Around this time of year, homecoming festivals are being held at colleges all around the US. Some Japanese universities have picked up this fine autumn custom as well. And for a naturalist walking and cycling around the satoyama countryside, there is yet another sort of happy homecoming to be enjoyed.
One dependable autumn ‘homecomer’ is the mozu, or bull-headed shrike. This small bird, only about 20 cm from head to tip of tail, is a familiar sight around open meadows, farm fields and rice paddies all over Japan. Mature males are russet with a brown crown and distinctive black eyestripe fringed in white. Females and immature birds show a similar, but less distinctive, color pattern.
In the southern Kanto rice paddy countryside, the shrikes are early starters. They begin breeding in late winter. By April, when most birds are still looking for a good nesting site, the shrikes have fledged their chicks and left for the mountains. Here they stay until their autumn homecoming.
Back home, the shrieks quickly establish individual territories and make themselves known by shrilly scolding anyone who dares to pass underneath their favorite tree, on foot or on bike. You can also verify their presence by checking the edges of fields and woodlands for small animals, including mice, grasshoppers, frogs, fish, crabs, crayfish, earthworms, lizards and even sparrows, that have been impaled on sharp objects such as thorns and broken stems and branches.
Shrike are heavily carnivorous, with thick, hooked bills. They may look and act like miniature birds of prey, but their feet are the same as other songbirds. Without sharp, powerful talons, the shrikes have trouble holding their prey down. Their somewhat disturbing habit of impaling prey on sharp objects may help the shrikes dismember and eat their meals at leisure. The impaled animals may also serve as territorial markers or as a winter food cache.
Many readers may be familiar with the beautiful Japanese children’s song ‘Aka Tombo’. The evocative lyrics describe childhood memories of red dragonflies darting around and perching in the autumn sunset. A very rough translation might be as follows:
Red dragonflies flying in the sunset
When could I have watched them
Strapped on my nanny’s back
Filling a small basket
With mulberries from the upland fields
Could this be a real memory,
or nothing but a fanciful illusion
Nanny left to get married when she was 15
Soon even her letters stopped coming
Red dragonflies in the sunset
Perched on the tips of poles
This song was written by the poet and essayist Rofu Miki (1889~1964) in 1921, based on vague recollections of his childhood. The actual setting is thus sometime in the late 19th century, probably in the Hyogo Prefecture countryside. The aka-tombo or red dragonfly in the song was most likely a species in the genus Sympetrum. Although many Japanese believe aka-tombo refers to a particular type of dragonfly, it is actually a generic term that can be applied to any of about 20 native species in this genus.
One widely known and very common Sympetrum species is the aki-akane (S. frequens), which breeds in rice paddies all over the country. The eggs are laid in the paddies from mid to late autumn, and spend the winter tucked safely away in the bottom mud. Come spring the eggs hatch, and the naiads, as dragonfly larvae are called, grow and moult. By June theu are ready to metamorphose. Almost immediately the newly emerged dragonflies leave their native paddylands, and migrate up into the hills and mountains, where they stay until the autumn breeding season comes around.
The aki-akane is thus another welcome countryside ‘homecomer’!
When the aki-akane left for the highlands in June they were all a drab yellow green. At homecoming they have turned a reddish brown. The bright red that Rofu remembered from his childhood is their nuptial color, and deepens with the progress of the autumn mating season. Only the males turn truly bright scarlet. Males perch on conspicuous points to show off their fine color. They chase away rivals and wait for the females to take notice.
The various Japanese Sympetrum dragonflies are difficult to tell apart at a distance. The important distinguishing field marks to look for are the general size, the color of the faceplate, the patterns on the side of the thorax, and the color of the wingtips. The aki-akane is about 2.5 cm long with a wingspan of 3cm, has a yellow faceplate, distinct black lines on the thorax, and clear wingtips.
