Birding in the forest
cultivated land. Daurian Redstarts flickered tails of fire in gardens. Meadow Buntings flocked with Rustic and Black-faced buntings. It was hard to leave. But depart we must. We had a date with Kyushu’s principal avian attraction: Arasaki’s huge flocks of cranes. We devoted late afternoon and the following morning to birding the area. With a more lax itinerary, we might have devoted triple that time to the site. Or, should I say, sight. Entire fields were covered with the leggy forms of nearly the entire world population of Hooded Crane: thousands upon thousands of them. In their copious midst loped the odd Crane, one of which had apparently procreated with a Hooded Crane, for it was accompanied by hybrid offspring. A few Sandhill Crane slunk around, skanky in comparison. Above them all towered the stately figures of hundreds of White-naped Cranes – yet another globally threatened bird. My experiences with Norfolk’s skittish Cranes were inadequate preparation for Arasaki. Cranes are revered in Japan (see box): numerous road signs, sculptures and motifs testify that Kyushu’s human inhabitants welcome the cranes’ arrival each winter, while local conservationists supplement the birds’ natural diet with grain. As a consequence, the birds are (almost) fearless, tolerating binocular-toting visitors to within 30 metres or so. Breathtaking! Leaving Arasaki, we had a crack at two ducks on the bubbling river running through the wonderfully named town of Satsuma. Our luck was out with Scaly-sided Merganser; a male had regaled visiting birders across several winters... but no more. We fared better with a glorious male Mandarin in its native domain. Mandarin in Satsuma; ‘citrus birding’ at its best! Moving on, we birded forest surrounding Lake Mi’ike. Trees ranged upwards above a spartan, arid understorey. A sheeny male Red-flanked Everyone wants to see Hokkaido’s famous and spectacular Red-crowned Cranes or tanchos Hokkaido’s gulls include Glaucous-winged Gull