The Senogawa is a local river where I often go to take a walk. Despite being hemmed in by major roads, a train line, housing, noisy construction, ugly concrete, unsightly overhead cables clusters and a ton of annoying humans, it’s still teeming with wildlife.

Today I strolled along a three kilometre stretch and noted down all the avians I encountered. It’s quite a tally. (Hover over the photos to reveal the names - and no, I didn’t take them).

Coming in at the top with 19 individuals seen, we have the Eastern Spot-Billed Duck. I’m very partial to this chap : they’re the only ducks that stick around all year in this part of Japan, and they are often amusing, sometimes waddling up onto the path, or doing the ‘arse in the air’ pose as they peruse the riverbed for treats. We don’t get them in Europe, and although they do seem like a poor man’s Mallard, with the blue wing stripe but not much else in the way of vibrant colours, they’re still my favourites.

Next up is the Northern Pintail, of which there were 15 out and about today. These guys only appear in the winter, then bugger off to continental Eurasia to avoid the roasting summer months.

After that, with a solid 15 examples, we have the charming little Wigeon. Also confined to winter in these parts, from a distance it’s easy to mix them up with the Pintails, since both have round brown heads. The Wigeon is much smaller, though.

For our next entry we momentarily leave the world of ducks, since I’m talking about the Little Egret, of which there were 7. These things, with their pure white feathers and distinctive yellow feet, are really common - it’s not unusual to count as many as thirty on one walk. There was a bit of drama associated with one of those I saw today : she’d just plucked a little fish out of the water, when a cheeky Crow tried a dive-bombing attack in an attempt to steal, it but was chased off by another Egret. There are bigger white egrets around, as well as the huge Great Herons, but I didn’t see any of those today.

Also not ducks : 3 Cormorants - large mostly black divers, who don’t have water-proof feathers and so have to dry their wings by keeping them in an extended position. Quite a mysterious critter, if you ask me.

Coming in a long way behind is the Mallard, with just a solitary couple. Commonplace in Europe, but fairly rare here, I usually only ever see one pair each year.

And a few stragglers bringing up the rear : one Coot. Is a Coot even a duck, technically speaking? I don’t know, but you don’t see them in any great quantity here in South-western Japan.

However, I did see one more duck - this is a tiny little thing that dives a lot. They seem to be solitary, and are a kind of messy, dirty off-white colour. To be honest, I haven’t been able to identify it conclusively. I did have it down as a Smew, but now I’m not really sure…

And then, I got lucky, when suddenly the distinctive blue and orange of a Kingfisher flashed across the river and was gone in a second. I’ve quite often seen them here, but you have to be patient and know where to look.

The other solitary example of a species I saw today was my favourite non-Duck, the Daurian Redstart. This colourful little guy isn’t around in the UK, so it’s quite a novelty for me. They also seem to be very rare and don’t go about in groups. I’ve lived in this area for nearly eight years, but it was only last year that I first saw one. I was beginning to think they were an anomaly, but this is the second I’ve seen in the last week, so I’m glad they’ve come back again this winter.

Then there is the second unidentified avian of the day. I saw a very large bird sitting on a stone in the middle of the river keeping a look out. The shape was the same as the Cormorant, but this one had a different colour beak (bright yellow), and it’s front was white (as opposed to the all-over black Cormorant). I tried to get help from the very useful (and free) Merlin Bird ID app, but no luck. Some kind of slightly lost sea bird? (The sea is only abouy 4 kilometres away).

OK, aside from the above species, there were the more ubiquitous ones which are so plentiful that I didn’t count them : quite a few groups of Pigeons, absolutely loads of Wagtails, of both the Japanese and the regular variety, a gang of noisy Sparrows and the aforementioned cheeky Crow and his numerous cohorts.

And finally, if I may detour from the avian to the piscine, I saw 30 big carp in the river, some white, some orange, some dark greenish. There’s usually at least ten around, but today was quite exceptional.

One thing I didn’t see today, but have occasionally done so, is the Nutria (or Coypu), the giant South American rodent that’s about the size of a dog - quite scary! The story of why they are here in Japan is apparently that they were imported to be farmed for food just before World War Two, then they escaped, and now they’re everywhere! Maybe next time…

TODAY’S BIRD COUNT

“OUIDA” - FORGOTTEN VICTORIAN BEST-SELLING AUTHOR

CHAT GPT GOT ANGRY WITH ME..