Redstart Surprise

Redstart

Part 6 of the winter birds of Japan.

Went out on a photo safari with Prof. Ewan today to a nearby wildlife preserve that has a large lake that attracts a number of winter birds. We saw a dozen wild swans, which we hadn't seen around here in previous years. There were an equal number of blue heron and numerous cormorants and ducks, most of which were too far away to get good photos of with our limited equipment. It was a good day though, out in the cold, enjoying the fine weather and getting some exercise. The big surprise was waiting for us on the way back though. Riding bicycles we nearly ran over what I thought was a sparrow hopping about the road, but a splash of orange caught the eye, and we dropped everything when we found ourselves eye to eye with this redstart. We'd been hoping to get a good image of one since late autumn when we caught a glimpse of another in the neighborhood, but this was a pure piece of luck : )

Small white dots are a group of swans.

Egress of an Egret

Part 5 of the winter birds of Japan.

Throughout the year we have many kinds of egrets and herons in the ponds and paddy fields not far from where I live. Usually, these birds have a very wide safe zone so it's quite difficult to approach near enough for us to get a good image with the limited telephoto lenses we have on our camera. However, as we get deeper into winter and food becomes harder to find these birds become less wary and it's possible to get close enough to get some decent shots. Professor Ewan was surprised a few days ago when one dropped down into the pond not 15 feet away looking for something edible, and the same thing happened again to both of us today in almost the same spot. Spent five minutes taking multiple shots without trying to move a muscle :)

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Get Yer Frog on a Stick

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Third in the Japan winter avian series ;)

Watched a nature program with my son about a Japanese bird called a ‘mozu’ – shrike in English. It is a very small raptor that eats insects, small frogs and lizards and has the interesting habit of spearing its prey on sharp sticks to snack on later. Anyway, with his usual optimism, my son said, ’Let’s go look for a mozu tomorrow.’ I was a bit doubtful as we live in a built up area. However, ten minutes after we started walking round the local park we found a biggish insect speared on a stick. Two days after that we found the bird itself. Very difficult to approach, but with a bit of patience managed to get a few decent shots. So what did I learn from this? It’s fun having a son, positive to the core and untouched by any feelings of doubt at all : )

The Neverending Search for Grub(s)

 

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Second in what will be a Japan bird mini series. 
It’s the season of birds over here. Meaning, it’s cold but no where near as cold as the north of Japan and Asia so we get a wide variety of stopover species, just when there are no leaves to hide in and the predominant color of the landscape is dun. This makes it almost ridiculously easy to pick out small birds which would otherwise be camoflaged and is great for photographers. Saw these Great Tits (In Japan, Shijuukara) searching for grubs in the nearby pond. Took little notice of me as they were all busy getting theirs. Had the luxury of being able to choose my shots for a change : )

Buzz Off Birdbrain!

Have been much too busy to post on this blog for a while so I'm going to play catch up with some of the nature we've seen over the past few months. As late autumn to winter is a great season for bird watching in Japan, there will be a few posts about some of the stunning avian life that visits us at this time of the year.

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First up on the list is this little character who appeared back in November. I had no idea what it was at first, but found out later it's called a 'siskin'. These arrive here from Mongolia and Tibet to winter over in Japan. They usually eat seeds from trees, but this and several others were feasting on seeds from cosmos flowers, which enabled me to get up quite close.

Took hundreds of photos of these birds at the time, as they were much too wrapped up in the chance to gorge themselves. Got really lucky with this shot though. I didn't see the bee while I was taking the shot, and only discovered it later while trolling through the footage :)

A Bird in Hand .....

Got some holiday at last so managed to get on the bike and explore my usual haunts with the bonus of bright sunny weather to speed me on my way. Lots of insect and other wildlife about due to the sudden warmth but got a surprise today. Was wandering through a grassy field full of nanohana (rape flowers) when suddenly there was a loud scream from a bush a few meters in front of me. I stopped dead and tried to see what it was I'd disturbed. I could see the outline of a bird but hadn't a clue what it was. I tried edging around the bush, but it was careful to move around the other side. I was just deciding whether to make a rush at it to try and flush it out when I got some help from an unexpected quarter. An old woman farmer was working her field and getting closer and closer to the bush. This forced the bird to edge away and into the light so I caught my first glimpse of it - a pheasant!

First time I've seen one of these in Japan so I was very pleased to be in the right place at the right time. I managed to take a few more photos of it with difficulty. It had an amazing ability to just fade into the grass. At one point it just sat down and disappeared. I knew the exact spot it was but it still took me ten minutes to find it. I was almost on top of it when it decided to make a break for it and find a less busy place to relax. Just goes to show, a bird in hand is better than one in the bush : )

Catching Your Cormorant

Cormorant on a break from fishing

 Catching your cormorant, with of course a camera, though in Japan, there are parts of the country where these spectacular birds are used to catch fish. The birds are controlled with a snare tied around the throat. this allows the bird to swallow small fish, but prevents it from eating the larger fish which the bird's trainer will take for his own.

Today, we went on a family hike through the local bird sanctuary where we found one of these diving for fish in the river - a wild one so he ate whatever he could catch! They are interesting to watch because they sit quite low in the water with basically just their neck protuding, very different to most waterfowl which seem to bob along on top. Managed to catch it taking off from the river which made Professor Ewan's day.

Wonderful day with warm weather, but back to howling wind and freezing temperatures again from tomorrow : (

Video was taken of today's trip and is one of the Family Pet series.

Knock on Wood

Only clear shot I got out of several dozen!

 Another sign that spring is just around the corner. This, which I think is a kind of woodpecker - a 'kogera' in Japanese, was around at the same time last year. Both me and Professor Ewan were dodging around the tree they were in trying to get a good photo. They weren't afraid of us at all and they had a safe distance of about 3 meters. The problem was they weren't stopping in the same place long enough for us to focus and get a decent shot, or when they did, there'd be a branch in the way! Still, it was good to see them back again as it means the warm weather is coming. On a side note, the earthquakes seem to be back again. Two today and 4~5 in the past week. Getting stronger as well : (