moar birds

The very day I wrote up my last post about birds, we got some excellent birdwatching at the Hamarikyu Gardens. So here's birds, (mostly) water edition!

Egrets (サギ)

Merlin tells me that there are, in Japan, Great Egrets, Intermediate Egrets, and Little Egrets. I find this amusing. The difference appears to be beak color and overall size, and indeed the other day at Arashiyama in Kyoto, I did see what was probably an Intermediate and Little Egret standing next to each other.

see, one of them is littler.

At Hamarikyu Gardens the one I saw was probably an intermediate egret based on its orange beak.

The little egret near Arashiyama showed off its pretty yellow feet, and also! caught a fish!

good job buddy!

Gray Heron (アオサギ)

Also at Hamarikyu Gardens: herons. The herons were having some very loud disagreements with each other. They sound like loud, raspy, deeper-voiced, angry honking ducks.

getting the heck outta there

egret wants no part of this.

(duck does not care)

Eastern Spot-billed Duck (カルガモ)

This is probably the most common duck in Japan. They have stripey heads and a little spot on their bills, hence the name.

These ducks were hanging out in the water at Hamarikyu Gardens and then came onto shore to eat some grass.

chomp

And some more bonus birds

We mostly heard, but also did kinda get to see, a woodpecker, probably a Japanese green woodpecker (アオゲラ)! They are very loud, which we learned when one flew right in front of us in the Katsurazaka bird park.

this one was on Mt. Takao though

In my last post I noted I hadn't gotten a good picture of the white-cheeked starling (ムクドリ). Well, that very day I saw an entire flock of them land in a nearby tree at Hamarikyu and all my wishes were granted.

tree friends

ground friends

And possibly my most Aesthetic Picture(TM) of the trip so far, here's a black kite flying in front of Mt. Fuji, as seen from the peak of Mt. Takao: