Between September 16 and 19 I led a couple from Canada around birding spots in Kumamoto, Nagasaki, Saga, Fukuoka and Oita prefectures. Before the tour started, I took the ferry across to Kumamoto from Shimabara, spotting a large flock of Streaked Shearwater just out from Shimabara Port, and then Brown Booby as the ferry neared Kumamoto Port.
I stopped for a while at Edu Lake, where the most interesting bird was a juvenile Whiskered Tern. I then headed out to Aso-Kumamoto Airport to pick up my guests, who were lucky to be only slightly delayed by Typhoon Man-yi. Indeed the typhoon had cleared out many birds, and delayed the arrival of more migrants, so the birding was a bit slow and good views of species difficult to obtain.
We saw 82 species overall, and over three days visited the Aso highlands, Edu Lake, Mt Unzen, Mt Hiyamizu, Kabashima, Daijyugarami and Mt Hiko.
John Wright
John Wright is an Australian wildlife photographer and bird guide based in Kyushu, Japan. John became seriously engaged in nature photography while living in Japan and then Thailand. He returned to Japan in 2008 and has since concentrated on wildlife photography, especially birds. John visits Southeast Asia and Australia regularly, but usually travels within the Japanese archipelago, where he also guides visiting birders and wildlife photography enthusiasts.
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