My Udo (Aralia cordata) has crushed two blackcurrant bushes….
Winter Udo
Daily Archives: November 23, 2016
Swifts do stay aloft for 10 months!
Proof that swifts (tårnseiler) can stay in the air without landing for 10 months at a time has been announced and they can live for 20 years which means a single bird can fly 4 million miles in its lifetime! Astonishing! Below the link, a short video of birds divebombing my house responding to me playing swift calls to attract them to my nestbox!
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2110650-swifts-break-record-by-staying-aloft-for-10-months-at-a-time/
Ken’s field and nature reserve in Sugadaira, Japan
In early April 2016, on my study tour to Japan, I was invited to the mountain home of Ken Takewaki (and Masama) for a short visit. I wrote about Ken’s home and the shock of waking to new snow after 20C the day before in the lowlands back in April (see http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=6357)! Despite the snow, Ken took us on a trip around the local area (Sugadaira in Nagano) and we had a walk around a local wetland nature reserve, before Ken took us on a long walk up through the forest where he had recently taken over a piece of land in a clearing to grow vegetables. All the signs were in Japanese, so I don’t know the names of many of the plants we saw, but here’s the pictures:
