Fri, 7 Aug 1998 21:01:24

Hello Kantorians,

Wow! We though June was rainy ..

After sometime in the second week of July, the sun did not make any substantial appearances for the rest of the month. It didn't actually rain all that much; it just stayed dark and dreary. At least there weren't any glare problems. The humidity was remarkable. Some of our outdoor clothing that we keep around our foyer to put on as we're leaving became moldy by the end of the month, and that's without our even wearing it out into the elements. August isn't shaping up to be any dryer (it's raining outside my window right now). July was a month of minimal film usage.

This July had one thing that last July didn't - some signs of fall migration. This is probably because we tried some new spots along the coast which seemed a little better for shorebirds (but still impoverished by coastal North American standards). Predictably, every shorebird we saw was an adult. Also harbingers of fall, Gray Starlings and Red-cheeked Mynas are forming large flocks, staging for a move.

On the same beach as some of the shorebirds were two each decomposed Northern Fulmars and Laysan Albatross, one of the latter tangled in some kind of cord.

Another interesting thing was the abundance of cuckoos. This is interesting in light of an apparent decline elsewhere in Japan. Last July we didn't see or hear a single Little Cuckoo, and this month we heard them calling in many places. Granted, last year we didn't know what a Little Cuckoo sounded like, but the song is so loud and persistent that I don't believe it would have gone unnoticed. Same with Oriental Cuckoo, though not so numerous. Common Cuckoos were commonest of all.

And Chinese Little Bitterns appeared towards the end of the month. They eluded us completely through mid-July, but later, and into August, they've been almost easy to see, requiring just some waiting before one flies across the reedbeds.

Eurasian Tree Sparrows started working on their third brood in our garage. I can usually hear them while on the computer in the daytime. Bull-headed Shrikes (also numerous this year) nested outside our house, and the fledglings beg noisily. In the rice paddies, Japanese Reed Buntings fledged many young, but the reed warblers were still feeding nestlings, and even building new nests. Little and Great Crested Grebes were escorting young as well.

The most surprising and puzzling bird of the month was a Merlin which dashed through residential Misawa sometime in the middle of the month. That bird shouldn't have been anywhere near here.

As always, the area is the 90 km stretch of coastline between Misawa and Shiriyazaki. Species verified nesting locally are preceding by a '*', while others seen only during a quick trip inland on July 4 are prefixed by '@'.


Here's the list of birds found in Aomori-Ken during July:



*Little Grebe				Kaitsuburi		Podiceps ruficollis
*Great Crested Grebe			Kanmuri-kaitsuburi	Podiceps cristatus
Laysan Albatross (2 dead)		Ko-ahodori		Diomedea immutabilis
Northern Fulmar (2 dead)		Furuma-kamome		Fulmarus glacialis
Streaked Shearwater			Mizunagidori		Calonectris leucomelas
Short-t Shearwater			Hashiboso-mizunagidori	Puffinus tenuirostris
*?Great Cormorant			Kawa-u			Phalacrocorax carbo
*Temminck's Cormorant			Umi-u			Phalacrocorax filamentosus
Chinese Little Bittern (2)		Yoshi-goi		Ixobrychus sinensis
Black-cr. Night Heron (12)		Goi-sagi		Nycticorax nycticorax
Gray Heron				Ao-sagi			Ardea cinerea
*Mute Swan				Kobu-hakucho		Cygnus cygnus
Whooper Swan (3 disabled)		O-hakucho		Cygnus olor
Bewick's Swan (1 disabled)		Ko-hakucho		Cygnus bewicki
*Mandarin Duck (25)			Oshidori		Aix galericulata		
Mallard					Ma-gamo			Anas platyrhynchos
*Spot-billed Duck			Karu-gamo		Anas poecilorhyncha
Eurasian Wigeon (7/4(2))            	Hidori-gamo		Anas penelope
Pochard (2 disabled)			Hoshi-hajiro		Aythya ferina
@Honey Buzzard (2)   	    		Hachikuma		Pernis apivorus
Black Kite				Tobi			Milvus migrans
Eurasian Sparrow Hawk (3)     		Hai-taka		Accipiter nisus
Common Buzzard				Nosuri                  Buteo buteo
Asian Marsh Harrier (2)			Chuhi			Circus spilonotus
Peregrine Falcon (3)	          	Hayabusa		Falco peregrinus
@*Northern Hobby (2)			Chigo-hayabusa		Falco subbuteo
Merlin (1)	                    	Ko-chogenbo		Falco columbaris
Green Pheasant	            		Kiji			Phasianus 
Water Rail (1H)		          	Kuina                   Rallus aquaticus
*Eurasian Coot (250)			O-ban			Fulica atra
*Little Ringed Plover	      		Ko-chidori		Charadrius dubius
*Kentish Plover (12)	   		Shiro-chidori		Charadrius alexandrinus
Mongolian Plover (7/12(1))    		Medai-chidori		Charadrius mongolus
Red-necked Stint (10)	    		Tonen			Calidris ruficollis
Sanderling (4)		          	Miyubi-shigi		Crocethia alba
Gray-tailed Tattler (4)		 	Kiashi-shigi		Tringa brevipes
Common Sandpiper (7/13(2))		Iso-shigi		Tringa hypoleucos
Bar-tailed Godwit (7/12(1))		O-sorihashi-shigi	Limosa lapponica
Latham's Snipe (2)			Oji-shigi		Gallinago hardwickii
*Slaty-backed Gull			O-seguro-kamome		Larus schistisagus
*Black-tailed Gull			Umineko			Larus crassirostris
*Spectacled Guillemot     		Keimafuri		Cepphus carbo
Rufous Turtle Dove			Kiji-bato		Streptopelia orientalis
Common Cuckoo (20)			Kakko			Cuculus canorus
Oriental Cuckoo (1)			Tsutsudori		Cuculus saturatus
Little Cuckoo (10)			Hototogisu		Cuculus poliocephalus
White-thr. Needle-t. Swift (25)		Hario-amatsubame	Chaetura caudacuta
Pacific Swift (2)			Amatsubame		Apus pacificus
*Common Kingfisher         		Kawasemi		Alcedo atthis
@Japanese Green Woodpecker (7/3(1))	Ao-gera			Picus awokera
Great Spotted Woodpecker		Aka-gera		Dendrocopus major
@*?Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker		Ko-gera                	Dendrocopos kizuki
Skylark					Hibari			Alauda arvensis
*Barn Swallow				Tsubame			Hirundo rustica
*Asiatic House Martin			Iwa-tsubame		Delichon dasypus
*Gray Wagtail				Ki-sekirei		Motacilla cinerea
*Black-backed Wagtail			Haku-sekirei		Motacilla lugens
Japanese Wagtail (3)			Seguro-sekirei		Motacilla grandis
*Brown-eared Bulbul			Hiyodori		Hypsipetes amaurotis
*Bull-headed Shrike			Mozu			Lanius bucephalus
@Brown Dipper		    		Kawagurasu		Cinclus pallasi
@Wren					Misosazai		Troglodytes troglodytes
@Red-flanked Bluetail (7/3(1H))		Ruri-bitaki		Tarsiger cyanurus
Blue Rock Thrush	         	Isohiyodori		Monticola solitarius
*Brown Thrush				Akahara			Turdus chrysolaus
Bush Warbler				Uguisu			Cettia diphone
*?Japanese Marsh Warbler   		O-sekka			Megalurus pryeri
*Black-browed Reed Warbler		Ko-yoshiki		Acrocephalus bistrigiceps
*Great Reed Warbler       		O-yoshikiri		Acrocephalus arundinaceus
@Arctic Warbler (7/3(1H))		Meboso-mishikui		Phylloscopus borealis
@Narcissus Flycatcher			Ki-bitaki		Ficedula narcissina
@Varied Tit				Yama-gara		Parus varius
*Great Tit				Shiju-kara		Parus major
Japanese White-Eye			Mejiro			Zosterops japonica
*Meadow Bunting				Hojiro			Emberiza cioides
*Japanese Reed Bunting    		Ko-jurin		Emberiza yessoensis
Gray-headed Bunting      		Hoaka			Emberiza fucata
*Black-faced Bunting			Aoji			Emberiza spodocephala
Reed Bunting				O-jurin			Emberiza schoeniclus
*Oriental Greenfinch			Kawara-hira		Carduelis sinica
Japanese Grosbeak (7/15(2))		Ikaru			Eophona personata
Hawfinch (7/25(1))			Shime			Coccothraustes coccothraustes
*Eurasian Tree Sparrow			Suzume			Passer montanus
Red-cheeked Myna (200)			Ko-mukudori		Sturnus philippensis
Gray Starling (500)			Mukudori		Sturnus cineraceus
Jay (3)					Kakesu			Garrulus glandarius
Azure-winged Magpie       		Onaga			Cyanopica cyana
Carrion Crow				Hashiboso-garasu	Corvus corone
Jungle Crow				Hashibuto-garasu	Corbus macrorhynchos


Good Birding, Mike