BACK TO MY WELSH ROOTS

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:21:19 +0000

My Mum’s family is from Wales. Llangollen, North Wales to be precise. And so the pull of family history drew me back to Rhiwderyn just west of Newport in the old country yesterday. Well, that and the unscripted presence of a major US vagrant, a 1st winter male Common Yellowthroat. Having been inexplicably otherwise occupied when previous Yellowthroats had arrived in the UK, lanidng on various remote outposts (the Scillies, Shetland etc), I lost no time in heading West to try to catch up with this transatlantic waif.

A very wet six hours followed, the highlight of which was a full English in the pub in Rhiwderyn for a fiver. Then, at around 130pm the bird at last emerged from a muddy thicket and allowed a couple of snatched photos.

Notice the pitta-like behaviour, grubbing around in the gloomy undergrowth, hiding behind every available piece of understorey vegetation, and generally giving viewers the runaround. Mind you the climate was rather less akin to the warmth of SE Asia, being decidedly wet and windy.

A top bird and no mistake. And after struggling to career our way out of a rain-sodden field yesterday, I’ve managed just to scrape the last vestiges of mud off the ageing Audi too.

STUNNING NEW GALLERY PICTURES ADDED

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:42:38 +0000

Consider yourself a member of the pitterati?

If so, you reeeeely need to check out Alex Vargas’s new photos which he has kindly sent me for inclusion in the pitta gallery. I mean it’s one thing to grub around on the forest floor in order to eventually get a glimpse of a skulking pitta’s departing derriere. It’s quite another to secure a clear, unobstructed image of a pitta, well-lit and pin-sharp.

And make no mistake, that is exactly what Alex Vargas has just achieved. Alex’s shots are some of the very best I’ve seen of pitta species. If you’ve read ‘The Jewel Hunter’, you’ll know that it took me over a week in the field just to get a brief view of Rusty-naped Pitta; Alex’s shots from a hide erected at Mae Wong National Park in Western Thailand are jaw-dropping and truly awe-inspiring.

I feel an Asian forest visit coming on soon...In the meantime just click this link:

www.pittasworld.com/Site/Pitta_Photos.html

and admire Alex’s beautiful images of Blue-winged Pitta, male and female Blue Pitta, male and female Malayan Banded Pitta, and the aforementioned Rusty-naped...

A QUIET DAY AT NAKA-KARUIZAWA

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 12:44:17 +0000

I had visited Naka-Karuizawa once before, way back in 1995. That trip had been on a warm day in mid-May, and the woods were full of birdsong, a mellifluous chorus provided by Blue and White- and Narcissus Flycatchers, Japanese Bush Warblers and a host of other species. Having left Tokyo in the pre-dawn chill, as I stepped off the Shinakansen at Karuizawa station and pulled on my hat and gloves I reflected that today was likely to be a rather different experience.

The walk up from Naka-Karuizawa station was cold and quiet, with only a Japanese Wagtail to show for my concentration. As I turned right by the Hoshino Onsen hot springs and started up the Kose-Rindo forest road, I was struck by the ominous silence emanating from the extensive woodlands ahead. An hour later, and I had barely seen a bird, save for the ubiquitous tit-flocks containing Willow-, Great and Coal Tits but little else. The odd Brown Dipper made for an interesting diversion, but even these birds were shy and would flee upriver as soon as they caught a glimpse of me, moving at some speed despite the apparently limited propulsion provided by the stiff beating of their stumpy wings.

Brown Dipper, Kose-Rindo Road, Naka-Karuizawa, Japan

I walked all the way up to the Kose Onsen resort, and after four hours hard work had seen only a Japanese Accentor of note.

Japanese Accentor

I continued North, along a promising forest road that wound through a deserted campground. Despite good-looking habitat and having the place entirely to myself, birds were still exceedingly scarce, with only the odd flock of common birds to provide temporary distraction. After a couple more hours I tracked down a Red-flanked Bluetail, its presence betrayed by a quiet ‘wut-wut’ alarm call, like a distant thrush’s alarm note.

Red-flanked Bluetail

Along a particularly quiet section of a minor tributary of the Yukawa River I encountered the best bird of the day, a Solitary Snipe, which flushed from beneath my feet before arrowing down the river, never to be seen again. The species is little known in Japan, and seems decidedly uncommon this far South on Honshu, a fitting reward for my efforts in what must rank as one of my quietest ever days in the field in Asia.

TWITCHING, TOKYO-STYLE

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 12:17:27 +0000

I picked my way carefully through the station at 530am, the only sober person amongst the hordes of twenty-four hour party people heading home after a night of excess in the party town that is Shibuya. A quick hop across to Shinjuku station on the trusty Yamanote line, and I was in position ahead of schedule on the platform to catch the ‘Romancecar’ express to Shin-Matsuda. There I transferred to a local train, before alighting at Kayama. I walked East for fifteen minutes until I found the Sakawa-gawa (river) and then consulted my scrawled directions and barely-decipherable map.

Which way? I scanned the wide expanse of river in both directions, and as I reached the end of my swing to the south, focussed on a large group of people sporting an immense array of top-end cameras. I could not help but notice that every last one of the telephoto lenses was pointing in the same direction. That’ll be the spot then. I jogged south to the group, greeting the friendlier faces with one of the only three phrases I know in Japanese. They nodded, before focussing anew on the task in hand. I scanned through the ducks on the opposite shoreline...Spot-billed Duck...Spot-billed Duck...female Goosander...Oh my God. Male Scaly-sided Merganser.

Scaly-sided Merganser, near Kayama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

In truth the drake S-SM is not a difficult bird to identify. It has a striking British Racing Green spiky crest that sticks out from the back of the head in a manner that suggests no amount of Brylcreem could tame it. The underparts are for the most part, dazzlingly white. Except, that is, for (you guessed it) the scaly sides, which are delicately scalloped in dark grey, forming a pattern that is as close to crazy paving as the duck world ever comes:

Scaly-sided Merganser

After an hour or two of watching the merganser I walked North along the river to see what else was around. A couple of Dusky Warblers played hide and seek in the dense scrub at the river’s edge, but a female Daurian Redstart was far more obliging:

female Daurian Redstart

After a further hour’s searching I tracked down the other species I had expected might find the river’s broad gravel bars to its liking: Long-billed Plover: 

I retraced my steps to Tokyo in time to take a spin around my ‘local patch’, the extensive parklands that surround the Meiji Jingu Shinto Temple, but a chill wind that had strengthened during the day meant that activity was very low. After a ¥1000 (about £9 at the current shocking exchange rate...) pint of celebratory Guinness in my local, ‘The Dubliners’ in Shibuya I hit the hay early to allow an early start the following morning...

Special thanks to Chris Cook for immaculate directions, and for alerting me to
the merganser’s presence in the first place.

BACK TO GUNUNG GEDE

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:24:40 +0000

Work once again brought me back to Asia, a whirlwind 12-day, 7 country business itinerary taking in Bangkok, Singapore, Jakarta, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Seoul and Tokyo. Sadly, all locales except Thailand are for the most part pitta-free locations, and Thailand proved to be largely under water during my brief visit due to the terrible flooding that has hit the central plains during the last few weeks. Any pittas within striking range would have had to wear water wings in order to survive...My two free weekends did however allow a return visit to Gunung Gede, a mountain approximately four hours drive East of Jakarta, West Java, as well as a couple of day trips out of Tokyo on public transport.

I last visited Gede in May this year, but tht trip was pretty much a wash-out. This time however the weather Gods were relatviely kind, and my ex-German army poncho only had to be broken out on a couple of occasions during late afternoon downpours.

My first day on Gede this time was a Friday, and so I was determined to get as far up the mountain as possible given that the trails would be relatively quiet. It’s a tough 10km climb from the trailhead to the volcanic caldera at the very top, but the trail passes through pristine montane rainforest for almost its entire length, so there are always good birds to look at whenever you stop to catch your breath. The lower slopes as ever produced a few of West Java’s common species such as Sunda Blue Robins, Crescent-chested Babblers, and Lesser Shortwings. One individual of the latter species sang from a low songpost allowing a reasonable photo of this skulking understorey species:

Lesser Shortwing, Gunung Gede, November 2011

The normally elusive Pygmy Wren-Babblers were vocal and active, with one bird virtually standing on my toes as he came in to investigate the seductive kissing noises I was making to attract him:

Pygmy Wren-Babbler

Up at around 1500m I bumped into one of Gede’s star birds, a resplendent Javan Trogon, which posed for a photograph before disappearing back into the forest with a twitch of its tail:

Javan Trogon

As I gained altitude I encountered other members of Gede’s avifauna- a flock of eight endemic Spotted Crocias, Horsfield’s Babblers, Javan Fulvettas, and White-browed- and Chestnut-fronted Shrike-Babblers were all duly logged. A Javan Tesia dropped by too, interrupting its usual frenetic schedule for just long enough to allow me a single shot:

Javan Tesia

The higher slopes were as usual rather quiet, but a hint of movement within the foliage of a tiny fruiting tree above the highest camp ground indicated the presence of a bird feeding quietly in the canopy. A painstaking, stealthy approach provided the chance for me to identify the source of the disturbance, which proved to be a cracking 1st year male Siberian Thrush:

Siberian Thrush

The final climb from the t-junction above the upper campground to the summit is a gruelling two kilometre hike, and includes sections where you have to haul yourself up near-vertical rockfaces using the ropes provided. Sadly, having navigated these, and when I was only a few hundred metres short of the summit, I became enveloped in thick cloud, and I abandoned the last push to the summit. The spectacular views of the crater, (and high altitude species such as Volcano Swiftlet and Tawny-breasted Parrotfinch) would have to wait for another day.

On the Saturday morning I decided to spend a couple of hours at lower altitude trying once again to find the elusive Sunda Thrush, a near-mythical thrush in the genus Zoothera which has eluded me on many previous occasions. During 2008 and 2009 I knew that a relatively confiding bird had often been seen around the start of the main trail at dawn, but my local contacts had told me that this bird’s confiding nature had been its undoing, and that it had ended up as a cagebird. It seemed my chances to connect with this difficult species were worse than ever. I sat on the edge of the lower (‘interpretative’) trail behind the headquarters and waited for dawn to arrive. As the first glimmers of light flickered at the edge of the sky, I became aware of a shape at the edge of the path, a shape that immediately bounced off the trail and began to feed in the leaf litter next to the trail. Sunda Thrush! This tiny wraith fed nervously for a minute or so, before evaporating into the half-light like smoke in night air. I waited motionless for the next hour, but the bird did not return.

With the trail thronged with day-trippers climbing up to the waterfall, birds were less co-operative than they had been the day before, but nonetheless, the quality remained high throughout the morning. A Yellow-throated Hanging-Parrot shot past as I walked across the Botanical Gardens, a group of Sunda Minivets frolicked high above my head in the forest above the waterfall junction, and I bumped into what may be Gede’s only remaining White-bellied Fantail on the way up the mountain and amazingly, on the way back down too! This is my only sighting of the species at Gede in a number of trips, so to see it twice in a day was fortunate indeed.

On my last morning I tried again for the Sunda Thrush at dawn, but steady rain from 4am onwards put paid to my chances. I plan to return next year to try to photograph the bird, and to look for Gede’s other specialities that continue to elude me: Javan Scops-Owl, Dusky Woodcock and Javan Hawk-Eagle.

Having finally encountered one of Java’s star birds, I had to hang up my binoculars and set about another week’s work, which I had carefully arranged to end with a day’s business in Tokyo on a Friday...