Tokyo Wild Bird Park, July 15 2005 - Part 1

It was such a nice day out, I decided on the spur of the moment to head down to the Tokyo Wild Bird Park, seeing as how it had been three months to the day since I had been there last. I probably should have visited more often, especially in May, but somehow either never got around to it, or the weather was unfriendly. But I went there to\day, and picked up several new species--as well as getting some very nice shots of some old ones. I've divided this post into two because there were just so many birds, it'd make far too long a single post--and I'm not even displaying shots of all the birds I spotted today.

Among the species I saw but had spotted before: Little and Great Egrets, Grey Herons, Barn Swallows, Tree Sparrows, Great Cormorants, Spot-billed Ducks, Eurasian Coots, Little Terns, Little Ringed Plovers, Common Sandpipers, as well as Starlings and of course, Crows. The new species were: Greater Scaups, Terek Sandpipers, Kentish Plovers, Black-tailed Gulls and what I think was a Glaucous Gull. I heard others in the trees, but couldn't spot them. Seventeen species in all.

First, the best: Grey Herons (Aosagi • アオサギ). There was a family of them, staking out an area very close to the 1st watcher's blind at the east end of the park, so I was able to get some very nice pictures, as opposed to the single, far-off chance shot I had gotten before. This one is the best: the Heron is standing right in front of me, and relaxed its wings out to the sides:

Almost as if to give me a bit of a Heron fashion show, the bird turned around for a back shot...

And then a profile:

The Heron's offspring, still with immature plumage, was off to the side but still nice visible:

Previously, as I stopped along the Tama River before going to the park, I spotted the Heron's cousin, a Little Egret, and happened to snap it catching lunch:

From time to time, I'll spot a bird and snap photos of it, expecting it to be a certain species, and only discovering later on that it was something else. I almost absent-mindedly shot this duck, thinking it was a Tufted Duck or some other species I'd seen before--but it turned out to be a new one for me, the Greater Scaup (Suzugamo • スズガモ).

One more before wrapping up this post, another repeated bird: the Little Tern (Koajisashi • コアジサシ). Got a few nice shots as it rested on a post in the water.

Coming later: two Plovers, two Sandpipers, and two Gulls.