The main motivations for our recent Japanese holiday were cultural and historical but naturally I kept a look out for birds and beasts, as I do here. We spent time in Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Takayama and Koyasan, listed from largest to smallest, and from each of them except Osaka we ventured into the edges of the surrounding forested hills.
We didn’t see many birds, however, either in variety or in absolute numbers. Crows outnumbered all the rest, even in urban areas. Beyond them, I can only recall sparrows, a couple of hawks soaring over the rivers in Kyoto, and a couple of waterbirds on a pond at the historic village on the outskirts of Takayama. The weather must bear some of the blame, since we had more wet days than dry and sensible birds stayed out of the rain as much as they could (although we tourists just carried on regardless, as we did in the Italian heatwave last year).