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 👍

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