More Birds and Persimmons

A sparrow looks on hopefully as the gray starling feasts.

The reward for patience is the golden heart of the sunrise.

Rear end view of a Japanese white-eye.  These birds are very acrobatic, and can hover like hummingbirds.

Last of the Persimmons

Day after the winter solstice and a total lunar eclipse which we couldn't observe due to rain. Today is warm, in the sixties, and feels nothing like winter. Yet the birds at dawn have been working over the last of the persimmons, and today the tree is wintry bare. Below, the shrubs have red berries, and the red camelia has started to bloom. Christmas colors!

Many kinds of birds come to eat the persimmons. Jungle crows, sparrows, Japanese white-eye (mejiro), the brown-eared bulbul (hiyodori), and the gray starling (mukudori) are frequent and very noisy diners.

Here we have the sleek female bulbul, and her spiky-headed mate. These two get the prize for being the most outrageous characters, and having the best and loudest song repertory. I love them dearly. 

The bird with its head in the persimmon is a gray starling, who unfortunately only makes typical starling rasping noises. The nesting behavior in spring is kind of endearing, though, as it hops about carrying long strands of straw. I also like the sky blue eggs.

Last Leaves of Autumn

Today the wind blew all the remaining leaves off the trees. Ginko nuts rained down on the roof and bounced to the ground. We have a lot of work cut out for us, peeling the smell skins, washing and drying the nuts in their shells, then storing them to be roasted or steamed and devoured little by little.
The tenacious little blueberry still has its microcosm of autumn color, warming my soul every time I open the door.

Dragons beard, flower and fruit, the fruits so important to the survival of wild animals in the mountains. The tanuki (racoon dogs) will be by soon, eating the kiwi left on the vine for them, snuffling through the ginko skins, and scarfing down the dragon's beard berries.

And then there is the late afternoon spent in the park, when magic hour struck, highlighting, among other things, the unseasonal blooming of lotus in a pond riddled with the detritus of fallen maple leaves.

Forest farm

Our forest farm, with persimmons in the foreground. The yellow tree is providing us with enough ginko nuts to keep us fat over the winter. Kiwis hang over the front door, and I am still trying to figure out how to harvest the ones that are hanging over the neighbor's driveway. And our mini mandarin orange tree has five little oranges on it this year.

Also you can see the juxtaposition of persimmons with Japanese maple leaves (momiji), each symbolic of the autumn season and brilliant with color. The birds have eaten half a sphere and will come back for the rest, later.