Wishing to be a multilingual, a sort of, or the “dawn” of Biolinguistics (really)

Early last month, I had a chance to have a personal lesson with one of the rangers from the Wild Bird Society of Japan. They are keepers of Yokohama Nature Sanctuary 横浜自然観察の森 (; my post on January 22, 2016) and has done continuous survey of the place, especially for birds. The day was for one of the two regular line censuses per month. They very kindly allowed me to learn their way of doing on site. The route of the research is the same for these 30 years in the Nature Sanctuary. It makes possible for the Society to trace long-term changes of bird life in the South Forest of Yokohama. That early morning, very quietly I walked with Mr. Nakazawa for Wild Bird Society. We each carried binocular, recording forms and a map of the census route. First, we record the date, weather, humidity, etc., before starting the research, and wrote down the time when we began walking. All are vital info for the study … It’s a slow 1.5 hours walk, like 1-2km /h. The way for the research goes like this:

(1) Listen carefully the voice of birds coming within 50m radius of a researcher, I mean,

(2) Make it certain from where that voice comes, North, South, East, West, high, low, etc.

(3) Identify the species of the voice.

(4) If possible, use binocular to identify visibly the holder of the voice.

(5) Record the place and time we find the bird, then jot down species, number of individual, and if possible, male, female, adult, kids, what it was/they were doing etc.

After returning to the visitor center, we summarized our result in a standardized spreadsheet that makes further research easier. Mr. Nakazawa said “In this way, we accumulate the data and study the results several times a year. It can help to update our policy for nature conservation movement.” Indeed.

Early morning in May for Yokohama Nature Sanctuary

It was a very thrilling experience, but difficult one. Inside the forest was dark and birds were moving very quickly from bough to bough. At least for me, seldom came a chance to use a powerful binocular the Society kindly lent me. The main way to find a bird was by listening. Mr. Nakazawa said “Japanese tit has really many voices and ways to sing or call. So do the other birds. The only way to improve the identification is learning-by-doing. Let’s listen …” OK. We recorded not only tits, but crows, herons, swallows, brown-headed thrushes, brown-eared bulbul, woodpeckers, etc. etc. Since then, I became a sort of sensitive for bird voices. I even woke up at 4:30 when a Chinese hwamei declared its territory victoriously in our garden. What, what, what is it this early!!!?????

Actually, since last January it became a secret boom among some Kanagawa Forest Instructors intently listening bird “songs.” The beginning was a TV, called Science Zero series of NHK. On December 6th, 2021, they aired a special for the research by Dr. Toshitaka Suzuki of Kyoto University. He discovered Japanese tits have language with grammar. For example, according to Dr. Suzuki piercing JAAA JAAA screech of Japanese tits are emergency warning among them when they saw their predator … He published his research in Nature Communications, Current Biology, PNAS, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, etc. The tele was exciting, and we talked about it for months. A senior instructor actually did a mini-experiment as Dr. Suzuki. “You see? I was busy cleaning up bamboo forest and laid around the ropes over the ground to tie up the thinned bamboo branches. Then I noticed a tit was screeching ‘JAAAAA, JAAAA, JAAA.’ Soon the other Japanese tits gathered around me and started huge chorus of JAAAA! They mistook straw ropes for snakes and alerted each other their perceived danger. So, I pranked on them by coiling the ropes around the bamboos. Normally silent bamboo forest became a heavy metal concert!”

Naomi is a peace-loving person. I haven’t done such mischief for jumpy tits. Then, one early morning, I washed my forestry belt covered by dust and hung it on the backrest of a chair in the garden. I then returned kitchen for breakfast. Over my coffee, I noticed normally serene morning garden turned noisy with JAAA JAAA voices of Japanese tits. I returned in the garden and found out tits were surrounding the belt from the roofs. Oh, sorry. It’s a bit rude way of arranging a garden … Sure, tits are talking each other. Can we be multilingual to understand their chat, just like Dr. Dolittle?

It’s not a snake.

If you find a problem in the greenery of north-half of Yokohama, please make a contact with

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North
北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Creative Environment Policy Bureau
横浜市環境創造局
Phone: 045-311-2016 

FAX: 045-316-8420

Ink Painting: a bit of walk along Hadano Forestry Road in winter 秦野林道

One January weekend, we’ve been Hadano Forestry Road 秦野林道 from Yadoriki Water Source Forest やどりき水源林 for a little survey. Immediately after Super Typhoon Trami last October, the road was covered by debris, and we could figure out lots of broken trees on both sides of the way (; my post on October 19, 2018). It seems to me the Prefecture is doing a clean-up now. One of my senior forest instructors told me the Office is harvesting the logs from there. Some afforested areas are currently under works of forestry with new graveled roads for heavy machineries. Are they using harvesters? “No. Tanzawa is too steep to use such vehicles. I think they use chainsaws, and bring out the logs by a forwarder,” she said. Will it be some help for the prefectural budget to manage healthy Tanzawa-Oyama Quasi-National Park 丹沢大山国定公園? Considering the current market condition, I’m not optimistic for the yen-amount they collect from the work … But surely the afforested trees must be harvested, or thinned, from time to time to keep the forest healthy. If some money can be raised from the activity, it should be better than nothing …

After the super typhoon last October

And after the clean-up, this January

Men at work

A new road

Weekends of winter forests in Tanzawa Mountains 丹沢 are for deer hunters. We’ve met members of Kanagawa Hunting Club 神奈川県猟友会 who are cooperating with the Prefecture to control deer population in the National Parks. They said the catch of the morning was 2-layer angle stags, and then continued their hunt late afternoon. We’ve found a trace of deer on a trunk of Japanese Larch (Larix Kaempferi (Lamb.) Carrière) from which an animal rubbed resin on its body for anti-ticks. Droppings of deer were found several places as well. Still, my senior instructor told me the situation was far better than, say, 10 years ago. “You see, we could even find bodies of deer along a road busy with hikers. They were starved to death … Now the situation is stabilizing, I think.” Hmmmmmmmmmmm. (Please see my posts about deer in Tanzawa in July 2017.) A Hunter was sitting still, and concentrating on somewhere over there. We could hear faint barks of dogs from the other side of a deep valley. The catch was coming …

Could you see hairs of deer here?

They did it.

A hunter is here.

You see?
 The plants along the road are unnaturally ‘mowed’ by deer.
 They ate the top soft part of these plants.

The mountain was cold and quiet otherwise. The majority of the sound we could hear was the hum of airplanes high above and intermittent bird calls. Voices of impatient Japanese tit (Parus minor) were mixed with occasional easy-going calls of Varied tit (Parus varius). Listening them “in Japanese,” they were pronouncing the same word, but the speed was definitely different. “Tsu-tsu Pea, tsu-tsu pea (Japanese tit)” vs. “Tsu-u-Tsu-u Pea-a, tsu-u-tsu-u pea-a (Varied tit).” As they are in the same genus, there might be some interesting story during their evolutionary process … We’ve found several couples of Red-billed leiothrix (Leiothrix lutea) which is designated as one of the worst invasive species to Japanese archipelago. “Wow, this is my first time to record them in Yadoriki Forest.” A veteran instructor said. There happened so many things in a seemingly silent winter Tanzawa …

A feather of White-bellied green-pigeon (Treron Sieboldii).
 They live in this area of Tanzawa,
 and go to Oiso Beach 大磯海岸 to drink salty water.

I found the scenery was very contemplative and, beautiful. There is not much color in winter forest. Understating ever-green trees. Various hues of greys from trunks and boughs of deciduous trees. Dry January of Kanagawa Prefecture gave us the clearest blue sky that contrasted astonishingly with the ridge lines of mountains. Before the maples shed their leaves we could only imagine the depth of the valley from the canopies that could be seen from high bridges. Now it is clear down there were streams with very rocky riverbed. That was a landscape we found in traditional ink paintings of China and Japan. Hadano Forestry Road is not yet opened thoroughly due to the slope failure between Mushizawa Forestry Road Junction 虫沢林道分岐 and Shin’nashi Bridge しんなし橋. Though, it’s the route where 4-wheel vehicles can run. If you plan to have a small peek of deep Tanzawa Mountains 丹沢 during winter, please try this road if only for the first 1 hour stroll from Yadoriki O-hashi Bridge 寄大橋. I guarantee you a meditative but relaxed weekend afternoon in quiet and monotonous mountains ... The world of Zen.

In July

The same place in January

In July

And the same place in January.
 Oh my … the slope is collapsed here …

Yadoriki O-hashi Bridge in July

The bridge in January

Oh, by the way, all the forestry roads in Japan are for permit-holders only to drive by whatever vehicle, i.e. car, bikes and motorbikes. Please walk!

If you find an environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121 〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657

Phone: 046-248-0323

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/