Tag Archives: birds

Little Egrets at Yasugawa

Video

Photos – August 6

On August 6, 2018, some little egrets and a few great egrets were catching fish in shallow water above the weir in Moriyama City. Others were standing on the weir and feeding on small aquatic creatures.

Little egrets (コサギ) and a few great egrets (ダイサギ) at Yasugawa in Moriyama

Little egrets (コサギ) and a few great egrets (ダイサギ) at the Yasugawa dam in Moriyama

Little egret at the Yasugawa dam in Moriyama

Little egrets (コサギ) at the Yasugawa dam in Moriyama

Little egret (コサギ) at the Yasugawa dam in Moriyama

Often one bird would chase away an interloper. They did not chase other species of birds, but when confronted by an aggressive crow the egrets did not back down.

Little egrets (コサギ) and a few great egrets (ダイサギ) at the Yasugawa dam in Moriyama

Little egrets (コサギ) at the Yasugawa dam in Moriyama

Little egrets (コサギ) and a belligerent crow (カラス) at the Yasugawa dam in Moriyama

Photos – August 8

On August 8, 2018, I went to the river late in the afternoon. The sun was behind my back, and there was a strong wind from the northwest (downstream).

Little egrets (コサギ), great egrets (ダイサギ), and grey herons (アオサギ) at the Yasugawa dam in Moriyama

Little egrets (コサギ) great egret (ダイサギ) at the Yasugawa dam in Moriyama

As usual, some little egrets bullied others over territory

Little egrets (コサギ) and a great egret (ダイサギ) at the Yasugawa dam in Moriyama

Little egrets (コサギ) at the Yasugawa dam in Moriyama

Little egrets (コサギ) great egret (ダイサギ) at the Yasugawa dam in Moriyama

Little egrets (コサギ) and a great egret (ダイサギ) at the Yasugawa dam in Moriyama

Little egrets (コサギ) at the Yasugawa dam in Moriyama

A few little egrets crowded up close to much larger great egrets (ダイサギ). Sometimes the larger birds snapped at the little ones when they got too close, but real conflict erupted only between birds of the same species. Once a great egret stopped feeding and marched off to confront another great egret.

Little egret (コサギ) and great egret (ダイサギ) at the Yasugawa dam in Moriyama

Little egrets (コサギ) and a great egret (ダイサギ) confronting an interloper at the Yasugawa dam in Moriyama

Sometimes other birds appeared at or below the weir.

Young white wagtail (ハクセキレイ) at the Yasugawa dam in Moriyama

Great cormorant (カワウ) landing at Yasugawa below the dam in Moriyama

Little egret (コサギ) and grey heron (アオサギ) at Yasugawa below the dam in Moriyama

Grey heron (アオサギ) landing at Yasugawa below the dam in Moriyama

Some of the little egrets were feeding very actively.

Little egrets (コサギ) at the Yasugawa dam in Moriyama

Little egret (コサギ) at the Yasugawa dam in Moriyama

As we can see in the video above, sometimes they would slip and fall before taking flight. It seemed that they had temporarily forgotten that they could fly. Of course, little egrets fly very well!

Little egret (コサギ) at Yasugawa below the dam in Moriyama

Notes

All photos and video clips were shot handheld with an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II camera and M. Zuiko Digital 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO lens. Some closeup scenes were shot with the camera’s 2X digital teleconverter.

Music: “Kawai Kitsune” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

All postprocessing was done on a Fedora GNU/Linux workstation. I edited the video clips and added titles with with Kdenlive, but I did not modify the colors or add any enhancements. Photos were organized and edited with digiKam.

Other photos can be seen on my Flickr photostream. Videos are on my YouTube video channel.

Young Egrets and Herons at Ten Shrine

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In June, 2018, I recorded and photographed several species of egret and heron chicks at Ten Shrine in Moriyama City, Shiga Prefecture, Japan.

My little recorder captured the whole sonic environment, noise and all, with small omnidirectional mics that I attached to my backpack in order to create a quasi-binaural soundscape.

Audio recorder on backpack at Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City

Low-frequency traffic noise was pretty loud, even on a Sunday afternoon. We can hear the birds more clearly by adding a high-pass filter, for example, a -6dB roll-off beginning at 880Hz.

Unfortunately, such manipulation distorts reality. It may sound better to most people, but it is no longer an authentic field recording.

Bird nests filled the trees surrounding this shrine, especially along a road near the entrance, as we can see on the radio aporee map for this location.

Entrance to Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City

at Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City, covered with droppings from a colony of egret and heron chicks

Main sanctuary (本殿) at Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City

Entrance to Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City

Fortunately, we had blue skies on several days during Rainy Season in June.

Egrets and herons in a colony at Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City

Little egret (コサギ) at Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City

Intermediate egret (Ardea intermedia, チュウサギ) at Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City

Many young birds were in the trees, calling and competing with siblings.

Grey herons (アオサギ) at Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City

Grey heron (アオサギ) at Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City

Little egret (コサギ) at Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City

Intermediate egret chicks (Ardea intermedia, チュウサギ) at Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City

Intermediate egrets (Ardea intermedia, チュウサギ) at Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City

Little egrets (コサギ) at Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City

Species included birds I rarely see, such as black-crowned night herons.

Black-crowned night-heron (Nycticorax nycticorax, ゴイサ) at Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City

Black-crowned night-heron (Nycticorax nycticorax, ゴイサギ) at Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City

Cattle egrets stayed close to tree trunks but sometimes showed themselves.

Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis, アマサギ) at Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City

Birds in flight included adults bringing food and youngsters testing their wings.

Intermediate egret (Ardea intermedia, チュウサギ) at Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City

Black-crowned night-heron (Nycticorax nycticorax, ゴイサ) at Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City

Intermediate egret (Ardea intermedia, チュウサギ) at Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City

Grey heron (アオサギ) at Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City

Intermediate egret (Ardea intermedia, チュウサギ) at Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City

Little egret (コサギ) at Ten Shrine (天神社) in Kawata-cho, Moriyama City

I talked with several people who live near the shrine. They have to put up with a lot of noise and bird droppings that have increased in recent years as wildlife habitats are destroyed. Nearly all the trees that once lined the nearby Yasugawa riverbank have been bulldozed, leaving only low bushes, weeds, and a few recreational facilities. Many of the remaining trees for colonies of these beautiful birds are in sacred groves at rural shrines.

Egret Rookery

Recording and post-processing

This recording was made with a Sony PCM-M10 recorder and FEL Communications Clippy Stereo EM172 Microphone tied to a tree. Since I was near the south edge of the woods, I placed the mics placed slightly forward of center facing north.

Audio post-processing was done with Audacity on Fedora Workstation, a Linux system running on a Lenovo ThinkStation 20 computer. I trimmed this excerpt from a longer recording and raised the overall volume. No other digital signal processing was done.

Crows along Yasugawa

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On Sunday, March 18, 2018, I was cycling down the north bank of Yasugawa when I heard some noisy crows perched in nearby trees.

When I ride my touring bike, I carry a small audio recorder and microphones. For this recording I used a Sony PCM-M10 recorder and Clippy Stereo EM172 mics by FEL Communications Ltd. To mimic human hearing, a quasi-binaural sound image was made by placing the mics on either side of my bicycle handlebar bag. I prefer to use trees about the diameter of an adult human head, but I use the handlebar bag when I cannot find a tree.

Trek 520 touring bike with audio recorder and mics on handlebar bag in Yasu City

The Compass app on my iPhone shows the location, direction, and time.

Compass and geolocation app on bicycle handlebar bag in Yasu City

As we can see on the map, this location is between a river and near the edge of a suburban area. With aircraft overhead, vehicles on nearby roads, and rural and suburban human activities, this place is quite noisy, even on Sunday.

In everyday life we filter out much of the noise. When the crows are not so noisy, I suppose most people experience this environment as a peaceful and quiet little park, just as it appears in photographs.

Trek 520 touring bike in Yasu City

Trek 520 touring bike in Yasu City

Long-tailed Tits (エナガ)

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On January 27, 2018, I was walking along the edge of a field near my house when a flock on long-tailed tits (エナガ) appeared right in front of me at eye level. I was able to take a few photos of them.

Long-tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus, エナガ)

Long-tailed tits (Aegithalos caudatus, エナガ)

Long-tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus, エナガ)

Long-tailed tits (Aegithalos caudatus, エナガ)

Long-tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus, エナガ)

These cute little birds blessed me with their presence for only a few minutes before they vanished. If I had not been there, quiet and alert, I would have missed the opportunity to see them so close.

We experience life most richly when we are fully present.

Shiga Rivers – Greg Peterson in Japan

Nature and culture nourished by the rivers of Shiga Prefecture, Japan

Tag Archives: birds

Little Egrets at Yasugawa

Video

Photos – August 6

Photos – August 8

Notes

Young Egrets and Herons at Ten Shrine

Egret Rookery

Recording and post-processing

Crows along Yasugawa

Long-tailed Tits (エナガ)