John Andrew Wright's Photo Blog

Late this afternoon I stopped in at what is reputedly the smallest and newest lake in Japan, Lake Shirachi in Shimabara. Actually more of a large pond than a lake, it is surrounded by streets but usually has herons and egrets as well as a few resident “soup” ducks. However it is also a good place to attempt to photograph Barn Swallows in flight as they feed and drink in and around the small lake. This afternoon there weren’t too many other birds around, just a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron, although earlier I had paused at the forest and photographed a female Brambling as well as a nice flowering Chinese Fringetree branch! The Barn Swallows cooperated nicely…an interesting shot has two birds trying to snatch a feather in mid-air, while another shot has a bird that plucked something from the water’s surface – probably a bug of some sort.

I usually stay away from popular birding spots on weekends, but this morning was fine although cloudy after pretty nasty weather the day before, so I thought it would be interesting to see if any vagrants or rarities had been blown across to the Japanese mainland. Unfortunately, no rarities….. but there was a lot of interesting action going on nonetheless. Perhaps the most astonishing was the sight of a large female Peregrine Falcon flying along with what appears to be a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron. I am fairly sure the night heron weighed almost as much as the falcon, and in fact she dropped it at one point before catching it again in mid-air and continuing along her way. The male falcon was shadowing his mate, and their cries could be heard all over Kabashima. Other highlights were a male Siberian Rubythroat, male Siberian Stonechat and Osprey with a very nice catch!

Kabashima Coast

Nagasaki Coast

Siberian Rubythroat (male breeding)

Siberian Stonechat (male breeding)

Temminck's Cormorant & Pelagic Cormorant

Osprey

Peregrine Falcon (female) diving to recapture juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron

Peregrine Falcon (female) flying off with juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron

After Shidaka Lake, I just had time to pop in at Usa Shrine on the way home. I arrived right on dusk, so not much light to work with. The big surprise here was finding lots of Red-billed Leiothrix. They are obviously much more used to human presence than the birds I usually encounter, and were therefore more confiding and even feeding out in the open. A nice male Pale Thrush was also very confiding. Some plum blossoms were also in full bloom!

Red-billed Leiothrix

Red-billed Leiothrix

Pale Thrush (male)

Pale Thrush (male)

Plum Blossoms