Hydrangea

The hydrangea is native to Japan. The horticultural varieties are widespread. The original species is Gaku-hydrangea. There are several species of hydrangeas planted along the road in Takinoiri Katsuragi, Moroyama, Saitama, Japan.

The next image shows the ‘gaku’ hydrangea. ‘Gaku’ means the calyx in Japanese.

The hydrangea changes the color of their flowers and sepals depending on the ph of the soil. Acidity makes them blue and alkalinity makes them red. In addition, it is affected by other factors.

The hydrangeas are planted along the road.

Asian house martins collecting mud

Asian house martins were collecting mud on the riverbank.
An Asian house martin pecked at the carcass of a fly.

An Asian house martin pecking at the mud.

Another Asian house martin pecking at the mud.

The Asian house martin pecked at the carcass of a fly.

The bird bit the body of a fly.

The bird did not eat the fly and put more mud in them.

Watch the videos to learn more.

Great egrets flying in V formation

When I was watching the Eurasian tree sparrows in the reedbeds, I saw great egrets flying in a V-shaped formation from the upper of the Oppe River. The river bends at a right angle, but the great egrets continued straight ahead, blocked by houses, and disappeared. It was a rare sight (taken on January 20).

Great egret flying in formation.

The id of youtube is “hachi ai”.

The gadwalls were stealing algae from the Eurasian coots.

There are about fifty gadwalls and several Eurasian coots in the river.　

The coots collect algae at this time of year. The gadwalls attach to the coots. When coots are collecting algae, the gadwall will take away the algae spilled by the coot, and sometimes the algae that the coot is holding.


The coot dived to collect algae.

A gadwall stole algae from the coot.

The next is a video of the sequence of actions.

The other scene is next.
A coot dived to collect algae.

A gadwall chases the coot that has taken algae.

The gadwall tries to steal algae from the coot.

The gadwall stole algae from the coot.

Next is a video of the sequence of actions.

A mandarin duck was courting the spot-billed ducks.

Mandarin ducks are occasionally observed in our area. In the fall, the mandarin ducks are on migration. On October 4, we saw two mandarin ducks 4 km downstream from here. Those images are shown below. The one on the right is

unknown
male
mandarim ducks


a male because of its red beak. This individual is an eclipse. On the left, it is hard to distinguish whether it is a young bird or a female. Now these birds are not there.

This brings us to the main topic. One male mandarin duck was with a group of spot-billed ducks on October 17. It was swimming around with these.


Then, to our surprise, he began courting them. He quickly raised his head.

Then he lowered his head. He repeated the same behaviors.


The mandarin duck tried to approach the spot-billed ducks, but they were running away from him. Still, the mandarin duck did not flinch.


For more information, please see the following video.

My youtube account is “hachi ai”.

The chick of little grebe was incubating an egg.

One unhatched egg was left in the nest.

One egg is left

The chick was incubating the egg while the parents were away from the nest. The chick was 6 or 7 days old. We once observed children incubating eggs on June 7, 2021 (See website.). Only one of the three chicks incubated the egg.  We would like to know the sex of the chick, but it was not possible. Unfortunately, this egg did not hatch.

incubating
incubating

It is too early to conclude from this observation alone that the chicks will incubate the eggs. More observations are needed.
The following site showed the other chick incubating the eggs (website).

See the video for the rest of the story. Please subscribe to my channel on YouTube. The name of account is “hachi ai“.

A chick of little grebe swallowed a dragonfly.

The parent caught a dragonfly. The chicks were puzzled because the food was so large, but it swallowed the dragonfly. See the video for details.

The parent offered a dragonfly.
The chick bit a dragonfly.
The chick started swallowing dragonfly.

See the video for the rest of the story. Please subscribe to my channel on YouTube. The name of account is “hachi ai“.

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