MOVING ON TO HOKKAIDO

 I was glad to finally leave the cruise ship and get over to Hokkaido, where it's much less humid. The cruise hadn't really panned out as i'd of liked, despite being a month later than i'd want to do it next year. My expectations were, I believe, not high My hopes of recreating a Pacific version of our Epic Cape Horn Cruise had failed but Japan is a blast and i've found it fascinating. So i'm definitely putting on a tour next year but i'd like to do something a little different...... You'll need to see the Zoothera website in a few days to see what i've come up with. 

Anyway, we reached Hokkaido in the early evening and got to a sort of weird hotel in Kushiro at around 7pm. As you know, i'm not a fan of fish or seafood in any way, so we bought some sandwiches and other snacks and took them to our room for dinner. 

The following morning I was up at 4am, about 15 minutes after sunset, and out the door a short while later on the 20 minute drive to Kushiro Forest Park. On arrival a White-throated Needletail was flying around the car park - nice start! Walking up into the forest along a wide track it took a while to get anything good, but for most of my visit I could hear a White's Thrush singing away from deep inside the forest, which was really cool. I really wanted to see Japanese Robin but for the first hour I didn't hear any singing. However, once the sun began to hit the trees in the valley a few birds began singing. I could hear various tits, Narcissus Flycatchers, a few woodpeckers and then suddenly the robins began to sing. I heard something like 6 different birds but all pretty distant. So I decided to take a narrow trail uphill and sure enough I had two different birds competing with their distinctive song either side of the trail, I sat down beside a big tree and waited to see what would happen, every so often playing  a snippet of song. Sure enough, the robin came closer and closer but I couldn't see it. I didn't want to move as by now it was damn close but decided to move my position slowly around the big tree to look down into the valley to my left. And there it was! 

Japanese Robin

It proved to be a rather confiding bird, and I watched it for ages as it moved between various dead branches and stumps singing its heart out. After a good half an hour at least I left this bird in peace and walked several more trails. A White-backed Woodpecker was my next good bird and it showed very nicely in a bare tree where it was joined by a second bird after a few minutes.

White-backed Woodpecker

I was loving just watching birds and not having to rush from species to species and in such beautiful surroundings. The forest was so lush and vibrant, and each tree had a subtly different shade of green. So next up was Sakhalin Leaf Warbler, another key target species on Hokkaido. It's a split from Pale-legged Leaf Warbler and as such I was looking for it in the undergrowth or lower part of the canopy. But the bird I saw was calling overhead and took some finding in the leafy canopy but eventually it showed really well. I also saw White-bellied Green-Pigeon, a flyover Oriental Cuckoo that had been calling all morning, a Brown-headed Thrush feeding on the path, Marsh, Willow & Japanese Tits, a very white-bellied Eurasian Nuthatch and a few Eastern Crowned Warblers. The latter's song proved to be in every wooded area I visited on Hokkaido. 

Narcissus Flycatcher

On the walk back to the car I finally had a close view of a singing Narcissus Flycatcher - another common sound in forests here. So, on my 20 minute drive back to the hotel I took a slight detour to Harutori Lake, just to check it out. It was a good move as I had my lifer Masked Bunting on the path down to the lake, as well as Black-browed Reed Warbler, several Oriental Greenfinches and not a lot else.

I made it back to the hotel just in time for breakfast - hotels in Japan are really punctual...! Anyway, from here we drove just over two and a half hours up to the Shiretoko Peninsula and the small seaside town of Rausu, where we were to stay for the night. Whilst Mrs B was in the supermarket I sea-watched from across the road and saw 200+ Rhinoceros Auklets, single Black-legged Kittiwake and Black-tailed Gull and many Slaty-backed Gulls. We were staying nearby and this hotel proved to be excellent. But boy I was a bit knackered, so once checked in I totally crashed out for an hour. This hotel had a policy of a 6pm dinner, but made an exception for me and I had mine at 5pm as I had an appointment with a certain owl tonight and had to be in the viewing hide well before sunset. As it turned out the owl site was just outside town, literally 5 minutes away and once there I was shown to my seat in what was more like a cabin than a hide. Several other people were already here, and I settled in for a long night. As the European Championships were in full swing I was scrolling through the football news when a Blakiston's Fish Owl flew in the first time at 19:40. Damn! I had a quick look in the bins before firing off a few shots with my trusty Nikon. And then it flew upstream and was gone. Luckily, it returned within minutes and spent a much longer time feasting on the fish that are put out for it every night. 

Introducing the fabulous Blakiston's Fish Owl

And what a bird this is. I know it's a regular feature of every Japan tour and as such 'old hat' to many world travellers, but I was extremely excited to see it. It's meant to be one of, if not THE largest owl in the world and it certainly was a brute. When it disappeared the second time I made my exit and was back in the hotel room by 8.15pm at the latest. What a day this had been.

JAPAN CRUISE DAYS 8 & 9: ALL AT SEA

Well, i'd like to start off by saying these 2 days at sea as we sailed north from Okinawa back to Yokohama were full of potential. On paper. In reality, it's the wrong time of year (probably at least a month too late in the season) and on top of that, I don't think the ship sails far enough out into the Pacific Ocean to connect with the really good stuff. In fact, it's pants! Too many hours were spent gazing at a birdless sea. The first day out from Okinawa produced 7 distant Black-naped Terns, 4 Bulwer's Petrels and around 60 mostly distant Streaked Shearwaters. We had one mad hour when a really scraggy-looking moulting booby with a white head flew past and it did get my pulse racing. As a little while later a different white-headed bird flew past. Surely they had to be immature Red-footed Boobies but the white head set alarm bells ringing for a bit. A quick scroll around the internet confirmed they weren't Abbott's Booby - well, one can dream! And a little later a really obvious Red-footed Booby appeared. All the while we had around 9 Brown Boobies circling the ship. And that was it..!

This was the 3rd Red-footed Booby today - shame it hasn't got a dark tail!

A classic Red-footed Booby - the 2nd one today

What a mess.... The 1st Red-footed Booby today

Buoy oh Buoy..!!

Lots of flying fish were disturbed by the ship and the BB's took full advantage

More BB's

Brown Booby with Amami in the background

One of the 4 Bulwer's Petrels from today

You know, the last day at sea was awful. No Short-tailed Albatross, in fact no nothing. Just a single Streaked Shearwater seen all day, but I did spend a large chunk of it drinking cocktails!! And that was the cruise done! 

So what did I think.... Well, the days on Ishigaki and Okinawa were great. Taiwan is always fun. But the cruise doesn't work as an entity in its own right. So I won't be repeating it next year. Instead, i'm in the process of sorting a really great epic Japan tour for next May to include Ishigaki, Okinawa & Amami, as well as Honshu & Hokkaido. With a little bit extra thrown in. I'm back in the office next week and will update the website as soon as I can. But I have to tell you, all this sushi, soup for breakfast and the crazy fascination with fish & seafood over here isn't for me. Myself and Mrs B have been spending quite a lot of time looking at different hotels and restaurants that can cater for people, who like me, can't stand fish! Oh and Mrs B is vegetarian and has worked out a pretty good non-meat, non-fish, non-seafood diet that's to her liking! So if the food situation in Japan has deterred you from coming here, fear not! And I don't mean any disrespect to the Japanese catering and food industry in any way.... It's just not for me!

Anyway, onwards and upwards. Off to Hokkaido we go....

JAPAN CRUISE DAY 7: OKINAWA

Now this was a day i'd long dreamed about. The famous Okinawa Rail is a bird that has been at the back of my mind for many years and it was with a mixture of eager anticipation and total abject fear at dipping that I left the cruise ship this morning. In fact I was the very first person ashore and was soon driving the couple of hours to the very north of the island and Yanbaru National Park. It was around 9am by the time we reached the area and began driving around some local rail hotspots and with each passing minute my hopes were fading. It's a bird you by rights need to be searching for at first light, and not what I was doing and trying for it mid-morning in the incredible heat and humidity. I began thinking how stupid I was to be trying this but I had no choice. 

Anyway, an hour went by and things were looking bleak. Very bleak. The road we were on was in a well wooded area and with the windows open we were also keeping an ear out for Okinawa Woodpecker, and sure enough one called just as we drove by it so we hopped out and found it relatively easily feeding about 20 metres away. The views were brief and a little obscured but enough to tick it and I felt a little stress ease away. So we kept on driving around the same lengthy circuit hoping to jam into a rail at the side of a road or leafy track..... Yeah right! On our 3rd circuit we hit the jackpot and as we crawled slowly along a narrow road I glanced down a side road and there it was..! The unmistakeable shape of a big, dark rail. It was only a flipping Okinawa Rail just standing there, back on and standing next to the only piece of trash on the Okinawa roads i'd seen totally messing up my photo!! I didn't really care about that at the time as I was so excited and flipping relieved to have nailed one. 

The first Okinawa Rail. Oh yes baby!!!

Fist pumps and that adrenaline rush you can only get from seeing a lifer followed and I had the whole 'shaky hand' syndrome due to my excitement and it's amazing any of my photos are anywhere near sharp!!! When the rail eventually decided to walk into the undergrowth and disappear. As luck would have it we drove a few hundred metres more and there on another side road were 2 more Okinawa Rails. One disappeared almost immediately but the other stood there looking at us for a while before walking towards us a little and it too melted away into the undergrowth. Wow!

The second sighting of the rail

So what now? Well I was after Okinawa Robin so headed up into the national park where another Okinawa Woodpecker gave spectacular views and 3 Ryukyu Minivets showed briefly. I was particularly pleased with the latter sighting having missed it on Ishigaki the day before. But no robin yet. 

Okinawa Woodpecker

After a short respite for lunch we made a last ditch attempt at another site and with an impending storm approaching we were on a countdown. But I needn't have worried (isn't hindsight a wonderful thing?) as I stumbled across a very aggressive Okinawa Robin singing from it's perch beside the trail I was on. Wow! WHAT A BIRD! 

Okinawa Robin

I did mess up my photos and only got one decent shot out of 50 or so I took. But it was a stunning looking bird and my 4th lifer of the day! And that was it. it took nearly 3 hours to get back to the port, with some heavy traffic making me sweat a bit but I made it in plenty of time in the end and I celebrated with some very cold beers, cocktails and wine tonight, which I paid for with a hangover the following morning!!

JAPAN CRUISE DAY 6: ISHIGAKI-JIMA

 I'd been looking forward to visiting Ishigaki since the day we'd decided to visit Japan, because it has a couple interesting endemics and subspecies. Rather frustratingly we arrived into port a little later than originally scheduled but once Mrs B and I had walked off the ship, we jumped straight into a taxi and went to the car rental office. What I like about Japan is the formalities are very quick and within a few minutes of arriving a the rental office we were in the car and off to a Family Mart to buy some sandwiches for lunch. From the town it's only a 10 minute drive to Banna Park, where you can get pretty much all of the specialities. On the approach road a Ryukyu Green-Pigeon was perched on telegraph wires over the road. Good start! 

Ryukyu Green-Pigeon

Once in the park we walked along a quiet road and in no time at all i'd got the first of three Ryukyu Scops-Owls to be seen this morning. Despite the heat and humidity they were active and seemed to be hunting despite the late hour - I think I probably heard another 4 birds during the day as well! The three I saw were very bold and responded to my squeeking with avid curiosity as you can see from the photos.....

Ryukyu Scops Owl

The forest was rather quiet and I was hoping for Ryukyu Minivet, but that one would elude me all day. I did find a Ryukyu Flycatcher though, albeit an immature and not the male I would have liked. But hey-ho a tick's a tick and I spent a good few minutes watching it and taking photos...

Ryukyu Flycatcher

Then we drove up to the observation tower and had a great view of the island....

A nice view from up here...

Just a few minutes down the road was Ishigaki National Park where I had my first view of Ruddy Kingfisher, but apart from some Warbling White-eyes there wasn't much else doing, so returned to Banna Park. Undoubtedly the best sighting here was this Ruddy Kingfisher carrying a frog that I photographed from the car.....

Ruddy Kingfisher

So I decided that a change of habitat was needed and drove over to one of the beaches, where a bunch of Black-naped Terns were perched on the rocks, several Pacific Reef Egrets were present, and most surprisingly a Chinese Egret was here. So what to do next? I still needed Ishigaki Tit (well, it's lumped in Japanese Tit but sounds better) and Ryukyu Minivet and with just over an hour to kill I checked out a random wooded spot. And lo and behold, there was a pair of tits here. 

If it's split, then this is Ishigaki Tit. But for now just Japanese Tit..

But no minivets. So it was time to return the rental car and get back to the ship. And once we had set sail, I enjoyed a pretty decent seawatch over a 2h 20mins period as we sailed 75kms north:

3 Brown Noddy

3 Sooty Tern

25 Bridled Tern

9 Black-naped Tern

1 Roseate Tern

2 Bulwer's Petrel

110 Streaked Shearwater

26 Wedge-tailed Shearwater

5 Brown Booby

 So not a bad day at all...!

 

JAPAN CRUISE DAYS 4 & 5: TAIWAN

We docked at Keelung Port later than scheduled and I didn't get off the ship until the ungodly hour of 9am. The wall of heat and humidity hit me on exiting the terminal and I was glad to meet up with young local guide Joshua. We had an easy day planned visiting a few mountain sites around Taipei and after a 50 minute drive we reached the first site up in the hills. A steep walk up to a small lake which was notable for the first sighting of Taiwan Barbet today. I'd get better views at the next stop but it's kind of neat to see these again after such a long time. I think my last visit to Taiwan was maybe 2015.... 

Not the best Taiwan Barbet photo you'll ever see....

There was also several Grey Treepies, Light-vented & Black Bulbul, and a couple calling Taiwan Scimitar-Babblers. As we left here and drove down the road a cracking Taiwan Blue Magpie was perched on a bollard beside there road and in hindsight I should have gone back to get a photo as it's such a stunning bird, but we expected more views later. In fact we saw quite a few more magpies, but always whilst on a highway of a busy road and never did get a chance to get a pic. Oh well. 

We checked out a site to see if there were any lingering Black-faced Spoonbills, but there wasn't any. No surprise there, but did see Yellow-bellied Prinia, Vinous-throated Parrotbill and a few Rufous Turtle-Doves and Eastern Spot-billed Ducks. 

The first Malayan Night Heron sighting..

The second sighting was this adult...

The 3rd sighting was this bird on a nest

By the time we reached Taipei Botanical Gardens dark clouds threatened the anticipated afternoon rains, but fortunately the downpour was delayed, giving us a good hour to walk around. It's a very good birding site and I had an immature Malayan Night Heron in a tree, a very close adult beside one of the quieter paths and another adult sat on a  nest with a tiny white fluff ball of a chick. They are cracking birds and I very much enjoyed seeing them. Also see was a Black-naped Monarch on a nest, several Swinhoe's White-eyes, a pair of confiding Taiwan Scimitar-Babblers, but it was a shame the calling Black-streaked Scimitar-Babbler failed to show. 

Taiwan Scimitar-Babbler

And then the rain started so I decided to call it a day and Joshua drove me back to the port in Keelung where I wa glad to get back onboard ship, have a shower and sip a few more cocktails! 

For Day 5, we were meant to be in Hualien, where I hoped to access more montane areas for a good selection of endemics but the port was closed so we had to remain in Keelung. So a spare day to relax and prepare for a busy schedule ahead was much appreciated.