Fall Geese

The last couple weeks have been nice for seeing geese around Osatsunuma and Utonai Ko where I have been helping out with their fall goose counting. The numbers are less impressive than springs numbers when waiting for the ice to melt farther north they all back up in nice flocks totaling around 80,000 geese. In the fall the count is smaller (2,000 total) but the possibility for seeing rare geese seems to increase. On 10/17 I saw a Swan Goose at Osatsunuma which made its way to the news paper on the 22nd, and on the 19th I also found a Lesser white-fronted Goose in the same flock. I am guessing they are both around Osatsunuma still, but the Swan Goose tends to be absent from the area occasionally, sometimes turning up at Utonai Ko.

Here are a few pictures.

Swan Goose

Lesser white-fronted Goose imm.

Teuri fall 2008

It has been a while since I have updated this.
First is a list from this falls trip to Teuri island from 10/3-10/5. The highlights for me were the Gray-spotted Flycatchers, Lapland Longspur, Red-throated Pipit, Pine Bunting, Yellow-browed Warbler, and the Yellow Wagtail. It was probably the least bird rich of the three trips so far, but I succeeded in seeing the Red-throated Pipit and Yellow Wagtail and other members of the family which I have missed when I went later. I was surprised that the Longspurs and Pine Buntings were there already, but finches, other than the Oriental Green Finch were absent.

Arctic Warbler 2 Bean Goose 20 Black-backed Wagtail 10 Black-faced Bunting 50+ Black-headed Gull 2 Black-legged Kittiwake 1 Black-tailed Gull 100+ Brambling 50 Brown Flycatcher 3 Carrion Crow 20 Coal Tit 5 Crowned willow Warbler 1 Dunlin 1 Dusky Thrush 50 Eurasian Skylark 20 Eurasian Sparrowhawk 3 Eye-browed Thrush 1 Glaucous-winged Gull 3 Goldcrest 5 Gray Wagtail Great Tit 10 Great-spotted Woodpecker 3 Green-winged Teal 2 Grey Spotted Flycatcher 10 Harlequin Duck 7 Herring Gull 30+ Indian-tree Pipit 5 Japanese Bush Warbler 20 Japanese White-eye 20 Jungle Crow 50+ Lapland Longspur 2 Long-tailed Rosyfinch 5 Northern Hobby 2 Oriental Greenfinch 100+ Palagic Cormorant 50+ Peregrine Falcon 1 Pine Bunting 3 Red-throated Pipit 3 Rufous Turtle Dove 10 Rustic Bunting 20 Slatty-backed Gull 100+ Sooty Flycatcher 2 Sooty/short-tailed Shearwater 15 Stonechat 2 Teminicks Cormorant 100+ Tree Sparrow 30 Varied Tit 10 Water Pipit 6 Yellow Wagtail 1 Yellow-browed Warbler 1 Yellow-throated Bunting 2