Whites Thrush and other stuff (1 Viewer)

[HokkaidoStu]

It's been an interesting September here in Hakodate. The earthquake and tail end of a typhoon aside I actually got back out birding after a very lazy summer.........

There was a small wader passage at the start of the month. A peak of 20 Red Necked Stint passed thru on Sep 7 and they were joined by a lone Sanderling ( a local tick ) and a handful of Grey Tailed Tattler and several Common Sandpiper ( another local tick ). Also on passage were LOTS of Stonechat, some Bull Headed Shrike, Eastern Crowned Willow Warbler, Grey Wagtail, Asian Brown Flycatcher and Black Faced Bunting. A male Goshawk was a nice find too. Both species of Starling ( Gray and Red Cheeked ) were flocking getting ready to fly south as were the Asian House Martins which left about a week ago......meanwhile the Common Teal have returned for the winter..........Common Kingfisher have also been surprisingly common.

2 interesting Heron species were on the tiny river ( or stream ) near my appartment. A Striated Heron on Sep 11 was an unexpected bird ( and another local tick ) and there was also a juv Night Heron affording very good views on Sep 26. Hawfinch, a common winter visitor, also put in an appearance towards the end of the month..............

Sep 30 was my first visit to the local mountain/forest since early June and it brought me a lifer-a superb Whites Thrush on the trail about 20 metres away. This was my fifth thrush species on the mountain this year. Also around were Common Buzzard, 4 species of tit including the gorgeous Varied Tit, a Long Tailed Rosefinch, Siberian Meadow Bunting, Japanese White-eye, Eurasian Nuthatch, Siskin and lots of unidentified stuff flitting around the undergrowth. A large mozzie bite on my face reminds me why I don't like going up the mountain in summer......

Anyway my local 2003 list is now up at 112.......................

 

[Charles Harper]

Lookin' good, Stu. I wonder which way those Stonechats go? I see none in migration and precious few wintering where I am. I usually get one or two White's Thrush wintering in the deepest trees of my patch-- magnificent creature, indeed.

 

[Nancy]

Glad you survived the typhoon and earthquake, Stu.
I have a question about your White's Thrush. Being not very knowledgable about world distributation I would like to know if your White's Thrush is the same species as the one here in Australia whose name has recently been changed to Bassian Thrush. It has also been called Ground, Mountain and Scaly Thrush. Zostera lunulata is the scientific name after the half moon shaped scallops on the breast. According to my book our White's/Bassian Thrush is confined to Australia's East Coast mountain area. Maybe they were 'split' recently.
Hope one of you (or someone else) can enlighten me.

 

[Charles Harper]

Bassian Thrush and Russet-tailed are different species but quite similar in appearance. Amami Thrush has recently been split off from our White's (Z. dauma)

 

[Edward]

Some great birds there, Stu, and White's Thrush is a dream bird for quite a few of us in Europe as you'll know.

Your local year list is about as big as mine, my year list is up to 114 now, but I'll bet there are a few differences in terms of species!

E

 

[HokkaidoStu]

Hi Edward-there are probably quite a few overlapping species......................White Tailed Eagle and Harlequin Duck for sure and probably various gulls/wildfowl. I'll post my complete list at the end of the year...............

What's the best bird you've had locally this year? Same question to you Charles..................I seem to remember you seeing Japanese Paradise Flycatcher?

Nancy-don't ask me about splits................ I still don't know if the House Martins/Skylarks here have been split from the ones I used to see on my old local patch in the UK. Asian House Martin and Japanese Skylark? Or boring ol' Northern House Martin and Eurasian Skylark? Do you know Charles? Michael?

 

[Edward]

Hi Stu, I suppose the "best" bird is the Black Kite (3rd record for Iceland), but there again the Mute Swan was also the 3rd for Iceland and the Yellow Warbler (4th for Iceland) was easily the rarest in the WP. But the one that gave me most pleasure, not the rarest, was Long-tailed Skua at its first Icelandic breeding site, close views of a lifer in its natural habitat.
That's the best bird until I find that White's Thrush next week....

E

 

[Charles Harper]

Clements has kindly split off A. japonica as a separate, resident species, but at least two subspecies of arvensis (pekinensis, lonnbergi) winter where you are. Ask Michael or Spud or Fulmar or one of those guys how to i.d. them.

For the House Martins, dasypus has been separated from urbica for some time... and I just lost one from my lifelist in researching this posting, because I had Japan records in my Clements under both names. Rats!

Best birds this year? The four lifers: Japanese Waxwing (at last!), Tricolor Flycatcher, Red-throated Pipit, Greater Short-toed lark-- all from Tobishima. Want to join us there next Golden Week?

 

[Michael Frankis]

Yep, White's Thrush has been split into several species, and probably some more in the future. The potential future split of most significance to northern hemisphere birders is to split Zoothera (dauma) aurea (White's Thrush; Russia to Japan, and vagrant west to Britain) from Z. d. dauma (Scaly Thrush; Himalaya to southern China).

The other two taxa still currently treated as races of Z. dauma might also get split too, Z. (d.) neilgherriensis in SW India and Z. (d.) imbricata in Sri Lanka.

Elsewhere, as Nancy has already pointed out, the Australian thrushes previously included in White's/Scaly were split a little while ago, now treated as Bassian Thrush (Z. lunulata) and Russet-tailed Thrush (Z. heinei). Also Horsfield's Thrush (Z. horsfieldi) in Indonesia, and as Charles mentioned, Amami Thrush (Z. major on Amami Oshima.

The last I heard, the skylark and house martin splits hadn't been formally accepted yet, but they probably will be sometime. But I don't get to know a lot of what happens in east Asia. Charles and Spud (Logos) will probably know better than I do.
(edit wrote this before I saw Charles' latest post!

Michael

PS Stu,
Any chance you can ask a few White's Thrushes to head this way? o o o

 

[HokkaidoStu]

Hi Charles-I only see Skylarks ( of whatever species/race ) in summer so maybe Japonica is ok to list...............I'll get back to you about Tobishima ( It might be a goer:thanks for the invite! )=-I was wondering about Furen-ko next may

Hi Michael-there are a lot of birds here that would be megas back in the UK................maybe I should start up an import/export business. Can you tick birds brought over in a suitcase? Only joking!