Young探鳥会

This afternoon, I joined a birding event for the young, under 40 at Shinobazu pond in Ueno, Tokyo.



Dusk was beginning to fall and the few green leaves of lotus still remain were turning yellow in the low light.



オナガガモ♂（Northern Pintail)
目の前にいるから、羽根の一枚一枚はよく見えるのだけれど、どんどん向きを変えるので、意外に全体の形がとりにくい。



キンクロハジロ♀（Tufted Duck）
At Shinobazu pond, ducks were so close by that I could sketch them with the naked eye.

But today's stars were Bramblings, a houndred of them. I was so excited that I forgot to draw. It is said that this winter we can see a lot of Bramblings in Tokyo area.

Skimmer

Black Skimmer（クロハサミアジサシ）
My favorite bird in Texas. Their lower bill is longer than the upper bill. They can catch fish by using skimming trick, that is to skim the surface of the water with the lower bill and snap fish with upper bill. Bird's bills are really varied and surprising.

ホップ

ずいぶんと更新が滞ってしまった。何しろ学祭に中間テストに、イベントの企画にいろいろ忙しかった。いや、今も大変だ！　テキサスの絵もまだアップし終えていないけど、先に９月の信州旅行から一枚。



カラハナソウ
ビールに苦味、香り、泡を添えるのに使うホップ（セイヨウカラハナソウ）の変種で日本の山野に自生している種らしい。祖母が昔のホップ摘みの思い出を話してくれた。そういえば、モームの『人間の絆』にも夏休みにケント州の農場でホップを摘む印象的なシーンが出てくる。ホップ摘みは昔は、夏バイトのようなものだったらしい。

This September, I went to Nagano via Usui pass with my grandmother. We walked along a part of an old railway trail through the Usui pass. Finding this plant, my grandmother said "This is hop, I guess. It is used as a flavoring and stability agent in beer. I remember going to some farms to pick hops with my grandmother." My grandmother's grandmother!!

When I came back home, I looked into this plant and learned that it was Japanese indigenous variant species of Hop. Original hops are used in beer but not this variant.

ニンジン記念日

国立の「農家の台所」というレストランでお昼をご馳走になった。不思議に甘いひとみ五寸にんじんのジュース。

Galveston

Thank you for visiting my blog. Yesterday, the total number of visitors reached over 50,000. It was really a perfect birthday present from all of you!




Galveston Island State Park
I visited this island just a few days before the hurricane Ike hitted and destroyed the whole area. I was shocked to see the photos of flooded roads and houses after that, which my host mother sent me. I could't believe them from the sceneries I saw; peacefull and quiet places full of sunshine.

Texas still has big wilderness. One reason for that might be the huge hurricanes.

タカの渡り

Smith Point Hawk Watch Tower
A book to enjoy hawk watch was finally published last week, witch has some of my illustrations in it.
Last year, I visited several hawk watch points in Japan for that book and I loved the hawk watch style birdwatching; sitting at the same place and watching the sky. So in Texas. I ask my host mother's birder friend to take me to Smith Point.

□■□宣伝 □■□
「タカの渡りを楽しむ本（BIRDER SPECIAL）」　久野公啓著　文一総合出版　2520円
白樺峠、伊良湖岬、武山でタカの渡りを観察したときの体験記やタカ見グッズの絵などの挿絵をわたしが描かせてもらいました。大きな書店ででものぞいてみてください。

For Bill

Black-and-White Warbler(シロクロアメリカムシクイ)
My host mother took me to some nature parks in Houston downtown. In Houston Arboretum, a ranger kindly guided us through the park. Thanks to him, we could see some migrators and winter visiters, such as Great Crested Flycatcher and Pine Warbler. American warblers are nice because they have bright colors and pattern, unlike Japanese dulll brown colored warblers.

red sandals

My host father bought me a pair of red sandals for canoeing!! I liked them so much and wore them to everywhere that my host mother also got a pair for herself. All of a sudden, everybody around us wanted to get the same pair to join our red sandal club.

Canoe

Roseate Spoonbill(ベニヘラサギ)
The most wonderful experience in Texas was canoeing on the river near the house. Host father had a mud water canoe so we paddled it and went into some narrow creeks, passing under bridges and fallen trees.
Main channel of the river was busy with people on big motor boats, but no one came into narrow, shallow creek except for us. And there was the place for birds, such as Roseate Spoonbill, White Ibis, Tricolored Heron and so on.
Again, I remembered another children's book called "Minnow on the Say"

Wildlife

I was surprised to find many kinds of wildlife around the house, which is in the suburbs of Houston. "We should take advantage of living here rather than watching TV," my host mother said to me. Her words made me really happy.



アライグマ（Raccoon）
One evening when I was walking slowly along the river, a big tail hanging from a tree branch lept into my sight. Another squirrel, I thought at first. But it was much bigger and had a striped pattern.



アメリカフクロウ（Barred Owl）
I noticed that there was something big on top of a pine tree because of shrills of Blue Jays. I carefully approached toward the calls, looked for the something. And I saw two brown eyes and a yellow bill...of Barred Owl.
I dashed to the house to get my scope. When I came back, it was still there, hiding behind the pine leaves and watching me.



トウブワタオウサギ(Eastern Cottontail)
Rabbits were everywhere.