Rainy season continues

Rainy season in Tokyo is usually not that bad. While it rains often there are still some sunny days in between. This year has been somewhat exceptional. The rainfall has not been especially big, but a few weeks passed without the sun getting out at all.

Because of the weather I have been shooting mainly in locations close to my home. Most often I have taken a walk to a nearby cemetery to capture a Japanese sparrowhawk couple that I wrote about before.

There were days when I hardly saw the sparrowhawks at all, but also days when I had plenty of opportunities to capture them perching on a tall tree looking over the cemetery and flying to their nest on a tree hidden behind tree branches and leaves.

Yesterday, it was drizzling in the morning. I went to the cemetery hoping the rain would stop. There was a big flock of large-billed crows nearby the nest of the sparrowhawks. That made the sparrowhawks uneasy and therefore they were flying back and forth several time seemingly restless. They were calling each other frequently and at times they tried to chase the crows away. But the crows were big in number and kept coming back. Other birds, too were moving around, too and would sometimes borrow the sparrowhawk’s perching tree.

Despite of the fact that the rain did not stop, I kept shooting for some hours doing my best to cover my gear from the rain. In the afternoon, it started pouring and I decided to give up.

This morning, the sun came out and with high hopes I rushed to the cemetery again. I thought I could finally capture the birds in good light hopefully against the blue sky. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The female stayed the nest most of the time. The male was hunting somewhere far and came back to the cemetery only to bring the the catch to the female. They did the handing over of the catch far away from the nest in a dense forest next to the cemetery. After finishing the meal the female returned to the nest and the male fly away again. All I could was to return home disappointed.

東京の梅雨はいつもと違って太陽は３週間も全然出ていないため、家の近くでしか撮影していません。近所の霊園に住み着いているツミのカップルを頻繁に見に行っています。ツミをチラッとしか見ていない日もあれば、あちこち飛び交ったり、近くの高い木に長いの間見張ったり、毛繕いしたりするシャッターチャンスの多い日もありました。

昨日は朝から小雨が降っていたが、止むのを願って霊園に行きました。ハシブトカラスはツミの巣の近く大勢いました。ツミはあちこち飛んだり、大声で鳴いたり、カラスを追い払ったりしていまして、中々落ち着きません。他の鳥達もあちこち飛んだりしてツミの見張り木を借りたりします。

雨にも関わらずカメラをタオルやプラスチックでカバーしながらその様子を２〜３時間を撮っていました。午後になると、本降りになったから、諦めて帰りました。

今朝は久しぶりに太陽が少し出て、やっと明るい光線で青空をバックにツミを撮れると思って霊園に駆けつけました。しかし、シャッターチャンスに恵まれませんでした。メスはずっと巣の中です。オスは何処か遠くに狩りに行っています。餌をメスに引き渡すためしか戻ってこないです。引き渡しは巣から遠く、森の中に行います。メスは食事を終えてから、また巣に戻り、オスは再び何処かに飛んで行きます。今日のところはガッカリして家に帰りました。