Nature watching while railfanning.

[gmat]

Yesterday, I had the extraordinarily good fortune to see some unusual birds while riding the Mito and Kashima Line. Some of those two lines ride next to farmland or through small wooded areas. It started near the end as the Mito Line approached Tomobe as a green pheasant ran across the tracks just before the train. I've only seen them a few times before and any sightings are something special. It was a male and had a dark bluish neck with green shading on the body. Then as I started on the Kashima Line from Mito on the tracks on the viaduct, we passed over a river and among the ducks was a black swan. Then about 10 minutes later as we passed some rice fields, I saw two herons standing in water in a rice field and then in quick succession an osprey flew right by my window and then I think I saw a small owl sitting on a telephone wire. Pretty unexpected. I used to see ospreys all the time in the Saku Valley, but all we see in Tokyo are crows. I saw a deer in a patch of woods just before some farmland while on the Koumi Line just after leaving Kobuchizawa but my most memorable sighting was a male green pheasant with its bright red head standing near the tracks on the Koumi Line as we rounded a turn to head into Komoro Station. I could have almost touched it if my arms were six feet longer.

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[bikkuri bahn]

One time many years ago, while riding the Yamagata Shinkansen on the Ou Main Line, I saw a Japanese monkey scurrying away from the train into a snow covered embankment. When I was living in Nemuro, the kiha 54's on the Hanasaki Line would often have to break hard whenever a deer decided to occupy the track in the evening hours.  I think only one train I was on actually struck one, though. Saw some Japanese cranes, too.

[marknewton]

Grant, it's amazing how much wildlife you can see from a train if you bother to look. Where I am, we see a variety of native birds, plus kangaroos, wallabies, wombats and echidnas. There's one echidna that lives at the end of the shunting neck:

 

 

Our line skirts the ocean at Stanwell Park, and it's not unusual to see pods of dolphins and whales there. Once, when I was running a train across the flats from Robertson to Moss Vale, a wedgetail eagle flew alongside my cab window for about 2 minutes, almost close enough to touch - magnificent!

 

bb, funny you should mention deer. We have a large population of Javan Rusa deers living in the bush here, which were introduced during the 19th century. Now they're feral, and it's common to see the bloody things on the track at night. Sadly, they also get struck fairly frequently by our trains. One of our drivers is the depot "ace", with five confirmed kills.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

Not wedgetail, but a sea eagle:

 

 

Saw this beauty when running the Railmotor Society's 620 class DMU between Mindaribba and Telarah on the Steamfest weekend.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[gmat]

Not only really nice, but you were able to get a photo, too! I'm jealous.

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[westfalen]

A koala that lives in a tree at the end of Cleveland platform, taken through the cab window. There are several in the area with the unfortunate result that they occasionally get run over. I got one myself one night.