Tag - wild-watch

 
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May 02, 2024
 

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WILD WATCH

Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Nov 20, 2011
Sarobetsu's a stopover to count on for wonders
Gray predawn light suffuses the eastern horizon before crawling slowly across the landscape — but not before a rich clamoring reaches my ears.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Oct 16, 2011
In the pink down on the Rio Negro
Agreat splash, sounding as if a sumo wrestler had just belly-flopped into a swimming pool, echoed up through the wooden floor of my cabin. Yes, the floor.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Sep 18, 2011
Reflecting on icons of 'cute'
Although watching wildlife is not for everyone, countless hordes of visitors flock to zoos when tiger cubs or a Giant Panda baby first go on show, when penguins are on parade, or when young animals are present in the petting section. Why is that?
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Aug 21, 2011
A blood donor to the masses
The bug days are here again. Shades of green are deepening in the debilitating heat of a summer that's made more of a hardship this year due to the post-March 11 energy-saving efficiencies required of us.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 17, 2011
Green is good for you — and the Earth
My work often takes me away from my home in Hokkaido, and with every absence I am irked to be missing out on some part of the inexorable seasonal advance. So, each time I return I make a beeline for my local forest to reacquaint myself with the resident and migrant birds, to trace the tracks and signs of the mammals and to admire the rapidly shifting kaleidoscope of colors in the flowers and leaves.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 19, 2011
Of predators and prey
The forest floor is a maze, a tangle, an adventure — all depending on one's scale.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
May 15, 2011
Japan's mammalian riches
I came across my first bumblebees of the season as they were busily draining the nectar from a broad swath of Blue Corydalis. The delicate flower stems nodding in a light breeze looked delightful in the sunshine, while above them frothy willow catkins were yellow with pollen and here and there birches were presenting hints of fresh green.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Apr 17, 2011
Viewing wildlife through a lens
I grew up in Britain, which is a crane-free zone, so from the very first time I arrived in Japan I was dreaming of seeing the iconic red-crowned cranes of Hokkaido. How much more iconic as a crane can you get than being dubbed Grus japonensis? But just how was I to learn about their haunts and habits?
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Feb 20, 2011
The green heart of Tokyo
An unexpected whickering whistle had me mystified. I circled, trying to pinpoint the direction it was coming from, and puzzled over its origin.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jan 16, 2011
A dream comes true with the blues
My last great wildlife adventure of 2010 began in darkness to the sound of waves crashing on an idyllic beach.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Dec 19, 2010
The explosion of life: demise
Second of two parts
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Nov 21, 2010
The explosion of life: uprising
First of two parts
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Oct 17, 2010
Singing the praise of the silent majority
It is a peaceful autumn day here in Hokkaido; a Black-eared Kite banking, wheeling and gliding effortlessly on outspread wings just outside my workroom window tempts me out for a walk in Nopporo Forest near where I live. There, I stroll among trees that now seem somewhat threadbare; the extreme density of summer foliage has begun to thin. The trail seems to pull at my feet, drawing me onward and reeling me in like a spider would its prey into a web.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Sep 19, 2010
Taking up residence uninvited
I could scarcely make out the small songbird moving secretively through the undergrowth in the gloom of the dark forest. Its calls were barely familiar to me and seemed so out of context that I didn't recognize them at all at first.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Aug 15, 2010
Relics of Ice Age Japan
Scrambling across hillsides may not be everyone's cup of tea, but we naturalists are determined folk and take such activities in our stride when exploring our environment.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 18, 2010
Bathing in northern 'megaherbs'
When I first visited New Zealand in 1994 I was impressed by its astounding landscapes — the stunning beauty of its landforms, coasts and islands. However, I was soon not so enamored of its much-publicized "clean green" image when I realized the incredible destruction wrought on the ecosystem by its small (4 million) human population, their huge flocks and herds of livestock and the alien species they'd introduced, including rabbits and stoats.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 20, 2010
Flying high with alluring aosagi
A large dark shape flaps in a leisurely fashion on deeply bowed wings across a dark gray sky. It looks somehow lumpy, with very broad, rounded tips to its arched wings — and at a distance it appears like a large black "M," but with long outstretched legs, etched on the glowering clouds.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
May 16, 2010
Antics of 'shadow tail' lead the great spring show
The summer birds are here! They arrive travel-weary yet eager — telling, in their courtship songs, tales of months spent in insect-filled forests far to the south, remembering the lazy droning of sweat bees, the buzz and saw of cicadas, the whine of mosquitoes, the flashing colors of tropical butterflies and the dripping humidity of Malaysia, Thailand, Borneo or southern China.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Apr 18, 2010
Brace yourself — I did say 'cute'!
When did you last go out into the woods at night? In this age of media-induced fears, and with far more than half the world's population now being urban- dwellers, fewer of us brave the outdoors even during daylight hours, let alone at night.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Mar 21, 2010
Savoring the beauty of winter's final fling
An indefinable quality in the light somehow signals the air temperature. Airflows from the north and northwest have, for many days this late February just gone, kept Hokkaido frigid. An intangible crispness in the atmosphere combines with the luminosity to forewarn of seriously subzero temperatures. Multilayered clothing is a must, but the static electricity it generates is truly shocking.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Did Japan intervene to prop up the yen? Analysts think it did.
A man walks past an electronic board displaying the exchange rate for the yen against the U.S. dollar (right) in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Number of vacant homes in Japan hits record high of 9 million
A vacant house in Tokyo is seen demolished in January 2020.
Weak yen fattens tourist wallets in Japan
People visit the Ameya Yokocho market in Tokyo's Ueno district during the Golden Week holiday on Tuesday.
Kishida sets sights on energy and climate in South America trip
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will use a policy speech in Sao Paulo to set out his vision for ties between Japan and South America, almost 10 years after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated for stronger ties between the two in the same city.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.

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