The week that was...

As promised from a previous post, here is a photo of the koi carp streamers that are hung up all over Japan to celebrate Boys Day during the Golden Week of national holidays. This particular stretch of koi was taken 2 years ago as a group of us were driving around the north-eastern corner of Shikoku that encapsulates the Aya Valley. The Aya valley has definitely been one the highlights for me while in Japan. It is one of the worlds deepest gorges and it is just covered from top to bottom with trees...a truly wonderful sight. So green, so alive. One of the few unspoilt areas left in Japan, well, apart from some of the rivers being dammed and the made "pretty" by carefully landscaped concrete and rock formations to make it look more "interesting" for tourists...honestly.

As for me, well, what can I say really that won't bore the pants off you like it has with me. A lot of my Golden Week was spent drinking and birding. Good actually but being back at work sucked arse big time. My back (i can hear the yawns already) went again and the ability to get more than 3 hours sleep a night is now my Holy Grail. A trip to the doc that thinks all ailments are a result of gout (I kid you not) and asked ME what I thought we should do! Morphine, xanex, vicadin, valium, an epidural, frontal lobotomy, to win the lotto all came to mind, but a sensible and well diagnosed case of muscular spasms lead me to ask for NSAIDs and injections if possible. Well, I am a doctor you know. But anyway, he agreed that that was the best couse of action for now and then proceeded to ask me what qualifications I had and I duly told him. He then continued on about his training in the States in the early 70's and how he thanks them for all he knows. They obviously didn't teach him much if he's asking me for to diagnose my own health problems. NSAIDs don't work people!!! Just give me the goddamn vicadin already!! A trip to him again next week is obviously going to be worth my while.

Apart form that my minds a blank. That's how mundane it is becoming. Now that the weather is starting to get hot and steamy (oh yeah baby), day trips aboot Nippon are in order so there will be many more breathtaking and glorious stories to be told and not pictures of birds!!! Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you're all delighted. Just don't go and talk to your friends about the time when YOU used to read a blog I used to keep and tell them at how you MARVELED at the raw talent and the amazing photographs of birds I used to take in Japan when I'm all famous and living the National Geographic/Discovery Channel guru-life that we all dream about...You can tell them how you used to gasp when my Flikr page used to open and the dazzling array of mind-blowing images would jump off the screen and smack you between the eyes!!! Seriously, check out My Flikr Photos, lots of new photos. Honestly, they're unbelievable...

Maybe my delusional mind needs a rest...now where's that vicadin


Today I went out birding in Saidaiji, which is very close to Nara city, and picked up a new lifer...Ruddy Crake. A class bird that I had to wait 90 minutes for before it decided to walk across a small stretch of water between reed beds. In the excitement (delusional some would say this is, but I don't think so) i forgot to take a photo so rattled off few shots but haven't looked at them more closely yet. Oriental Great Reed Warblers were singing everywhere and they were my first ones of 2007. Fantastic song and nice to see. Fan-tailed warblers tick-tick-ticking away, the hoarse call of the Japanese green Pheasant, and singing Japanese Skylarks provided a fabulous score to the chilly early morning dawn. With news of Curlew Sandpipers at Phoenix in Amagaski of Hyogo Prefecture, I hopped back on the train at 9am and got to Amagasaki by 10am to meet Neil waiting at the bus-stop. We ended up getting a cab as the bus was another hours wait so feck that for a game of soldiers. While picking up 3 breeding plumage Curlew Sands, a pair of breeding plumage White-winged black terns bounced over the levee to provide a quite pleasant surprise. Stunning birds and a Japanese tick for both Neil and I. The Curlew Sand was a JP tick for Neil so it was a productive morning...now, to start-up Photoshop...

Camo's Diet: This week, I have mostly been eating Herb Chicken with lemon vinagerette...yummy

Carmo's Birds: RUDDY CRAKE; White-winged black tern*; Japanese Paradise Flycatcher; Oriental Reed Warbler; Black-winged Stilt; Red-necked Stint; Long-toed Stint; Siberian Thrush; Fan-tailed Warbler; Narcissus Flycatcher; Oriental Cuckoo. JP list over 310 now I think

Carmo's Birds for Byrdy: Sarah Shahi