Monday, March 12, 2007

Flora and fauna -March-

I was asked to write Japanese flora and fauna by Jim .
From this month, therefore, I will write what I am interested in Japanese plants, birds.

March.
The plants of this month:
I chose "daphne" as the plant of this month.
In the middle of March, sweet smell of daphne begins to hang over around the outskirt of Tokyo.
You can sense that long dark season will end, warm comfortable season will start with this smell.
As you may know, the North of Japan is still cold while the south of Japan is now very warm because Japan is vertically long country.
Tokyo are, where I live, is the centre of Japan and now this smell is going around with this reason.







The birds of this month:
I would like to choose (Japanese) White-eye as the bird of this month.
The eyes are surrounded with white color and its body is tiny, greenish.
They are seen on the branch of Japanese plum trees (Ume) with many flowers.
Those birds like to suck sweets from flowers of Japanese plum trees.
People like those tiny lovely birds and sense the cold season is beginning to end.