Tokyo area, Japan, 20 August 2006

We are well into shorebird migration now.  Those who plan to come to central
Japan may want to keep in mind that we do not get great numbers of most
species (Dunlins are perhaps the most abundant in migration, in flocks of a
few hundred at most); most species appear in dribs and drabs, so birding
during migration periods is somewhat catch-as-catch-can:  one day, a few of
species A, but another day, a few of species B instead.  Yesterday we hit
Kasairinkaikoen (an urban bayshore park), Yatsuhigata (an urban landlocked
mudflat) and the Ukishima area (rice and lotus fields about 90 minutes into
the countryside east of Tokyo.  Directions and descriptions of these and
other sites are on our website at http://ca.geocities.com/kantorilode.

Bar-tailed Godwit  (15)
Whimbrel  (2)
Far Eastern Curlew  (3)
Marsh Sandpiper  (5)
Common Greenshank  (10)
Green Sandpiper   (3)
Wood Sandpiper   (50)
Terek Sandpiper   (1)
Common Sandpiper   (5)
Grey-tailed Tattler   (46)
Ruddy Turnstone   (25)
Long-billed Dowitcher   (1)
Great Knot   (3)
Red Knot   (1)
Sanderling   (1)
Rufous-necked Stint   (6)
Temminck's Stint   (3)
Dunlin   (8)
Ruff   (2)
Greater Painted-snipe   (1)
Black-winged Stilt   (6)
Pacific Golden-Plover   (25)
Grey Plover   (40)
Little Ringed Plover   (40)  including a completely leucistic individual
Kentish Plover   (20)
Mongolian Plover   (20)

At the Tama River mouth in Yokohama in the second week of August, we also
had Japan's first documented White-rumped Sandpiper.