We had weeks of freezing, dull weather, but suddenly we had a glorious spring weekend. I went to Fukushimagata on Saturday but barely got any photos. I was surprised to see most of the geese and swans had gone. Then today I was really happy to see Daurian Redstarts. Surely a sign of spring.
After a very cold week, Saturday brought sunshine to Niigata City. I woke up early but didn’t want to go out on black ice when it was 1 degree celsius and waited till after 8. By then, the centre of the roads had begun to thaw and I felt safer going out and about. I was in different minds where to go, but I’m glad I chose my old friend, Fukushimagata.
At first, I stayed along a canal in hope of finding Falcated Ducks, and a possible raptor using it as a corridor, but the Falcated Ducks were no longer where I knew them to be and there seemed to be more going on in the distance around me.
As I started to move up the canal towards the wetlands I encountered a Great Spotted Woodpecker, Japanese Green Woodpecker, Japanese Tits, and Brambling at the trees to the side. The woodpeckers flew off quickly so I continued to step through the snow towards the wetland. Once I got to the next bridge, something stirred up the geese around me and there was noise and movement all about. I first came to Fukushimagata, Niigata, in 2004, and was amazed by the thousands of geese that autumn. As the years passed, I felt there has been fewer, but yesterday, I felt the same as I did when I first visited. It was lovely to see so many large, wild birds with the snow covered mountains in the background and the sun reflected off the melting white ground.
Small family groups of humans and lone birders trudged to the observatory within the wetlands, but I chose to sit on an old bench and wait for the birds to come to me. Which they did. Lots of close encounters with swans, and geese, Great Cormorants, and coot. The Great Egret had no fear of me, and arrived right in front of me and stalked calmly at the water’s edge. At times the geese stirred up, and I was thrilled to see a distant White-tailed Eagle mixing up the place before it decided to land in a a tree out in the middle of the wetlands. I sat there waiting for it to get back into action, but it out-waited me, and I left to walk my dog before the fine day came to an end. I sat long enough to watch the eagle being mobbed by passing crows, harriers, buzzards, Black-eared Kites and anyone else bothered by its presence. Not me. I felt very calm sitting there with all the wild birds about me with the light reflecting upwards. I got sunburnt, but it was time to myself, and I did manage to walk an appreciative dog for 90 minutes in the sun afterwards. Guilt free happiness for one day.
I arrived back to Japan after my September adventure in Australia and it was still hot. I walked around in a dream with the images of Fairy-wrens, Galahs, and kangaroos in my mind and the the days turned to nights and the bright summer light eventually faded and the winds came. Always in late October, there is a time when I find myself laying awake in the midst of night listening to the faint calls of swans arriving from the far north and the howls of the wind open a new door in my outlook and my wardrobe. A change of clothes and excitement that the winter birds have arrived to comfort me in the coming cold.
Niigata has two days when the sky is blue and the winds are gentle, then five when it sleets and gusts. As I get older, I wish to rest when I should be “making hay”, then I have an urge to go out when the wind will hurt my bones. Birds can be funny here too. I can go out and search and search to find crows and sparrows when it’s fine, but I have learned I can find something special when I should be playing guitar in a warm room with a cup of hot green tea. It is the brief outing in poor conditions when I seem to get unexpected thrills right in front of my face, such a Peregrine Falcon or Falcated Duck. I did, however venture out to find a Durian Redstart on a sunny afternoon the week before my winter vacation. To me it was a sign it was unlikely to snow as I usually see these superb little birds after the heavy snow season has come to an end, sometimes late February but I think mostly March. We did have some brief snow events so far this winter but my weather apps mostly describe days of “Freezing Rain”. I am still amazed to see people jogging in such conditions, when my mind is searching for cricket updates from home where the days are hot.
I did have one other nice experience at Toyanogata on one of the two sunny days in my winter vacation watching, filming, and photographing, a Great Spotted Woodpecker pecking away undeterred by my presence stumbling below trying to find position with good light and angle. Woodpeckers are always a thrill for an Australian. Maybe I will go out looking again.
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| Wild Swans at Hyoko, Niigata, December 13, 2025. |
Well. I haven’t been here for a while. Nice to see it is still around. Thank you, Google.
I have tried making websites on other platforms like Square Space and WordPress, but I don’t know what I’m doing and really, who has time?
Today, I arrived fairly early at Hyoko in Agano City, Niigata, and I was delighted to see lots of wild swans before they left for the surrounding fields. I have not been out much the last few months. The local government announced to avoid solo activities because of the recent aggressive bear situation and I don’t want to be the guy someone has to rescue.
I think my photography is getting worse and all looks the same as many years ago. Nothing new to speak about, but I love standing out in the wind with these wonderful things around me.
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| Eurasian Teal Drake |
Apart from my visit to Australia, my 2024 was fairly uneventful birding wise. I’m on holidays at the moment but rain, rain, rain, wind, wind, wind, has been the schedule since December started. Snow is on the menu for tomorrow. The max will be 3, but it has been steadily going between 3 and 5 Celsius for a while now. It is dark. The middle of the day is too dark for bird photography. I’ve had my eye on the Nikkor 600mm f6.3 for a while, but it’d be too dark at that aperture. Even f4 struggles in the middle of winter here.
The photos I’m adding today are from a stroll through Toyanogata on the first day of 2025. It was a better day than last year. I ended up huddled on a rooftop with the threat of tsunami after the earthquake, and the year before I was sick in bed. Yesterday was dark, but I could go for a walk. I saw a Great-spotted Woodpecker, a Northern Goshawk and a Japanese Green Pheasant, but I was too slow to get clear shots. I did see lots of shrikes however. I don’t have many photos of shrikes, so I might try and get some if I have a chance in the days ahead. Birds were the usual suspects, and I was focussing on a Brown-eared Bulbul when it narrowly escaped a charging shrike. The shrike was much smaller, but very fast and aggressive. I always see these things and forget to take the photo!
Bull-headed Shrike
When I was a kid, I read old yellowing pages about the effects of the agricultural chemical DDT on raptors such as Ospreys and Peregrine Falcons. The birds ingested the chemical via their diet and it caused the thinning of their eggshells. The rate they were disappearing, it was unlikely they’d see the new century.
I remember seeing my first Osprey sitting high up on a dead tree at the side of the Tingalpa Reservoir, Capalaba, (Queensland, Australia) during the hot mid-afternoon sun on Christmas Day in 1988. I was thrilled and took almost a whole roll of film with my Pentax K1000 and Sigma 80-250mm lens. I think my photos just looked like a grey match stick – the stem of the branch with a grey round blob at the end of it. (Maybe expensive slide film such as Ektachrome).
In the last week of March this year, 2024, I was standing at the edge of the Fukushimagata (wetlands) in Niigata, and I saw an osprey overhead. No big deal anymore. They are resident at the wetlands, and I am used to seeing them. However, after that osprey went by, another one came from another direction. I was lining up a circling bird to photograph it when another crossed its path with a large fish. I was just there for about two hours and saw a continuous flow of busy ospreys. The wetlands are surrounded by vast, then empty rice fields that had just thawed from the winter, and the ospreys crossed the fields at random. I went for a walk away from the wetland area and I saw one osprey hurrying over my left shoulder towards the water, and as I turned to watch it, I saw another one passing over me with another fish. I took it for granted and just visited twice. I think it rained on the Tuesday, but I saw it all happening again on the Wednesday. I visited again on the Friday and stood there for four hours, but didn’t see one. The flurry had finished. It was pretty amazing to see in Japan, twenty-four years into the new century. If I think back to 1988, I had no idea, I’d ever see such a thing.
What a catchy title, I know, but as my usual Goldilocks-self, I had been pining for that 400mm 4.5 Nikon lens for the last year and a bit. For me, quick and nimble gets most of my best pics, but my experience yesterday, made me feel ‘Goldilocks’ should stick with the porridge she has. 500mm maybe just right for now.
It was sunny a fair bit after the January 1 earthquake, but I didn’t’t feel like standing at the edge of a remote wetland worrying about aftershocks and the near-by sea. Yesterday, was my first outing to Fukushimagata since December 28, 2023. It was pretty dull when I got there and I think most of the swans and geese have already headed north. I saw an eagle back in December, but I think any “Steller’s”, would be gone by now, though I think we should still have a chance to see a “white-tail” until the end of March. The joy of the day was the continuing views of osprey appearing every few minutes and catching fish around me.
I think my 500mm f5.6 is still pretty nice despite squeaks and rattles after five years of regular use. The new 600mm f6.3 might suit me better if I love standing around the wetlands, but as you can see by the dullness of these images, I am wary of going from 5.6 to 6.3, even though it is such a small difference.
Way back when I was young, osprey and peregrines were fading in numbers and became symbols of the damage of chemicals to the environment but I’m happy to announce that these many years later, osprey are one of the more common raptors I see in Niigata.
They seemed to be finding fish just behind a small island not so far off-shore from where I was standing but they’d disappear behind the reeds. I could hear the ‘splash’, but would have to wait for them to come back up before I could see them again.
Some ducks still remain, always lots of Great Cormorants and Great Grebe, with a few Marsh Harriers floating around the place. I love seeing them up against the snow-covered mountains. Of course it’s nice to have close-ups, but framing them in the surrounding environment is more, er, more. It’s more to look at?
Well. Not much snow this winter, and it’s raining here much of the time but I hope to return soon. March at Fukushimagata has its surprises.
Again, I have been visiting the same place at Toyanogata and recognise the same winter birds in the same place. I have found a female Great Spotted Woodpecker who doesn’t care about me following and watching her. She just ignores me and gets on with her business of pecking.
Last week, I had a super encounter with an adult Northern Goshawk. I had all my camera settings for chasing the woodpecker, and I had no time to change them when I saw the goshawk coming overhead. I just had to hold the lens steady and get some photos as it passed overhead like a torpedo. (As if I were standing on the seabed looking up)
Goshawks often fly with shallow, but fast wingbeats followed by short glides. It is really rare to see an adult fly over me like this. A few seconds, and it was gone.
Yesterday, I returned and saw the woodpecker. I saw another younger goshawk, but failed to get any pics while it flew behind tress. I also saw lots of waterfowl and the most osprey I have ver seen in the one place. I saw one osprey stoop, but the glide harrier-like over the top of the water, but again I was obscured by trees to see what it took. I have suspicions that the osprey in this place may also take waterfowl. I remember many years ago cycling on the other side of the Toyano lake and crossed paths with an osprey struggling in flight with something large, and heavy, and the moment we crossed, I believe I saw the green head and yellow bill of a male mallard in its clutches. I guess, I should return to do further research. Below, is a collection of some pics from yesterday.
Usually this time of year, I head to the wetlands searching for raptors, but to be honest, I just keep taking the same photographs year after year. Don’t get me wrong, I love fleeting encounters with raptors, but my image folders become stale looking at the same birds with similar poses. This year, my biggest resolution is to attempt to photograph difficult and elusive birds such as woodpeckers. I have seen three species this year, and as aways they appear briefly, then flick away to another tree, or they stay on the back of the tree, and we play stupid hide-and-seek games. One thing is for sure though – They are pretty lovely. Even just a brief glimpse is a joy. Thus, I will make an effort to improve on my woodpecker photo collection. Here are some images taken at Toyanogata, Niigata, last Friday. Maybe I was just there for ten minutes so I’m sure I can do better with greater effort. These photos are of a Great Spotted Woodpecker, but I discovered Niigata can have two versions, the “Eurasian” and/or the “Japanese”. I still think this a a “Japanese Great Spotted Woodpecker.
I did have a nice encounter with a young White-tailed Eagle on December 28. My photos are pedestrian but it’s always thrilling to have the breeze cross over your shoulder.
I didn’t really get into the spirit of summer. When I did go out, I found everything to be quiet and unbearably hot. July and August were very dry in Niigata, and life around me seemed to be tired. I had hoped earlier to get some nice dragonfly pics, but I didn’t really find the numbers and variety of past years. I recall one large emperor who droned by me with a deep but dull buzz. He was lacking colour and that high frequency buzz that thrills us. He seemed tired and dried out and it was just the start of August. I lost my motivation.
Above is a photo taken at Fukushimagata on Sunday October 1st. By this time I’d expect to see patches of newly arrived ducks from the north. It was pretty quiet and no sign of any new comers. Just the regular Grey Herons and Little Egrets. (Lots of Great Crested Grebes)
I was fortunate to go out yesterday morning, October 2nd, and arrived at Hyoko about 9:30. I was happy to see the ducks I had been expecting. I found many of them sleeping in the lily pads left over from summer. They had found somewhere to rest after their long flights south.
I felt the summer was at its end as the air cooled. Within the next two hours I discovered more batches of travellers dropping from high in the sky onto the lake. The numbers increased noticeably.
There were lots of egrets walking around on the leaves to, and I watched snap up lots of tiny morsels of something?
I did see a peregrine fly over fairly high up when I first arrived but it seemed to have another destination in mind. I only saw the regular Black-eared Kites, and crows but no other raptors. They will show up soon. In the meantime, I felt the loneliness of summer drfting away as more and more waterfowl arrived. I have already edited the pics I wanted to use for this post but I forgot about one rail and several coot. I will add them sometime, someday.
I was surprised to find these ugly duckings. I thought it a bit late in the season. They seemed pretty relaxed and happy though. I finished the morning off with a lovely little Grey-streaked Flycatcher (I hope I’m right?) which is a bird I often see during Niigata’s autumn.
That’s it for my first post using WordPress for this blog. I hope more exciting things will come and I will try to keep it alive with a post every ten days or so.
Welcome to my blog at WordPress. I am making transition from Squarespace and have imported my posts from 2009. I see I am having some trouble with all images being displayed, but the articles are still intact. I am happy I can provide an archive as a complete list, so if you have time to spare, please take a look at a date of your choice.
Ten Toowoomba Birds for Happiness and Friendship
I have been busy improving my book production through Blurb and I’m very happy with the two books I have created this year, “Ten Toowoomba Birds for Happiness and Friendship” and “Ducks I Have Known”. If you like my photography, I’m sure you would be very happy with either of these books and any sales will help me to create more. I am always working to improve my creative output.
A stunning collection of bird photography featuring ten beautiful birds from Toowoomba, celebrating nature’s joy and the bonds of friendship.
A charming photographic journey through the lives of ducks, captured with warmth and a keen eye for nature’s quieter moments.
I came across this young Northern Goshawk giving this tree branch a big shake and ripping off the bark. There are lots of large bugs and beetles in Japan this season. It’s good to see this young bird wasn’t shy fending for itself. I took lots of pics of it really smacking shaking the branch about. In fact the branch snapped and both it and the goshawk tumbled a metre or two before the goshawk managed to save itself and fly to another tree.
Please watch the small slideshow below:
Nipponia nippon – Crested Ibis, –トキ (Toki), Sado Island, Niigata, JAPAN. May 19, 2023.
Thank you to Billy for introducing me to Hitoshi. And thank you to Hitoshi for meeting me at the port at Sado.
At first, I was disappointed it was a rainy day, but the rain was soft and the island was covered in mist and puddles. Hitoshi drove me around the island in his car and showed me a few of its special sites and it was like his car was a paint brush flowing through a beautiful Japanese sumi-e, (Japanese ink wash) painting. It was a very inspirational experience.
(Our first sighting at about 9:30am)
Nipponia nippon – Crested Ibis, -Toki, Sado Island, Niigata, JAPAN. May 19, 2023.
Sado Island scenery.
The island has mountains like book-ends. Mountains to the north and mountains to the south, and in between is a vast mosaic of rice-fields. I could see rain drops creating little circles in the water of the fields where we searched for Sado’s famously treasured “Toki-bird”, Nipponia nippon, the Crested Ibis. This Ibis has been successfully rescued from extinction since I have been in Japan. It was truly wonderful to find them living freely on this beautiful island.
I first wrote about Toki on this blog back in 2009, when a single bird was roosting at a regular spot in Uchino in Niigata City. It was one of the original birds from a breeding program released on Sado back in 2008. The last known wild Japanese Crested Ibis was captured and brought into a breeding program more than 20 years ago and died in captivity in 2003. Hitoshi confirmed that it passed away in captivity in 2003. Actually, I still remember reading the news when I was in Australia. I had always believed that it had successfully bred with others brought here from China. I have now learned from Hitoshi that my belief was not true. All the birds on Sado are Chinese. Hitoshi told me there are now 550 of these beautiful and unique looking Ibis living on the island. You can read about my first encounter here on my website.
(Please click on the blue links.)
I also have posts here and Toki is included in a post about my friend Mr Honma.
It took an hour to find our first Ibis, and it was thrilling to see it grazing naturally in the rings of water created by rain drops. We saw about 5 through the day. Each individually. Like rare gem stones scattered over the fields. We also encountered a Racoon Dog, (Tanuki) and egrets and herons about the place. A Japanese Green Pheasant was seen peering at us through the long grass roadside. Lots of smaller birds graced us with their songs when we wound down the car windows. I was very happy to see lots of sea birds on the far side of the island. (The sea-gulls seem to have mostly disappeared from Niigata City recently).
At the edge of a rice field – a weary looking Racoon Dog, ホンドタヌキ “Tanuki”
Below: Hitoshi also took me to a traditional Japanese Inn and we had a huge sashimi lunch. Fresh as the day.
Lunch at an Inn on the far side of the island. All fresh ingredients from Sado.
I really enjoyed the ferry ride from Niigata City to the island and back. On the way back to Niigata City I enjoyed seeing dolphins skimming about the place, (maybe Pacific White-sided Dolphins – Lagenorhynchus obliquidens) and various species of seabirds far off through my binoculars. Maybe some kind of “Loons”? I think I’ll do the ferry ride again someday, even just to see the wildlife at sea.
Pacific White-sided Dolphins – Lagenorhynchus obliquidens (I think) on the way back to Niigata City. Captured with my phone through the window of the third floor of the ferry.
This was only my second visit to Sado. Here is a post about my first visit. I hope to go back in the near future to meet Hitoshi and be thrilled again at Sado-jima’s precious treasures.
This is a photo of a precious gift to me from Hitoshi. When I pick it up, the aroma of its natural oils waft upwards and stir my nostalgia of the day on Sado. It is a beautiful piece of an endemic tree to Sado. Hitoshi is the director of the Botanical Academy on Sado. I am very grateful to him for this wonderful gift, and for sharing his rich knowledge of this magical place. I watermarked the photo but the subject is created by Hitoshi. Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Thank you so much to Hitoshi and Billy for your kindness, and this special day.
Female Daurian Redstart at Toyonogata, Niigata. (April 18, 2023)
It’s been a while to post on this website. I think it was at the end of last Autumn I did anything here. A whole winter has come and gone, and now we are coming towards the end of spring. It seems quite recent that we were planning to see Bob Dylan in Tokyo in 2020, but the concert was cancelled due to the new pandemic. Well, it’s nice to know that Bob returned and did his show last week. We didn’t attend, but it’s nice to know things are falling back into place, even if the forces do their best to hold things up. I was out and about through the winter and have been getting some photos that I’m happy with. I just like taking photos more than searching through computers and editing things. I had lovely views of an Orange-flanked Bush Robin this morning with my binoculars and it was nice being live in the moment. Hope things are going well with you. Here are some recent images from Toyanogata, Niigata.
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(Video) A Dusky Thrush enjoying a spring bath
More bath action! Japanese White-eyes enjoying a communal outdoor Japanese spring bath.
Female Bull-headed Shrike
Orange-flanked Bush Robin
So, I got my Nikon Z9 camera back in June. It’s my first flagship camera after many years of pressing the shutter. A new feature I am toying with is video. Please excuse the shaky starts to these movies, but I hope you enjoy the final results. I just gave it a first try last week. I am thrilled to be a Z9 person. It’s a long road since my Pentax K1000 from 1985. Should I do more video?
(Also, please do not steal my work for your own benefits. I am happy to share work for educational purposes, but would like to be attributed. All images and videos on this website are copyrighted by me)
Please enjoy!
