Crikey was I tired last night. I even managed 6 hours straight sleep despite my feet burning from all the insect bites because i'd failed to read the info sheet in our room about keeping the balcony door shut last night blah blah blah.... Anyway, the alarm woke me up at 5am and I poked my nose out onto the balcony to see thick mist enveloping the gardens. Oh bugger! It did cross my mind to leave it an hour as there appeared to be no point in venturing out just yet, but I was awake anyway so got my kit together and headed to the hotel lobby. And I was amazed to see bright blue skies and sunshine on this side of the hotel! And my first view of Mount Fuji from the hotel car park was breathtaking.
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| First view of Mount Fuji from hotel car park at 5.15am |
It only took 20 minutes or so to reach the entrance gate to Mount Fuji and a further 25 minutes to drive up to start birding. On the drive up I had Japanese Thrush, Red-flanked Bluetails and Narcissus Flycatcher actually on the road and I enjoyed listening to a really great chorus of birdsong through my open car window. I'd pinpointed a spot where the not-so-splendid Japanese Accentor had been seen recently. As I got out of the car, I could hear several Japanese Leaf Warblers singing from the slope above but couldn't initially locate any. The trail headed uphill and was extremely steep, consisting of volcanic rocks and a series of stone steps and boy did it make my legs hurt! I was thinking that this would be no good with a group but stubbornness got the better of me and I continued upwards. I paused after a couple of hundred metres to take a breather and enjoyed fine views of several Spotted Nutcrackers, along with a female Red-flanked Bluetail, and my first glimpse of a distant Japanese Leaf Warbler.
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| Spotted Nutcracker |
Then I spotted something pale perched on a dead tree way above me, and when I got the scope on it I was delighted to see it was a Bull-headed Shrike - a bird that has always eluded me until now. I struggled up more extremely steep steps, taking a few pauses to catch my breath and look at the stunning view. I was a little surprised that it was so hot up here so early in the day, considering it was 2,600m.
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| Cracking view from up here.. |
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| The one and only Mount Fuji looked very close |
I decided to try one more section of steps and a good job I did as there was a very bold Japanese Leaf Warbler singing its heart out right next to me.
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| Japanese Leaf Warbler |
More bluetails, nutcrackers, Olive-backed Pipit, a Coal Tit, Willow Tit and an Eurasian Wren were seen as the conifers became shorter and I tried a few calls of the accentor at various points but there was no response.
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| Olive-backed Pipit |
Deciding to cut my losses I walked back down the steep trail, knees aching every step of the way! So what to do now? I thought it was a good idea to drive further up to the end of the road, where there's a large complex of shops and a hotel and walk from here. I did but couldn't locate any accentors so drove back to the hotel to meet Mrs B for breakfast, and making it with 5 minutes to spare before the breakfast service ended. They are very punctual over here!! But worh it for the eggs and bacon!
Once we'd checked out, I decided to try my luck on the other side of Mount Fuji, which took a good hour to drive around to. The road was narrower on this side and not so well maintained as on the more touristy side I visited earlier. Driving through fantastic moss-encrusted forest, I reached the top which must have been close to the treeline. But who could tell as the mist had descended and it was practically 'white out' up here. And chilly too. There was a trail going up but it was blocked off by a fence and scaffolding, but that wasn't deterring the hikers who made the navigation of scaffolding and wire fence look easy. I was a bit clumsier but got through and began walking up a steep set of steps. Sod this I thought, as my knees and aching calf muscles were screaming at me. It was misty. Nothing was singing. And I was beginning to wonder if I was really crap at finding birds as everyone else sees the stupid, ugly accentor...!! That's my ADHD playing tricks with me! Within 0.5 seconds of playing the call, a very small exocet missile from the slope above flew past my ear and landed on a small tree stump next to me..... It couldn't be, could it? Well, flipping heck YES!! The oh so delightful Japanese Accentor really wanted to be seen and sat on the stump for a good 5 minutes, about 4 metres away from me. Even the mist began to lift and all was right with the world once again!
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| Stunner isn't it...?!! |
How your birding fortunes can change in an instant! Even my knees and leg muscles stopped hurting for a few minutes! So with that in the bag we drove slowly back down the mountain, making a few stops to get better photos of Japanese Leaf Warbler.....
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| Japanese Leaf Warbler |
An Eurasian Jay looked pretty cool with its stripey head, there were more Lesser Cuckoos calling and even a Northern Hawk Cuckoo called but didn't respond to playback.
Anyway, we eventually found ourselves in the very large town of Gotemba at a Denny's diner where I had steak and fries before driving another 90 minutes into Tokyo. This is where s$&t got real as I missed the turning to the hotel where we are leaving our big suitcases at for a couple nights whilst we were going to be in Miyake-Jima and ended up seeing a lot of Tokyo in the rush hour!! Say no more! Eventually we reached the hotel, dropped luggage off and made it to the Nissan car rental place. You have to fill up at the gas station closest to the rental office and present the receipt to show them! The free shuttle bus took us back to Haneda Airport where we had dinner in a sports bar (spaghetti bolognese baby!) before catching a taxi to Takeshiba Ferry Terminal. It was all very efficient and after a bit of a wait we boarded the 22:30 overnight ferry to Miyake-Jima. We had bunk beds in a shared room (this is what they call a 2nd class cabin) as there's no 1st class on the ferry. And we went to sleep pretty quickly, with me being excited at the birding possibilities to come tomorrow and Mrs B wishing she was anywhere else right now!!!!
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