Red Necked Stint and other stuff (2 Viewers)

[HokkaidoStu]

It was a quiet summer here in Hakodate. Nothing much in July and August.......though there were Common Kingfisher and Grey Wagtail almost every day on the small local river recently. An imm Hobby in August was a nice find too.

Yesterday I got a lone Common Sandpiper ( a local tick no less ) on the same river and also a first summer ( Siberian ) Stonechat. Today I walked down to the local beach and there were 3 kinds of wader ( the "beach" is a slightly grand term for a tiny strip of sand protected by concrete tetrapods).....3 Grey Tailed Tattler, 3 Red Necked Stint and another lone Common Sandpiper. Doesn't sound too impressive but waders are pretty thin on the ground here...........also got my local year list up to 106. Nowt on the sea though-except a few Japanese Cormorant and the 2 regular gulls here ( Black tailed and Slaty Backed ).

The holiday season is almost over. Then I can go back to the local cape and mountain/forest and have the places almost to myself. No huge groups of eldery tourists pottering about blasting out Japanese radio and stopping to stare at the crazy foreigner looking at something thru his binoculars. No screaming kids. No fully equipped hikers with bear bells ( it's a tiny 900 foot mountain and there are no bears ). No insects in the forest. Some BIRDS on the sea as opposed to just waves.

End of rant.

 

[Charles Harper]

Aren't those bearbells a gas? And the puttees. And the high-tech walking sticks. They are 'loaded for bear', as the idiom would have it.

Congrats on 106. I'm up to... lemme see... 174, still thanks to that Tobishima list, and nothin' much else. Got a Marsh Sandpiper down here last month, a pretty good find, and a Red-necked Phalarope in the middle of Tokyo!

Are folks overseas familiar with 'tetrapods'-- those big concrete erosion retarders that look like children's 'jacks'?

Good to hear from you.

 

[Michael Frankis]

I wouldn't say no to 3 Grey Tailed Tattler and 3 Red Necked Stint . . . that would start one mega twitch over here!

tetrapods - yep, seen them one or two places, but they're not widely used. Places like entrances to major shipping ports.

Michael

 

[Charles Harper]

Heavily in use here, Michael, as the Japanese claim more and more land from the sea, then shore it up.

 

[HokkaidoStu]

When I first came to Japan and was near landing at Tokyo Narita airport all I could see as I looked down on the coastline was concrete. I don't know if the tetrapods here in Hakodate are for land reclaimation or more as protection against typhoons, tsunamis (?) and erosion ( there are no wide beaches or estuaries up here ).

The rivers are also heavily concreted-I guess this a precaution against landslides as Japan often experiences heavy rainfall ( it never seems to drizzle here ) and the rivers which tend to be small and fast flowing might burst their banks if they weren't concreted........

Whatever the reason there's a hell of a lot of concrete here.

Marsh Sandpiper eh Charles? Not bad at all.........where did you see it?

Hi Michael-those 2 waders are pretty common over here but like I say the coastline isn't exactly wader-friendly so I was pretty happy to see a mixed flock of 7 birds!

 

[Charles Harper]

Yatsu-higata. Come on down sometime. PS: I put off the Japan Big Year for a year because a trip to South Africa is in the offing for mid-September 2004. Wanna come?

 

[HokkaidoStu]

Yatsu-higata? I got a group e-mail from a yahoo birding group about that place ( I saw your name on the homepage too!). Some guy saw about 20 different waders there...........

I'd love to go to South Africa believe me but I can't see myself going on any big trips for a couple of years.....your other suggestion ( coming down to Kanto ) is much more feasible.

2005? 300? You can do it!!!