Morning at Furui-chi

Photos from yesterday at Furui-chi(古市). It was a beautiful morning with chilly wind and partly clouded sky. Rainclouds seemed to be blown away since the night before. I left dorm at around 6:30 while the sun was slowly rising. Before arriving at Furui-chi, I found a female Chestnut-cheeked Starling perching in a flock of White-cheeked Starlings at Kamegawa. I later found a 10+ flock of Chestnut-cheeked Starling flying around bus center at Furui-chi also.

A female Chestnut-cheeked Starling stretching

A Bluebottle butterfly, not sure which one

A Japanese Wagtail feeding in the lotus field

A shy Common Snipe feeding near the wagtail

When I arrived at the small paddies behind the railway at Furui-chi, I found that the lotuses had grown very tall that they fully covered the ground...my wish for waders ended. However, there were still few pieces of land which the ground surface was still exposed. There were many Japanese Wagtails feeding around almost everywhere with 2 White Wagtails. Then came 2 Common Snipes flew out of nowhere and landed in the lotus field I have been watching. They were very shy as usual and I could only get few nice shots...though later one of them became so tame that I could finally get lots of its decent shots. 2 Zitting Cisticolas were flying around in the reeds behind the lotus field, otherwise everything seemed to be very quiet. A man came passing by while I was wandering around the lotus field and asked me what am I doing. I told hime I am birdwatching, so he quietly made a glance around the field and plainly said "Looks like there is none." Well, it's a beautiful morning after all.

A Japanese Wagtail with a resting Common Snipe in the background