4/21/2016 Yesterday morning I decided to go to Buzoji Temple, where the wisteria are locally famous, with my camera. This time of year, they are blooming and I wanted to see them and catch their fragrant scent too. As I was about to wash my hands at the temple entrance, I noticed a pair of birds foraging just over the fence. I had not seen this species before, and I quickly got out my camera and took some pictures and a few videos. I later discovered that they were called brambling. They were very camera friendly, approaching within a few meters of me at one point. I noticed they were mostly interested in the seeds of the huge camphor trees within Buzoji. They were very selective, and rejected most of the seeds. I did see the male swallow a few of them.


The video below was taken with a Panasonic FZ200 bridge camera, 240 frames /second. The soundtrack is from free music archives. Title: ‘Soaring’ by Lee Rosevere.