My son may've thought I was crazy when I dashed outside with my camera in the middle of the night. Had I heard the song of a nightingale? Well, not exactly.
It was the blue rock thrush I heard calling. The thrush, in mainland Japan, is a dull brown, but here in Okinawa, it's blue with copper-colored undersides...that is, that's what I was expecting when I jumped out to see the bird. But in the light of the street lamp, its blue shading looked barely gray around the shoulder...looked mostly brown, actually...what a disappointment.
I've seen the same type of bird on the exact same wall in the daytime sunlight, and...see what the color looks like? This is a photograph taken in Jan., in the daylight.
I remember there were waterfowl, heron, some carp, butterflies and dragonflies, in that river that runs in front of the house. There were lots of flora and other wildlife there too. If only temperatures would come down so I could go out to see them! (But maybe there's still more work God wants me to spend time doing at the house, and He knows if it gets too nice out, I'll lose my head and stay out too long....)
I just wrote my Buddhist friend in Iwarsuki, a bird lover, to whom I'd been looking forward sending pictures of the Okinawan Kawasemi (I know there are some.) But I sent her these instead, saying they were the best I could do for now--they were framed pictures of the bird, hanging in my stepmother's old study.
How'd it go..."Two birds in a frame are worth one in the bush...or something like that?"
