Sat, 3 Oct 1998 23:07:35

Dear Kantorians,

This morning Ikenaga-san and I have spend on a parking place on one of the foothills of Mount Tsukuba while daring drivers raced up and down the hills around us with loudly protesting brakes.

The sky was clear and cloudless at arrival at 8.00 am. When we left at 11.am little clouds were appearing and disappearing nonstop over the whole range of mountains. (Yesterday and today were the first beautiful and dry days after long grey and wet period.)

Migration of Sashiba had perhaps already started when we arrived. In the second hour we saw one group of 21 Sashiba's climbing over Tsukuba-san.

The first two hours the birds of prey were flying relatively low, the last hour they were little specs that had to be discovered along the edges of the small but developing clouds. The Nosuris usually as single birds. The Kites flew together.

Furthermore there was lots of migrating activity from Swallows and Swifts, and Mejiro's and Hyodori's.

A well spend morning... 

						    8.00-9.00-10.00-11.00 Tot
  Black Kite Milvus lineatus [Tobi]				  2	   2
  Gray-faced Buzzard Butastur indicus [Sashiba]		17   24   4       45
  Common Buzzard Buteo buteo [Nosuri]			9    9    4       22
  Northern Goshawk Accipter gentilis [Oo-taka]		1f	           1
  Sparrowhawk Accipiter ? [?-taka]				  1	   1
  Japanese Lesser Sparrowhawk Accipiter gularis [Tsumi] 1	           1
  Hobby Falco subbuteo [Chigo-busa]			1    1	  1        3
							29   34   12      75
The list of observed species:
  1. Black Kite Milvus lineatus [Tobi]
  2. Gray-faced Buzzard Butastur indicus [Sashiba]
  3. Common Buzzard Buteo buteo [Nosuri]
  4. Northern Goshawk Accipter gentilis [Oo-taka]
  5. European Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus [Hai-taka]
  6. Japanese Lesser Sparrowhawk Accipiter gularis [Tsumi]
  7. Hobby Falco subbuteo [Chigo-busa]
  8. Rufous Turtle Dove Streptopelia orientalis [Kiji-bato]
  9. Rock Pigeon Columba livia [Do-bato]
  10. House Swift Apus affinis [Hime-amatsubame] 2 ex in the first hr
  11. White-rumped Swift Apus pacificus [Amatsubame] at least 6 ex in second hr
  12. Great spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos major [Akagera]
  13. Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker Dendrocopos kizuki [Ko-gera]
  14. Red-rumped Swallow Hirunda daurica [Koshi aka-tsubame] 2 ex in sec hr
  15. Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica [Tsubame] all the time
  16. Brown-eared Bulbul Hypsipetes amaurotis [Hiyodori]
  17. Bull-headed Shrike Lanius bucephalus [Mozu]
  18. Bush Warbler Cettia diphone [Uguisu]
  19. Great Tit Parus major [Shijuu-kara]
  20. Varied Tit Parus varius [Yama-kara]
  21. Japanese White-eye Zosterops japonica [Mejiro]
  22. Siberian Meadow Bunting Emberiza cioides [Hoojiro]
  23. Oriental Greenfinch Carduelis sinica [Kawarahiwa]
  24. Jay Garrulus glandarius brandtii [Kakesu]
  25. Jungle Crow Corvus macrorhynchos [Hashibuto-garasu]
  26. Red-billed Leiothrix, Pekin Robin Leiothrix lutea [Sooshicho]
And some butterflied, among which: