Bird watching at Mount Fuji, Japan

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E ni Svenskar och inte förstår Engelska så ska ni skämmas. J och Björn, med det menar jag inte att alla mina stavfel ska ältas varje gång vi träffas.

Well, the flag of Skåne, just a BONUS flag.

July 2024 - Day 1

Itinerary - Day 1

6:00 - Best Western Hotel Fino Tokyo Akasaka - Pick up by guide
Drive to forest roads of Mt.Fuji
08:00 - Forest roads of Mt.Fuji - Birding - 4hrs, 20km
12:30 - Drive to Lake Yamanaka
13:00 - Walk to Obora Spring - 30min, 2km walk
13:30 - Obora Spring - Birding - 2hrs, 3km
15:30 - Walk to car park - 30min, 2km walk
16:00 - Drive to Hotel Seikei near Lake Yamanaka
19:03 - Sunset

Thursday 11 ^th of July 2024 and my alarm went off at 4 o'clock and I snoozed for a bit. Turning on the kettle and looking out the window. Grey clouds on the sky so it might be rain. My Guide told me yesterday that the weather might be bad during our time at Mount Fuji.

I had my tea and I tried the camembert cheese I bought yesterday. The cheese was 128¥, less than a Dollar so I bought some back-up cheese as well. No Camembert for less than a Dollar can be any good.

That is a tenth of what I pay in Thailand, OK, considering the size and it is a fifth of what I pay in Thailand. So, I was not expecting it to be any good. But it was good and there was no need to open the back-up cheese.

I was on the street in front of Best Western Hotel Fino Tokyo Akasaka quarter to 6 o'clock in the morning. My Guide was already waiting for me and we were soon on our way towards Mount Fuji.

We were soon on the express way and we were hauling arse and we reached the mountains after and hour or so. Mow there was a lot of tunnels and I was thinking about Norway.

We drove under one bridge ending up in a tunnel through one of the mountains. My Guide told me that they were building a new train line from Tokyo. Most of it would be through a tunnel and then bridges.

I understood why when my Guide told me that the train would do 600 km/h and this is nothing you want plunging down the countryside. The train will make the trip in 45 minutes.

Quarter to six and we leave my hotel

Around 7 o'clock and we are approaching the mountains

Driving through one of many tunnels

I enjoy the scenery from the back seat

It start to rain

We can see Mount Fuji from the express way

What to do with my snus ? I am in Japan and I cannot just open the window and threw it out. It is pure grounded leafs, but my Guide will for sure wonder what the darn troglodyte is doing in the back seat.

And I needed to jettison the snus and what to do? I was thinking about the problem for a fewseconds and I came up with one of the greatest ideas ever.

I open the window to take a picture, DARN! what was that? Shit! My snus!

Ippsi wipsi wu and my problem was solved before it turned in to a real problem. I was enjoying my snus in the back seat while taking pictures of the passing landscape.

We stop at a food shop

My Guide's car

My Guide wanted to stop to buy his pick-nick lunch and we ended up at one of these vending machines only food shops. But it was closed and we had to leave. I had my lunch ready since yesterday so I was fine.

We reached Yamanashi and we stopped at the 7 Eleven and my Guide found his lunch and I found a couple of bottles with juice.

From here on it was narrow roads going up Mount Fuji and we are soon stopping. There is one your Meadow Bunting on the road. Flapping its wings like begging for food and we could see one of the adults on the road side.

I got out of the car and the bird took off. One of them came back and landed on a fence and I got a picture before the bird took off.

Meadow Pipit

Reporting the bird to eBird before we continued up on Mount Fuji. We were stopping again after 10 minutes as we could hear the Japanese Bush Warbler and we discovered that there were many of them. Singing very loudly but we could not see any of them.

I made three recordings of the birds and I reported them in my eBird app. My Guide spotted Japanese Goosbeaks, but I never reported them as I could not see them.

Listen to the Japanese Bush Warbler

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my phone using the Merlin app. High Pass Filter applied with Audacity.

The birds could be heard all over Mount Fuji. Just to stop the car and record the bird at the side of the road. But almost impossible to see, I only spotted one on the mountain

Summit of Mount Fuji covered in clouds while I record birds

We continued up on Mount Fuji and our next stop will be at the Shojiguchi Trail and we parked the car next to the road. We get out and I am lucky to have a sign with English text so I can get the name of the trail for my eBird checklist.

I can fill up the Japanese Bush Warbler before I get out of the car. The bird is heard all ovver the mountain. And they are very loud.

We get up on the trail and the first bird we see is the beautiful Red-billed Leiothrix, two of them and it looked like a pair. No pictures of the beautiful birds.

We are getting up on the Shojiguchi Trail

We are getting up on the Shojiguchi Trail

Shojiguchi Trail

Shojiguchi Trail

Listen to the Siberian Blue Robin

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my phone using the Merlin app. High Pass Filter applied with Audacity.

We were very close to the bird, but we could never see the bird. My Japanese Guide ID the bird for me

Shojiguchi Trail

Listen to the Brown-headed Thrush

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my phone using the Merlin app. High Pass Filter applied with Audacity.

Sitting high above us in a pine tree along the trail

We spend almost an hour on the Shojiguchi Trail and I have no pictures when we return to the car. But I have three recordings that I can upload to eBird and Xeno-canto so I was happy.

Continuing up the mountain and the temperature is falling and we are soon having 20°:C and it is gloom and grey for long as we can see.

We hear the Japanese Bush Warbler everywhere and we spot some thrushes that takes off when we approach. There is on bulbul but I deleted the picture as it was impossible to get any good pictures through the wind shield.

Driving up Mount Fuji

Mount Fuji is covered in forest

We pass a couple of dead trees and I ask my Guide to stop the car. I had spotted one Great Spotted Woodpecker in one of the dead trees. The bird is very far away but I give it a try to get a picture.

Well, the pictures were not any good and I would have deleted them. But the bird was ORANGE in eBird so I kept the pictures.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Mount Fuji covered in clouds when we walk the dirt track

We continued up Mount Fuji and we stopped after 10 minutes. We parked the car and we passed the gate to the closed dirt track to go look for birds.

The only bird to report was the Japanese Bush Warbler, otherwise nothing and we gave up and walked back to the car.

I stopped my eBird app and we continued just to stop after 10 minutes again because of a Meadow Bunting. I took some pictures of the bird even though it was too far away.

Singing bird so I made a recording of the Meadow Bunting as well before we left.

We continue up the Mount Fuji

Meadow Bunting

Meadow Bunting

Listen to the Meadow Bunting

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my phone using the Merlin app. High Pass Filter applied with Audacity.

Sitting in a bush in an open clear cut area

Deer crossing the road

There is a deer crossing the road and we stop to get a picture and just after that we spot one male Great Spotted Woodpecker on the road. I start my eBird app again, 6 minutes after having stopped after reporting the Meadow Bunting.

This time I decided to keep it running instead of stopping and starting it all the time.

The male Great Spotted Woodpecker behaves very strange, jumping along the road in a very strange manner. We suspect that the bird is injured and we are worried, can we help the bird?

We are relieved when the bird climbs up a tree and the bird look just fine. So, we were very happy when we continued up Mount Fuji.

And we drove through the clouds/ fog so it was like an annoying drizzle.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker climbing the tree

We pass a point just before passing the highest point of the road. And suddenly, all the Japanese Bush Warblers turns quiet and now we can hear Japanese Leaf Warblers all over the mountain.

We could also hear the Eurasian Wrens and the Red-flanked Bluetail. The Red-flanked Bluetail and the Eurasian Bullfinches are staying here at this altitude so we hope to see these birds when we are here at 18- or 1900-meters height.

We could hear the Eurasian Bullfinch but we could never see the bird. The Eurasian Wren and the Red-flanked Bluetail was here and we could see the birds, but no chance for any pictures as the birds moved around all the time.

But I managed to record the birds before we continued along the West side of Mount Fuji.

Listen to the Japanese Leaf Warbler

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Listen to the Eurasian Wren

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Listen to the Japanese Leaf Warbler

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Listen to the Red-flanked Bluetail

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my phone using the Merlin app. High Pass Filter applied with Audacity.

A lot of background noise as it started to get strong wind in the forest.

We continue and we pass the highest point and it starts to go down again. We drive past the first open area on the road and we get a view from the mountain side.

At the end of the open area there is a small gravel area and we stop to have our pick-nick lunch. My Guide enjoy the sandwiches he bought at 7 Eleven and I enjoy the cheese I bought in Tokyo yesterday evening walking back to my hotel.

We decided to turn around when we finished our lunch and we started to drive back down again.

View from Mount Fuji

View from Mount Fuji

Driving on the West side of Mount Fuji

We turn around and we drive back again

We drive back and we had not managed to spot any Eurasian Bullfinches, but suddenly, there was a female next to the road foraging in the grass. We are soon spotting a male as well and I am surprised by the looks of the birds.

They do not look like the Eurasian Bullfinches I have seen in Sweden. The birds do not mind about the car, but it is impossible to take pictures through the windows and I decide to try to get out to try to take pictures.

Gloom and grey, strong wind so the light is very poor for photography. But I want to have some pictures of the birds.

The bullfinches in Sweden are very shy, but these two birds did not bother with me and I managed to get close to the birds.

Female Eurasian Bullfinch

Female Eurasian Bullfinch

Male Eurasian Bullfinch

Male Eurasian Bullfinch

Male Eurasian Bullfinch

Male Eurasian Bullfinch

Male Eurasian Bullfinch

Eurasian Bullfinch

Female Eurasian Bullfinch

Driving down the mountain and we are hearing one Narcissus Flycatcher next to the road. So, we stop and I make a recording of the bird.

I get a recording but we cannot see the bird so we play a recording. The bird is flying around but it is never still so I can get a picture. And it is dark in the forest so I have to use a crazy ISO speed if I ever get the bird in focus.

The bird is always behind branches and leaf’s but I get one chance, still behind leaf’s and dark, but I am satisfied with the pictures. Better than nothing.

Listen to the Narcissus Flycatcher

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my phone using the Merlin app. High Pass Filter applied with Audacity.

We could hear the bird next to the road and we stopped to record the bird. And I managed to get pictures even though it was very dark in the forest

Narcissus Flycatcher

Narcissus Flycatcher

Continuing down the mountain and we drive by a clear-cut area in the forest and there is a lot of timber. We did not spot any birds there going up but I asked the driver to stop as I spotted one bird among the timber.

My Guide checked the bird with the binoculars and it is one Bull-headed Shrike. The bird is very far away but I try to get a picture. The bird takes off and we continue slowly along the clear-cut area. One Great Spotted Woodpecker dive down from the forest side, the bird picks up something from the ground and fly back to the tree in the forest.

Large-billed Crow and a Meadow Bunting could be reported as well. We can also report one Japanese Trush. There are a lot of thrushes along the road foraging along the road but they are flushed by the time we approach.

Turning off the eBird app as we are almost down from the mountain. I also told my Guide that we do not need to drive slowly, we have seen a lot of birds already and it is getting late.

Bull-headed Shrike

We have been up since early morning when we left Tokyo and I told my Guide that we needed to think about the rest hours as well. My guide wanted to visit one more place, Sozonomori Day Camping Ground.

There is a small pond and it is poplar by bird watchers during the weekends. A little water and there are birds coming to bath all the time. My Guide told me that it was nit necessary with any D-tour, it was on the way to Hotel Seikei.

We parked the car and it was maybe 100 meters to walk to the pond. There was one bird watcher sitting on the bench and I sat down next to him. The pond was almost dry, a little water in one of the corners and there was a Meadow Bunting bathing.

There was two Japanese Tits and a Coal Tit was waiting to take a bath hiding in the bushes.

Meadow Bunting

Female Japanese Thrush

Female Japanese Thrush

Meadow Bunting bathing

Japanese Tit

Oriental Greenfinch

Oriental Greenfinch

There is on female Japanese Thrush across the pond and I can bring home some pictures of a thrush after having seen many of them on Mount Fuji. So, I was happy for this.

We had been hearing the Japanese Bush Warbler all over the mountain, but we had only seen one hiding in a bush. Impossible to get any pictures so I was very happy when we had a Japanese Bush Warbler coming for a bath.

This is a new bird for me and now I have both sound recording and pictures for my eBird report.

We spot one Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker foraging on the other side of the pond, but too far away for any pictures.

Japanese Bush Warbler bathing

Japanese Bush Warbler bathing

Japanese Bush Warbler bathing

Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker

Coal Tit bathing

Coal Tit bathing

I was happy when we left as I had been able to get bird pictures of some birds, so far it has been a disappointment with the photography. It was no good light for pictures, but I was happy with the pictures.

We walked to the car and I walked 20 meters behind my Guide and suddenly, he gave me theinternationally recognised sign for “Quiet! Come here, I have a nice bird here!”

I went in to an instant “STEALTH” mode and I discovered a Green Pheasant next to the road and I took a few pictures before we continued to the car.

Green Pheasant

Green Pheasant

Mount Fuji from the parking lot

I take a picture of Mount Fuji before getting in to the car and we were soon on our way to Lake Yamanaka and Hotel Seikei. We checked-in and I paid 11500 ¥, about 70 $ and I did not expect very much.

But the hotel room was very nice with everything I had wishes for. Well, the kettle left a lot to wish for, 30 minutes to boil water for a cup of tea. So, I knew that I would have no time for tea tomorrow morning.

We will leave at 5 o'clock and waking up at 4 there will not be time to enjoy my tea.

I knocked on my Guides door at 6 thirty and we went to have our dinner, including in the room price. But we will have left before they start the breakfast.

Dinner was excellent

Dinner was excellent

Dinner was excellent

The food was very good, traditional Japanese, nothing I would have ordered at any restaurant. But it was fun to try everything with my Guide explaining everything.

Back at the room and I continued with my sound recordings from today. I was happy with today's birding and I have 6 new speicies under my belt.

Narcissus Flycatcher
Red-flanked Bluetail
Japanese Leaf Warbler
Northern Hawk-Cuckoo
Siberian Blue Robin
Japanese Thrush

We will leave at 5 o'clock tomorrow morning and my alarm was set to go off at 4 o'clock. You just have to click HERE to find out if we see any birds tomorrow.

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