Virtual Vacation to Japan and Northeast Asia

February 28, 2008

This week I've been thumbing through a really beautiful book by Tadao Shimba entitled A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Japan and North-East Asia (Yale University Press, 2007). The striking photographs, taken by Shimba, who is an internationally respected birder and natural history photographer, represent over 1,500 wild birds found in Japan, Korea, north-east China, and the Russian far east.

I put together a little slideshow of some of the book's images. (The music's by www.pacdv.com/sounds/.) Like real vacations, and the weekend, it ends all too abruptly. But stick around for the last note and definitely the last image. The book's senior editor from London, Jim Martin, and I agree that the last photo, in particular, is a winner. If you think pigeons aren't much to look at, check it out.

And, before you click, here's the bird lineup:

white-tailed eagles
little curlew
Saunder's gull
varied tit
Japanese green woodpecker
chestnut bunting
black-naped tern
Japanese grosbeak
white-bellied green pigeons