28/10/10: Awoke to heavy rain so didn’t venture out until after breakfast at 7.30am in a cold NE 4 wind combined with steady rain. Walked to the Park Shelter from where we enjoyed an impressive 2 hour northward visible migration of 2,085 Hawfinches including a flock of c.500 birds that seemed to extend across the entire island’s airspace! Cormorants were also moving north in flocks that eventually totalled 200. Our only Osprey was also seen flying north although was later seen sat in a pine. Less fortunate was a tail-less Eastern Yellow Wagtail at the park that was taken by a Sparrowhawk just a few feet in front of us. We then walked the isle using umbrellas and were rewarded with finding 2 Long-tailed Rosefinches near the northern tip of the island, and even better, 2 Pallas’s Rosefinches along the Central Track – another much-wanted new species and completing our worldwide ‘Pallas’s set’. Birds were seen arriving on and moving over the island all day and after the rain cleared mid-afternoon there was plenty of activity.
Hawfinches over Hegura-jima
Pallas's Rosefinch along the Central Track
Species noted:
Streaked Shearwater 1000
Cormorant c.200N
Great White Egret 8
Grey Heron 5
Mandarin Duck 6
Mallard 15
Pintail 1
Scaup 1
Tufted Duck 1
Osprey 1
Black-eared Kite 2
Sparrowhawk 3
Peregrine 1
Snipe sp. 1
Black-headed Gull 1
Black-tailed Gull 100
Kamchatka Gull 5
Vega Gull 5
Slaty-backed Gull 2
Rufous Turtle Dove 5
Skylark 12
Red-throated Pipit 1
Siberian Buff-bellied Pipit 10
Yellow Wagtail 1
Grey Wagtail 1
White Wagtail 1
Black-backed Wagtail 4
Brown-eared Bulbul 3
Waxwing 10
Siberian Accentor 2
Red-flanked Bluetail 1
Daurian Redstart 40
Siberian Stonechat 1
Blue Rock Thrush 2
Pale Thrush 3
Dusky Thrush 50
Naumann's Thrush 1
Japanese Bush Warbler 5
Arctic Warbler 1
Goldcrest 10
Japanese White-eye 15
Eastern Rook 10
Large-billed Crow 4
European Starling 2
Brambling 75
Oriental Greenfinch 20
Siskin 350
Mealy Redpoll 100
Coue's Arctic Redpoll 1
Pallas's Rosefinch 2
Long-tailed Rosefinch 2
Bullfinch h
Hawfinch 2,085N
Grey Bunting 1
Masked Bunting 3
Elegant Bunting 50
Rustic Bunting 30
Little Bunting 1
Reed Bunting 2
Pallas's Reed Bunting 1
Lapland Bunting 1
