Goodbye Ruby Tuesday...hello Ruby Saturday

That's Keni and I doing our impression of James Bond. I've no idea what Bond Cherly is trying to do an impression of. Mine is obviously Mr. Connery. Anyway, onwards with the posting. I shall not bore you with the trivialities of my boring life here in bustling Osaka, or rather buslting stressful Patent Law Firm. Instead, I shall bore you all with the not so trivial events of my Saturday and Sunday morning/late afternoon visit to Osaka-jo park. An early rise on Saturday morning saw my rather jaded and now sagging ass in Osaka-jo at 6am. It was a beautiful day, the sun was trying come out and the temperature, a balmy 18C. There was a lot people about, some playing an organised game of softball, others just out for a run or a walk. But yes, some people are so crazy in this country they organize a game of softball at 6am. The game had started when I passed by. Nutters. I can understand birders, as we are mad, being up at that godforsaken time on a Saturday morning, but to get up and play a game of softball? That beats birders hands down for being entitled "mad".

So anyway, there were also lots of birds about, being migration time. With dozens of Narcissus Flycatchers and Blue and White Flycatchers flying above my head, singing Arctic Warblers and noisy Bulbuls, it was a beatiful morning. I had been looking forward to my day out all week. I knew that there would be some birds about but I had not expected there to be so many. Nor did I expect to see a bunch of people playing softball at 6am, so it was turning out to be an interesting morning. I was also talking to a few of the local birders, who quite candidly pointed out that the singing war going on between 2 individual birds were in fact Japanese Robins!! I have still not seen this species and it is one I would dearly like to see. As you may gather from my use of tense here, I could not find the little bastards. They are known to be notoriously skulky and they certainly proved that reputation. I am hoping they will be more forthcoming on Mishima next week.

As I had to meet Rob and his daughter Aya in Nanko at 10am, I started heading for the train station. I noticed a group of organized photographers standing near a bush. When I went over I found, to my delight and surprise, a stunning male Siberian Rubythroat. A lifer. A total surprise. It had made my morning. I spent a good 45 mintues just watching this incredibly smart bird feed on insects and run around a lot. Cool. Previous to arriving here, I also found a couple of female Japanese Grey Thrush...the first lifer of the day, and again, totally unexpected.

I spent the rest of the day birding and hanging out with Rob and Aya. She's a precocious little 2.5 year old, and tormented us for 6 or 7 hours before I finally had to come home and Rob had to go back home also. It was good to spend some time with Rob as we hadn't seen each other or gone birding together in ages.

Today, I went back to O-jo in the afternoon to take some more pics of the Rubythroat and see what else was around. The fantastic and rather surreal part to birding in Japan is the way that photographers here set up the scene. At the Rubythroat site, they had placed a bare branch in the ground near the bush it favoured most. Then, they would clear the area around the branch and place a few maggots on the branch for the bird. Sure enough, within 10 minutes of the maggot being placed on the branch, the bird arrives. Feeds, performs a bit and flies back into the bushes. While the bird is feeding and stitting around wondering what the hell are these strange creatures doing, the noise of the cameras going off is deafening. Fantastic. So, as I was setting up my camera on the tripod, a very kindly looking Japanese man came over and told me to come into the front so I could get better photos. When I said I had been there yesterday, he looked at me and said, "oh, do you know there's a male Siberain Blue Robin over there?" pointing to the south. I think my expression gave him the answer so he laughed and told me to follow him. He had excellent english and it transpired he is a Professor of Organic Chemistry, retired, from Osaka Uni. He said he needed hobby when he retired so he decided that bird photography was it. A typical occurrence amongst bird photographers. They are nearly all retirees. Anyway, I told him I had a PhD in Biochemistry so he was delighted. He informed me then that his son is an Associate Prof. in Marine Biology somewhere in Arizona and that he was going to visit him for a month next week. Nice. As we turned the corner, there was a scene that always makes me laugh. About 40 photographers waiting for the bird to come out. Again, the scene was set and when the branch was analzyed through the bins, one could see the maggots squirming on the edges of the branch.

As we said our goodbyes, the male Siberian Blue Robin popped on the branch, ate it's fill and disappeared back into the bushes again. Nice. I had seen one last year in O-jo at about the same time but it was good to get some photos of one. A beautiful bird.

Now, after taking about 200 photographs in the two days, I have a lot of work ahead of me. A 2 day working ahead makes this Sunday evening less painful and the prospect of going to Mishima island for 3 full days of birding, makes it painless. I can't wait to get on the shinkansen on Tuesday night to head to Hiroshima. Sean and I then will catch a bus to Hagi, which is on the north tip of Yamaguchi prefecture on the Japan Sea. Then a 2 ferry ride towards South Korea and we reach Mishima. Hopefully I'll be keeping you all enthralled with birding stories when i get back. I know, you all can't wait. Presently talking with some movie producers in the States about making a film called "The Birdman of Osaka". The producers want Clooney to play me, as he looks like me apparently. That will keep my Aunt Phil happy. Clooney reminds her of me. Oh well, the burdens one has to carry....

By the way bro, get your boss to send you out here. If the place is in Osaka, then your rockin' n' rollin' fella. That would be wicked if you they send you on buisness. Get working on it...

Until next week, after Mishima, I bid you all goodnight....

Carmo's Diet: gone to shite

Carmo's Birds: SIBERIAN RUBYTHROAT*; JAPANESE GREY THRUSH*; Siberian Blue Robin; Red-necked stint; Ruff*; Black-tailed and Bar-tailed Godwit.

Carmo's Birds for Byrdy: Robin Wright-Penn

ps: my photopage is no longer working as I have to pay 100yoyos to upkeep it and I ain't doing that. I'm working on setting up a flikr pro account but am having problems with my paypal. Anyway, I'll have it up and running soon!!!!