Day 1: Arrive in Hamamatsu 3pm. Quick check in to the hotel, then birding 330pm til sundown. I worked my way down the river to the coast, turning up a number of Asian (by which I really mean non-European) birds, including Bull-headed Shrike, Black-face Bunting, Dusky Thrush, brown-eared Bulbul, Pygmy Woodpecker, Japanese Tit, Black (-eared) Kite, and lifer White-cheeked Starling. These are all pretty common along hte riverside scrub, even in a semi-urban environment. Eventually I made it down to the Pacific Ocean, where I saw the sunset and puzzled over gulls.
Day 2: Not meeting collaborators until 1, I got the first bus to the Enshunada coast, finding Smew in a containment pond, lots of Great, but no convincingly 'other' Cormorants, Japanese White-eye and Japanese Bush Warbler in the scrub, life Black-tailed Gull (common, but gulls are hard), a single lifer Grey Bunting n the floor with Olive-backed Pipits, and a lifer Pale Thrush under some bushes. Most of the action was in the wooded lan and scrub behind the beach. The sea had some Great Crested and Eared Grebes, and a White-winged Scoter, but not too much of note.
Day 3: The conference started and I spoke on the first morning at 9.30, but I squeezed an hour between sunrise and my talk (after a raid clothing upgrade). I went to Hamamatsu castle gardens and saw J. Bush Warbler, Hawfinches, Kingfisher, Pale and Dusky Thrushes, and White-eyes. Nothing new though!
Day 4: The middle conference day and I had a long lunch-break, finding a Blue Rock-thrush north along the river and a group of 20 swallows. I was very excited, having not expected any swallows, martins, swifts this winter trip, but in the end they turned out to be (often ropey, so flying oddly) Barn Swallows. A good winter bird, but every other option would have been better. I bunked the afternoon to try the mountains and had a disappointing time apart from flushing four female Copper Pheasants.
Day 5: Conference in the morning and scanner setu in the afternoon. Little opportunity for birding.
Day 6: Birding day off. Schedule was to try the mountains in the morning and Lake Sanaru in the afternoon. By now, up to about 8 lifers for the trip, out of an aim of 12, I was hoping for 2 lifers today. The first stop in the hills was basically terrible, not even reaching 10 species in an hour and nothing new for the trip. The second stop was a forest park, but en route we stopped at a small lake with a few ducks and I was delighted when the first bird I laid bins on was a lifer Falcated Duck. Beautiful. I had ear-marked them to find in the Imperial Palace moat in Tokyo, but now no need :-). The forest park itself had more Falcated Ducks on another lake and then we (two of my hosts came) saw a bunch of big-lens guys lined up and found out they had seen a Red-flanked Bluetail just five minutes before. Needless to say we hung around for the lifer. Next was some tasty udon noodles for lunch and the paddy fields north of Sanaru for Grey-headed Lapwing, another lifer which showed up (4) paying out on a 70% chance as judged by Etsuji. Up to three lifers for the day, we headed to the lake, but not before a great look at some Oriental Greenfinch, and my first Rustic Buntings of the trip. The lake didn't disappoint with two Common Snipe, and another group of big lenses staking out a tree were a Japanese Woodpecker had been seen at 3 pm three days earlier. It being 3pm and a lifer, we hung around, but gave up. Luckily I continued to check on them through bins as we moved up the lake shore and we rushed back when they starting point the lenses up. The woodpecker held til we got there, then soon left. That was an awesome bird, a Japanese endemic, but also a lifer for Etsuji who birds there every weekend since 2010.
Day 2: Not meeting collaborators until 1, I got the first bus to the Enshunada coast, finding Smew in a containment pond, lots of Great, but no convincingly 'other' Cormorants, Japanese White-eye and Japanese Bush Warbler in the scrub, life Black-tailed Gull (common, but gulls are hard), a single lifer Grey Bunting n the floor with Olive-backed Pipits, and a lifer Pale Thrush under some bushes. Most of the action was in the wooded lan and scrub behind the beach. The sea had some Great Crested and Eared Grebes, and a White-winged Scoter, but not too much of note.
Day 3: The conference started and I spoke on the first morning at 9.30, but I squeezed an hour between sunrise and my talk (after a raid clothing upgrade). I went to Hamamatsu castle gardens and saw J. Bush Warbler, Hawfinches, Kingfisher, Pale and Dusky Thrushes, and White-eyes. Nothing new though!
Day 4: The middle conference day and I had a long lunch-break, finding a Blue Rock-thrush north along the river and a group of 20 swallows. I was very excited, having not expected any swallows, martins, swifts this winter trip, but in the end they turned out to be (often ropey, so flying oddly) Barn Swallows. A good winter bird, but every other option would have been better. I bunked the afternoon to try the mountains and had a disappointing time apart from flushing four female Copper Pheasants.
Day 5: Conference in the morning and scanner setu in the afternoon. Little opportunity for birding.
Day 6: Birding day off. Schedule was to try the mountains in the morning and Lake Sanaru in the afternoon. By now, up to about 8 lifers for the trip, out of an aim of 12, I was hoping for 2 lifers today. The first stop in the hills was basically terrible, not even reaching 10 species in an hour and nothing new for the trip. The second stop was a forest park, but en route we stopped at a small lake with a few ducks and I was delighted when the first bird I laid bins on was a lifer Falcated Duck. Beautiful. I had ear-marked them to find in the Imperial Palace moat in Tokyo, but now no need :-). The forest park itself had more Falcated Ducks on another lake and then we (two of my hosts came) saw a bunch of big-lens guys lined up and found out they had seen a Red-flanked Bluetail just five minutes before. Needless to say we hung around for the lifer. Next was some tasty udon noodles for lunch and the paddy fields north of Sanaru for Grey-headed Lapwing, another lifer which showed up (4) paying out on a 70% chance as judged by Etsuji. Up to three lifers for the day, we headed to the lake, but not before a great look at some Oriental Greenfinch, and my first Rustic Buntings of the trip. The lake didn't disappoint with two Common Snipe, and another group of big lenses staking out a tree were a Japanese Woodpecker had been seen at 3 pm three days earlier. It being 3pm and a lifer, we hung around, but gave up. Luckily I continued to check on them through bins as we moved up the lake shore and we rushed back when they starting point the lenses up. The woodpecker held til we got there, then soon left. That was an awesome bird, a Japanese endemic, but also a lifer for Etsuji who birds there every weekend since 2010.
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