Birding Diary July - Dec. 2008
Birding Diary July - Dec. 2008
December 6-7 : Tateshina and its vicinities (Nagano) Sunny, cloudy, snow and rain, Temp in Hara Village: High 39.9, Low 14.9 (F)
We want to see Red Crossbill, and we can see many red birds! It is uncountable for us, there are so many Red Crossbills there. Which direction to see? Where should I put our recorder? Which is the largest flock? Any one would be OK! We look up the tree and we see them picking pine cones(sequential photographs, 1, 2 , 3 ). We enjoy the soundscape: picking and dropping the cones. Watch your head or the cone will strike directly! We enjoy to see not only red birds but green-tinged yellowish bird. Red and green birds are very beautiful against the blue sky....!
Birds we saw/confirmed were Black Kite, Rufous Turtle Dove, Japanese Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker, White Wagtail, Brown-eared Bulbul, Dusky Thrush, Long-tailed Tit, Willow Tit, Coal Tit, Varied Tit, Great Tit, Nuthatch, Siberian Meadow Bunting, Rustic Bunting, Yellow-throated Bunting, Brambling, Oriental Greenfinch, Siskin, Palla's Rosy Finch, Red-Crossbill, Bullfinch, Hawfinch, Tree Sparrow, Gray Starling, Jay, Carrion Crow and Jungle Crow.
August 1-3: Tateshina and its vicinities (Nagano) Sunny, cloudy and rain,
Temp in Hara Village: High 88.5, Low 63.9 (F)
Our car drives well! Our car Mai-chan is vigour, but my body lacks the bounce..very sleepy weekend and no birding...as is often the case with us in this season. At least we want to do bird listenieng and set our PCM recorder, LS-10 all the time. There is a creature with mysterious voice. Who's there in the dark? ....Cheer me up!
July 25-27 : Tateshina and its vicinities (Nagano) Sunny, thunder showers, Temp in Hara Village: High 90.1, Low 63.9 (F)
Heavy thunderstorm in midnight wake me up, and next early morning I happen to see a Great Spotted Woodpecker fly to work... We do nothing but harvest the Gooseberry and make jam :) There are lot of things which I am anxious to do: clean, cook, gardening etc.. But first things first! It is the last chance to hear the voice of Paradise Flycatcher. So we rush to the forest in Yatsugatake. Arriving the forest and we hear the voices. How lucky we are, but soon they are leaving. After that, we stay there for more than 5 hours, and hear the voice of Gray Thrush. It is enough for us, their song is very beautiful as usual. "1", "2". Common Buzzard and cicada are very cheerful!
July 18-21 : Tateshina and its vicinities (Nagano) Sunny
Temp in Hara Village: High 86.9, Low 63.5 (F)
The rainy season was over, and now we are in the midsummer. In Tokyo during midsummer, it is hot. Not just hot, but it is boiling hot. So we come to Tateshina just to get comfortable sleep. I will show you the difference: the temperature in Nobeyama, Yatsugatake-area was 77.9/60.1 (F), meanwhile it was 96.1/76.5 (F) in Nerima, Tokyo. It is worth driving a long way from Tokyo to Tateshina. It is very comfortable house so we have a board resident there, but he is an unusual lodger. Without our permission, he made many entrances in our house. He now has 4 entrance: we closed 5 already though. Yesterday early morning, we woke up with the sound of drumming, maybe he succeed to pick a hole again, where we put a panel and closed his entrance last month. It is like a game of cat and mouse!! The name of an unusual lodger is..."Great Spotted Woodpecker"!! Why don't you use our entrance? I would be glad to share with you!
Birds we saw/confirmed were Little Egret, Mallard, Spot-billed Duck, Black Kite, Rufous Turtle Dove, Little Cuckoo, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker, Barn Swallow, House Martin, Gray Wagtail, Brown-eared Bulbul, Brown Thrush, Bush Warbler, Narcissus Flycatcher, Long-tailed Tit, Willow Tit, Great Tit, Japanese White-eye, Siberian Meadow Bunting, Oriental Greenfinch, Japanese Grosbeak, Tree Sparrow, Gray Starling, Jay, Carrion Crow and Jungle Crow.
July 11-13 : Tateshina and its vicinities (Nagano) Sunny and hot!
Temp in Hara Village: High 86.2, Low 59.2 (F)
We always expect to hear the charming voice of...Owl, Cuckoo and Thrush..., waiting for the magical voice to record with LS-10, and, there was no chance, though. So, we did nothing but sleeping, relaxing and shopping(fine wines and Katsunuma). It is OK for us, we could see/hear the family of Long-tailed Tit with our cutest telescope, "Mini-supo(small spotting scope)". During summer, we will just relaxing in Tateshina, as usual.... And I hope to add some bird songs, birds singing in Karasawa-Kosen, Yatsugatake. Please wait until this fall, we are going to visit Kabukuri-numa Marsh, if we can. :-)
July 4-6 : Tateshina and its vicinities (Nagano) Sunny, hot and heavy rain,
Temp in Hara Village: High 86.9, Low 60.1 (F)
Birds we saw/confirmed were
Little Grebe, Black Kite, Pheasant, Rufous Turtle Dove, Common Cuckoo, Little Cuckoo, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker, Barn Swallow, House Martin, Gray Wagtail, Indian Tree Pipit, Brown-eared Bulbul, Wren, Siberian Blue Robin, Siberian Bluechat, Gray Thrush, Brown Thrush, Bush Warbler, Pale-legged Willow Warbler, Narcissus Flycatcher, Blue-and-White Flycatcher, Brown Flycatcher, Long-tailed Tit, Coal Tit
Varied Tit, Great Tit, Japanese White-eye, Siberian Meadow Bunting, Black-faced Bunting, Oriental Greenfinch, Japanese Grosbeak, Tree Sparrow, Red-cheeked Myna, Gray Starling, Jay, Carrion Crow and Jungle Crow.
