Wintertrip - Hitoyoshi

The day we left Kagoshima, we drove to Hitoyoshi in Kumamoto, to check the Kuma River. It used to be a good place to see Crested Kingfishers, but big floods of some years ago resulted in many changes. I was wondering...

A wintery view of the river

Ducks, Egrets, Cormorants as expected

The low rainclouds made for pretty photography scenes

And yes! At the other bank of the river. One Crested Kingfisher, ヤマセミ!

Just one bird. We arrived a bit late in the morning... Would there be more on another day? 

Among several types of ducks: Falcated Duck, ヨシガモ

Common Merganser or Goosander, カワアイサ

Downtown Hitoyoshi, the Aoi Aso Shrine

初も出 (Hatsumode) Traditional first visit of the year to a temple or shrine.

Last view of the Kuma River

Lucky on the 13th

On the way to Saga I stopped at a river point midway, hoping to catch the sight of a Goosander.
And guess what I saw, thanks to my young companion:

1 of 2 Crested Kingfisher, ヤマセミ

also around: Mandarin Duck, オシドリ 5 or 6.  I don't really want to take more photos of these ducks after our visit to Tottori (coming up soon) but just this one for the record.

And in the distance there was a fem Goosander, カワアイサ

approaching us slowly

passing under the red bridge

We are living to far south for these birds to be common. I didn't see a male, just 2 females.

December tanjokai

Each first Sunday of the month is Imazu tanjokai day. Members of the Japanese Wild Bird Society get together in the field to exchange information and supply answers to us who know less and always have questions. During the 3hr walk we saw buntings like oojurin and hoaka (Common Reed and Chestnut-eared Bunting) in the reeds

オオジュリン、Common Reed Bunting

On an electrical wire sat the first Dusky Thrush of the season. Hooray!

ツグミ、Dusky Thrush



In the river a big flock of spoonbills was feeding on the in-coming tide.

クロツラヘラサギ、Black-faced Spoonbill,  ヘラサギ、Eurasian Spoonbill

Some Eurasian Spoonbills are living with their Black-faced cousins.

Note the yellow spot on the bill of the bird with the white face.

  

Amongst many ducks, gulls and cormorants were 3 Red-breasted Mergansers and a male Goosander.

カワアイさ、Goosander or Common Merganser. But not so common in Japan.

Kasasagi, Common Magpies are always around and always worth a picture.

  

カササギ、Common Magpie

Mr. and Mrs. Tundra Swan had taken a bath at the butagoya and just got up to move to an adjacent field.

コハクチョウ、Tundra Swan

PS: Yes, there are 2 of them now. 2 Big white blobs in the field. About a week after the first one the second arrived. Where had it come from? How do they find each other? Questions questions.

Lady Kestrel sat at her favorite spot and surprised us with a nose dive to grab a bite for lunch.

It was a good day.

チョウゲンボウ、Common Kestrel

今日の勉強 :  tanjokai. What is that in kanji? I will have to ask somebody.