Category Archives: Raptors

Birding Japan: Return to Tokyo and Trip Wrap

Since we published them, our birding posts about Japan have been read in more than a dozen countries. If you are planning your own trip to Japan, you’re in luck! Sneed’s new book, FIRST-TIME JAPAN: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE FOR THE INDEPENDENT TRAVELER, tells you everything you need to know about how to plan your trip to this remarkable, yet sometimes intimidating, country. Order now by clicking here.

This wraps up Sneed’s birding adventures in Japan. We hope you’ve enjoyed these posts, especially if you might be contemplating a birding or, more likely, semi-birding trip to this remarkable country. If this is your first time seeing these posts, please do start at the beginning so you can enjoy them all the way through. Thanks for tuning in!

After our tour around the southern part of Honshu, returning to Tokyo felt like coming home for Tessa and me, but our excitement for the world’s largest megalopolis remained undimmed. While we’d spent our first stint near Tokyo Station, I chose Shibuya for our second Tokyo visit of four nights. As expected, this part of town immediately seemed a lot more “swinging” than Tokyo Station, with gazillions of young people streaming between trains, malls, restaurants, and, well, you name it. Even better, Shibuya Station is home to the famous statue of Hachiko—the subject of a wonderful picture book by Pamela S. Turner and a pretty awful movie with Richard Gere. Having written my own heart-rending dog book, Shep—Our Most Loyal Dog, I naturally felt great affection for Hachiko.

Well, I tried birding Shibuya at night, but you can see there were a lot of distractions!

I felt less sure of my birding strategy from Shibuya, but several large parks beckoned. I also had left my beloved headlamp at the hotel near Tokyo Station, giving me an excuse to drag Tessa across town to what turned out to be one of our favorite Tokyo places, Ueno Park. The southern part of the park in particular has a large area of reed beds conducive to watching waterfowl, gulls, cormorants, and other birds.

I honestly hadn’t expected much from Ueno Park, but Tessa and I truly enjoyed it. Hint: as you’re traversing it, walk up (or down) the EAST side of the park to avoid getting lost in a neighborhood.

Rather than give a blow-by-blow of Tokyo, though, I’d like to use this last post to briefly reflect on my overall impressions of birding in Japan—keeping in mind that my experiences were somewhat limited by our decision to travel almost exclusively by public transport and that we didn’t go to any great lengths to reach any truly wild regions of the country. Then again, that is how most people visit Japan (unless they are shackled to tour buses), so my reflections may have some resonance for you.

A not-so-well kept secret is the observation deck in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku. From here we got a great view of Yoyogi Park and the Meiji Jingu Shrine area.

First, I didn’t find what I consider a great diversity of birds in Japan. The country has an impressive overall total, but my guess is that many of these require travel to the extreme northern and southern points of the country. Then again, as only a modestly skilled birder, I often find that less is more. Before our trip, I learned probably 70 or 80 birds—which, to be honest, was about my capacity. Also, while I thought we might hit migration season, that did not seem to be the case. Most of the birds I saw at the end of March and beginning of April appeared to be year-round residents. A month later . . . who knows?

My last birding excursion of the trip was to Gyoen National Garden, perhaps the loveliest Tokyo park I visited on the trip–and the site of my last Japan life bird, a Pale Thrush.

Second, Japan does have very cool birds. I loved getting to know the common birds such as Black Kite, Brown-eared Bulbul, White-cheeked Starling, Japanese Tit, Dusky Thrush, and Eastern Spot-billed Duck. Added to these were some truly adrenaline-producing species such as Japanese Wagtail, Daurian Redstart, Little Ringed Plover, Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker, and Bull-headed Shrike. Bottom line: even in tourist areas, birders can reap big rewards by birding Japan.

One of the real surprises of birding Japan was seeing a Northern Goshawk—a bird I’ve seen only three or four times in Montana. This is a sensitive species in Japan, so I can’t share where I saw it, but it was a trip highlight for sure.

Third, if I am fortunate enough to return to Japan, I definitely want to explore some of the more way-out places. Tessa and I invariably loved the places we visited that were more off the beaten path such as Sendai and Kanazawa, and I can only imagine what it might be like to visit tropical southern Japan and the oft-frozen isle of Hokkaido.

Even the airports in Japan are way cool. Once we got our bags checked at Haneda, we found this delightful little restaurant for one last good Japanese meal.

Fourth . . . well there is no fourth. It was an amazing trip, and birding played a significant role in my enjoyment of this unique, friendly, accessible country. With that, here are some stats for the curious . . .

Number of eBird Checklists: 27

Number of Species Observed: 56

Number of New Life Birds: 37

Species I’ve also seen in the US: 13

Most Common Bird by Number of Individuals: Brown Eared Bulbul (194 birds, just beating out Large-billed Crow with 193)

Most Surprising Bird: Northern Goshawk!!!

Favorite Bird: (tie) Japanese Wagtail & Bull-headed Shrike

Major Lesson: Keep Birding!

Favorite Trip Bird honors are split between the Bull-headed Shrike and . . .

Birding Japan: Kyoto

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Since we published them, our birding posts about Japan have been read in dozens of countries. If you are planning your own trip to Japan, you’re in luck! Sneed’s book, FIRST-TIME JAPAN: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE FOR THE INDEPENDENT TRAVELER, tells you everything you need to know about how to plan your trip to this remarkable, yet sometimes daunting, country. Order now by clicking here.

Welcome to Part 3 of Sneed’s recent Japan adventure. If you missed the first couple of Japan posts, start here. As always, we appreciate your interest, and please share these with anyone you think will enjoy them.

Our journey to Kyoto gave us one last chance to ride the Enoshima Electric Railway, the adorable little train Tessa and I both fell in love with during our long, rainy weekend in Kamakura. In fact, Japan’s train system is so well thought-out that we simply rode the EER to the end of the line in Fujisowa to catch the Tokaido train to Odawara. There, we boarded the shinkansen (bullet train) for the two-hour ride to Kyoto. Easy peasy. I have to say, however, that Kyoto Station was quite a bit more confusing than Tokyo or any of the other stations we’d visited, but fortunately I knew which subway to catch to our accommodation, a rather modern version of a traditional Japanese inn, or ryokan. As far as I can tell, there’s no perfect location to stay in Kyoto, but our place was only an 8-10 minute walk to two different subway stations. Even better, it was close to what turned out to be a wonderful birding spot, the Kamo River—a place that Tessa and I would return to several times.

Our first look at Kyoto’s Kamo River convinced us to return as often as possible. Kyoto’s birds felt the same way!

Our first full day in Kyoto, I planned for us to visit Fushimi Inari Taisha, a shrine famous for its hundreds (thousands?) of red “torii” gates straddling the paths leading up the mountain. Conveniently, to catch the train to the shrine, we got to walk along the Kamo River. It was a glorious day and many others were out enjoying the sunshine and blooming sakura trees. For my part, I also couldn’t help noticing a lot of birds enjoying the relatively unkempt river bed—including a real surprise, Common Merganser, a duck that we often see in our rivers in Montana!

A pair of Common Mergansers greatly surprised me in Kyoto.

We finished Fushimi Inari Taisha early enough that we decided to go ahead and visit Kyoto’s Imperial Palace and the surrounding Kyoto Gyoen National Garden. The palace was impressively, well, palatial and I was hoping for some excellent birding in the gardens. The over-manicured park, however, once again limited its attractiveness to only the hardiest of species. I did run into a nice little mixed flock that contained a Warbling White-eye, Long-tailed Tit, and my lifer Japanese Bush Warbler, but have to say that I was disappointed overall. Nothing that a big bowl of steaming hot ramen at Ichiran Ramen didn’t cure!

As Kyoto’s Imperial Palace demonstrates, Japanese architects knew what they were doing. If only the places hadn’t burned down every 20 or 30 years!

The next morning, after hitting Kyoto Station to reserve shinkansen tickets for the upcoming legs of our trip, we rode a JR local train out to Arashiyama. Tessa had especially been wanting to visit a bamboo grove, and a large, famous one grew here. We also visited Kameyama Park, located at the mouth of the Katsura River gorge. The sakura were especially wonderful here and, well, the birds turned out to be pretty great, too! As we strolled the gorgeous grounds, I saw a Warbling White-eye and the complete triumvirate of tits: Japanese, Varied, and Long-tailed. Just saying the word “tit” provokes giggles but these birds are essentially the Old World version of chickadees. They look like chickadees. They behave like chickadees. Just as in the States, if you see a tit, chances are other interesting birds are lurking nearby, so I am always happy to spot one.

Kameyama Park is the only place I managed to convince Tessa to give the peace sign for a photo—something almost mandatory for the Japanese!

Following the trails down to the river, we encountered a nice collection of ducks and my first-ever Japanese Wagtail and House Swift! By this time, large crowds had gathered to enjoy the sunshine and sights, so after a quick bite at a local food stand, we high-tailed it back to our ryokan. Our birding in Kyoto was not quite finished, however. I managed two more sessions at Kamo River, the final one the evening before our departure. Tessa was chilling in our room after a busy day of seeing Nijo Castle and the Manga Museum, and doing some gift shopping in Teramachi-dori, one of the expansive covered street malls that seem to be popular in Japan. I had some extra energy so decided on taking one last visit to the river.

My lifer Japanese Wagtail at Kameyama Park. I actually had probably seen one at the Kamo River earlier, but it took me a while to tease out the differences in markings with White Wagtails.

It was a lovely afternoon, and hundreds of Kyoto residents were out taking advantage of it. I walked downstream, enjoying the Black Kites flying overhead and Gray Herons, Great and Little Egrets, Great Cormorants, ducks, and Japanese and White Wagtails along the river. One thing I’d sorely missed on the trip were any kind of shorebirds, but suddenly I saw a suspicious bird standing on a rock across the river. From eBird quizzes I’d taken, I immediately guessed that my shorebird drought might be at an end and that this could be a Common Sandpiper. I was too far away to get a good look at the bill, though, and it seemed too short. That was good because it forced me to call up the Merlin app and dive deeper into the Common Sandpiper’s ID features. Two things stuck out: COSAs had a prominent white “spur” at the shoulder and they often bobbed their tails like wagtails. I again focused my binoculars. “Yep,” I said out loud. “That’s a Common Sandpiper!” Just a few minutes later I saw yet another bird sitting on a rock in the river—this one a Gray Wagtail, completing the “Wagtail Trilogy” for the trip. Neither the Common Sandpiper nor Gray Wagtail were lifers for me, but they brought my Japan bird list up to 47 species. More important, they were an awesome way to finish up our time in Kyoto.

Throughout Japan, I enjoyed Black Kites, but they put on a special show along the Kamo River.

More, much more, lay in store.

Sneed’s Kameyama Park eBird checklist.

Sneed’s final Kamo River eBird checklist.

Birding Japan: Kamakura by the Sea

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Welcome to the second installment of my birding reports from Japan. To read the first report, click here, and of course feel free to share these reports with others—and add your own experiences in the comments section. Thanks for reading!

As mentioned in my last post, one of my goals in birding Japan was to reach 1,000 bird species for my life list. I arrived in the country needing 31 species to hit that mark, but picked up only 13 new lifers during my daughter’s and my first three days in Tokyo. A day trip by bullet train, or shinkansen, to the northern town of Sendai added Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker and Varied Tit to my total, but I felt like the next stop on our itinerary, the seaside town of Kamakura, would have to perform better if I were to keep on pace.

Kamakura lies only about an hour by train from Tokyo and has earned a reputation as a weekend getaway and favorite place for surfing and other water sports. Anticipating that we might need a break after five days in the Big City, I had rented us a tiny apartment only two blocks from the beach, and as soon as we stepped off the train, the area enchanted us. The main train station sits adjacent to a vibrant street full of food and crafts shops, but to reach our lodging we had to hop on the cutest little train you can imagine, ride a few stops, and then roll our luggage a half a kilometer through a quirky little beach town that easily could have been on the Oregon Coast or in Southern California. While trying to find our accommodations, we crossed a little bridge over a canal when a scintillating blue flash caught my eye, followed by another. I didn’t get a great look, but knew immediately what they were—Common Kingfishers, one of my favorite birds and, as it turned out, the only time I got to see them on the trip.

The Island of Sodor? No, but the delightful Enoshima Electric Railway made us wonder!

We arrived at our apartment too early to check in so decided to sit in a children’s playground for a few minutes to rest and recover from our hectic travel morning. I felt eager to get out and find some birds, but there in the playground I didn’t have to. Instead, the birds came to me. First, a dove landed on a phone wire only a few yards away. My adrenaline surging, I whipped out my binoculars and sure enough, it was a lifer I had been hoping for: Oriental Turtle-Dove! Then, I espied a bluish bird flitting around on a nearby rooftop. Swallow or flycatcher? I thought to myself. Instead, I was surprised to identify another lifer I had desperately been wanting to see—a Blue Rock-Thrush. Right there in the playground, we were also joined by a Warbling White-eye and either Japanese or Varied Tits, though I didn’t get a great look at the latter.

**My lifer Oriental Turtle-Dove landed next to our lodging in Kamakura, and we were fortunate to also see them on Enoshima Island and other locations on our trip.**

Leaving our bags, Tessa and I walked down to the beach. Perhaps a hundred surfers crowded the two- to three-foot waves, and Tessa and I saw Carrion Crows and Black Kites for the first time on the trip, both species Braden and I had seen in Israel right before the pandemic.

I’m not sure what this Carrion Crow has in mind, but Tessa and I had great fun watching it and its colleagues on Kamakura’s beach.

Since the forecast called for a rainy weekend, we tore ourselves away from the beach and hiked a mile or so to Kamakura’s most famous attraction, the Great Buddha. This forty-foot-high bronze sculpture was completed around the year 1253, and truly impressed both of us. When we arrived, a rock pigeon perched comfortably atop the Buddha’s head, a fitting signal that the Buddha welcomed both of us! After taking the mandatory photos, we sat on a stone wall and chilled in the statue’s peaceful presence before grabbing an early dinner at a café and then checking into our residence.

**The Great Buddha, or Daibutsu, of Kamakura is apparently the second largest Buddha in Japan and harkens back to about 1252.**

We had plans to take a genuine forest hike in Kamakura, but unfortunately the weather forecast turned out to be all too true. Saturday, umbrellas in hand, we braved the Kamakura food street next to the station, but were forced back home by chilling wetness—though not without nabbing a box of fresh mini-donuts! Sunday, we took the cute little train down the coast to Enoshima, famous for its picturesque island just offshore. A short causeway connected the island to the mainland, and on the way across I spotted the trip’s first Eurasian Wigeons, a species Braden and I are lucky to see once a year in Montana. I was also surprised to find Herring Gulls sitting atop light posts.

A Herring Gull? In Japan? Apparently, the birds know a lot more about their distributions than I do.

Following a beautiful paved winding path up the island’s mountainous terrain, we encountered birds that were now becoming familiar to both of us including Brown-eared Bulbuls, White Wagtails, White-cheeked Starlings, Eurasian Tree Sparrows, and a trio of Oriental Turtle-Doves. The highlight of the day, however, turned out to be a small, gorgeous red shrine tucked away in the trees near the summit. It apparently is one of three shrines on the island collectively known as Enoshima Shrine, and it was built to worship the deities of fishing and sea transport. We weren’t sure what to do there, so I quickly texted Ryosuke, a Japanese foreign-exchange student who happens to be spending the year at Tessa’s high school and who had been tutoring me in Japanese. He quickly texted back instructions, and we paid our respects before heading back down the mountain. Thank you Ryosuke!

Don’t look into his eyes. Just move on slowly. Nothing to see here.

Lifer count for the weekend? A mere two species, making our next destination, Kyoto, essential for my evil plans to reach my life list millennium mark.

My Enoshima eBird Checklist.

March Madness Birding in Missouri

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Congratulations to our loyal follower Roger Kohn for notching his 300th Life Bird this week—and a Golden Eagle no less! Way to go, Rog, and may it be just a prelude to a great spring birding season!

I can’t believe we didn’t post the entire month of February. Nonetheless, we appreciate your loyalty and devotion, and believe it or not, we picked up our 100^th subscriber in the last few weeks. We should have more than that, but Russian hackers led to a subscriber catastrophe some years back. No matter, we are glad to have you with us.

But back to the lack of posts, we’ve had solid excuses. Braden has been studying hard for a tough group of science and math classes this semester while I’ve been laboring to complete two new books and get them turned in. Mission accomplished! I celebrated by heading off to the Children’s Literature Festival in Warrensburg, Missouri. It was my “dozenth” or so time there, and this one proved particularly delightful, with more than twenty authors speaking to thousands of kiddos over the course of two days. This trip was made even more delightful by the fact that I roped several of those authors into joining me for a birding excursion!

**The University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg provided a friendly, intimate setting for 54th Children’s Literature Festival—the first full festival since Covid!**

My one complaint about the literature festival is that it always happens before spring migration hits Missouri. Undaunted, I led authors Padma Venkatraman and Samantha Edwards, and Samantha’s husband, Jason Tucker, to Cave Hollow Park this past Sunday morning. Braden and I had birded the park many years back, but before we really knew what we were doing. We’d seen only a handful of species and had left disappointed. This time, I hoped for a better result—and was richly rewarded!

Working the woods that lined the large grassy areas, our intrepid crew saw—and heard—Northern Cardinals and Eastern Phoebes. Then, an American Kestrel flew over, not to be outdone by Red-bellied Woodpeckers, a Northern Flicker, and one of our biggest surprises, a Pileated woodpecker. Of the three woodpeckers, I discovered that the Red-bellied is definitely the most common in the Show Me State. That seemed wonderfully strange for a guy accustomed to Downy Woodpeckers holding down the top spot!

The trip to Missouri was my first opportunity to test my new Panasonic “travel camera” and as you can see from this Northern Cardinal, I didn’t really know what I was doing. Am hoping I’ll get to share better photos with you soon!

We continued our excursion, venturing into the park’s wooded trail system. This is where Braden and I had pretty much struck out before, but today our group was pleased to encounter Black-capped Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, and a surprise White-breasted Nuthatch. For the first time, I also recognized the “Fee-bee” call of an Eastern Phoebe. “Ah,” I told my companions, “that’s how they got their name.” To my satisfaction, my companions loved our outing, as did I. While we didn’t see anything rare, I don’t often get a chance to enjoy the birds of the East, so it was a special treat to get out there on this sunny, crisp morning. It was also great to have such enthusiastic company!

**My intrepid fellow birders and I were excited to discover some of the “hollows” for which Cave Hollow Park is named (Left to right: Padma Venkatraman, Samantha Edwards, and her husband, Jason).**

I was so pumped that I woke early the next morning and birded the woods right next to our hotel. I had barely set out when I saw eight or ten sparrows close by. The yellow above the eye made me at first think “Savanna Sparrows.” Then I realized with excitement that they were White-throated Sparrows—a species that wasn’t even on my radar! More surprises followed with a look at a Song Sparrow and Turkey Vulture. Then, I heard an even bigger surprise—a Carolina Wren. That afternoon, I bumped my Missouri Life List to 31 species when a Red-shouldered Hawk landed on a lamp post next to the hotel as I and my friend and fellow author, Roland Smith, returned back from work. I ended the trip more than happy with my March Missouri birding . . . but that doesn’t keep me from dreaming they’ll one day move the festival to April when the full flush of spring songbirds will be moving through!

I’m not sure why, but White-throated Sparrows just make me happy. I hope you’re getting to see some wherever you are! Fun fact: President Teddy Roosevelt especially enjoyed listening to White-throated Sparrows on the grounds of the White House!

Advance Warning: You will most likely have to endure another lengthy delay before our next post as I (Sneed) is about to embark on a major trip. The good news is that I will be traveling to a country I have never been, and I can almost guarantee that your patience will be rewarded!

Return of the Northern Hawk Owl

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Last week, Wise River resident Rory Macdonald reported a bird that got every Montana birder—and quite a few from other states—giddy with excitement: a Northern Hawk Owl. NHOWs are a decidedly boreal species, but venture south from Canada in a handful of places, mostly in winter. Cornell Lab dubs this owl one of the least studied birds in North America, but we do know that it preys on rodents as well as larger ground birds and hares. Many birders travel to Minnesota’s Sax-Zim Bog to see one, and every once in a while an irruption year brings more of the owls down into the U.S., but even so, NHOWs are considered one of the most difficult birds to see in the Lower 48. Here in Montana, breeding has been documented in Glacier National Park (mostly in burn areas), but breeding there has dried up in recent years and reports elsewhere are few and far between. It’s no surprise, then, that when the NHOW popped up last week, dozens of birders immediately leaped into their cars and headed to Wise River. Braden and I joined the fray.

**Our first Northern Hawk Owl, seen on Braden’s birthday in 2020. Read tha t story here.**

Wise River sits about two hours from Missoula, and after I got up early to take my daughter to driver’s ed class and walk our dog Lola, I returned home, grabbed Braden, and pointed our trusty minivan east on I-90 in the pre-dawn darkness. Fortunately, the roads were dry and we made good time, stopping at the Deer Lodge McDonald’s for our customary egg sandwich breakfasts before heading on. We arrived at Wise River just before 9:00 a.m. “Do you know exactly where the owl’s been spotted?” I asked Braden. “In two different places,” he replied. “The first is at the USFS ranger station up here on the left.”

I turned left as instructed. No owl. Braden then directed me to another location maybe a half mile to the west. We crept slowly down a snow-covered side road, carefully studying every fence post, roof, and telephone pole. I started to get the feeling that we wouldn’t find it, and Braden did, too. In our experience, it seemed that whenever we chased something really rare, we either saw it immediately—or missed it altogether.

The road turned left and we saw a pickup truck parked where the road made another left at the base of a mountain. “I hope that’s a birder,” Braden said. I did, too, but I also looked at the trees beyond. “There it is!” I exclaimed. “Oh—yes!” Braden said.

**If you’re out hunting or skiing in winter, keep an eye out for something that looks like this. You just may be looking at one of Montana’s rarest residents!**

After parking, I quickly set up our spotting scope, and we carefully walked forward. The pickup ahead of us belonged to veteran Montana birder and photographer Dan Ellison, and we enjoyed a nice, fun conversation before focusing in on the owl, which fortunately didn’t appear to be going anywhere. “He doesn’t seem to be spooky at all,” Dan told us, and sure enough, the owl posed beautifully as I took photos and Braden trained the scope on it. As other birders joined us, however, the owl suddenly flew and torpedoed toward something in the sagebrush. Watching the bird fly was a real treat. Though definitely on the chunky side, the owl “handled” more like a falcon; fast and with surprising agility. After grabbing—or missing its prey—it disappeared around a rocky outcrop.

**With a stare like that I, for one, am not inclined to get this bird upset.**

Fortunately, it soon reappeared in another tree, perhaps hungry for more “Oohs” and “Ahs” from admiring birders. Braden and I find ourselves chasing rarities less often these days, but we were definitely glad we chased this one. This was only the second Northern Hawk Owl we’d ever seen (for the story on the first, see our 2020 post “Incredible Birthday Birding”), and frankly, I never expected to see another. Not only did this one give us great, leisurely views, it was a wonderful ambassador for birds and bird conservation.

Is this hawk owl facing toward you or away?

After an hour admiring the bird, Braden and I headed back out toward I-90, detouring up to Discovery Ski Area to find a few more winter birds—but maybe we’ll write about that later!

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