The Great Reed Warbler normally stays stubbornly hidden in the sugarcane fields and undergrowth, but the timing coincided with a break in the rain and it briefly came out into the open where I could see it well.

Same individual as above. It appeared to be drying its rain-soaked feathers.

This one pushed the bird above off its perch, so it is the same leaf but a different Great Reed Warbler. It looks even more heavily washed with brown.

More than ten Red-throated Pipits had come down into the recently harvested paddy. A Rosy Starling and a Pale-backed Pigeon were also mixed in among the flock of Oriental Turtle Doves in the same field.

My son can now tell several species apart. Birdwatching with him — a fan of the picture books Tsubame Kōkū, Poppo Kōkū and Karugamo Yūranssen (all by Keiji Motoyasu) — is a real pleasure.