Kirishima 4

At nearby Miike. We had gone 3 days without seeing birds and I started to feel itchi. Here I was hoping to see woodpeckers, but they were not around.

Eurasian Nuthatch, ゴジュウカラ

Olive-backed Pipit, ビンズイ

Pale Thrush, シロハラ

Goldcrest, キクイタダキ

Grey Wagtail, キセキレイ

Varied Tit, ヤマガラ

Kirishima 3

Silvergrass, スズキ

A cloudy cap, meaning rain is on the way

Leucistic Rock Pigeon, カワラバト

Continued

Kirishima 2

The wintery conditions were not that bad, Billie keeps us warm at night. Below some early morning images

Sunrise at Iwo-san, a small volcano that had started behaving a bit irregular and thus was off limits.

Continued

Kirishima 1

Trying out winter conditions with Billie, our new camper in Kirishima. We hiked up Mt Karakuni on this super special clear day.

The area of Kirishima has 22 volcanos, some active, some dormant. Below the big troublemaker of this century: Shinmoedake

Before scaling the summit (Not a real difficult hike, but for me a major achievement) we circumnavigated the 3 crater lakes below. There were very few birds. Every now and then we heard Bulbuls, an occasional Bush Warbler, saw some common Tits, heard a Blue-tail and the flutter of a Thrush. Brown-headed Thrush, アカハラ

We had more luck with the deer, who were quite vocal, males calling the females I guess.

Japanese Sika Deer, しか

Continued

Brown Booby, カツオドリ

About 6 birds were seen across the bay, 2 came into our harbor.

They way they dive, I could watch them all day

The Osprey came and the Boobies left...

Light post, a favorite spot for Great Cormorants and Gulls

Dunlins and Sanderlings,