japanese Pygmy Woodpeckers and a couple of Meadow Buntings.

Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker

Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker - Chris Darby

Breakfast called and as we walked back 17 Japanese Waxwings headed up into the woods where the mistletoe abounded and the hot pool Wagtails had been replaced with a fine male Japanese!

Japanese Wagtail - Chris Darby

Back at the hotel the Varied Tits had been joined on the table by a Brambling and a brief Japanese Squirrel and the Japanese Jays were still around the pond as we went for food.

Once out on the road we wiggled through town to the Old Route 18 which was tricky with snow and ice last year but was completely free of any of the white stuff on our route up and down.  It was going to be very tricky indeed to find a Copper Pheasant without the help of some snow.

We made several stops, often after hearing small birds from the slow moving vans although it was a little chilly doing this at -7c with the windows down but we got our rewards with excellent views eventually of Japanese Green, Great Spotted and White-backed Woodpeckers along with Nuthatch and Treecreeper, 30 Siskins, Bramblings and Hawfinches, most of the Tits and a couple each of Meadow and Rustic Buntings.  Along the ridges were saw Black-eared Kites, Eastern Buzzard and another brief Japanese Hawk-Eagle and a Sparrowhawk flashed through the canopy. 

Japanese Green Woodpecker - Chris Darby

Japanese Green Woodpecker - Chris Darby

Great Spotted Woodpecker - Chris Darby

White-backed Woodpecker - Chris Darby

Great Spotted Woodpecker - Jim Willett

Japanese Green Woodpecker - Jim Willett

The route back over the top was punctuated by a Japanese Waxwing stop with nine happily feeding in the Mistletoe and looking fabulous in the scopes.

Jenny and Alison watch Waxwings in comfort

Japanese Waxwings

Japanese Waxwing - Chris Darby

Japanese Waxwing - Chris Darby

It was time to buy lunch (with Hawfinch sitting in a front garden!) before looping around on a different road to take us up to the top of the Kosu Rindu track. We parked up and ate in an almost silent wood with just a few Tits and Japanese Pygmy Woodpeckers for company before a slow amble down the track.  Copper Pheasant and Brown Dipper were the key birds here and it did not take long to find the latter and in fact I reckon we had at least three pairs of this beefed up water thrush along our route.  They feel bigger and heavier than our own and with a longer tail too.

Brown Dipper 

Brown Dipper 

There were almost no other birds at all and so it was a pleasant surprise when a male Copper Pheasant erupted just below our feet where it had been concealed by an overhanging bank.  It rattled off on whirring wings flashing an incredibly long barred tail, vivid beech-leaf plumage and red face patch.  I shouted ‘Pheasant! Pheasant! Pheasant!’ as it zoomed away from us and most of the group managed to get onto it. Big smile time.

We saw very little else bar about another 20 Japanese Waxwings and ambled back up to the vans, pleases with our efforts.

Like tiny white Elf Cups

A very robust Liverwort with lizard-like texture

A snowy pocket

The floating Jack Frost head puffing out his icy breath

I was fascinated by this.
Amazingly it is a Fern known as the Ussurian Scaly Polypody (Lepisorus ussuriensis)

From here we dropped out of Karuizawa and down to the farm fields of Hochi for the chance of a late evening Japanese Green Pheasant.  Amazingly it only took seconds for the front van to find one for us with a male poking his head out of a field furrow before eventually realising we were there and leaping into flight.  We were simply pleased to see one for a few seconds on the track last year but this was special and we enjoyed excellent views that showed off all the greens, purples, bronze and grey.  Job done!

Japanese Green Pheasant - Chris Darby

Japanese Green Pheasant - Jim Willett

Japanese Green Pheasant - I got five frames like this after take off! Torpedo Pheasant!

The were flocks of Meadow Buntings moving from the reedy ditches to the fields and clouds of Grey-capped Greenfinches and Tree Sparrows were mooching around.  The Greenies look more like Goldfinches in flight with such extensive yellow wing bars. We walked the central road, all the while watching the snow slowly climbing down the volcano behind but it never quite got to us although it was bitingly cold.

Grey-capped Greenfinches

Grey-capped Greenfinches

Grey-capped Greenfinches

Grey-capped Greenfinches and Tree Sparrows

Meadow Bunting

Meadow Bunting - Chris Darby

Meadow Bunting - Chris Darby

The Greenfinches congregated in a few spindly trees and we found five Rustic Buntings with them too and then another flurry of Green Pheasant action with a further five males and a female.  How lucky were we?

Incoming - Alexis Bodycomb

Arty - Alexis Bodycomb

On the run! - Japanese Green Pheasant - Chris Darby

Rustic Bunting - Chris Darby

Rustic Bunting - Chris Darby

A single Black-eared Kite patrolled and was not too bothered by the attention of the local Large-billed Crows.  With a final scan for more buntings we moved back into town and a final stop at dusk back at the River Yu where 68 Dusky Thrushes and eight Japanese Waxwings were counted heading off to roost and three Meadow Buntings were quietly calling in their chosen spot down by the water.  It was a peaceful end to another full day which had somehow given us both tricky Pheasants.

It began to snow while we were having dinner and the next morning…

8^th

We all awoke to a winter wonderland outside and made the most of our pre-breakfast time with a walk that retraced our steps the previous morning but in a very different looking landscape. The birds were trickier to find and I think they were conserving early energy to see how the morning developed. The Woodpeckers were seen again and the buzzy note from the Pygmy seemed to follow us around while the raptor-like whistle of the Green came down through the trees were Dusky Thrushes were canopy feeding with Hawfinches and Brambling and several Japanese Grosbeaks which included a singing bird which was new for me – a mournful but loud three note whistle.

All too soon it was time for breakfast and then time for our big travel day.  Van, Shinkansen, Bus, Plane, Bus, Van and a two hour drive from Kagoshima on Kyushu up to our hotel in Hyuga which I had conveniently forgotten all about last time but it was clean and warm and it was after 11pm by the time we arrived.  We almost never even made it out of Tokyo as the severe weather that brought snow even into the capital, was delaying and cancelling flights but JAL turned things around very swiftly and despite a nervous wait before checking in, we ended up only being an hour behind schedule – phew.  All I can remember about the road trip in the dark the other end was a Japanese Racoon Dog scampering across the road and turning to look with its bandit mask.

Shinkansen at full tilt

Snow as we came into Tokyo

A special assistance remote chair came and found Dave.  He sat down but it was obviously upset as Dave soon got up and it it went on its way to find it's correct passenger.

The rather wonderful and bizarre encapsulated serving suggestions
in the restaurant in Kagoshima Airport

My traditionally Japanese fried chicken, chips and onion rings was indistinguishable from the one in the window!

Murrelets awaited the next day (but not deep fried).