Aplogies for the boring style of this thread. Some of my other posts this year are probably better written!
Way back in January I decided to try and see as many species as possible in my local patch in one calendar year. I live in Hakodate in southernmost Hokkaido which is the main northern isle of Japan. I reckoned 100 would be a realistic target............I had previously seen 75 in 3 years but I had never really done much serious birding. A self-employed/part-time lifestyle meant I had loads more free time than in previous years.
Hakodate is a smallish town of about 300,000. It's on the coast and there are 2 small rivers (with a few very small reedbeds ), a couple of parks (one of which has a small moat ) and a couple of bays. Best of all is a small forest clad mountain/cape connected to the town by a spit. Unfortunately in winter it's impossible to go birding on the mountain due to the heavy snow.
January started off as cold as normal. Common resident species picked up in this month were BLACK KITE, EURASIAN TREE SPARROW, LARGE BILLED CROW, CARRION CROW, COMMON KINGFISHER, BROWN EARED BULBUL, SPOT BILLED DUCK, BLACK TAILED GULL, SLATY BACKED GULL, FERAL PIGEON, GREAT TIT, BRAMBLING, BLUE ROCK THRUSH, GREY HERON, BLACK BACKED WAGTAIL and JAPANESE CORMORANT. There were also the common winter visitors-DAURIAN REDSTART, DUSKY THRUSH, COAL TIT, EURASIAN KESTREL, WINTER WREN, MALLARD, HERRING GULL, EURASIAN TEAL, TUFTED DUCK, PELAGIC CORMORANT, COMMON GOLDENEYE, RED BREASTED MERGANSER, BLACK SCOTER, HARLEQUIN DUCK, EURASIAN WIGEON, SCAUP, BRENT GOOSE, BLACK NECKED GREBE AND BUFF BELLIED PIPIT. Highlights of the month were a WHITE TAILED EAGLE ( seen overhead on a shopping trip to the liquor store ), BLACK THROATED DIVER ( seen at close range in the bay ) and best of all a mixed flock of about 60 BOHEMIAN and JAPANESE WAXWING. A couple of each even perched on an antenna a few feet away...........but I didn't have a camera. 40 species were seen in January.
February naturally saw a lot more of the same. More of the regular winter visitors showed themselves. HAWFINCH, COMMON CROSSBILL, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, PEREGRINE, EURASIAN SISKIN, GLAUCOUS WINGED GULL, RED THROATED DIVER and COMMON BULLFINCH. ORIENTAL GREENFINCH was the first returning "summer visitor ". Highlight of the month was a YELLOW THROATED BUNTING which is rare in northern Japan and a beautiful little bird to boot. 50 species-halfway there.
March was a slow month. COMMON GULL passed through and I saw my first GLACOUS GULL of the winter. Seawatching provided both RED NECKED GREBE and SLAVONIAN GREBE. A ROSY FINCH on the beach was the best bird of the month. 55 species. A dodgy poorly seen through a blizzard immature Eagle MIGHT have been a Stellers but I didn't count it!
April was a great month. Many of the wintering birds lingered on and indeed became more numerous ( especially Crossbill and Hawfinch ). The melting of the snow and ice meant I could go up the mountain and I picked up a lot of the commoner forest birds-EURASIAN SPARROWHAWK, GREY HEADED WOODPECKER, JAPANESE PYGMY WOODPECKER, EURASIAN NUTHATCH, MARSH TIT, WILLOW TIT, VARIED TIT and COMMON REDPOLL. Birds returning from southern Japan included SIBERIAN MEADOW BUNTING, BLACK FACED BUNTING, JAPANESE SKYLARK, BULL HEADED SHRIKE, JAPANESE BUSH WARBLER, JAPANESE WHITE EYE and ORIENTAL TURTLE DOVE. Migrants included EASTERN CROWNED WILLOW WARBLER, BROWN THRUSH, COMMON STONECHAT, BARN SWALLOW, LITTLE RINGED PLOVER, PACIFIC SWIFT and ASIAN HOUSE MARTIN. Highlights of April were an OSPREY lazily flapping into town from the sea and a large passage of RED FLANKED BLUETAIL including some great views of males in full summer plumage. In fact the spring migration season was the best time I've had birding a local patch an it got even better in May. 79 species.
May saw more summer birds arriving either to breed or just passing through. These included RED CHEEKED STARLING, GREY STARLING, ORIENTAL GREAT REED WARBLER, COMMON CUCKOO, ORIENTAL CUCKOO, GOOSANDER, BLACK HEADED GULL, GREY TAILED TATTLER, SIBERIAN BLUE ROBIN, ASIAN BROWN FLYCATCHER, GREY HEADED BUNTING, LONG TAILED TIT, COMMON BUZZARD, RHINOCEROS AUKLET and the beautiful NARCISSUS FLYCATCHER. Highlights of May were a flock of passage thrushes hopping around a grassy area of the cape on an early foggy morning ( usually they're so shy you just see their back as they fly away). There were 4 species including EYE BROWED THRUSH AND GREY THRUSH. But best of all were the huge flocks of RED NECKED PHARALOPE spread out right along he coast ( there is an archived thread about this somewhere ). 97 species-nearly there.
June continued where May left off. GREY WAGTAIL and JAPANESE GREEN PIGEON left me on 99 and number 100 was a superb ARCTIC WARBLER buzzing away on a branch. BLACK BROWED REED WARBLER , COMMON PHEASANT and a surprise INTERMEDIATE EGRET on the small river near my house brought me to 103 species.
July and August were very quite bird-wise. A NORTHERN HOBBY was a surprise flyover in August and by early September many of the commoner migrants were passing through again. Early in September there was a small wader passage where SANDERLING, RED NECKED STINT and COMMON SANDPIPER were added to the list. On the tiny river near my house I saw another 2 ( bringing the total to 4 ) Heron species-BLACK CROWNED NIGHT HERON and STRIATED HERON. GOSHAWK, LONG TAILED ROSEFINCH and the highlight of the month, WHITES THRUSH got me up to 112.
October and November saw me get a few extras. PALE THRUSH, BLACK LEGGED KITTIWAKE, GOLDCREST, EURASIAN JAY, LITTLE GREBE and EURASIAN TREECREEPER all showed themselves but the highlight of this autumn was a notable passage of RUSTIC BUNTING. December gave me 2 surprises-WATER RAIL and LONG BILLED PLOVER. Final count was 121 species. Not too bad.
Way back in January I decided to try and see as many species as possible in my local patch in one calendar year. I live in Hakodate in southernmost Hokkaido which is the main northern isle of Japan. I reckoned 100 would be a realistic target............I had previously seen 75 in 3 years but I had never really done much serious birding. A self-employed/part-time lifestyle meant I had loads more free time than in previous years.
Hakodate is a smallish town of about 300,000. It's on the coast and there are 2 small rivers (with a few very small reedbeds ), a couple of parks (one of which has a small moat ) and a couple of bays. Best of all is a small forest clad mountain/cape connected to the town by a spit. Unfortunately in winter it's impossible to go birding on the mountain due to the heavy snow.
January started off as cold as normal. Common resident species picked up in this month were BLACK KITE, EURASIAN TREE SPARROW, LARGE BILLED CROW, CARRION CROW, COMMON KINGFISHER, BROWN EARED BULBUL, SPOT BILLED DUCK, BLACK TAILED GULL, SLATY BACKED GULL, FERAL PIGEON, GREAT TIT, BRAMBLING, BLUE ROCK THRUSH, GREY HERON, BLACK BACKED WAGTAIL and JAPANESE CORMORANT. There were also the common winter visitors-DAURIAN REDSTART, DUSKY THRUSH, COAL TIT, EURASIAN KESTREL, WINTER WREN, MALLARD, HERRING GULL, EURASIAN TEAL, TUFTED DUCK, PELAGIC CORMORANT, COMMON GOLDENEYE, RED BREASTED MERGANSER, BLACK SCOTER, HARLEQUIN DUCK, EURASIAN WIGEON, SCAUP, BRENT GOOSE, BLACK NECKED GREBE AND BUFF BELLIED PIPIT. Highlights of the month were a WHITE TAILED EAGLE ( seen overhead on a shopping trip to the liquor store ), BLACK THROATED DIVER ( seen at close range in the bay ) and best of all a mixed flock of about 60 BOHEMIAN and JAPANESE WAXWING. A couple of each even perched on an antenna a few feet away...........but I didn't have a camera. 40 species were seen in January.
February naturally saw a lot more of the same. More of the regular winter visitors showed themselves. HAWFINCH, COMMON CROSSBILL, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, PEREGRINE, EURASIAN SISKIN, GLAUCOUS WINGED GULL, RED THROATED DIVER and COMMON BULLFINCH. ORIENTAL GREENFINCH was the first returning "summer visitor ". Highlight of the month was a YELLOW THROATED BUNTING which is rare in northern Japan and a beautiful little bird to boot. 50 species-halfway there.
March was a slow month. COMMON GULL passed through and I saw my first GLACOUS GULL of the winter. Seawatching provided both RED NECKED GREBE and SLAVONIAN GREBE. A ROSY FINCH on the beach was the best bird of the month. 55 species. A dodgy poorly seen through a blizzard immature Eagle MIGHT have been a Stellers but I didn't count it!
April was a great month. Many of the wintering birds lingered on and indeed became more numerous ( especially Crossbill and Hawfinch ). The melting of the snow and ice meant I could go up the mountain and I picked up a lot of the commoner forest birds-EURASIAN SPARROWHAWK, GREY HEADED WOODPECKER, JAPANESE PYGMY WOODPECKER, EURASIAN NUTHATCH, MARSH TIT, WILLOW TIT, VARIED TIT and COMMON REDPOLL. Birds returning from southern Japan included SIBERIAN MEADOW BUNTING, BLACK FACED BUNTING, JAPANESE SKYLARK, BULL HEADED SHRIKE, JAPANESE BUSH WARBLER, JAPANESE WHITE EYE and ORIENTAL TURTLE DOVE. Migrants included EASTERN CROWNED WILLOW WARBLER, BROWN THRUSH, COMMON STONECHAT, BARN SWALLOW, LITTLE RINGED PLOVER, PACIFIC SWIFT and ASIAN HOUSE MARTIN. Highlights of April were an OSPREY lazily flapping into town from the sea and a large passage of RED FLANKED BLUETAIL including some great views of males in full summer plumage. In fact the spring migration season was the best time I've had birding a local patch an it got even better in May. 79 species.
May saw more summer birds arriving either to breed or just passing through. These included RED CHEEKED STARLING, GREY STARLING, ORIENTAL GREAT REED WARBLER, COMMON CUCKOO, ORIENTAL CUCKOO, GOOSANDER, BLACK HEADED GULL, GREY TAILED TATTLER, SIBERIAN BLUE ROBIN, ASIAN BROWN FLYCATCHER, GREY HEADED BUNTING, LONG TAILED TIT, COMMON BUZZARD, RHINOCEROS AUKLET and the beautiful NARCISSUS FLYCATCHER. Highlights of May were a flock of passage thrushes hopping around a grassy area of the cape on an early foggy morning ( usually they're so shy you just see their back as they fly away). There were 4 species including EYE BROWED THRUSH AND GREY THRUSH. But best of all were the huge flocks of RED NECKED PHARALOPE spread out right along he coast ( there is an archived thread about this somewhere ). 97 species-nearly there.
June continued where May left off. GREY WAGTAIL and JAPANESE GREEN PIGEON left me on 99 and number 100 was a superb ARCTIC WARBLER buzzing away on a branch. BLACK BROWED REED WARBLER , COMMON PHEASANT and a surprise INTERMEDIATE EGRET on the small river near my house brought me to 103 species.
July and August were very quite bird-wise. A NORTHERN HOBBY was a surprise flyover in August and by early September many of the commoner migrants were passing through again. Early in September there was a small wader passage where SANDERLING, RED NECKED STINT and COMMON SANDPIPER were added to the list. On the tiny river near my house I saw another 2 ( bringing the total to 4 ) Heron species-BLACK CROWNED NIGHT HERON and STRIATED HERON. GOSHAWK, LONG TAILED ROSEFINCH and the highlight of the month, WHITES THRUSH got me up to 112.
October and November saw me get a few extras. PALE THRUSH, BLACK LEGGED KITTIWAKE, GOLDCREST, EURASIAN JAY, LITTLE GREBE and EURASIAN TREECREEPER all showed themselves but the highlight of this autumn was a notable passage of RUSTIC BUNTING. December gave me 2 surprises-WATER RAIL and LONG BILLED PLOVER. Final count was 121 species. Not too bad.
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