Japan Day 1 (At Last)!

So we missed our rest day before things kicked off in Japan. I managed to rejig the itinerary a little at the start and we ended up at an airport hotel close to Narita Airport. It's about an hour's drive from Tokyo Haneda Airport and I was mighty glad to reach it last night at around 8.30pm after a long 13 hour flight from the UK. Nissan car rental were very efficient and it took a matter of minutes to complete formalities, input the ETC card into its slot near the dashboard (so we can use the toll routes) and we whizzed up to Narita. My thinking was that I wanted to be as close to the marshes and roadbeds along the Tone River so I could check out a few sites early doors this morning. Well, when I say early, I was awake from 2am and lying in bed mulling things over. In the end, my lack of patience got the better of me and I got up at 3.30am, got dressed and headed 17 floors down to reception and the in-house convenience store to buy some water and sandwiches. By now it was 4am and starting to get light as I gunned the engine and set out on the 35 minute drive to the marshes. Having seen Marsh Grassbird and Ochre-rumped Bunting many times in China, I wasn't personally bothered about seeing them. As it turned out the grass bird wasn't displaying today, as it's probably a bit late in the season. I did see the bunting distantly but I was more intent on checking the area out for next year's tour. 

Obligatory reedbed shot due to lack of bird pics

I covered three sites, walked many kilometres and got a really good feel for the area.  The massive reedbeds held a healthy population of Great Bitterns - I counted 5 booming males in one area. Oriental Reed Warblers were very, very common, noisy and flamboyantly active. The same for Zitting Cisticola - i've never seen so many in one place. There were many egrets and herons around, flocks of post-breeding Grey-capped (Oriental) Greenfinches, a few Oriental Turtle Doves were perched on telegraph wires with White-cheeked Starlings, Tree Sparrows and several Black Kites perched on posts nearby. It was a very pleasant few hours birding and i'm sure I appreciate everything more than I did when I was younger. Is that an age thing? My knee and aching back would certainly point to that fact!

I was particularly pleased with several nice views of Japanese Bush Warbler, its rich, fluty song is almost nightingale-ish in tone and they were very active and posing nicely. According to my iGoTerra potential lifer list this was a lifer, but i've definitely seen it before in China, so not sure what's going on there! A Green Pheasant was a lifer for me - the first of potentially 35 over the next few weeks (but that depends on a few seabirds being seen). There were also a number of Eurasian Skylarks singing at all 3 sites, and they did sound quite different to those back home in the UK. Anyway, I left to rejoin Mrs B back at the hotel, arriving at 8am for a much-needed buffet breakfast. As I approached the hotel a Grey-faced Buzzard flew over the car park and as I walked to the hotel entrance a Lesser Cuckoo began calling. So, not a bad few hour's birding.

After feeding our faces Mrs B and I headed over to Naritasan Shinsho-Ji temple, as I do love a drop of culture. Oh wait...... It was only 10 minutes from the hotel and I had to show willing! In fact, it wasn't too bad. I avoided actually going in, tried to look interested and took the odd photo before suggesting we take a walk around the well wooded park behind the temple. Just to stretch our legs... As you do! 

Temple

Largely devoid of any bird song or activity for the first half an hour, I was feeling a little dejected until a Varied Tit began singing and after a careful bit of manoeuvring got absolutely stunning views down to a couple of metres away. What a corker and full of attitude too. 

Varied Tit

I reeled off a fair few photos until a Brown-eared Bulbul flew in, literally screeching at me (for some reason) from the canopy above. Again, iGoTerra indicated this was a lifer but it wasn't. Still the satisfying "ping" of a New World Lifer Alert on the IGT Pocket app is always a welcome sound. 

Brown-eared Bulbul

We walked on a bit further, with Mrs B answering work emails on my iPhone, until I spotted a raptor perched on a dead snag. Wow! It was a Japanese Sparrowhawk. Nice!

Japanese sparrowhawk

As luck would have it, as we walked back towards the car park, we ran into a second temple! Yay! This one as a famous (apparently) Buddhist one.... So that two temples & we even walked around some shops. FML!!

Temple No2

After retrieving our luggage from the hotel we set off on the 3 hour drive up into the forested mountains to Karuizawa, home of one of my most-wanted - Yellow Bunting. Everyone loves a good bunting and I really want this one! A stop at a roadside service station proved entertaining (for the nesting Barn Swallows and 3 cute young staring down at everyone fro their nest on a light fitting) and interesting. You see, i've always been daunted at the food prospects in Japan, as I don't eat fish and everyone who has been has gone on and on about how amazing sushi it. Yuck!! The shelves of weird and wonderful offerings had to be sifted through until we found double cheese rolls and bacon & cheese baguettes to quaff. 

The row upon row of vending machines selling all sorts of drink from Coke, to coffee and everything in-between have to be seen to be believed. But, all in all, it was ok. I'm pretty sure i'm not going to waste away here. There's McDonalds and convenience stores everywhere! I do love a bit of 7/11....

So, by 4pm we'd reached the resort near Karuizawa Bird Sanctuary, and checked in. it was very modern and reminiscent of a James Bond villains lair but also pretty cool and laid back. Lesser Cuckoos called in the car park and lots of bird song reverberated from the hills above. I was pretty exhausted having been up since stupid o'clock but eager to head out and go bunting hunting! Mrs B was asleep before i'd dropped the bags in the room and eagerly drove about 5 minutes up the road to a quiet 'back road' where I parked next to a pool with a pair of Mandarin Ducks, a few Eastern Spot-billed Ducks & a pair of Grey Wagtails were present. These forested hills are covered in lush green foliage and many of the trees are huge. And I mean huge. I was eager to find Yellow Bunting and tried turning every song i heard into a bunting song, until I told myself to calm down and relax. The bird would come i reminded myself, so just walk quietly and watch &  listen. You stupid fool Pike!! (Dad's Army reference - that's how old I am!) Anyhow, a Narcissus Flycatcher sang from a dense area beside the road and i'm buggered if I could see it. I walked along the road for maybe just over a kilometre, picking up some really cool looking Japanese Grosbeaks, had a nano-second on an Asian Stubtail but heard a few more deeper into the by-now extremely gloomy forest. The clouds had rolled in and it was getting quite dark, despite being only 5pm but there was bird activity, and several more Lesser Cuckoos were calling, a Japanese Thrush sang from somewhere upslope and a woodpecker species called fro ages, but I couldn't locate it. And then I heard it... THE BUNTING! Crikey. But where. First it was on my left, then on my right, then right overhead. I moved a few metres along the road to try and get a fix on the beast and there it was. HOLY F$%k..!! It's only a Yellow Bunting baby! God I wish I had my scope on me, as i'd have got some killer phonescope pics, so had to content myself with some less-than-pin-sharp images from my trusty Nikon D500... 

Yellow Bunting

I couldn't get a sharp image as I was too excited and it was really gloomy under the canopy but i sort of don't care. i captured the moment, reeling off about 30 shots before putting the camera down and gawping at it through the Swarovski bins as the bird remained on a bare snag for ages. You beauty. And then it flew down and disappeared. Elated with this, I was spurred on to continue walking but it was pretty futile so I returned to the car and had a Pacific Swift fly over to round things off nicely. 

I was feeling rather pleased with myself and things continued in similiar vein with a fine pizza and cold local beer to end the day.