Kujukuri

On a very, very hot day, I joined a seabird breeding colony survey in Kujukuri.

Black-tailed gulls (Uminekoウミネコ) with a couple of terns. (Common terns?)

A lone Little tern (Koajisashiコアジサシ)

Hundreds of Streaked shearwaters (O-mizunagidoriオオミズナギドリ) over the sea 😀🌊

I'd never be tired of watching shearwaters... so cool👍

Azure-winged Magpies

A family of Azure-winged magpies (Onagaオナガ) were foraging in the cherry trees near our house. I was just passing by and I didn't have my camera!

I see azure-winged magpies around here only occasionally even though they are not uncommon birds. (probably more often hear them rather than actually see them) I always feel like a treat when I come across a large family like today.

Spring has Sprung!!

 A pair of Oriental turtle doves (Kijibatoキジバト) comes to our garden every now and then to forage and/or bathe 😍

Japanese grass lizards (Kanahebiカナヘビ) have woken up from hibernation and are often making the most of the sunshine to warm up.

I noticed this shell far too late! missed the dragonfly... 😭

a baby Praying mantis - it barely can cling onto the leaves but hopefully will survive and grow into a majestic adult mantis one day.

Kujukuri

Another migration season, another breeding season.

Lesser sand plovers (Medaichidoriメダイチドリ) are resting / fuelling up en route to their breeding grounds.

I believe that the Lesser sand plover has been split into two independent species - the Siberian Sand Plover and the Tibetan Sand Plover. I am not still sure which is which, so please forgive me for using the old English common name.

a Kentish plover (Shirochidoriシロチドリ)

Kentish plovers also migrate but probably not a long distance like only within Japan or to/from the eastern coast of the Asian continent.

Some birds, like this one, just have made a dent in the sand and sat on it as if they were trying to work out the nest was comfortable enough to sit for a long time. 

Quite a few Skylarks were singing over the grassland on the edge of the beach.

Chiba Koen

 It was a lovely day and now is the time for all sorts of flowers and blossoms 🌺🌼

and it's a very busy time for parent birds to bring up their little ones.

Even only a short stay in the park made me smile and feel extremely happy 😍

Chishirodai Heronry II

 Along with Black-crowned night herons (Goisagiゴイサギ) and Great egrets (Daisagiダイサギ), Grey herons (Aosagiアオサギ) have nests there too. They are normally the first to start building nests and I guess most of Grey herons have eggs in their nests.

Grey herons' nests are rather large, compared with Night herons'.

There used to be only herons and egrets in this heronry but Great cormorants' nests were recorded last year. 

Some cormorants are young and don't breed this year but just hang around. 

I filmed some short clips;

great egrets mating

a great egret had an itch...😄

a pair of night herons😍

My nest counts;

6 cormorants' 

35 Black-crowned night herons'

19 Grey herons'

39 Great egrets'

 and individual numbers;

23 Cormorants, 111 BCN herons, 25 Grey herons, 58 Great egrets

Under all the dramas on the water, some wintering ducks were still fuelling for their migration ahead. 

Shovelers (Hashibirogamoハシビロガモ)

Chishirodai Heronry I

A huge colony of herons & egrets is only 10 minutes walk away from home, yet there are so many nests in breeding season that I need to choose time when I can spare some time for counting. 

All the white spots are white egrets and there are grey herons and black-crowned night herons as well. You know what I meant? 

A Black-crowned night heron (Goisagiゴイサギ) preening in a cherry tree🌸 and there are more night herons hiding in the tree😁 Can you spot them? 

Night herons' nests are quite shabby and I am always amazed how they lay eggs on them!

 They tend to make a nest low in a tree - some almost touching the water.

Most Great egrets (Daisagiダイサギ) have their breeding plumage, which is gorgeous!

I spotted a blue egg on one of the nests😍

Allo-preening (preening each other)

The heronry looks like a busy apartment in a city

to be continued...

Japanese Sparrowhawk

 A female Japanese sparrowhawk was calling in a tree.

What a beauty!!

Okusa Paddy Fields (大草谷津田いきものの里)

Okusa Yatsuda Ikimono-no-sato is kind of a nature/culture reserve, manually managed organic paddy fields only 4 miles away from the centre of Chiba City. 

A totally different world from the city centre! 

Great egrets (Daisagiダイサギ) were in their gorgeous breeding plumage.

Japanese brown frogs (Nihon-akagaeruニホンアカガエル) were croaking and their tadpoles were swimming everywhere, which means the fields are a huge smorgasbord for those egrets! 

You can hear the volume of the frogs' calls! 

Another bird which would appreciate the fields full of amphibians is a Grey-faced buzzard (Sashibaサシバ). 

The buzzards are migratory and she must have arrived here to breed quite recently. She got here at the right moment for a free buffet! 

Away from the frogs, two hwameis were having a singing competition.

The Chinese hwamei (Gabichoガビチョウ) is recorded as being imported from China for their beautiful songs as early as in the 18th century but hadn't been recognised in the wild until the 1980s. Since then for a while, they were found only in localised areas. Now they seem to have sped up spreading far and wide and it's not so difficult to see/hear them in Chiba. 

Okusa is not very large but is full of signs of wildlife.

Watarase Yusuichi

 We saw a good variety of bird species during the trip to Watarase.

Male Meadow bunting (Hoojiroホオジロ) was tweeting above us while we were having lunch. 

lovely fresh green 🍀🌿

Tree sparrows (Suzumeスズメ) were in the tree, but we were not able to make out what they were doing; eating insects or shoots? collecting nest materials? 

Over the drained areas, Black-eared kites (Tobiトビ) were flying low and high.

The temperature went up as the day went on and the views became hazier.

Some flew right over us😍

We spotted quite a few Japanese pheasants (Kijiキジ) skulking in the vegetation.

A small group of Falcated ducks (Yoshigamoヨシガモ) in the river.

We saw/heard over 40 bird species during the 2 half-day walks. 

Watarase is a  place we would recommend to anyone who loves to see a mixture of birds in different habitats. 

Oriental Storks in Watarase Yusuichi (Reservoir)

Watarase Yusuichi, a detention basin to store flood water and vast reedbeds surrounding the basin was the destination of our 2-day birdwatching trip in March. 

The water is full in winter for wintering waterfowl but on the 1st of March every year, they have controlled reed burning and the water in the reservoirs is drained. That's why it looks like mudflats. 

Many birdwatchers come here to see Oriental storks (Konotoriコウノトリ) and so did we. 

They are magnificent looking birds and you won't miss them because of their size. (Teals look like tiny dots in the pictures!) 

There is an artificial stork nest in the middle of the plain and a parent stork is sitting on eggs! 

The other parent was flying towards the nest.

We thought they were going to change the brooding shift.

but then it just flew past! WHY?!

The one on the nest looked a bit pissed off?!😆

It flew right over us, which was very lucky! 👍

Some non-breeding individuals were on the ground probably foraging.

Other non-breeding ones were on the mudflats as well. 

We saw at least 6 individuals including the breeding pair. 

Wonder if they are all related? (if you can see the combination of the coloured rings on their legs, they will tell you who each individual is.) 

Glad to see oriental storks there, which means the re-introduction project has been a success 👍