Life Blog Archives : Jenny Wren Rambles

Birding in Kyoto: Imperial Park & Kamogawa

Another weekend, another day I force myself outside because I could use the fresh air and exercise. This time, in Kyoto. Normally, I go to Kyoto for the temples and shrines, the markets, or the scenery. This time I would be trying to look for birds.

First stop: Kyoto Imperial Park

This is the location of the Imperial Palace (closed except for scheduled tours you must reserve) as well as a few other imperial buildings and other attractions. The park is fairly large, with some trees and green areas around the perimeter but also large gravel pathways surrounding the palace. At first, I didn’t see much because the birds were higher up in the trees and moving a little too fast for me to catch. Sparrows and pigeons of course were easy to see. Eventually, though, I found a small shrine where quite a few different birds were hanging out.

Shrines and temples in Japan can often be quiet havens of nature. They may have large mature trees protected as part of the shrine, inner gardens, and are almost always a lot quieter. This one had some shrubs and shorter trees where there were quite a lot of birds foraging among the leaf litter. Distracted by a crow gathering nest materials at first, I hung out here for a little while as I spotted more birds up in the branches and down in the leaves.

Large-billed Crow

This bird hopping across the entrance to the shrine is what first drew me in. It was collecting pine needles for nesting material and at one point, turning its head, reminded me of Nigel Thornberry with the way the needles stuck out on either side of its bill like a large mustache. After pulling at some paper litter, it eventually flew off to deliver its load to the nest.

Oriental Turtle Dove

I’m not sure I’ve ever noticed these doves before, maybe mistaking them for pigeons because of their size, or just not seeing them as often. The mourning doves we have back home are smaller and more vocal, but the turtle doves were quietly rustling around in the leaves. Flicking them out of the way looking for food, keeping one eye on the people walking past, but otherwise unconcerned.

Pale thrush

I have an image of thrushes being very spotty birds, so this one confused me at first. But I suppose its name fits because it had a pale unspotted belly and pretty solid coloring. It blended in well to the shadowy brown leaf litter. As it hopped around it kept stopping to look at me, warier of my presence than the dove.

Varied Tit

I believe this may have been a recently fledged young bird and its parents. It was easy to locate as it screeched for food, mouth open and wings fluttering in a familiar begging pose I had seen when caring for orphaned birds. After another bird deposited a sizable grub in its mouth, it quieted down and started hopping around in the branches, exploring on its own.

Japanese Tit

Quick as ever, this little bird wouldn’t sit still and quickly moved on, but I finally managed to get a full side view of it.

Brown-eared Bulbul

Briefly spotted this bird peeking out from the leaves of the camellia tree.

Dusky thrush

Got a better view of the dusky thrush away from the shrine in a more open grassy area beneath some taller pine trees. These thrushes had the more familiar speckled belly and were foraging in the grass.

Next stop: Kamogawa (Kamo River)

Not going to lie, I mainly just wanted to enjoy hanging out on the riverbank. Japan has a lot of rivers and they are often set up with walking paths and benches, so many people enjoy hanging out by the riverside. But water means wildlife, and there was no shortage of birds even at this popular river walkway.

Black kite

One of the first birds to catch my attention was the black kite. These raptors are incredibly common and are easy to spot circling above the rivers. They also call frequently and, to me, make up one of the distinct natural sounds of Japan. There was a pair hanging out in the top of a cherry blossoms tree, making for another great spring photo.

White-cheeked Starling

These birds might seem familiar to Pokemon fans because they resemble the pokemon Starly, with their brown bodies and white cheeks. These are also pretty common to see around local parks and were making their way along the bank in a little group.

Grey Heron

Another common sight near water, there were a couple of these wading around the bridge area and near the rocks.

Little Egret

On the other side of the river, this little egret was admiring its reflection in the water. Or maybe looking for food. One of those.
The big giveaway for this species is the black beak, most of the other egrets have a yellow beak.

Japanese Wagtail

This one was perched on some rocks in the middle of the river. This was another bird new to me, I didn’t know that white wagtails and Japanese wagtails were 2 different birds because they always move so fast! The Japanese wagtail has a smaller white mask above its eyes, while the white wagtail has a broader white mask across its face.

And now for some ducks.

Mallard

This male was hanging out in the shade of the bridge so he didn’t have the strong green sheen to his head and it was more of a dark blue, with a bit of green showing on the cheek. The female was not far behind, dipping below the water to dabble for food.

Green-winged teal

A pair hanging out in the middle of the river, enjoying the sun.

Eurasian Wigeon

This male was cruising with his girl around the bridge, enjoying the fine weather.

Baer’s Pochard

A pair of dark diving ducks, these two would quickly disappear under the water leaving only ripples. They were in the middle of the river where the water was deeper, going after aquatic insects maybe.

At first glance, the imperial park and the riverside didn’t seem to have that many birds (other than the usual pigeons, sparrows, and ducks), but once I slowed down and looked a little closer I began to notice more. Even in a city as large as Kyoto, there is plenty of nature and wildlife to be found.

Until next time. . .

Enjoy this pigeon photobomb!

A Visit to Itami Insectarium

One of the local attractions in my city is a small insectarium in a large park. I’ve been to the insectarium a few times before, but after a dreary week of cloudy skies and rain, I decided to check it out again. Luckily, I was just in time for the last weekend of their special exhibit on red list insects on the verge of extinction.

The entrance to the insectarium has a garden and colorful mural.

After a bit of a Saturday lie-in, I biked over to spend an hour or two wandering around inside. There weren’t many people there yet, so I quickly sanitized my hands and purchased a ticket through the vending machine before entering the world of insects.

“Honey, I shrunk the kids!”

This museum is very much geared towards children, which you can tell by the “Honey I shrunk the kids” style giant insect habitat model which is the first exhibit you walk through. Passing between giant blades of grass, everywhere you look you are likely to spot another insect. A sampling of the biodiversity lying at our feet, just out of sight.

If you’re not careful, you might get eaten by this mantis camouflaged in the grass!!

Here there are a few displays of pinned insect specimens with some information about insect species or families. Rounding a corner (and a giant dragonfly) you can see into an ant colony model on the other side. Once through this upsized kingdom of insects, you are faced with a giant model bee. Usually, it is an interactive display that children can climb up to and touch screens for more information. For now, though, it is closed off due to COVID safety restrictions.

Specimens galore

Buzzing past the bee for a few pics, I detoured into a large room on the left: the specimen room. Here, behind glass cases, are specimens of butterflies, bees, beetles, and other insects found in Japan and within Itami city specifically. Neatly organized together in groups with facts posted here and there, you can quickly appreciate just how many insects there are living all around us.

This room also had two special exhibits. One on ladybugs, and the other on the bull-headed shrike. I swung by the ladybug exhibit, quickly looking through the life cycle photos before taking a little more time at the shrike exhibit. I hadn’t realized we even had shrike here! Over the last 30 years, the insectarium had been collecting specimens of a unique shrike behavior. Namely, impaling their prey on sharp thorns or sticks. This behavior is what led to their other name: the butcher bird.

The museum had collected a large variety of impaled prey items, from insects like centipedes and giant hornets to small mammals and reptiles like mice and lizards. Quite the balanced diet!

Shrikes have a hooked beak like a raptor, but not the strong talons and feet to help hold and tear their prey apart. They impale it on sharp thorns or branches, or even wedged into forks, to help hold it in place or store it to eat later. So if you happen to see fish or shrimp stuck on some random branches away from the water, that just means you’ve found a shrike’s pantry!

Float among the butterflies

After carefully looking through the desiccated remains of shrike leftovers, it was time for something a little more lively and colorful. Crossing to the other side of the building, past some live insect displays, is the entrance to the butterfly atrium.

This is always one of my favorite parts of the museum. A chance to see so many butterflies, and up-close too. This time, I could even watch them lay their eggs on the undersides of the leaves. Meandering up the slope, surrounded by tropical flowers and fluttering butterflies, the perfect pick me up after a long week spent inside due to rain.

Special Exhibit

At the top of the walkway, it exits out onto the third floor where the learning room/library and special exhibit rooms are. Here, I entered the ICU or “Insect Care Unit”. I couldn’t help but laugh a little at their dedication to the theme. They had 3 large beetle models hooked up to an IV drip just outside the entrance. Cute and easy to understand.

The exhibit was packed with a lot of information. A list of all the threatened insect species in Japan, a chart breaking down the numbers of threatened or critically threatened species, and posters further breaking down the species of specific habitats that were under threat. They explained why they were threatened and what needs to be done, or is being done to address it. Other posters focused on a specific species rather than all the species in one habitat and showcased insects the insectarium was breeding for release into the wild.

While some of this information might be a little difficult for younger children, they did have a nice visual display illustrating why extinction was bad. A globe made of puzzle pieces with a different species or part of nature on each piece represented our planet. The more pieces that get taken away, the less stable it becomes until eventually, it all falls apart. Showing we are all connected and rely on each other to make one planet.

On my way out I grabbed the insectarium’s news booklet which covered the special exhibit with some more details on their conservation activities. This was free for visitors and a nice souvenir to take home for further reading.

A visit is just a walk in the park. . .

Before heading to the mall to grab a snack, I walked through a bit of the park to see if there were any birds around. (Maybe hoping I’d see a shrike after the interesting exhibit inside) I didn’t have to go far before I realized there was a large flock of Great cormorants nesting on the island in the middle of the pond. This island is unique because it is actually in the shape of the islands of Japan, although you can’t really tell from the shoreline. I watched the cormorants swimming, flying, and sunning for a while, taking a few pictures of them and some herons resting nearby.

Feeling hungry, I packed away my camera and headed to the mall. I could explore the rest of the park later, but for now, donuts were calling.

To see more of my visit to Itami Insectarium, check out the Insectarium highlight on my Instagram, @jennywrenrambles.

To learn a little more about the shrike, check out the link below.
https://blog.nature.org/science/2020/01/27/shrikes-meet-the-bird-that-impales-prey-on-spikes/

Birding at Osaka Castle Park

Spring is around the corner and after weeks hiding from the cold in my apartment, I finally dragged myself outside for some fresh air and a bit of birding.

Around the end of February in Japan, it’s plum blossom season. It’s one of the first big blossom events after the winter but often overshadowed by cherry blossom season which comes in March-April. That being said, the fragrant plum blossoms still attract plenty of people to the groves planted around castles and temples.

In addition to people, the groves also attract many birds with the sweet nectar of their blooms and insect life waking from winter. And when it comes to plum trees, there is one bird, in particular, you can expect to see and which everyone wants a picture of. The Warbling or Japanese White-eye. An olive bird with white spectacles around its eyes, these little birds flit from tree to tree drinking the nectar from the plum blossoms. Sitting atop the blossoms, they make for beautiful spring photos which is why you’ll often see a group of photographers with big telephoto lenses all pointed at the same tree.

To get this same picture, and hoping to find some more birds, I went to Osaka castle park for a late morning of relaxed birding.

Stepping through the castle gate, I entered the grove on the left and began to wander through, keeping an eye out for the birds while basking in the pink clouds of blossoms.

To get the most out of the view, groves of flowering trees are carefully tended and arranged with meandering paths around roped-off patches of trees. This lets people get close enough to the trees for pictures but maintains large patches where birds can land and forage out of reach.

After wandering around, taking some pictures of the castle and the blooming trees, I made my way toward the back of the grove. This area is a little quieter and in the shade of some bigger pine trees and a castle wall. I find it tends to have a little more bird diversity than the more open and active area near the gate.

True to expectations, this is where I found and photographed most of the birds on my outing.

Warbling white-eye / Japanese white-eye

These little birds seemed to usually be in pairs or small groups, hopping among the branches drinking the nectar. They’re fun to watch and hold still long enough to take your pictures before they move on to another branch or tree. They’re also popular as a symbol of spring in Japan, hence why everyone wants to get that perfect flower framed pic of them!

Brown-eared bulbul

I was surprised to see that this bird, larger than the white-eye, was also feeding on the nectar from the blossoms. Although, because of its big size, when it landed on the smaller branches it tended to knock some of the petals loose and scare off the smaller birds.

Daurian redstart

I only saw one of these birds, hanging out at the very back of the grove. Rather than feed on the nectar, this one was foraging on grubs and insects from the ground.

Japanese Tit

I was trying for a picture of this little bird since its black and white head reminded me of the cute chickadees back home. Unfortunately, after getting a picture from behind, it was scared off by someone talking to me and never came back down from the castle walls.

Eurasian sparrow

These birds are common everywhere but still cute to see and easy to snap a picture of.

White wagtail

A speedy little bird that doesn’t sit still for long, running along the ground before flying off.

Dusky thrush

It blends in perfectly with the brown brush behind it.

Not 100% sure of this I.D., but seems like this brown bird may be the dusky thrush. It blended in pretty well with the brown leaves and branches, so I only noticed when it moved!

After getting my fill of blossoms and birds at the castle, I headed down to the moat to check out what waterfowl were hanging around. Unfortunately, most of them took off to the far side of the moat, but I managed to get a few pictures of the ones closer to the rail before they swam off.

Eurasian coot

These birds seemed less bothered by people approaching the rail and continued to paddle around, fairly close, just doing their own thing.

Tufted duck

You can see from the tuft of feathers on the back of its head where it gets its name from

There were quite a lot of these guys swimming around.

Eastern spot-billed duck

I think these are pretty common to see around, the average duck if you will.

Green-winged teal

It was difficult to see the color on these due to the cloudy weather, but after some photo editing, I’m pretty confident I got the ID right.

Redhead duck

This was one of the ducks that was too far away for a good picture, but it stood out for its color. I’ll try for a better picture next time.

All in all, not a bad day. I haven’t tried bird watching in a while, but it was a nice change of pace. I also had a new camera lens to work with which made it fun to try and get pictures of all the birds I was seeing. Now that the weather is warming up, I’m going to try and get out more often and see what else I can find in the parks and gardens around here.

Until next time . . .

Enjoy this fine pigeon!

Pandemic Life Update 2: The Next Wave

I haven’t been very active on this blog in a while. The turmoil of preparing to leave and then deciding to stay in Japan is partly to blame. My work situation has changed a bit with a second school and a commute added. Once I get home, my time seems to get filled with other projects (yup, still making masks for myself to wear) or general life (cooking for myself despite getting bored of planning recipes).

I feel like I have less energy and time. It seems like I come home, sit down to catch my breath, and eat, and all of a sudden it’s 8 pm.

Where did the time go?

Maybe it’s just the 2020 effect. Sapping me of my motivation and energy while dealing with everything that’s going on. I’m lucky that my life hasn’t been too impacted by the pandemic, and things are more or less running as normal here in Japan. Everyone is mostly wearing masks, using hand sanitizer, and register lines are still distanced. But just like many other places, Japan is going through another rise in cases. Positive COVID cases are popping up closer, hospitals are filling, and everyone is getting ready to hunker down for winter.

I was recently given the yearly re-contracting papers. As a 5th year JET, I am at the limit and can no longer extend my contract. But everyone keeps asking, and indicating they would be happy for me to stay if it’s possible. On the one hand, this has been a little reassuring. Teaching isn’t my passion and I feel like someone else could do better work, so I worry that my work isn`t as good as it should be. But if the teachers and my Principal and Vice Principal are happy, then maybe my work is more satisfactory than I thought. It feels nice to know that others are happy with my work or that I’ve made a good impression. It’s tempting to want to continue that and stay in a safe and stable situation. I do enjoy Japan. But now I think I’m more at peace with the decision to leave.

I don’t have the same doubts or lingering attachment as I did last year, or even this summer. Even though the stability is attractive, I recognize that I’m not going to be able to progress in my career and life goals the way I would like to if I stayed in Japan. I have other projects I want to spend my time on and I can do that more efficiently outside of Japan. It’s hard, given the economic situation, to give up a stable setup, but it helps that I’m at the contract limit and can just go back home and live with my parents in the meantime, so that makes the decision a little easier.

Still going to England?

In terms of next year, everyone keeps asking if I’m still planning on going to England, especially given the current situation. From my perspective, pretty much everyone is going through another wave of infections, and England is still 9-10 months away for me. There is time for things to improve, vaccines are starting to roll out, and I’m going to try and be optimistic because I have already deferred twice. Worst case scenario, they will have had more experience and opportunities to iron things out when it comes to distanced learning and adjusting the curriculum to keep everyone safe. I plan on reaching out to the outgoing students from my program to see what their experience was this past year and what changes the curriculum experienced. I’m not going to make any big decisions now and hope for the best.

I am also, as usual, formulating new backup and short term plans. I have kept in touch with some of my biology/wildlife teachers and recently joined a local Facebook group for vet tech and animal-related jobs and internships. If it comes down to it, I can go back to volunteering/interning at these local places I’m familiar with and work on honing my practical skills again. My Master’s degree is still my planned next step, but it doesn’t hurt to have backups in mind.

Anyway, now that I’ve kind of come to terms with all that, I am going to try and spend my winter break relaxing and making plans for the new year.