チュウサギ、キノコなど / Intermediate Egret, Fungus, etc.

I found a lark just off the side of the road and photographed it from inside the car. The man-made background of asphalt and Braille blocks is a protective color and blends in well.

Hot days continue. Not many birds to be found.
Found a flock of Intermediate Egret in the lush rice paddies.

Zitting Cisticola appears from time to time in various places.

Finally, the mushroom. It was a rather large and magnificent mushroom, and its umbrella made me think of a Japanese “melon bread”. I think it was more than 10 cm in diameter. Since I had not had much success with birding, I decided to take a few pictures with my macro lens.

This mushroom is called akayama-dori in Japanese, which can be read as red mountain bird. Despite its strange appearance, it is edible, and is even prized as an ingredient in French cuisine. I found out that it is also sold by mail order as an ingredient. I am curious to know what it tastes like, but I don’t think I would have touched it even if I had known about it at the time of the photo shoot. I am an amateur.

There is also a bird called “akayama-dori” which is a subspecies of Copper Pheasant and is found in the north-central Kyushu region. Mushrooms are nice, but I would like to see this bird as well.