Waders in Azuma-mura and Amada, September 4-5, 1999

Dear Kantorians,

Here is our (Fer-Jan de Vries, Catrin & Mathias Jaschhof) report on wader` s weekend no. 2, not so rich in species but certainly more exciting. We visited the same sites like last weekend except for Tokyo Bay. The weather was very similar to that on last Saturday, Sunday morning was sunny and hot, but we stopped birdwatching at 8 a.m.

For many hours we had the, here or there assisting, company of many birders (picture 1, picture2) attracted by the Lesser Yellowlegs kind enough to stay one week more. Asuka-san guided us to his most secret spots around Azuma-machi - thanks to him again (also for the digital photographs)- what resulted, among others, in a wonderful Painted Snipe. We had to alarm Ikenaga-san by the questionable observation of a strange-looking godwit and Least Sandpiper, and he was kind enough to join us on very early Sunday morning and to forgive for our partly unfounded excitement. What we learned once more this weekend: always to be very, very observant when looking for waders and - to live with question marks.

Here our commented list of wader species of September 4 and 5 (rough number of specimens in parentheses):

  1. Little Ringed Plover (Azuma 30, Amada 10)
  2. Snowy Plover (Amada 10)
  3. Mongolian Plover (Amada 5)
  4. ?Greater Sand Plover (Amada 1)
  5. Pacific Golden Plover (Azuma 10)
  6. Rufous-necked Stint (Azuma 15, Amada
  7. Temminck` s Stint (Azuma 2-3)
  8. Long-toed Stint (Azuma 4-5, Amada 2-3)
  9. ?Least Sandpiper (Azuma 1: commentary yet too come)
  10. Pectoral Sandpiper (Azuma 1) [picture by Asuka-san!]
  11. Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (Azuma 3)
  12. Broad-billed Sandpiper (Azuma 2)
  13. Dunlin (Amada 1)
  14. Ruff (Azuma 5) [picture by Asuka-san!]
  15. Indian Pratincole (Azuma 20-25 on Saturday late afternoon)
  16. Wood Sandpiper (Azuma 2-3)[picture by Asuka-san!]
  17. Green Sandpiper (Azuma 2, Amada 1)
  18. Marsh Sandpiper (Azuma 15, Amada 10) [picture by Asuka-san!]
  19. Common Sandpiper (Azuma 3-4, Amada 1)
  20. Terek Sandpiper (Azuma 2, Amada 3)
  21. Ruddy Turnstone (Azuma 5)
  22. Lesser Yellowlegs (Amada 1 on Saturday)[last weeks picture by Asuka-san!] [small version]
  23. Greenshank (Azuma 10, Amada 4-5)
  24. Gray-tailed Tattler (Azuma 10)
  25. Black-tailed Godwit (Azuma 1)[picture by Asuka-san!]
  26. Bar-tailed Godwit (Amada 1):
  27. Common Snipe (and others?) (Azuma 15, Amada 1)[picture by Asuka-san!] [another one, but is it a Common Snipe?]
  28. Painted Snipe (Azuma 1).
Additionally, 2 Ospreys [picture by Asuka-san!] and 1 Black Kite in Amada.

Good birding, Mathias Jaschhof


Ps, around noon on Sept 5 there was migration of various raptor species and barnswallows: between 10 am and 2 pm I could see from my office window in Tsukuba:

  • Gray-faced Buzzard (5 ex)
    (2 were catching dragonflies: circling up high followed by steep dives and up flight and eating the prey from the claws while flying...)
  • 1 small falcon,
  • Accipiter sp. (2 ex)
  • Black Kite (1 ex)
  • Barnswallow (15 ex)

    Fer-Jan de Vries.


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