pale thrush — Nature Blog

After several cold and windy days yesterday’s warm weather offered a welcomed change. I headed to a local garden and noticed that there was definitely spring in the air. Japanese apricot trees had started to bloom and I found long-tailed tits very active collecting feathers and other material for nest building. Japanese tits were playing around, chasing each other around merrily, at least that's how it looked like.

Soon after entering the garden a kingfisher let me know with his call that it was around. I followed the sound and was lucky to find it bathing diving into the pond for several times.

I strolled around the garden in search for a winter wren, a rare visitor to the garden, that I know had been there for some time. I had witnessed and photographed it once and I heard other photographers capturing it before. Unfortunately, I could not find a trace of it. Instead, I found a daurian redstart and a red-flanked bluetail having territory disputes. Unfortunately, I could not capture the chasing scene, but only the two birds separately.

There were also several pale thrushes around, one of which would not make much effort to escape from me and my camera and a flock of hawfinches that would not let me near at all. There was always one watching over the field and letting the others know of any approaching danger. I decided to sit down in a bench and let them come to me instead but had not much luck. Instead I heard a Japanese bush warbler in the bamboo grasses coming closer and closer. Eventually, I could see it coming out of the bushes and managed to capture it from afar.

昨日の小春日和に近所の庭園に行って来ました。エナガがとても賑やかで巣作りのための材料集めで忙しかったです。

カワセミの鳴き声を追ったら、水遊びを始めて、松の木から何回も池に飛び込みました。大サービスをしてくれました。

ちょっと前から庭園にいるミソサザイを探しましたが、姿が見えませんでした。その代わり、ルリビタキとジョウビタキの縄張り争いを目撃し、ウグイスが笹から出てくる瞬間を写真に納めました。

６−７羽ぐらいのシメの群れを見つめましたが、近づこうとしたら、見張り役が他の鳥に警告を発して、一斉に逃げている光景を何回か見ました。

Instead of my usual parks in central Tokyo, in recent days I have taken the train to Mizumoto Park in Northern part of Tokyo in search for different bird species.

I came across with some new acquaintances such as Asian Brown Flycatcher, Winter Wren and Scaly Thrush as well as many species commonly found in central Tokyo, too; the Daurian Redstart, Red-flanked bluetail, Hawfinch and Bull-headed Shrike to name a few. I also found many ducks and other water fowl, which I intend to share later.

Local photographers feed some of the birds so they are rather used to photographers and are easily approachable. Otherwise, especially the winter wren, one of the smallest birds in Japan, would be very difficult to find and capture in the dense underbrushes if you don’t visit the park frequently enough to learn their usual routes.

I was very surprised to find Asian Brown Flycatcher as it usually migrates to warmer climates for winter. For some reason, it has decided to stay and I am hoping the weather doesn’t get too cold for many consecutive days so that it can survive the Tokyo winter.

Another happy encounter was the Dusky Thrush. For some reason they have been very few in numbers this year, so I was happy find one trying to camouflage among the grasses and fallen leaves.

最近はいつもの東京中心部の公園と違ってちょっと遠くの水元公園に野鳥を探しに行っています。自分はあまり縁がなかったトラツグミ、コサメビタキ（東京越冬中）、ミソサザイの他、馴染みのジョウビタキ、ルリビタキ、シメ、モズなどに出逢いました。カモ類や他の水鳥ももちろん沢山いました。今年数が少ないと感じているツグミも枯れ草や枯葉の中に隠れようとしていました。