Mile High Blogging

Back to blogging from a mile high, this time en route to Honolulu (someone has to do it). Thing is we’ve just spent 3 hours in the lounge at the airport guzzling wine and playing cards, so there’s every chance I’ll fall asleep. If this blog suddenly ends you’ll know why. In the meantime here we are traversing the heavens towards Hawaii, crossing the international dateline as we do so, thus effectively gaining a day. Can’t complain about that.

An interesting incident just took place whereby the stewardess sidled up to me, much in the way of someone selling dirty postcards, to ask whether I would be interested in buying a limited edition bottle of exclusively brewed alcohol. I feigned shock and said the generally available stuff would be fine. She smiled and went away. Thing is, she didn’t approach anyone else with this clandestine, under the counter solicitation and I’m left to ponder why.

A second amusing episode just as we were taking off. The powerful thrust of this 767-300 resulted in a few things flying hither and thither and clattering to the floor. The old guy across the aisle from me had something so displaced, so I thought I’d help by picking it up. I don’t know whether you’ve ever handled someone else’s false teeth, but……….

This could be an interesting flight.

Getting back on point. Our 5 days in Tokyo were fascinating and most enjoyable. It’s not often you visit a thriving, heavily populated metropolis and feel completely relaxed and chilled, but somehow it happened. It is a fine place. Of course, most of the time has been spent taking in the sights, sounds and culture of Japan’s impressive capital, but there has been one or two natural highlights. 

The ironic thing with urban wildlife watching is that you don’t really expect to see much, so anything you do encounter comes as a pleasant surprise. A case in point being the pair of White-cheeked Starlings we discovered feeding their brood in a hole in a small ornamental pine in a tranquil park near the Imperial Palace. We’d stopped to sit on a shady bench and get a few minutes respite from the heat when we noticed these birds, beaks stuffed with juicy worms and grubs, occasionally flying into their nest hole. I took up position sitting at the base of a nearby tree and eventually was able to get a couple of decent shots of one of the adults. While I was quietly waiting for the action, a pair of Oriental Greenfinches flew in to sip water from a hollow at the base of an adjacent tree. Very similar to our own Greenfinch and a pleasant surprise. 

Strolling around the grounds of the palace a bit later, we came upon the familiar sight of a Dabchick in one of the many moats, complete with chick hitching a ride. A few yards further and another seemingly familiar, but quite possibly totally new species, Japanese Cormorant, Phalacrocorax capillatus, could be found. I need to check my references with these particular images because our own Cormorant can also be found here, but this one is perhaps a bit smaller and neater with more yellow around the eye. In any event, Japanese Cormorants are quite common around Tokyo Bay, nesting on small tree covered islands. We passed a colony on a boat trip around the bay where Grey Herons, Great White Egrets and a Turnstone also put in an appearance. Familiar birds so far from home. Another new bird came in the form of Eastern Spot-billed Duck.

As with Kyoto, crows are very noticeable, but apparently not as much as in the recent past. During the 1980s they were becoming a bit of a problem in the capital, raiding garbage bags every morning and scattering waste all over pavements and roads. Thousands of complaints were received by the municipal government, including accounts of attacks on people. Not sure quite how serious those were, but the beaks of these Japanese crows are formidable weapons indeed. I suspect some trapping and culling was instigated to reduce numbers, but by far the most successful factor was to collect garbage at 2am thus leaving nothing for the wily crows to pilfer come dawn. This measure has been so successful that crow numbers have been reduced by 70%. It is however recognised that although the corvids have some unsavoury habits, they do play a role in cleaning the city of animal carcasses and also in distributing seeds of native plants; their omnivorous nature meaning they eat plant seeds as well as meat. A balance seems to have been struck at present whereby the crow population is under control but still large enough to register their presence. We certainly saw lots of them, and could only admire their cheeky investigation of anything potentially representing a quick snack. Remember the Attenborough snippet of crows placing hard nuts on busy intersections so the cars will crush them once they get the green light? At the next red the birds swoop down to hoover up the exposed flesh. Clever animals.

A stroll in intense midday heat around Shinjuku-Gyoen National Gardens, provided further interest in the form of lots of dragonflies, colourful butterflies and a curious sight of a cluster of large pond skaters on an area of water exposed to the sun. The park was exceptionally crowded, not helped by it being a weekend, but in the quieter areas some birds were happy to feed and sing. Brown-eared Bulbuls screeched and squawked, chasing one another around the shrubs and an as yet unidentified thrush surreptitiously foraged amongst the dead leaves. 

Urban wildlife watching can sometimes result in slim pickings, but keep your eyes and ears open and there’s usually something to delight.