Oriental Reed Warblers used to be common on the river near my apartment, about 7 or 8 singing males or so, but they completely disappeared a couple of years ago.
3 have been singing this spring. At separate locations and not often. Is it just 1 bird moving around? Are they just migrants passing through?
I was surprised to see a pair of Hawfinch taking a bath in the river near my apartment…don’t really see this species much in summer.
There were other birds bathing too:
And using the river’s other facilities..
Other stuff around included lone singing Japanese Bush Warblers and Oriental Reed Warblers (both probably just passing through), Bull-headed Shrike, Asian House Martin and Masked Buntings.
Plus the usual…
We looked around the rice fields a couple of days hoping to see a few waders and saw precisely zero…
A grey overcast day…
Several Japanese Bush Warbler and a couple of Masked Buntings were singing on the riverside near my apartment. The only passage migrant was a lone Asian Brown Flycatcher.
The Chestnut-cheeked Starlings add a bit of east Asian exotica though.
The migration season has fizzled out. Not a vintage one this year…
We checked the rice fields outside town for waders but nothing doing. Just the above Pheasant (which is fairly scarce at least).
No waders or anything else of real interest on the coast although there were a few Ospreys fishing offshore.
The Night Heron had moved to another section of the river yesterday.
in the early early morning the park belongs to the thrushes…
Common birds in interesting poses…
Some archetypal small brown birds passing through town…
And our local summer starlings…
Also in the park were 3 species of woodpecker, Narcissus Flycatcher, Oriental and Common Cuckoo but sadly not any interesting migrants.
Although the regular summer visitors are interesting enough…
A very common species but a bit of an underrated one I think.
We went to our favourite local park very early this morning.
There was a relatively confiding Japanese Thrush, usually a very shy species.
