I saw my first ever Nordmann's Greenshank on Ko Libong in Thailand... and of course Crab Plover! Ko Libong was the place to go at the time if you wanted to see Nordmann's, the only known wintering site, as well as the only east Asian location for Crab Plover. There had been zero development on the island at that time, no tourists, no accommodation. The late Russell Slack and I took the long-boat from the mainland with locals and livestock. On arrival we met the island's chemist who welcomed us to sleep on the floor of his shop for the duration of our stay; we were also welcome to eat mea ..read more

Spring migrants shoulds all have completed their journeys by now, any that haven't are potential megas waiting to be found. It's therefore time to reflect on the good birds I did see (Thick-billed Warbler), those I didn’t (Redwing and Chinese Blackbird) and what I might have... hmm, to that end, I do have a ‘funny’ locustella warbler that has been bothering me ever since I came across it on a day trip to Hegurajima on 9 May. Despite some unresolved questions about its appearance at the time, I concluded it had to be a Middendorff’s Grasshopper Warbler before heading for the ferry. Once back ho ..read more

On the Pacific side of my region, any alcid is a very good find. A single Ancient Murrelet is the only one I can think of having seen. And, while I may daydream about all kinds of amazing birds on my way out birding, a good wader, a rare duck, an unexpected passerine, alcids have never ever featured on the fantasy radar. So bearing that in mind, I hope I can be forgiven for being totally stumped by this duck in with a flock of Greater Scaup. The odd duck was clearly smaller than the Scaup and white seemed to extend right back round the eye. Where's the white patch on a Harlequin Duck? Th ..read more

 Less than five weeks after heading up to Choshi to see Little Gull, I was back again for Brown-headed Gull. Japan's third record? In retrospect, I think I was quite lucky with the Little Gull. It only took three hours on-site to see it, admittedly it felt much longer at the time, while some people have had to make several trips to connect. It was raining when I arrived at the outer harbour on Monday, my only free day this week and the only one forecast to have rain. Three or four birders under their umbrellas were scanning the harbour, beyond the line of off-loading fishing boats and the ..read more

I had three main targets for a 10-day trip to Hokkaido, all of which were rather optimistic in one way or another: White-winged Scoter, Rock Sandpiper and Bald Eagle.  There may be one or even two Bald Eagles lurking somewhere in eastern Hokkaido, not necessarily along the coasts, one of them would be a striking adult now. Any hope of connecting with one was beyond optimistic to be honest and needless to say, I didn't.  Rock Sandpiper on the other hand should instill optimism you'd think, but truth is it's been a long-standing bogey bird for me. This going back to when, though scarce ..read more

I saw this gull at day's end, the very last light, while looking for a Canvasback to round off a successful twitch for Little Gull on Feb 1. The Vega is missing four inner primaries on each wing, the innermost secondaries and a few primary coverts. Is it six months early or six months late? The first thought must be that a health issue resulted in suspension of moult. However, if that were the case the outer primaries would be extremely distressed by now, whereas there’s no sign of any wear at all. So, it would appear the bird has commenced moult six months early! Either that or is undergoing ..read more

 There's pervading view that the perpalidus subspecies of Common Kestrel is a rare winter visitor to Japan. But how rare might it be? It doesn't even occur according to the current edition (published 2012) of the OSJ Japan list! I first heard of 'pale continental birds' about 20 years ago but am still none the wiser as to their occurrence or identification; the vague “it’s paler” is as far as easily accessible information has taken me. But in what respect is it paler?  Earlier this week I spotted a small bird of prey in flight about 800 metres distant across the fields. When I got th ..read more

Across twenty-odd years of gulling here, I've seen a very small number of gulls which looked good contenders for Heuglin's Gull L. (fuscus) heuglini. However, can we ever be a hundred percent sure about this identification in Japan? Might not a Taimyr Gull L. (f) taimyrensis with a 'perfect storm' of heuglini-like features be impossible to eliminate without DNA confirmation? This has been a perennial frustration, a question to be pushed to one side for however many winters before another suspect re-centres it. This winter has seen another.    It isn't even po ..read more

September was very much a staying local month, covering a small stretch of my old patch at Ogura. Mainly because I didn't have the time to do otherwise, and not seeing that much for my efforts if truth be told. I've seen some quite spectacular wader passages here over the years but 2022 won't be going down as one to remember. I covered a relatively small part of the overall area on nine dates through the month, seeing snipe other than Common on eight of them; this after making several visits throughout August when no migrant snipe were recorded. Actually, my first non-Common snipe were two bir ..read more

It's the fore- and upperparts that normally attract attention when it comes to male Blue and Whites, so just to be different here's one where the underparts take centre stage. These blue centred longest undertail coverts came as a surprise, so much so that I was thinking "Do they always look like this and I've never paid any attention, or is this unusual?" Fortunately it isn't something obvious that I've always overlooked and does appear to be unusual, although quite how unusual, I don't know. For what it's worth, I haven't been able to find any online images that match it. I saw this bird on ..read more