Amsterdam bird encounters: Westerpark

Ok I have managed to keep this secret but I am actually quiet nervous about having physical contact with birds and am easily intimidated. As proof I offer you this ridiculous moment when I get chased by a Eurasian Coot (Fulica atra) in a Westerpark. I was too close to the pair and their chicks and the parent had given me some feather ruffling and wing beating warning so I was approaching with care as I could only run forward to get out.

 The pond was one of series in old gas tanks. I saw lots of coots with offspring but this was the only case where the parents gave me the warnings and charged me. 

Haico’s friend has an apartment two blocks from Westerpark so I went there quiet a few times, and even managed a jet-lagged evening jog. The top end of the park is your classic turn of the century park. However the much larger part is in the now disused gas works that includes several jogging paths and a large quiet wild area that is fenced in for dogs to be let off their leads. 

Like many city parks there was several people feeding the ducks in the classical park, But I  didn't see any feeders in the wilder section.

soccer cats

I've been busy writing the thesis so haven't had much time to write about the bird things I have been doing. So instead I will do a lazy post and re-post the videos of cats on soccer fields. Of course this in response to the Anfield cat who invaded the soccer field in the UK- doesn't too look panicked and gets picked up by one of the security guards.

Turns out he has a Twitter account (?) with 53,000 + followers. Most of the content are soccer jokes I can't follow.

Some other cat invasions
From a Barcelona game:

A longer version of the invasion from another station is here. The main picture is at 2:53 but before that you see it streak across the top left hand corner.

Ok do doing this post didn't take too long so I should stop feeling sorry for myself and post some more. 

angry white backs?

There have been lots of articles in the Sydney Morning Herald at the moment about swooping Magpies. The photo above comes from a great series by Darren Pateman in Newcastle. From the picture above, you can see that Pateman has a camera mounted in his helmet capturing a series of stills with the Magpie in various positions including an amazing image of the maximum downbeat of the birds wings. This article also has some moving images of the event.


 Having grown up in dry woodland country I know exactly the trepidation of having to cross a nesting Magpies territory. There was a pair in the large hockey fields that I had to cross from Kingswood station to the Univeristy of Western Sydney campus. For six weeks I would walk with a automatically-opening fold-up umbrella at the ready to point towards the incoming bird. The 'pop' of the umbrella worked every time to dissuade the bird from attacking me. 


One of the things I am enjoying about seeing this common bird in Launceston is that the subspecies here: Cracticus. tibicen hypoleuca is a "White backed" magpie where as the magpies in Sydney are C. tibicen tibicen and are part of the "Black back" group.
Anyone know of a swooping male in Launceston?

Paper birds #2: the green screen

work in progress. Using the green screen at ANU. Not sure of the title yet.

This will be a new video that re-tells my first encounter with a Pink Robin in the Styx Valley in Tasmania. I was told at the time that it was a Rose Robin. The misidentification lead me to become a twitcher. The video will have a narrative where I try and think through why the correct identification was important to me.

Nadege and an unhappy snake

a long time ago in Cairns... not that long ago, but feels like it this Friday afternoon with a lot of work still to be done.

snow walking with animals

One year ago...

walking through mountain forests, along paths that follow river streams that flowed because of the hot springs feeding into them. The snow was quiet deep after late falls and the paths were marked by previous walkers. All the way along our human footprints mingled with animal tracks...

including lots of monkey prints..

and hare foot prints- although we saw monkeys, and two weasels bouncing through snow drifts, we didn't see any hares.

In some areas the river had large amounts of animal tracks, either as a place were it was easy to get down to drink, or get in were the springs of hot water where entering the river. We didn't see any monkeys bathing but a lot of evidence of monkey activity.

One day we walked up to try and get over mountain ridge to get to a perched swamp surrounded by higher peaks. The snow was deep close to the top and being completely unused to walking in those conditions, in a landscape we didn't know, we turned back. On the way back almost at the end of our walk, near the onsen, we had an encounter with a mysterious creature.

Just ahead of us we saw a large animal clamber up the rocks near the path. My first thought was that it was a wolf, but I remember reading that the Japanese wolf was extinct. Haico was dancing around singing "It's a bear, it's a bear!" I wasn't sure, although it was large enough to be a bear (on the Tokyo subway on our way home there was an add with bears in it that was uncomfortably close).

The animal looked at us and we at it. Luckily I had my binoculars with me and while not being able to identify what it was we could see it had small horns and was therefore was no bear. It stood its ground and we walked slowly along the path towards it. It kept its eye on us on as we passed it and went behind. Close up we could see it was like a large hairy goat, or a stocky hairy horse?

Back in the onsen Haico looked up all the possible words for goat and mountain goat and deers but there wasn't anything that seems right. We entertained a fantasy for a moment that it was a figment of our imagination, that being both Capricorns, we had conjured up a mythical mountain creature that had resisted being photographed. At dinner we showed out photos to a experienced walker who was at the onsen as well (and who had made it over the ridge that day), he was totally surprised and asked us where we saw the rare "kamoshika"- a Japanese Serow (antelope) -Capricornis crispus.

The next morning along the track we had walked in on, we saw several groups of monkeys, including a family group with alpha males and females with babies, looking for the young bamboo shoots coming through the melting snow.

conversation between sea eagles and mice

A coupe of weekends ago Haico and I went camping at Congo Beach on the south coast. I spent one afternoon lying down on the grass reading and looking up to see adult Sea Eagles glide by overhead. At one point both adults where directly above me- divine! I don't think I have ever seen two Sea Eagles together. One day we walked further down the coast, threw the narrow strip of Euraobodalla NP, to Bingle Bingle Point and we saw a a juvenile Sea Eagle too. So I guess the pair had a successful breeding season like the pair at Olympic Park. The pair at Olympic Park raised two chicks and there is some great footage of the adults feeding the chicks on the Birds Australia Eagle Cam. Next year the camera is going to go onto Live feed- very exciting- I love turning and watching even when "nothing" is happening.

When we packed up the tents under Haico's we found a squashed mouse- just a house mouse. Haico figured the mouse must have crawled under the tent during one of the raining nights and decided that being near him was nice and warm- fatally when Haico rolled over and squished him.

conversations with spring nestlings

I found this guy with a Noisy Minor nestling out of the front of Fisher Library. We had a chat (ie. I bombarded him with questions) and it turns out he found the nestling on the foot path. It was still calling for it's parents who where bringing it food. I suggested he put it down on the seat to see if they would still feed it which they did. So we found a suitably bushy tree to deposit the bird it and let nature take its course. As we where leaving two senior ladies passed and said that noisy minors often fall out of thier nests- interesting information- its not something I have noticed before.

conversations with dolphins

It was sunny this morning so Haico and I decided to head over to Bronte to look at the beach, get some horizon with our scrambled eggs.

The surf was pretty winter rough with big rips. Wandering around the headland and staring out to sea, we saw three dolphins swimming out beyond the surfers. They where in a playful mood, leaping out of the water every now and then. At one point they surfed the waves along side the riders and all three made a spectacular syncronised high leap - wonderful!

Unfortunately these photos are not mine and are from Deb and NSW Ocean Baths on flickr .

Bronte Beach from above

conversations with cats #2

In the first week home I was cycling along one of my regular routes I came out of a cutting to see about 10 cats trotting towards me with their tails in the air- a pack of friendly strays. It was the oddest sight. I have only ever seen two cats do this at once. I of course missed the moment to photograph them doing this. I guess there is someone who feeds them you arrives on a bicycle? I have wanted to go back and visit them but have not had the time yet.

The sense of wonder and pleasure at these stray cats is a new response for me- a post-Tokyo curiosity. Usually I would be angry and cross that they where there and that someone was supporting them (a typical bird watcher response). I was still concerned that the pack is growing as one of the young females (the tabby grey in the top photo) was clearly pregnant.

Nara-conversations with deers

Unfortunately I missed the moment where this family was posing next to the deer is the usual style... and when the small child took a close up with his iphone... although dads casual close up is quite nice. I love how the deer doesn't move and looks completely bored. It might have been a bit about the weather - it was cold and rainy

Nara was pretty interesting. The deer around some of the temples seemed to be statues- not moving at all despite all the human activity, although there was area in further up towards the forest where deers would come running at you when they saw you turn up and if you bought the deer biscuits to feed them you would get mobbed. I didn't feed them- I couldn't cross that Australian native-non-feeding-attitude.

conversations with Beppu cats

View from my hotel window

Three different tabby's in central Beppu. The bottom photo is outside the Beppu Projects Office.

After living in a flat where you couldn’t open the windows for 10 weeks, it was an unbelieve joy to get to a hotel where you could open the window wide. Better still that it was a barmy humid Beppu in Kyushu.

One of the side effects of having the windows open means you hear the city. After 10 weeks with the drone of air conditioning and police sirens being the wallpaper sound scape (sirens being the only sound that cut through from outside), I thrilled to lie in bed and drift off to sleep to the sound of cats scrapping and tomcats wailing. It seems like a rare sound scape to me- the last time I remember hearing the sounds of stray cats like this would have been in Barcelona (10 years ago). Although there are stray cats in Marrickville, it’s not really a sound I hear much at home. I spent a couple of night and morning hanging out the window with my microphones recording their yowls echoing up from the walls below.

As you can see from the pictures above, most of the cats seemed to be tabby’s, I only saw one ginger tom- white with ginger patches. He was very large with lots of battle scares on his face.

Conversations with cats

When I visited Taoko-san I came into the shrine courtyard and heard the incessant mewing of a cat. It was a small white cat with ginger patches sitting in front a watercolour painter begging for food. I made me distressed to hear a stray in an area I had gone to visit to see birds. Later I walked past the monk’s quarters to visit a cave shrine and saw some cat food bowls in a doorway, with a photo of the cat I had seen, lying on a royal blue silk cushion. So a scab, not a stray.

Walking around Yoyogi Park late one afternoon I saw an old street dweller man open a homemade cardboard cat box and let out a large white cat.

I have been missing my Mambo quiet a bit, and have often found myself thinking about Ruben who died a little over a year ago. I am pretty crazy for ginger cats so was very excited by this homeless man’s three well cared for cats. They had really soft fur and the two stripy ones where very friendly. The man was very well organsied, like many people living in cardboard, and was setting up his bed cabin for the night. There are a lot of people living in this area around Shinjuku. It doesn’t look like they have lived long on the streets and it makes me wonder about what kind of social security Japan has and whether the government is going to build more social housing for these people who lost out went the bubble burst.

Two domesticated strays on Endoshima getting lots of attention from visitors. Second one looks like Glenn's Darryl.

Isetan department store windows: The model dressed in a super expensive designer dress has a speech bubble that says: “Lets Work” and holds out a rattrap. The mice in the hole on the far left also say “Let work” while the cats just have blank looks. The designers had quiet a sense of humour, not sure how they got away with this one though.

Friday night

On Friday Andre (Haico’s old friend) took me to another of his favourite locals. It was a place he has been going to for ages and is not a place many foreigners go to, so we where noticed and had sake poured for us by the old guys sitting next to us on the mat (the sitting kills me!). We have started to joke that he only takes me to Grandma and Grandpa places. The very cute couple that run this place are into Kabuki and you can see the signed photos from actors around the top of the room (panorama here). The food was good- salads, pickles, grilled fish and the best udon I have had yet.

The couples very spoilt dog usually hates Andre, but this night decided she wanted to sit on his lap. The feeling of course is mutal.

Black Kite Kamakura

Day #1

I have put links into this post to my Flickr; you can click across for each link or click the Flickr link at the end and scroll through the photos then.

Didn’t get off quiet as early as I wanted to yesterday morning. It was also the first day where I have felt a little overwhelmed with the transport system. I was worried that I was avoiding the underground because I use the raised Yamamote Line so much, so I used the underground to get to Tokyo station, where I would get the local train to Kamakura. I had to change lines to get there, and the change was a bit of maze and at Tokyo station I got really confused by the signs and ended up in the wrong place. But I didn’t panic and even coped with peak hour crush. Once I was on the right train I realised that there was a closer station to pick up that connection and I didn’t need to go through the underground at all. And when I got to Kamakura I found out there was a train direct from Sibuya- so I just done that 45min trek to Tokyo station for nothing... avoiding or not avoiding? Who knows, but at least next time I will know the direct route.

Apart from going to Kamakura to see and experience the temples I was hoping that the forests that Sarah had written about would be good birding and less crowded that Takao-san (yes- I will post about that day…), and with less background noise than the Meiji Temple (which is in the centre of Tokyo) and the industrial Oi Yacho Koen.

When I got off at Kamakura I had a good feeling because straight away I saw two large raptors circling above the town.

My plan was that I would check out some of temples on the route to the two hiking tracks- one starts on the western side of the tracks behind the big Buddha and one on the East from the oldest Zen temple in Kamakura: the beautiful Kenchoji; to Zuisenji. Kamakura is located between small hills with the valleys running down to the ocean. Lots of the temples are built into the tops of these valleys and there are walking tracks over the ridges to the next valley- if you are a Kamakuran the shortest route to where you are going will often be walking up these steep sets of stairs.

I chose the shorter hiking track as I was starting in the middle of the day and took the little rickety local train to a couple of stations along. First thing I heard when I got off was a high-pitched whistling and whinnying like a horse (but high pitched- imagine the sounds in those old Western movies in the desert) - a raptor call. There where several circling quiet low. I finally have a copy of a field guide I like and identified the birds as Black Kites: “58.5 to 68.5cms in the body (females bigger than males) with a 150cm wingspan. Locally abundant on sea coasts, rivers and lakes; where it feeds mainly on carrion and dead fish.” There where quiet a lot of them in sky and I wander along happy at their presence and admiring the beauty of the gardens in the temples.

I had brought with me a packed lunch as I had remember from Sarah’s blog that she had needed the apple and seeds she had packed. There were plenty of places on the west side for food but I was happy to eat my tomatoes, bread roll and cream cheese with walnuts and figs. But I was feeling very self conscious because you never see Japanese people eating on the street and as it was a holy place, and I was responding to it’s special energy, I didn’t want to offend anyone by sitting in the wrong place to eat- I had considered some of the stairs leading up to temple gates, stairs in tiny cemeteries, the train station- I did grab one mouth full before the train arrived- so after several hours when I got to the vending machines and picnic table thoughtfully provided at the coastal look out at Syugenji temple, I was really relieved. Before I sat down I took a picture of the sign with the Black Kites. As part of my research I have been taking pictures of animal–human interaction, so I was most pleased to get the shot of the Kite on the TV antenna, and have been collecting pictures of animal signs- you can see some more here. I didn’t really think about what it might mean, just ‘yes they are Black Kites’.

Why does food always taste so good when you have been walking a lot? Or when you are at a lookout admiring the clear sky and ocean? Why can’t we make proper crunchy French bread in Australia?

Those where my thoughts as I focused on breaking off pieces of baguette and spreading the cheese, feeling the relaxation spread as my blood sugar levels started to go back up.

I was looking out to the ocean when I sensed something large near my left shoulder. Sharp pain in my left thumb! I cry out! A crow? No- too big, too fast A Kite! My god!

Having such a large bird so close to you is quiet a buzz! It happen so fast I was looking the wrong direction so didn’t really see him/her descend straight down with the talons forward. The pain in my thumb focussed my eyes away from the birds movement I just saw him/her spreading its wings and glide away. My instant reaction was to put away the rest of my baguette so he/she didn’t come around for another swoop.

Everyone around asked if I was ok and apologised (As if they had control!) I showed them my binoculars and field guide and said I was happy because I had come to see birds and that was a close look. And the birds kept circling overhead at about a 4-metre clearance- that is close.

Only after a few minutes I realised that he/she had taken the chunk I was eating out of my hand and that he had nicked my thumb near my nail. Amazing really given the size of the bird and the size of it’s claws. I am in awe of it’s ability to judge space and speed.

The Kites flying over town had a more ominous feeling after that and I felt hunted and hungry. I wasn’t really into this temple- the garden where beautiful but would have been nicer at another time of year. I headed off to the Big Buddha hoping to find a safe spot to eat.

I got accosted by two school girls wanting to practice their English- it wasn’t very advanced. The concept of “Is this an ok eating spot” was not getting across- but I figured the big stones where there under the blossom trees ready for the picnics so it wouldn’t matter if I was 2 months early.

I had given up seeing Fuji-san when I was rewarded with this view towards the end of my 3km walk.

Go to flickr for extra photos.

Conversations with Dogs

There is a bit of a dog thing going on at the moment, it’s a bit long to go into now but I will later- the promised posts are stacking up!

The weather has been a little warmer this last week and there have been a lot of people out and about on weekends and in the evenings. The last couple of days I have been walking in Yoyogi most late afternoons. I’m in love with this park and the way people use the public space. One thing that seems to be the thing on weekends is for people to dress their lap dogs up in these strange costumes. The poodle is a classic- chaps for emergency squatting. Hoodies for dogs are the rage- or puffer jackets with hoods. The hoods usually have ears on them too. Although I have not seen a dog wearing the hood up yet.

The ginger foxy looking dog is my favourite so far. He was really cute and I said “kawai” to the owner (a guy in his 20’s I guess). The dog reacted to this word by jumping up and rubbing himself against me- a well worked attention routine, he must love the ladies. The man with the two black dogs and I say hello to each other. He recognises me as the lady who like to pat and take pictures of dogs. The other picture is out my studio window. Last week a lady was throwing a ball up this walkway between the building, she was out of sight, I would just see the dog come bounding into view every couple of minutes.

Off to Kamakura tomorrow, bright and early. For a seek preview you can check Sarah’s post here. I am hoping for views of Fuji-san on the way. It was a super clear day today, cold with a slight breeze blowing away the pollution. The mountain must have been in view. I felt a kind of elation you get from extra oxygen.