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. 

Japan Flight Delays or Why Did I Choose BA? Or Japan Day 1 - oh wait, it's not!

Well, it's nearly 30 hours since I should have flown to Tokyo..... Had an email & text message from British Airways yesterday telling us our flight was cancelled - and that was less than 24 hours notice before we were due to fly. WTAF! Anyway, i'm writing this in the British Airways lounge quaffing beer waiting for the Japan Airlines flight in a couple of hours. So Mrs B and I have missed our first day in Tokyo but nothing was planned anyway as we wanted a day to rest before hitting the road. So i've rejigged the start of our trip (Mrs B is unaware it's not a holiday!!!) and missing a bit of culture to get to the first birding site on time..... 

Anyway, Japan as a whole has a potential 55 lifers for yours truly, although on this visit i've a target of 35 - that depends on what seabirds are around at this weird time of year. A month earlier and i'd be looking at a few more I think but would be ecstatic with 35. I do have some anxiety about how this is going to pan out and haven't had much time to revise as i've only been back from Mongolia for a week. But we are off and i'm going to give it a shot. 

Revision time at the airport lounge.....

TURKEY DAY 8: GAZIANTEP - ADANA

Drove down to a lake some 30 minutes from our hotel, set amidst a flat landscape of arable fields. I didn’t really know what to expect but needn’t have worried as the site was full of birds. Indeed on every site visited throughout the tour, including random roadside stops, we’ve always found plenty of birds. 

Along the way I heard a Black Francolin calling and we hopped out and had our first brief view of this species running along the top of a ridge, but further on a francolin was on the road in front of us and we got incredibly close as it hunkered down in a roadside ditch. A pair of Black-shouldered Kites were also seen nearby. Once at the lake, we had a fine time notching up several new species for the trip. 

On the right-hand side of the road, a large muddy area hosted 30+ Little Stints, 2 Ruff, 12 Common Ringed Plovers, 3 Wood Sandpipers, Kentish Plover, 6 Black-winged Stilts and, best of all, a Broad-billed Sandpiperagain expertly spotted by Vince. We also scoped a singing Great Reed Warbler, had a few views of Little Bittern, and there was also Great Egret, Little Egret, Western Cattle Egret, Purple & Grey Herons, and 8+ Black-crowned Night Herons. A feldegg Western Yellow Wagtail posed nicely, a pair of Little Terns flew around, and a Calandra Lark was scoped. It was all very leisurely but thoroughly enjoyable.

Not bad for a phone scope is it? Yet another Little Bittern...

 After having our last field breakfast, we drove back up the country lane a short distance before stopping to check a nice spot with some reeds and tall trees. I’d spotted a Dead Sea Sparrows nest on the way in earlier this morning and the male was in full song. Strangely, we found a family group of Iraq Babblers here – slightly out of range but nor surprising I suppose as it’s only an hour away from Birecik. 

Iraq Babbler

Anyway, a flyby Gull-billed Tern was new for the trip, a pair of Sardinian Warblers were the first of the trip, a Cetti’s Warbler gave glimpses in the rank vegetation, and Syrian Woodpecker & Eurasian Hoopoe appeared before we had to leave and head back to the hotel to pack. 

 

A 2 hour drive to our lunch spot followed, where White-throated Kingfisher was the last new addition to the trip list and from here all we had to do was drive 50 minutes to Adana airport and fly to Istanbul where we were overnighting. Some of us were returning to the UK whilst a few of us were heading off to Mongolia and another new adventure in the morning.

What a superb trip this was, with a great group, much banter and fun along the way. Thanks to everyone for making this so pleasurable and we hope to see you all again in the future.

TURKEY DAY 7: NEMRUT DAGI - GAZIANTEP

So this was it, off on a wing and a prayer to Nemrut Dagi about 3 hours away in the hope of finding the elusive Kurdish Wheatear. We arrived on site at 8.45am after a relatively straightforward 3 hour drive, at 2034m, in the most spectacular scenery of the tour. 

There's Kurdish Wheatear up there.....

And on this, our 3^rd attempt at this species, we nailed it within 10 minutes of arrival…! Oh yes baby!  A pair were present on the rocky mountainside opposite exactly where we were parked and were on view for the next hour and we even ate our breakfast and enjoyed a cup of coffee with the pair on show the whole time. 

The one and only Kurdish Wheatear

Once we were done here, we drove lower down and pretty quickly found a Sombre Tit beside the road that also gave cracking views and White-throated Robin was also extremely obliging and sang from several different spots right in front of us at the same location. What a bird! 

White-throated Robin

And also an Upcher’s Warbler showed quite well here too and a Woodchat Shrike was sat on a nest. We drove a little lower again, just a few minutes drive down the road and found another pair of Kurdish Wheatears another yet another Upcher’s Warbler. 

The gang in action

With our main targets under the belt we decided to head on up to the summit where the temperature was much cooler. And I mean, much cooler, with a strong wind blowing! We bought tickets at the Visitor Centre before driving to the summit car park where a singing Cinereous Bunting simply ignored us, and Horned Lark and Northern Wheatear were also present. It looked like quite a hike up to the very top where the archaeological site is located and the prospect of a lung-busting walk in the cold wind to view some stone heads wasn’t too appealing to me. And fortunately the same was felt by everyone else!! I am culturally shallow and it must have rubbed off on everyone else!!

The view from Nemrut Dagi

So it was late morning by now and we headed to another special site that took a further2 hours to reach in the lowlands. Further wonderful scenery ensued and we ended up amidst a rolling landscape of arable fields and where the roadside verges were full of wild flowers. It was a little bit like stepping back in time into an England from the 1950’s, with large fields full of crops and birds singing erywhere – as opposed to the sterile agricultural landscape we see today. As we approached the site Black-winged Kite and Corn Buntings were seen, several European Rollers were on the wires, and then we spotted two species of bee-eater as well…... And then on to the main event and one of the top highlights of the tour – a Blue-cheeked Bee-eater colony on the side of an isolated small hillock. 

The bee-eater colony was on this small hill

A close flyover

Some phonescoped images....

And what an awesome experience seeing the comings & goings of 100-150 bee-eaters at their nesting site on this small hill. The noise and spectacle of seeing these beautiful birds was unbelievable, and there was even a couple pairs of European Bee-eaters present too. We marvelled at them through the scope and many, many photos and videos were taken, as you can imagine in the stunningly crisp late afternoon sunshine. We had to literally drag ourselves away from this mouth-watering avian feast to drive the 2 hours to our next hotel in Gaziantep, near the old town. 

TURKEY DAY 6: BIRECIK & MORE!

A nice morning around the various sites of Birecik gave us our first of many Dead Sea Sparrows at our first stop just 10 minutes up the road from the hotel. A Syrian Woodpecker was rather confiding and a drake Red-crested Pochard was on the Euphrates close to us. 

Red-crested Pochard

Syrian Woodpecker

Then we drove around to the opposite bank of the river where we were thrilled to get the views of Iraq Babbler we all craved, with a small group hanging around the reeds right in front of us.

Iraq Babbler is pretty common along the Euphrates River near Birecik

We notched up some other great sightings with our only sighting of Black-bellied Sandgrouse, with a  group of 10 flying over, along with a flock of Armenian Gulls, Pygmy Cormorants, European Roller, 5 European Turtle Doves were perched on wires, Alpine Swift, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Delicate Prinia, Moustached Warbler for some of the group, 11 Rose-coloured Starlings flew over in a tight formation, and we had 4 more Dead Sea Sparrows. A flock of 88 Northern Bald Ibis fed on the riverbank, and it was a shame the calling Black Francolin couldn’t be seen.

 

After another fine field breakfast we drove downriver and scoped a few Armenian Gulls loafing on the river before checking out another site south of the bridge, where Eastern olivaceous Warbler posed nicely, and Cetti’s Warbler and Common Nightingale were seen, along with another pair of Dead Sea Sparrows. 

Little (Lillith's) Owl

This area was Lark Central..!

So with most of the local specialities seen well we drove north and amidst splendid scenery of rolling, rocky hills we found a pair of European Rollers, Little Owl (Lillith’s), both Greater and Mediterranean Short-toed Larks, Calandra Lark, a pair of Short-toed Eagles and a cracking Bimaculated Lark. 

Bimaculated Lark - look at that bill...!

Mediterranean Short-toed Lark

After passing through a military checkpoint, we were given a stern warning about only having an hour in the area due to potential unrest from Kurdish rebels, so that put us under a bit of pressure.

This Short-toed Eagle flew low over the road

Then we twitched a sighting of Kurdish Wheatear from a site 3 hours away which was a lifer for all of us – but again it proved to be, how should I say…? Rubbish!!. The site was very good for sightings of See-See Partridge, and other species seen included Chukar, 10 White Storks, Eurasian Jackdaw, 3 Pale Rockfinch and Corn Bunting. Finsch’s Wheatear was by far the most numerous species here and we estimated at least 20 pairs in the area.

 

On the drive back to Birecik we made a short diversion to look for Red-wattled Lapwing without any success and ended up having an 8pm dinner at the same great restaurant as last night on the banks of the Euphrates Cheers!.