2009 - A good year!
Well it is now mid December and 2009 has been a very busy and productive year.
In January I enjoyed a very successful trip to Japan, despite the fact that my wife Jill ruptured her calf muscle the day before we were due to go - she is now fully recovered and we plan to visit Japan soon to relive this great trip for her. On the trip we visited Hokkaido, Honshu and Kyushu and we managed to see 156 species which included everything we had hoped for and a few bonuses thrown in for good measure.
Highlights included: Over 300 Steller's Sea Eagles, 200 Japanese Cranes, 5 Blakiston's Fish Owls, Asian Rosy Finch, Brown Dipper, Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker, 5 Ross's Gulls, many Ancient Murrelets, Brunnich's Guillemots, Baikal Teal, Asian Spot-billed Duck, White-bellied Green Pigeon, Japanese Wagtail, Varied Tit, Oriental Turtle Dove, Bull-headed Shrike, Japanese Grosbeak, Siberian, White-naped, Hooded, Common amd Sandhill Cranes, Ruddy-breasted Crake, Long-billed Plover, 5 Crested Kingfishers, Ryukyu Minivet, Japanese Hawk Eagle, 40 Red-flanked Bluetails, Masked, Siberian Meadow, Yellow-throated & Grey Buntings, Japanese Sparrowhawk, Daurian Jackdaw, 8 Black-faced Spoonbills and 2 Saunders' Gulls.
In April I led the Sunbird Texas: Upper Coast & High Island tour. Despite the devastation of Hurricane Ike our 8 day tour produced an excellent 217 species. A great spring migation saw us notch up 30 species of warbler including the stunning quartet of Cerulean, Golden-winged, Blackburnian and Magnolia. Sparrows were much in evidence with Nelson's Sharp-tailed, Swamp and Lincoln's, Bachman's sang in the piney woods whilst strong westerly winds prior to arrival produced Hooded Oriole, 2 Western Kingbirds and 2 Western Tanagers.
In May it was back to the USA to co-lead the WINGS/Sunbird Crane Creek and Point Pelee Tour with Jon Dunn. Following on from Texas, warblers were again the main attraction with Mourning, Bay-breasted, Chestnut-sided and Black-throated Blue the most wanted at Crane Creek. Our visit to Point Pelee National Park in Ontario produced American Woodcock amongst others and our morning spent at Mio in Michigan saw the group enjoy at least 3 male Kirtland's Warblers in their Jack Pine habitat.
In August I spent 5 weeks visiting Australia, Papua New Guinea and Hong Kong. A very exciting trip which saw us notch up just under 600 species. In PNG the highlights included 24 species of Birds of Paradise, New Guinea Harpy Eagle, Wallace's Owlet-Nightjar, Doria's Hawk, Channel-billed Cuckoo, Rufous-bellied Kookaburra, Hooded Pitta, Flame Bowerbird, Moustached Treeswift, Vulturine Parrot, Hook-billed and Brown-headed Paradise Kingfishers, the tiny Dwarf Whistler and the fantastic Spotted and Blue Jewel-babblers.
In Australia our highlights included Australian Bustard, Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, Southern Cassowary, Victoria's Riflebird, Australian King Parrot, Chowchilla, Logrunner, Russet-tailed Thrush, Black-necked Stork, Pacific Baza, Red-backed Kingfisher, Lewin's Rail, Pink-eared and Musk Ducks and the main non-avian highlight, the unique Duck-billed Platypus.
Hong Kong saw us join local birder and ex-pat Mike Kilburn at Tai Po Kao. This produced amongst others, Eastern Crowned and Arctic Warblers, Blue Whistling Thrush, Hainan Blue Flycatcher, Bay Woodpecker and Velvet-fronted Nuthatch. A return journey to Cheng-chau Island produced White-bellied Sea-eagle, Oriental Magpie Robin and Chestnut-tailed Starling.
