Good Birding Season: May - August

Chinese Little Bittern

　Ukishima marsh is an exciting birding site for reedbed birds. It is situated at the southeast corner of Kasumigaura, the second largest lake in Japan. It takes about one and half hours by car from Tokyo to the marshland.
　The combination of reedbed and paddy fields makes this place an excellent birding site. The reeds are home to varieties of song birds in summer. Great Reed and Black-browed Reed Warbler sing from the reed tops, while Zitting Cisticola bobs over the reedbed in its display flight.
　You can expect the sighting of the Japanese Marsh Warbler in its brief circling display flights over the reeds, and the Japanese Reed Bunting singing at the reed tops. These species have a very localized distribution in Japan, occuring also in the Tohoku district in summer, but Ukishima is the best and most convenient place to visit from Tokyo.

　On your way back from Ukishima, you can visit Inbanuma, where you will surely get excited by watching Chinese Little Bittern flying over the reedbed. This is the only place in the Kanto district where we can guarantee the sighting in good weather. If you are lucky enough, you might be able to catch sight of Eurasian Bittern skulking in the reeds.

　If you prefer to look for shorebirds, which are fond of fallow paddy fields, early May and late August are the best seasons, when the bitterns are few.
　Little Ringed and Pacific Golden Plover, Ruddy Turnstone, Rufous-necked Stint, Wood Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank, Greenshank, Gray-tailed Tattler, and Whimbrel are all common at the fallow around Ukishima. The rarer shorebirds such as Temminck's and Long-toed Stint, Sharp-tailed and Marsh Sandpiper, Ruff, and Long-billed Dowitcher occasionally turn up among the common species. In autumn in 2003, a flock of about twenty Indian Pratincole visited this site. It is always fun to look for these birds around this area.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Japanese Reed Bunting 　　　　　　　　　　　　　Ｇｒeat Reed Warbler

―Photos: Shigeki　Sogame