Migrants galore on a dark dark day

A male Blue and White Flycatcher and a male Narcissus Flycatcher.

I had a day off on the 14th and spent most of it in Goryokaku Park. There were lots of migrants about. I don't know how many but seriously there were f***ing loads.  Birds were buzzing around everywhere, it was like something out of a Disney movie.

The light was very poor and there was the constant threat of drizzle. I suspect the poor weather was the reason so many migrants were grounded..................the chilliness also meant they were pretty lethargic and easy to approach. The nasty weather also meant the park wasn't so busy...............

Blue and White Flycatchers were still very common................

And Narcissus Flycatchers were even more numerous, loads of them, everywhere.

The males were at various stages of moult, some of them hadn't quite acheived the full summer look yet...............

As you can see they were just sitting around on walls....................

The above 2 (and yesterday's post with The Siberian Blue Robin) were the stars of tha day but there were lots of other migrants around too.

Asian Brown Flycatcher for starters.

I couldn't find any Sooty Flycatchers...................there are a bogey species for me..............

There were 5 species of thrush. Japanese and Dusky plus these 3............

First Pale Thrush...........

And Eye Browed Thrush.................

And finally Brown Thrush...........................

Both Eastern Crowned and Sakhalin Leaf Warblers were common................

Other stuff included large restless flocks of Japanese White-eye, Siskin, a few Crossbill, Olive Backed Pipit, Japanese Bush Warbler and this drake Shoveler on the moat..............

Of course once I was busy again at work the weather improved dramatically.

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Golden Week 2012 #2

A Red Cheeked Starling in Goryokaku Park this morning.

I'd got up early to watch the Man C/Man U game and as it was such a nice morning I ent out for a walk before returning to bed.

Not much around but a few migrants were flitting around............

A Sakhalin Leaf Warbler. Other stuff included Asian Brown Flycatcher, Japanese Bush Warbler and Japanese White-eye.

There were lots of Red Cheeked Starlings in the pak, they must have arrived in the last couple of days.............

As you can see the cherry blossoms are starting to emerge and they should open in the next 2 or 3 days. In Hakodate this will co-incide with the upcoming 4 day holiday weekend which will drive the locals and tourists into a frenzy.

It was very warm today but cooler rainy weather will hit Hakodate from Thursday, looks like the cherry blossom viewing hordes will get wet.

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Leaf Warblers in the leaves............

I took a couple of brief looks at the bushes next to the local river and they were full of warblers..........

Rather like in the UK there are 3 breeding species of phylloscopus warblers in Hokkaido. Eastern Crowned, Sakhalin Leaf and Arctic Warblers. The above one is an Eastern Crowned Warbler and this one is a Sakhalin Leaf Warbler.

Eastern Crowned (let's call them ECW) are very common indeed and are greener with a diagnostic head pattern, they also have a paridae like song that is one of the most familiar sounds of the summer forest.

There must have been a dozen or more ECWs flitting around in 2 or 3 small trees, very difficult to track with a slowish lens plus it was pretty dark in some of the places too..............

There were only 2 or 3 Sakhalin Leaf Warblers. These are browner and have a loud metallic call (and a weird Clangers-like song). They only breed in north Japan and Sakhalin (a large Siberian island to the north of Hokkaido), there is a very similar mainland east Asian species (Pale Legged Leaf Warbler) from which it was recently split.

The third phylloscopus species, the Arctic Warbler,  doesn't usually arrive until the 3rd or 4th week of May and seems to be less common than the others. I don't see so many in spring, possibly they pass through unnoticed as the foliage thickens. They leave later than the others though, I see lots of them in late September to mid October (the ECW/SLWs pass through in August when the foliage is at its thickest and anyway I'm on the beach looking for waders at that time). They have a very distinctive buzzing call and trilling song, I sometimes hear them in the forest at Mat Hakodate in early June.

Like the UK there are 10 or so rarer phylloscopus vagrants, many of which are rarities in the UK too (Dusky, Raddes, Yellow Browed etc). I hope to stumble across some of these although I find these kind of warblers very tricky to ID. I can manage the 3 common ones because of their calls but when one individual (probably in autumn so with worn adult plumage or an immature) is silently flitting around behind the leaves................I don't know about that TBH.

Willow Warblers, Wood Warblers and Chiffchaffs are sought after rarities here by the way.......

I saw another male Blue and White Flycatcher today as well as Japanese White-eye, Dusky Thrush, other unidentified thrushes, Hawfinch and a flyover Great Egret. Yesterday I also saw Peregrine ans the last of the winter Teal. The flock of Russet Sparrow remains (20 or so birds) but they are very shy and fly off if I even look in their general direction. Before this week I had only ever seen them once in Hakodate, I wonder if this flock will stay and breed in the small park near my flat.........

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