It is always a sign of summer coming when the Oriental Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus orientalis) start setting up their territories and making the normally quiet reed banks come alive with their noisy, grating song. While they will sing at any time of day, the dawn chorus is very special. At Oe reclaimed land area there […]
Author: 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.
Breeding Time!
Summer breeders have mostly all arrived at the mountain pond on Mt Unzen, and the resident species are also busy nesting. The main draw-cards of Narcissus Flycatcher, Blue-and-white Flycatcher and Japanese Thrush are all there now. Meanwhile, down at Oe reclaimed land area dozens of Oriental Reed Warbler are busy establishing territories while Pacific Swift […]
Bad Weather Morning at Kabashima…
As usual the forecasters got it wrong – rain during the night clearing by dawn with sunny skies from noon – alas, rain, rain and more rain. In fact, it’s still raining now at 19:45! Anyway, I left home at 03:30 in order to catch the dawn and see if any migrants were around at […]
Hyotanike Lake
This morning I had a little bit of time and the weather was great, so I went to nearby Hyotanike lake to see what was happening. This lake has very nice scenery but is usually a bit low on bird life other than the resident Mallard and some introduced ducks. But the Barn Swallows love […]
Bird Tour Report
Yesterday and today I ran a birding tour in the Fukuoka area for two guests from the UK. Conditions were quite challenging, however we saw a total of 66 species and heard an additional 5. Highlights included Black-faced Spoonbill, Far Eastern Curlew, Great Knot, Japanese Cormorant, Grey-headed Lapwing, Asian Stubtail, Narcissus Flycatcher, Japanese Thrush, Red-flanked […]
Feeding in the Rain
Yesterday afternoon was very wet and while photographing Grey-headed Lapwing at Koga, Fukuoka, we observed dozens of Barn Swallow flying among the flowering clover and other seeding grasses. At first I was mystified by this behaviour, but photographs confirmed our suspicions that the birds were feeding on insects. The heavy rain must have prevented insects […]