Overcast Days

July is undoubtedly the quietest month of the year for birding in Japan. The weather is not good, plus most of the birds have already stopped singing and only concentrate on raising their chicks. The whole month is mainly overcast with rain falls and little sunshine. Everything seems to be so dull, and the temperature is also hot and humid. I haven't been out birding much as I've said earlier in other posts, but I sometimes bring camera to the campus, since there can be some birds to photograph. One of the easiest birds that can be found in my campus is the Eurasian Skylark (Alauda arvensis), which often occupy the areas of football field and playgrounds around the campus. All of them have already stopped singing in July, and I found a single fledgling sitting still on the roadside as well. The juvenile looks pretty much different from the adult. It looks much more scaly and the pettern seems to be more strongly contrast. However, I've still yet to get any decent shot of the juvenile bird, since it was very shy. Skylarks here are not so easy to get good photos of. The photo on the right shows the juvenile bird I am talking about. You can see that the markings on its head and upperparts look much darker than the adult birds.

I also made a brief visit to Furui-chi and Sekino-e, but didn't manage to see so many species of birds. I only saw an Intermediate Egret, which was moulting out of its breeding plumage, several Little Egrets and Black-crowned Night-Herons, and several noisy juvenile Bull-headed Shrikes. I was actually hoping to see some Ruddy-breasted Crake's chicks, but the lotus in the field was so dense and it was impossible to see any bird before it flushed off.