Sunday 4 November 2012

8th October, 2012 Monday Hegura Day 10

Fine calm morning with the wind now switching to the E. Out by 5.30 with Rob and did our usual pre-breakfast walk which was excellent with a White's Thrush on the Track, our first Elegent Buntings of the trip. At the Shrine Headland we met up with Mida-san ( a professor of ornithology at a Japanese University),  who advised us he had just found a Long-billed Plover on the nearby beach, and we quickly went and saw this, which is just the second record for Hegura. A surprise find was a Coot on the Dragons Pool.
After breakfast, we birded the West beach area including the enclosures, the Temple Garden and Central Track. Several more Elegent Buntings were found, and a fall of Rustic Buntings, with 16 seen during the day. Rob was leaving today on the ferry so we said our good-byes, he was a really nice guy and we enjoyed his company. We then visited the drinking pool and a Red-flanked Bluetail put on a good show of drinking and washing. A visit to Tsukaka  fields where we re-located the Japanese Waxwing and finally back along the Central Track where we had 3 Grey Buntings which was a new lifer for myself.
As we were returning at dusk, several parties of Dusky Thrushes were leaving the Island

Streaked Shearwater 2
Japanese Cormorant 3
Grey Heron 5
Mandarin Duck 1
Teal 3
Spot-billed Duck 2
Sparrowhawk 1 S
Coot 1
Long-billed Plover 1 juvenile ex.
Woodcock 1
Snipe 1
Grey-tailed Tattler 1
Black-tailed Gull 100
Slaty-backed Gull 1
Japanese Woodpigeon 1
Little Cuckoo 1
Wryneck 2
Great Spotted Woodpecker 1
Skylark 3
Olive-backed Pipit 8
Tree Pipit 1
Black-backed Wagtail 15
Brown-eared Bulbul 10
Japanese Waxwing 1
Siberian Rubythroat 1 male
Red-flanked Bluetail 3
Daurian Redstart 10
Stejneger's Stonechat 8
Blue Rock Thrush 5
White's Thrush 2
Pale Thrush 10
Eye-browed Thrush 3
Dusky Thrush 250
Naumann's Thrush 2
Asian Stubtail 1
Japanese Bush Warbler 6
Middendorff's Grasshopper Warbler 2
Black-browed Reed Warbler 6
Arctic Warbler 12
Pacific Warbler 2
Yellow-browed Warbler 1
Goldcrest 50
Brown Flycatcher 2
Narcissus Flycatcher 2
Varied Tit 1
Coal Tit 1
Japanese White-eye 20
Bull-headed Shrike 2
Brown Shrike 2
Large-billed Crow 2
Brambling 40
Oriental Greenfinch 20
Siskin 300
Hawfinch 1
Masked Bunting 12
Grey Bunting 3
Pine Bunting 3
Elegant Bunting 6 males
Tristram's Bunting 4
Rustic Bunting 16
Little Bunting 3



The Temple Gardens at the SW beach


Hegura Lighthouse 



Rob leaving on the ferry

 





 

 

Juvenile Long-billed Plover along the West shore.
Second record for Hegura





Grey-tailed Tattler in flight along the SW beach.


Coot on the Dragon's Pool - a surprise to find this
some 50km's from the Mainland.



Brown Shrike along the Western shore


 Distant picture of a Bull-headed Shrike 


Our second Bull Headed Shrike of today at Middendorff's Marsh


Red-flanked Bluetail at the drinking pool


Red-flanked Bluetail and Japanese Bush-Warbler at the 
drinking pool

 








 

1stW. Red-flanked Bluetail at the drinking pool


1stW. male Daurian Redstart along the Central track.
Ten were still left on the Island.



 

Two Siberian Stonechats of the race Stejegner's along the Western shore

 

We recorded 8 different Siberian Stonechats today


Dusky Thrush on the School field - still 250 present on the Island.




The Japanese Waxwing had relocated to Tsukasa

 




Coal Tit near the Quail track belonging to the
Eastern race insularis


Yellow-browed Warbler along the Central Track









Japanese Bush-Warbler at the drinking pool.





 


 

Asian Stubtail coming in at dusk to the drinking pool





Female Narcissus Flycatcher at the drinking pool



 





Some of today's 16 Rustic Buntings seen on the Island
including a party of 12 seen at the School field.







1st.W Tristram's Bunting in the hedgerow at the School field.
Four were seen today, but always shy and nervous.




Little Buntings near the statue - just three seen today.



Record shots of the 1stW. Grey Bunting along the Central Track



Japanese White-eye along the Central track