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| The unknowable mysteries of the Ancient Murrelet |
I have been re-reading the new Lynx Birds of Japan guide by Otani Chikara on the porch while sipping on sweet sweet Korean instant coffee.
It’s always provocative to take in a fresh perspective on the birds of the region. They’ve renamed and split/lumped a lot of species, but I'm still a bit out of touch with all the recent taxonomic changes, so it's hard to figure out how much of this is unilateral. For example, the guide has given full species treatment to every White (and Yellow) Wagtail subspecies, and confusingly, fresh new names to boot. While the expanded ID descriptions are helpful to someone like me who still struggles with non-breeding wagtails at times, the excessive splitting/renaming must be confusing to the lists/taxonomies of some birders.
The illustrations are mostly excellent throughout – notably the superb Acrocephalus warbler plates by Ian Lewington. I noticed the Zappey’s Flycatcher is relatively well described and illustrated…but it isn’t on the same page as Blue-and-white Flycatcher, which would have been nice. Same goes for several other paired/confusion species such as Naumann’s/Dusky Thrush, which by all rights ought to be on same page for ease of comparison. This is a minor quibble.
One quirk is an almost complete lack of awareness, purposeful or not, on the disposition of birds in Korea. The bibliography mentions no Korean guides, and there are inevitably (literal) question marks on the maps when it comes to long-established Korean bird ranges, or the range won't extend into Korea, even when Korea is included on the range map. Hopefully this is due to lack of research, and not some silly political stance. I did note they avoided labelling Dokdo/Takeshima on the map, which was something at least.
What else...almost no in-flight illustrations is a con, while detailed accounts of the species of vegetation associated with favoured habitat is a pro.
Overall the guide is quite stimulating to the Korean birder that slumbers inside me. While reading it I caught myself making lists without really even noticing – stuff like “Potential vagrants to Korea,” and “Species records to double-check.” I stand by my fevered assertion that Ryukyu Robins will be found in the hills of Geomun-do one glorious day...
On June 14th, I peeked over the top of the Japan guide to observe several adult House Sparrows feeding a begging juvenile several feet away, for 30 minutes. Suddenly, several European Starlings screeched their alarm from overhead, and a small pointed shadow crashed into the bush where the young sparrow was last seen. The Merlin then flew a tight figure eight over the front yard so close I felt the wind from its wingbeats, before vanishing across the street. All was quiet for ten minutes, when a male House Sparrow returned and called urgently for a while in the bush, with no response.
At 8:14am on June 23rd, I watched a Great Egret drift north towards the Westmount Summit.
