Visitor Center Report

When I walked in the woods with snowshoe, and took a rest under the white birch tree, many Japanese tit “Parus minor minor ”.came flying.
I heard something knocking tree, so I looked up and found “Pteromys volans orii 〈Kuroda, 1921〉” in the hole of tree.

Many Japanese tit knocked the tree, the vibration made “Pteromys volans orii 〈Kuroda, 1921〉” wake up.
That’s a great gift.
I found their dropping around there.
There was nothing,
So I wander that he took a rest.

The temperature is -5°c now.
Everyday temperature keeps changing.
This is this winter pattern.
For animal, it is sometimes freezing, warm, raining, snowstorm.
It must be hard winter.
Look at the picture!
“Sciurus vulgaris orientis ” is active in the morning, stays nest in the afternoon originally in winter season.
But it is active, running in the afternoon.

It is very windy, sometimes snowstorm in Sounkyo.
The temperature is -10°c, freezing.
The picture is “Haliaeetus albicilla”.
They sometimes come to urban area to get a carcass of Ezo deer.
They mainly eat fish, sometimes duck, and a carcass of mammal.

It is snow storm same as yesterday in Sounkyo.
We want to see clear sky.
And more it will be snowy for a while.
Weather forecast says that it will be warm next week, temperature sometimes will be 0°c (as of February 2)

The picture is “Pteromys volans orii 〈Kuroda, 1921〉”
They are nocturnal animal.
After sunset they go out their nest for 30 minutes.
We watch them for a few years.
They sometimes go out before sunset.
They are active when it is not the breeding sason.
We can’t understand them.

It has been bad weather since early morning.
Today’s snow is too much to finish shoveling snow.

And more we can’t see anything because of snowstorm.
We are afraid that we have so much snow tomorrow morning.
The amount of snow fall in January was 136cm, and depth of snow was 92cm.
Last year’s amount of snow was 122cm, as same as this year.