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 a controlled reed burning and the water in 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 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 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 👍

Ice-skating Mejiro

One morning we saw this pair of Japanese white-eyes (mejiroメジロ) trying to bathe in our pond😅

I broke the ice later on so that birds were able to have a drink and a proper bath 👍

Chishirodai Reservoir

Chishirodai Reservoir is famous for two things; one as a heronry in spring and the other as a wintering place for ducks, especially the Mandarin duck.

Mandarin ducks seem to like the very edge of the water, which means they are normally at the furthest end of the reservoir from the path. Even from the distance, the males' gorgeous plumage is very much visible👍

Other ducks are wintering here as well, such as Mallards (magamoマガモ), Shovelers (hashibirogamoハシビロガモ), Gadwalls (okayoshigamoオカヨシガモ) and Pintails (onagagamoオナガガモ), and they tend to be in the middle of the lake.

a Little egret (kosagiコサギ) 

Cormorants (kawauカワウ)

Mallards, Spot-billed ducks (karugamoカルガモ), a young Black-crowned night heron (goisagiゴイサギ) and a Kingfisher (kawasemiカワセミ)

A Black kite (tobiトビ) flew high over the reservoir, which was nice, adding more variety of birds to my sighting list😍

I will come back next month to see if early breeding birds like Grey herons have started to refurbish their old nest/build a new nest.

Sakazuki-gawa

There are some good places for birding locally but just we haven't managed to go round as much as we'd love to and one of them is here by the Sakazuki.

nice day! (but chilly!)

Over the reedbeds on one side of the bank, a Grey heron (Aosagiアオサギ) was showing his back to me as if he was sulking😁

A Bull-headed shrike (Mozuモズ) was blended in the background, looking for his prey.

A huge mixed flock was passing through the reeds. 

Japanese tits, Long-tailed tits, Japanese white-eyes, Japanese pygmy woodpeckers were seen and I even heard calls of a Ruddy-breasted crake! Unfortunately, there's no pic of them.

All of a sudden, each little bird gave a harsh alarm call and everything went dead quiet,

because of this.

From the size and the surrounding environment, my guess is that it was a female sparrowhawk or a goshawk.

It circled over the woodlands by the river, and flew away very quickly and quietly.

A Common kingfisher (kawasemiカワセミ) 

and a Japanese wagtail (Segurosekireiセグロセキレイ) turned up by the water.

I should come back and walk a bit longer on the path next time👍

Izumi Shizen Koen (Izumi Nature Park)

We chose Izumi Shizen Koen for our first birdwatching of the year on the New Year's Day.

Unfortunately, it was rather windy and we didn't see as many as we had hoped for. There were 100+ ducks (the total number not the number of the species, of course!) in one of the ponds but they were all near the far end of the water, seemingly sheltering from the chilly winds.

a lovely Grey wagtail (Kisekireiキセキレイ)

a Bull-headed shrike (Mozuモズ)

a Daurian redstart (Jobitakiジョウビタキ)

I forgot to take the photos of the park itself, which was unusual! I will go back some time soon, hopefully, and take some environment in and around the park. 

We have been to this park only once and written about it in the blog more than 10 years ago just after coming to Chiba to live in in 2013.

Izumi Shizen Koen 2013

2025 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

 Wishing you all a happy new year of 2025😍🐍

Taiwan 2024 - VII

The hotel we stayed in Taichung was right next to a large park - Taichung Park and of course we didn't miss an opportunity to go around and find some urban birds in Taiwan.

The first bird! a Spotted dove (kanokobatoカノコバト) on the path

They are a common urban bird a bit like Oriental turtle doves in Japan or Wood pigeons in Britain.

Most common ones are Light-vented bulbuls (shirogashiraシロガシラ), which we saw in every tree in the park! They are very vocal and colourful in the light.

Taiwan has a native myna called Crested myna but in urban environments, the introduced species, such as Common myna (Indo-hakkaインドハッカ) and Javan myna (Jawa-hakkaジャワハッカ), are the ones you see more often. 

Pallas's squirrels are common in the park as well.

We spotted unusual starling-like birds in a tree.

We showed the picture and asked Ko-san, who confirmed they are introduced and wide-spreading Chestnut-tailed starlings (Indo-komukudoriインドコムクドリ).

The starlings are pretty but I found a scary article in the Taipei Times saying they increased in number by 7,618% between the year 2009 and 2020! I wonder if they may have been having a big impact on native birds and natural environment in general.

a pond and a pavilion in the park

Black-crowned night heron (goisagiゴイサギ)

Little egret (kosagiコサギ)

Tree sparrows (suzumeスズメ)

We walked to another park with a large pond. 

I can't just not express my disappointment towards the shopping mall LaLaPort!😤

An Eastern cattle egret (amasagiアマサギ) was panting in the heat. so were we!

An Intermediate egret landed in the grass opposite from the cattle egret. We weren't sure if they were both cattle egrets, intermediate egrets or one of each. After examining the pictures and advice from Ko-san, the one on the island in the pond was a cattle egret and the other in the grass was an intermediate. Are we right? 

Our trip to Taichung came to an end but we will definitely come back to Taiwan in the near future. We also recommend all the birdwatchers to visit this wonderful island. 

Good-bye snack (douhua豆花) & Taiwan beer at the airport 😁👋