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 :)

Summer's End?

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Thought I'd write a post on the very long hot summer we've enjoyed(?) this year. Usually, the summer here is hot and humid but I've never experienced one as long as this one. Over the last couple of days we've actually had temperatures of 27~28C. I should point out here I'm not complaining about the heat, but showing relief that the temperature has dropped from the 30+ degrees it's been since mid July! We're still having tropical nights (temp doesn't drop below 25C) and we're due a very powerful typhoon tonight that's going to drag higher temperatures back from the tropics tomorrow :(

You'll probably hear me complaining about the cold come January, but for the moment, I'd give anything for a bit of cool! However, the weather has been spectacular in other ways. The skies have been remarkably clear at times with wonderful cloud formations, and because of the heat the local greenery and wildlife has demonstrated a fecundity that's given us some great photo ops :)

Moon Moth

It rained a lot yesterday and when I came back from work, unusually both my wife and son came up, grabbed an arm each and dragged me onto the balcony. Wondering what I'd done this time and whether I had any useful excuses available, I didn't notice at first that they were pointing up. Then I saw it. A Japanese Moon Moth as big as my open hand fastened to the ceiling! It must have dived in to escape the previous nights rain.

I've seen these a few times, usually after heavy summer rains which tend to damage their wings if they're caught without shelter. They only appear around July ~ August and rarely last more than a week in their moth form. This is because they don't have functioning mouth parts so cannot eat. The short time they exist is just long enough to find a partner and mate. Beautiful creatures and we were honored to see one on our balcony :)

Macro Monster Butterflies

 Went on one of our summer safari's to the nearby woods and found several of the trees covered in butterflies of several types, mostly of the swallowtail variety. Because of the heat several trees were weeping a sweet sap which the butterflies and several other kinds of insects (for later posts!) find irresistible. In fact, they love it so much that it is possible to get the camera within a centimeter of them without any effect whatsoever. Normally even if I'm around when they land it's near nigh impossible to get a decent shot of them before they're off again so today was a rare chance to get up close and personal so to speak.

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We've been back on several occasions since to get more photos and cam footage, each time with different insects clamoring for the nectar that seems to flow faster with the rise in temperature - currently 36C! Got some great shots as well. Apart from the stuff on display here, I'll be putting up later posts of battling butterflies and this years midnight safari. For the moment hope you enjoy the spectacle of monster butteflies ;)

Frog Heaven

This is an addition to the previous post. Went out a long way on the bicycle today to a place I haven't been in a year or two. Really beautiful nature park teeming with wildlife of all kinds some of which will crop up in later posts. Just came across this guy sitting on the side of a small stream. It looked an idyllic place for a frog and for a change the wee amphibian didn't jump at the first sign of my approach which gave me chance to play around with the lighting on my new camera. Very pleased with the result :)

Contemplating life from the amphibian perspective.
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A Frog in my Pocket

At this time of year there are frogs in every paddy field and pond and tree from the gigantic bull frogs which are more heard than seen down to the fingernail sized green frogs of the pictures below.

Most summers we keep one or two as a pet for a time, but as they're difficult to feed we usually just catch and let them go.

The first time I saw one of these I was by myself wondering around the nature reserve when I found one looking at me out of the water. The Professor had asked me to get one a week previously but I wasn't good at spotting them at that time. They blend into the background very well! With that one I was in a bit of a quandary because I hadn't anything to carry it in. Eventually after rooting through my bag I found a soft plastic tube I'd used for my toothbrush. This got chucked out and with a bit of water in the bottom it made a great temporary container for the first of many summer frog visitors to the pocket zoo.