Hakodate Holiday - Hakodateyama Day 2

Location: Hakodateyama, Hakodate, Hokkaido

Access: Walking

Weather: Clear, Cool-Warm, Still-Light Breeze

Time: 8.00am - 1.00pm

Birds: Great Spotted Woodpecker, Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker, Brown-eared Bulbul, Siberian Blue Robin, Short-tailed Bush Warbler, Japanese Bush Warbler, Eastern Crowned Warbler, Sakhalin Leaf Warbler, Blue-and-white Flycatcher, Asian Brown Flycatcher, Narcissus Flycatcher, Marsh Tit, Varied Tit, Coal Tit, Great Tit, Eurasian Nuthatch, Japanese White-eye, Carrion Crow, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Oriental Greenfinch, Black-faced Bunting

Comments: Starting on the Kannon Course up Hakodateyama this morning, we are immediately rewarded with a male Siberian Blue Robin, a small group of very vocal Marsh Tit, Eastern Crowned Warbler, and Sakhalin Leaf Warbler hiding in low thick scrub. A single Asian Brown Flycatcher atop a tree in sunny open woodland is spotted halfway up, and towards the top a Blue-and-white Flycatcher.

From the top of Hakodateyama we head back down via the Kyutozandou Course, and from a well-positioned bird hide along the path we spot a male Great Spotted Woodpecker bathing, various Tits, and a Short-tailed Bush Warbler. A short distance from the hide we come across another Short-tailed Bush Warbler, which forages only a metre from us without any fear, providing an excellent opportunity to study him up-close. He even gives us a short vocal display.

We spot two magnificant male Narcissus Flycatcher along this path; while all across the mountain Japanese Bush Warbler sing from the tops of open trees, and Carrion Crow dominate.

2006 Japan Bird Count: 102 Species