Adatara-yama in Fukishima-ken



Adatarayama is a vulcano 300 km north of Tokyo. The bus brings you to 800 meter, and the summits of Adatarayama and the other neighbor peaks are at 1700 meter. The east side of the mountain is covered by deciduous forest, mainly beech, with a dwarf bamboo as undergrowth. Higher up there are dwarf trees: pines, willows and cherry. There are lots of small rivers and spectacular falls in June, when the snow is still melting. The west side however is dramatically different: barren vulcanic rocks with a fresh looking crater. We were lucky with the weather: rainy season has begun, but, as seems to be customary, the rainclouds are not higher than 1000 meters. We had blue skies and a crystal clear view of distant valleys filled with clouds. The birds I saw this weekend June 7-8, 1996 at the higher levels included:
  • Goshawk (rather rare, my third sighting in the two years I am living in Japan)
  • Black kite (very common)
  • Common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus)
  • Oriental Cuckoo (C. Saturatus)
  • Little cuckoo (C. poliocephalus)
  • White-throated needle-taile swift (Chaetura caudacuta)
  • White-rumped swift (Apus pacificus)
  • Skylark
  • House martin
  • Wren
  • Alpine accentor (Prunella collaris)
  • Japanese accentor (P. rubida) (including nest with chocolate brown shining black dotted eggs)
  • Siberian accentor (P. montanella) sitting on a rocky ledge in the barren crater... sitting on a rocky ledge in the barren crater... There must have been plenty of insects, as the Swifts were hunting there as well.
  • Bush warbler (Cettia diphone) Most general vocalist...
  • Willow tit (Parus montanus)
  • Jay
  • Jungle crow

  • Back to previous page Last modified: April 11, 1997. Fer-Jan de Vries, ferjan@harl.hitachi.co.jp