Arrival of the Blue Birds

I have been wanting to capture a male red-flanked blutail this winter but haven’t had many chances for that. I must admit that I could have made more effort to try various locations. Now however, two male bluetails have recently arrived to a garden just a walking distance from my home. Perhaps the cold wave and snowfall that recently passed over Kanto region forced them to find new locations. There had already been three female bluetails in the same garden so it is understandable that arrival of the males have caused a lot of turmoil.

Yesterday, I followed a fight between a male and a female bluetail. So far the disputes I have seen, have been rather short lived, and ended up with one of the parties giving up the right to the territory. This time, neither of them seemed to be willing to give up, and the fighting went on for at least over an hour. Most of the time they were chasing each other high on the trees too far for my lens. Today, I heard from other photographers, the two males were fighting and I believe that in the coming weeks before they leave Tokyo, there will be some chasing back and forth every now and then.

A durian redstart that has been living in the garden all winter must have also have noticed the newcomers and seemed to be on high alert.

The flock of hawfinches in the garden were cautious as usual and would still not let me near, but some individuals showed some signs of loosing their shyness. I tried not to scare them away and photographed them from afar.

最近家の近くの庭園にオスのルリビタキ二羽がやって来ました。最近の寒波のせいで、新しい居場所を探し出したのではないでしょうかと思っています。同じ庭園に以前からメス三羽がいた為、対混乱になりました。昨日オスとメスの縄張り争いは一時間以上続いていました。今日はオス同士の争いがあった、と他のカメラマンから聞きました。しばらく住み着いているジョウビタキも新しいものに気づいていて、警戒しているように見えました。

シメの大半はは相変わらず警戒心が強いですが、一部は少しだけ人馴れして来た気がします。遠くから餌探しの様子を見守りながら写真を撮って見ました。