John Andrew Wright's Photo Blog

This morning I visited Daijyugarami. It was a bit disappointing as the numbers and variety of birds was very very low for this time of year, and there were no real rarities for the location. Nevertheless, the few birds that were there were mostly in their colourful breeding plumage, which always makes for nice images. Both Bar-tailed and Eastern Black-tailed Godwit were there but unfortunately I couldn’t come away with decent photos of them. Below are Black-faced Spoonbill, Black-winged Stilt, Common Redshank, Dunlin, Eurasian Curlew, Eurasian Skylark, Far Eastern Curlew, Little Ringed Plover, Mongolian Plover, Red-necked Stint, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper and Wood Sandpiper.

I’ve confirmed that another “Arctic Warbler” type bird I photographed was a Kamchatka Leaf Warbler, which probably means most of the leaf warblers that had arrived at Kabashima on Sunday/Monday were Phylloscopus examinandus.

On Monday morning at Kabashima there was a lot of migrant activity, although not many of the birds were showing well or for long durations. In particular there were a lot of leaf warblers high in the trees, most of which seemed to be “Arctic Warbler” type birds. The Arctic Warbler complex was recently split into Arctic Warbler (Phylloscopus borealis), Kamchatka Leaf Warbler (Phylloscopus examinandus) and Japanese Leaf Warbler (Phylloscopus xanthodryas). So, after taking some shots, I recorded the songs and calls in the hope of confirming which of the species the birds were. With the help of Xeno-Canto users I was able to positively identify this bird as a Kamchatka Leaf Warber. The song and call can be heard here on the Xeno-Canto website.

I visited Kabashima today and thought there might be quite a few interesting birds arriving before the bad weather hit during the afternoon, but it was very quiet for migrants with only Brown Shrike and Chestnut Bunting around (neither of which were really approachable!). The residents were very active and singing away, but I was a bit disappointed as today was one of my few completely free days off during the migration season. Oh well, maybe Saturday or Monday will provide something special that poses nicely for the camera!

One never tires of viewing the tiny, brilliantly coloured male Narcissus Flycatcher….