Western Pacific Odyssey (Part 6) - Japanese Waters

The 13th and 15th April were two of our most exciting days at sea of the entire voyage. Among the thousands of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, hundreds of Matsudaira's and fewer Tristram's Storm-petrels and Bonin Petrels, a few Leach's Storm-petrels and increasing number of Black-footed Albatrosses, were two mega seabirds, namely the Bryan's Shearwater and Short-tailed Albatross.

On the 13th from roughly 3pm onwards, the island of Chichijima was in view. This is thought to be only one of three islands where the diminutive Bryan's Shearwater breeds - a mega rare seabird of the NW Pacific region and only recently split in the Little Shearwater complex. Myself and many others positioned ourselves out on the monkey deck, hoping for a sighting as we encroached the island looming ahead of us. 

 

It was a stormy sea with fierce winds and low cloud, meaning it was tough to hear what everyone was calling. A few Humpback Whales were breaching off to our left, some Bannerman's Shearwaters were flying through the hoards of other shearwaters, until Barry Reed sat next to me spotted a Little-type Shearwater flying from left to right. Panic ensued but I soon got onto the bird as it flapped its wings endlessly; it was immediately obvious this could be nothing but the Bryan's Shearwater. I watched it for some time before reaching for my camera... this didn't work and that was sadly the last I saw of it. Due to the conditions and despite us shouting, the people on the right of the vessel couldn't latch onto the bird - only six of us confidently saw it. It was then a case of searching for other seabirds; a stonking Long-tailed Skua was the highlight and several more Humpback Whales (including a breaching mother and calf) were seen too.

Long-tailed Skua

Oceanic White-tip Reef Shark

Bannerman's Shearwater

Humpback Whale

The 15th was a quite incredible day. Hints of us approaching the southern end of the Japanese chain of island soon became apparent when from deck, a couple of Eyebrowed Thrushes and an Eastern Cattle Egret joined us... remarkable. A Laysan Albatross was an excellent bird and then in the distance, the island of Torishima emerged. This island is an active volcano, and human settlers on here practically wiped out the only breeding population of Short-tailed Albatross until they became extinct as a breeding species, not just here, but anywhere!

Roll on a decade or so and the birds which had come out of immaturity, had now returned to the island where they had been raised - Torishima. In-between this time, the volcano had erupted and left the island inhospitable for humans, which meant the albatrosses could return and not be hunted. Nowadays, there are a few hundred pairs of this quite beautiful (and huge) albatross. 

It wasn't until we reached the island that the sheer numbers of both Short-tailed and Black-footed Albatrosses became apparent, with many flying right up to the ship. After this quite surreal performance, we chummed heading away from the island, with the most impressive sighting being a young Humpback which appeared to like what was being served. A superb adult Pomarine Skua also flew through. A few Short-tailed Shearwaters, some Bonin Petrels and an Eastern Buzzard were also seen.

A mixed species flock

Short-tailed Albatrosses

Humpback Whale

Pomarine Skua

same Humpback

Torishima Island

The following day saw us track through the island chain in the south where we were hoping to have landed, so a few land endemics were missed, but we were very fortunate to see, amongst the thousands of Streaked Shearwaters, a handful of Japanese Murrelets. The wind was exceptionally strong here and even I started to feel a bit grim, so I went for a lie down, missing some mega close murrelets in the process. Our first gulls since New Zealand flew past, these being Black-tailed Gulls and a couple more Short-tailed Albatrosses also whizzed by.

After nearly a month onboard this fine vessel, our final evening on the Heritage Adventurer was now upon us. However, a trip that was long in the making, one I had been looking forward to since 2008(ish), was now over. The next morning, we docked in Yokohama Harbour with Mt Fugi as a pleasant backdrop and Vega Gulls on every building it seemed. Edward Paxton and I made our way to the Crowne Plaza at Narita Airport where we enjoyed an enjoyable 24-hours of birding (which will be the next post) before heading home.

One less umbrella onboard

Streaked Shearwaters