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Living Out Of A Suitcase
Posts tagged Wildlife
Ducks (Canard)
Jun 28th, 2010
Since this photo was taken in Beacon Hill Park in Victoria, I figured I’d do a French translation instead of a Japanese one. Duck in Japanese is Kamo (かも).
A Trip to Yagiyama Zoo
May 25th, 2009
We’ve been meaning to make it up to the zoo since last year, even before we moved to Sendai. It’s pretty good considering its small size, with a variety of birds, reptiles, and animals from all around the world. The primates were particularly interesting; we got to feed some of them, and witnessed a couple fights. Across the street from the zoo is Sendai’s amusement park, Bennyland. Looks more geared for young children, but I’m sure we’ll make the trip there sometime this summer anyways.
Got to play around a little with my trusty little Casio EX-V8 at the zoo too. Along with taking great quality stereo video, you can get a true 14x optical zoom when shooting at 2M. Most of the photos below were taken at the telephoto end of the lens. As you can see the zoom and image stabilization work pretty good for such a small and inexpensive camera. It’s really a shame for consumers that Casio discontinued this line after only 2 models. I got mine though so I guess that’s all that matters!
My Good Deed For The Year
Mar 2nd, 2009
On our drive home from an onsen in Onikobe this afternoon we came upon this little fella sitting on the side of a road. Huddled up in a little ball, we weren’t even sure if he was alive or not until we parked and got out to take a closer look. Sensing our approach, the baby owl slowly looked up and opened his orange eyes. Obviously something was wrong.
Some clumps of ice were stuck to his wings and tail, and he was having problems putting weight on his left leg. The top left of his head was also a little ruffled. Although we’re now into March it did snow in this area last night. Channeling my inner CSI abilities, I deduced that the owl was probably sleeping in a tree, got all icy, then went crashing to the pavement below. Another 15 feet to the left and it would’ve been snow.
I got all the ice off (check the video) but he still couldn’t quite get up and going. By this point we were officially elbow-deep into helping this little guy, so we made a makeshift bed, put him in the backseat, and drove off in search of a veteranarian.
Since we were kind of out in the boonies we had to head back into Furukawa. Willy (Kyoko had named him) was just resting in the basket, gently nodding his head from side to side. We found a clinic about 40 minutes down the highway. After a brief examination the vet confirmed my earlier diagnosis, saying that he probably landed on his head and may have incurred some nerve damage, hence the head nodding.
The vet gave us two options.
- Take Willy into Furukawa to the wild animal clinic. If he recuperates, he would spend the rest of his life sitting in a cage at the clinic.
- Take Willy back to where we found him. Make him as comfortable and safe as we can, and hopefully his family would find him.
We decided to take him back. If his family could find him, great. If little Willy didn’t make it, that’s life. He’d probably provide sustinence for another animal, and besides that we didn’t want him to be trapped in a cage for the rest of his life. Animals, especially birds, are meant to be free, so we chose to give him a chance to fly again.
The doc gave Willy a steroid shot to help the recovery process, and gave us a small box and a roll of duct tape. He told us to tape the box to a tree about 3-4 feet up as close as to where we found him. This would help protect him from predators. He didn’t charge us for his services.
Returning to the scene of the accident, we found some brush to put in the box, and picked a suitable location to attach it to a tree, about 15 feet away from where we found him. As I was taping the box to a tree an employee of a nearby business came out to see what we were doing. He was a younger guy and seemed interested, so I hope he’ll check on Willy to see how he’s doing.
Finally, we put Willy into the box and helped him get settled. Goodbyes were said, some tears were shed, and we parted ways, letting nature take it’s course.
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Owl in Japanese is “Fukuro”. The word “Fuku” itself means happiness, and you can find many owl dolls in stores around Japan, for they are symbols of luck and happiness.