Some Golden Week Birding around Sanda

If you're reading this post from Japan, you'll know all about the cluster of public holidays between April 29 and May 5 known as Golden Week.  Basically, we don't get many long holidays here.  For many people, Golden Week is the longest vacation period of the year.  For bird nerds, it's even better: great spring weather and lots of migrants arriving or passing through.  

So with some time on my hands, I headed out to one of my favorite local birding locations: Sanda.  With a 45-minute train ride from my home in Nishinomiya, Sanda is about as far as I'm usually willing to go to for birding.  Although Sanda city itself is nothing to write home about, the rice fields, forested hills, rocky gorges, and dams that surround the city all provide good habitat for a large variety of birds, and it's not difficult to see over 50 bird species in a morning around Sanda



My intended destination for the day was Dojo, just south of the city.  However, on an impulse, I hopped off the train at Takedao, one stop before Dojo.  Right in the middle of the Muko River Gorge, Takedao is best known for its onsen and the old, abandoned JR Fukuchiyama train line and tunnels that are popular with hikers on the weekends.  I was more interested in the resident Crested Kingfishers though.  I had heard (but not seen) one on a visit to Takedao earlier in the year.  

As I walked out of the station and proceeded to get out my binos and camera, I heard that familiar call again...this time right in front of me, perhaps 10 meters away.  I looked up and there it was (and wasn't for long) ... a ヤマセミ, a Crested Kingfisher.  As I raised the camera, it was gone, flying upstream along the river until I lost sight of it.  A minute later a Common Kingfisher, the Crested's smaller and more garish cousin, shot past me flying in the opposite direction.

The Muko River at Takedao, just upstream of the train station.

I headed up the gorge, finding a few male Blue-and-white Flycatchers singing from the very top of the tallest trees...a habit that makes it difficult to get clear photos of these striking birds.  Apologies for the quality of the shot below...it was the best I could get at full optical zoom.

Blue-and-white Flycatchers were easy to find but difficult to photograph at Takedao.

After a few hundred meters, the road came to a dead end at the entrance to one of the abandoned train tunnels, so I headed back to the station, finding my first Northern Hawk-cuckoo on the way.  It was still early, only just after seven.  Time to move on to Dojo.

Nobody goes to Dojo.  They have no reason to. For most, there is nothing there--absolutely nothing. Not even a convenience store.  And that's a great thing...for bird nerds, at least.  For me, it's an awesome place to wander and bird, and, at this time of year, look for snakes.

This is Dojo. There is nothing here for non-birders.

This is a Tiger Keelback at Dojo.  It is both poisonous (glands on the neck) and venomous (fortunately, rear-fanged).  I know of only one fatality attributed to a Tiger Keelback.  I like these snakes.  I tried, unscuccessfully, to catch the snake in the photo. I'm finding it's a lot harder to catch snakes carrying both a camera and binos.

Leaving Dojo station, I headed straight for the Muko River again; finding both Common and Green Sandpipers on the river banks.  Little Ringed and Long-billed Plovers were easy to find here too.

A Green Sandpiper

A Little Ringed Plover

Birdsong filled the air, and an Oriental Cuckoo was calling from the treed slope behind me.  It would have been nice to see it, too.  Coming from the east coast of Australia where several species of cuckoo (especially the Fan-tailed) are easy to see, I'm surprised at how difficult it is to spot cuckoos in Japan.  Are they more secretive here?  Are there less cuckoos around?  I suspect it's the latter, and cuckoo declines have been documented  in other parts of the northern hemisphere.

Now it was time to head up into the hills along a dirt track through some secondary forest. Here I found Narcissus Flycatchers and lots of Eastern Crowned Warblers.  One male flycatcher was busy chasing away an immature male, while down the hill a male and female were in the same place I had seen the female collecting nesting material a week or two earlier.  

Narcissus Flycatchers are easy to spot in the hills around Dojo at the moment.

An Eastern Crowned Warbler

Returning to the Muko River, Oriental Reed Warblers were abundant along the riverside vegetation, while male Green Pheasants were in the usual places, busy displaying.  I know they are common, but pheasants are one of my favorite birds to watch.  Strutting and crowing raucously, the males are impossible to miss during the breeding season.

Oriental Reed Warblers are abundant in riparian vegetation around Dojo.

Green Pheasant in the grass.

The same Green Pheasant displaying and crowing.

I continued upstream for another kilometer, hoping that some Chestnut-cheeked Starlings that I'd seen a week earlier were still around.  They weren't, but a lone wader feeding in the shallows of the river caught my attention.  It was a Common Greenshank, giving me a much better view than the greenshanks I'd seen huddled on a tiny rock island at Koshienhama on the coast only a few days earlier.  Close up and in good light, they are quite an impressive bird.

Chestnut-cheeked Starling at Dojo in late April. They are passage migrants around here and I couldn't find them on this visit to Dojo.

Lone Common Greenshank along the Muko River

The same bird feeding in the shallows.

All in all, it was rewarding morning of birding.  I hope to get out that way again some time in the next few weeks.