February 8th, 2025 –February 12th is Spring – RISSHUN (Beginning of spring)-2nd KOU “UGUISU (Bush warblers) start singing in the mountains”
It snowed all day yesterday (the 8th). There was no sound around the forest. Of course, UGUISU didn’t come out on days like this. The first UGUISU chirping was heard on March 17th in 2022, March 12th in 2023, and March 7th in 2024. There’s one month left.
Meanwhile, down by the riverbank, there were lively creatures, even on a day like this snow. SEKIREI (Wagtail) hopped around on the stones, doing their signature pose of frequently swinging their tails up and down. Winter birds, KANMURIKAITSUBURI (Crested grebes) and KOGAMO (Common teals), floated neatly in a line on the river. When I got close, they flew away immediately. Several KARASU (Crows) were pecking at the bottom of the shallows. When I took away the stones, a large number of YUSURIKA (Chironomidae) that had just hatched (?) from their pupae came out. They were wandering around on the snow, probably because they couldn’t fly yet.
The human (me) enjoyed walking on the snow, also ^^