You don't actually have to hike all the way up the summit of Tateyama to see Rock Ptarmigans, rather you take three kind of transportation up to Murodo (a train ride, a tram ride and a bus ride), from there you walk out to the footpaths and bird around the general area. Tateyama is closed for half of the year due to heavy snowfall, so it is important to visit when it is opened from spring onwards to late autumn, September is a bit of a low season so it wasn't crowded at all. To reach Murodo, you have to take a train from Toyama, we caught an early train in the morning and it took roughly an hour to reach Tateyama station, from there you take a short tram ride up to Bijodaira station, where you change to a bus that takes you up the winding road towards Murodo at 2,450m asl. Weather wasn't that great when we arrived, but at least it wasn't raining much.
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| Train towards Tateyama |
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| Tram to Bijodaira station |
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| Main building at Murodo |
It didn't take long to locate my first Japanese Accentor, which was a target of mine. This Dunnock like bird is a near endemic species to Japan, where they breed in alpine areas in the summer months but winters in forest at lower altitude. The one I saw was exceptionally friendly and came within a few feet of me.
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| Japanese Accentor |
Locating the Rock Ptarmigans among the rocks can be challenging as I have found out on my last visit to Scotland, I adopted the same tactics by heading towards the large boulder fields and scan for any movements or birds perched out in the open. It didn't take long before we found our first ones right by the footpath! A mother with a few chicks!
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| Rock Ptarmigan - female |
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| Rock Ptarmigan - chick |
We later on found even more, up to ten individuals in one area. You can get ridiculously close to them here, as the Rock Ptarmigans at Murodo are used to having people around, and generally have no fear of humans whatsoever. They probably don't look their best at this time of the year, and males lack the large red eyelids which are more prominent during spring when they are breeding. If you want to see them in their white winter plumage, you will have to come here when they first reopen in spring around mid-April. Either way, it was still a lot of fun watching them at close range.
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| Rock Ptarmigan - star bird of Tateyama |
My second lifer came in form of a few Japanese Leaf Warblers, I heard many singing along the way, it took me a little while to finally get two into view, although it was quite misty when they showed up, but more than good enough for some record photos.
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| Japanese Leaf Warbler |
The only other main target I had up at Murodo was the Spotted Nutcracker, which took a while to track down. In the afternoon I finally found a few actively foraging around the edge of Mikuriga-ike Pond. I have only seen the Southern Nutcracker that was once conspecific with this species, but have since been split. So, I would say my trip up to Tateyama have worked out pretty well.
Other than birds, the area is extremely scenic, other than walking around Murodo and Mikuriga-ike Pond, you can also take another shuttle-bus through the long tunnel towards Daikanbo, where you can take a cablecar down to Kurobe and then another short cablecar ride down to Kurobe Dam; the tallest dam in Japan. All in all, a day filled with various means of transportation and great scenery that is well worth doing, and easily done as a day trip from the lovely city of Toyama.
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| Mikuriga-ike Pond |
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| Scenery around Murodo |
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| Kurobe Dam |
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| Kurobe Lake |
Kanazawa - Kanazawa Castle
The beautiful city of Kanazawa is popular among tourists, the many historic districts and old buildings make this a charming city to visit.
If you find yourself with a few hours to spare in the morning, a visit to Kanazawa Castle can yield a few common but good birds. My main target was to hopefully get better photos of Japanese Wagtails, as my last encounter was certainly a little far away. I was not disappointed and found many feeding on the lawns just outside the castle. Funnily enough there seems to be more Japanese Wagtails than White Wagtails here.
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| Japanese Wagtail |
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| White Wagtail - race lugens |
You will likely find feeding flocks with Asian Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker, Warbling White-eye and Varied Tit all feeding together. I particularly wished to get some better photos of the Varied Tit, as photos I have taken years before doesn't do this species justice. I was delighted to get good views of a pair of these performing well.
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| Varied Tit |
Brown-eared Bulbuls are of course everywhere as you would expect in Japan, there were also a good number of Blue Rock Thrush around the park, at one point I counted around 10 individuals all in one area. Carrion Crows were far more common here than in Tokyo.
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| Brown-eared Bulbul |
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| Blue Rock Thrush - male |
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| Carrion Crow |
My other target here was to hopefully get better photos of Chestnut-cheeked Starlings. I noticed a large flock on my first day walking the castle, but they only flew by. I returned the next day, hoping to locate them in the park, I finally managed to track them down around a fruiting tree. I was able to climb up to the top of the walled view point and get a much better view of them. There were likely to be over 50 in that one single tree at one point. A real treat to see considering how difficult it is a species to see in Hong Kong!
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| Chestnut-cheeked Starling |
Japanese Grosbeak is said to be regularly sighted in the park, although I didn't encounter any despite keeping my eyes and ears out for them. I did manage to catch up to a small flock when we stayed at Yamanakaonsen near Kaga, although they stayed very high up in the tree tops.
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| Japanese Grosbeak |
This is why it is always worth bringing your binoculars and camera along with you on a non-birding trip!
