AMAMI-OSHIMASeptember 2020
Dear Kantorians, I spent a couple of days on Amami-Oshima in mid-September, flying with Peach Airlines from Narita, the only reasonably priced option, as the regular companies flights are currently outrageously expensive. I've been there before a couple of times already, but it's one of my favourite places in Japan, much more quiet than Okinawa or Ishigaki, and with beautiful forests and coastlines. Accommodation options aren't plentiful, and I stayed at Hotel Caretta in the north, half-way between the airport and the main town of Naze. Location-wise, it's only a 10-minute drive from Amami Shizen Kansatsu no Mori, the most convenient birdwatching spot for forest birds on the island. You can park your car here (28.451895, 129.592852) or here (28.454126, 129.595073), and there is a network of short trails mostly to the west of the road. All the forest birds are there and quite easy to see in this season: a flock of noisy Lidth's Jays, an active pair of White-backed "Amami" Woodpeckers, a fairly confiding pair of Amami Thrushes foraging in the leaf litter on the roadside or along the trails, many Ryukyu Robins with inquisitive immature birds uttering their first song notes, conspicuous Japanese Woodpigeons and Ryukyu Green Pigeons often perched on roadside wires, singing and even displaying. It is a huge contrast with how quiet the forests of Honshu have now become. At night, Ryukyu Scops Owls are abundant, with a pair of Boobooks also noted, and Amami Woodcocks may come to forage on the roadside as well. I was expecting some migrants, but as for passerines, I only saw Grey Wagtails and a few Grey-streaked Flycatchers. On the last day, I flushed a small accipiter in the forest, which I managed to relocate, and it turned out to be a nice male Chinese Sparrowhawk, a long-overdue Japan tick for me. It's peak migration time for them now; high numbers were recorded early this week at the observation spot in Nagasaki, and soon some will show up on Okinawa and in the Yaeyamas, but this bird is the first record for Amami on ebird. Other sites I visited are a patch of abandoned rice paddies here (28.443141, 129.559878), potentially a great spot, with a fallow field and flooded old paddies, but despite visiting every day I couldn't find anything interesting. A stretch of coastline held a small flock of shorebirds here (28.451079, 129.717336), and in the south, the half-derelict and borderline creepy Amami Forestpolis Park here (28.316056, 129.336135) is another local white-elephant tourist project gone bust, with almost all facilities half-rotten and covered in mould. But there is still a caretaker whose task list includes, most interestingly to birdwatchers, regularly mowing a huge expanse of lawn that attracts all the Amami Woodcocks of the area at night. The caretaker apparently lives in a small house with tiny windows that show through a flickering orange light, but I ruled against knocking at his door to say “Hi”. If you're a filmmaker in search of a location for a tropical remake of The Shining, look no further. The forests around that area are also where the endemic and bizarre Amami Rabbit is most common, and I managed to see four of those during a 2-hour drive around the forest roads, but none cooperated for a picture. Yoroshiku, Yann |