2016-12-06 01:33 The nesting of the Superb Fairy-wren
Y (Kuma's owner)
I love birds. There are lots of wild birds around here and I see them every day. About one month ago, I noticed that my hanging basket was getting poor-looking day by day. I wondered what happened to my basket.
A few days later, I saw a tiny brown bird pulling a fiber from the hanging basket's palm. Well, I was not happy with the shabby hanging basket but once I noticed the reason of the losing fibers, I felt happy.
The birds were Superb Fairy-wren. They are tiny and beautiful birds, especially the males have beautiful blue feathers. Yesterday, I heard a little peep from the hedge. I wish I had a 200mm lens of my camera.
2016-09-22 04:15 Free Accommodations for Wild Birds
Y (Kuma's owner)
My husband and I love birds. We made four nest boxes last year and put them up in the trees in the yard.
We didn't expect the birds to use those nest boxes last year but it may be they will use the boxes this year. I have seen a pair of Pale-headed rosella come and peek into the nest box several times. I wanted to tell them how good those boxes are.
The box has a one bedroom with a stylish circle shaped entrance. The nest box is a simple design and it's in harmony with nature. The walls are made of natural timber with no artificial chemicals and there are some tiny holes to get fresh air. The location of this nest box is high enough to prevent an attack from predators. There are nice branches around the nest box and they are very convenient to take a rest. When your kids leave the nest, these branches would be a nice place to practice flying.
The water bowl which is always full of clean water is under the tree. You can enjoy taking a bath anytime you want. You don't need any rent fee or deposit. It's completely free.
We are looking forward to your visit.
2016-09-08 04:51 Regional Dialects in Japan
Y (Kuma's owner)
My husband and I had guests from Japan last month. It was fun to have guests, and we enjoyed chatting. It's usually nice and easy to talk in my mother tongue, however my Japanese is standard and the guests' were Tosa regional dialect. This was a bit awkward. Honestly, I couldn't understand 100% of what they said. My brother-in-law has an Aussie friend who had lived in Tosa (Kochi-Pref.). He can understand the Tosa regional dialect more than I do.
I had learnt Spanish a little. One day, I turned on the TV and saw an educational channel of Italian. On TV, two tourists were talking about where the museum was. The surprising thing was I could understand what they were saying.
Then I thought why do we call all the dialects in Japan Japanese? There are various dialects in Japan. Recently, the dialects are replacing standard Japanese little by little where people around the capital city Tokyo speak Japanese. Therefore, everybody understands or speaks standard Japanese but dialects still remain.
I heard that if someone who speaks Kagoshima (South island of Japan) dialect and someone who speaks Tohoku (North part of Japan) dialect meet and talk, they cannot understand each other but we call all these languages Japanese. I don't know why? I guess that the difference between Kagoshima dialect and Tohoku dialect is bigger than Italian and Spanish.
It's interesting that there are so many dialects in such a small country.