1/27/16 It was so cold and snowing heavily when I went to Homan River. The snow was falling so quietly, it felt like I was in a dream. I was hoping to catch a bird in slow motion flight, and a beautiful great egret (dai sagi) answered my silent wish. As I was walking along the river, the great egret flew off away from me, but then turned back heading into the wind and snow. Towards the end of the video, it flew up into the white expanse of snow and sky and vanished.
Monthly Archives: January 2016
Clair de Lune & John Grimshaw
January 16, 2016 I happened across the dream-like night scenes of John Atkinson Grimshaw set to a gorgeous rendition of Clair de Lune on YouTube one night. Though this blog is ‘mostly birds’, I will on occasion, add posts that concern some of my other interests, and classical music is one of them.
This video was created by Jorge Bennett-Limnio,(a composer, painter, and poet living in Panama) who gave me permission to post this on my blog site. If you enjoyed this, please check out his website: jorgebennett.com
ORIENTAL TURTLE DOVE (kijibato)
1/11/16 An update on the turtle dove nest, (post of December 20). Happy news! The turtle dove pair successfully laid and hatched both eggs! The squabs, (what baby pigeons and doves are called) are both healthy and doing well. Here, they are about one week old. Now the major concern is if they will be able to avoid predators, (crows, magpies, and cats, etc.) and fledge successfully. 
I often see the common kingfisher,(kawasemi in Japanese) as I walk along the local river with my dog. They stay year round, as long as the river doesn’t freeze over. I have never seen that happen all the years I have lived in Fukuoka, Japan. This is a male. 
These crows were harrassing a calico cat, (tobi mi-ke in Japanese) for about three minutes by approaching from behind and acting like they were going to peck it’s tail, but they never did. The cat just ignored them, but was propbably upset because all the mice and birds were alerted to it’s presence.
Daurian redstart, (joubitaki)
1/1/2016 This beautiful bird, a male Daurian redstart, or joubitaki in Japanese, is the first bird of the new year for me. They are common winter visitors here in Japan, and allow you to approach quite closely sometimes. They twitch their tails up and down frequently which adds to their chipper personality.
MOSTLY BIRDS 