Rainy Season in Tosayamada, Japan

The rainy season is as expected in Japan. The beginning of it starts with days of sun and cloudy periods with rain either light or heavy for an hour or so. This occurs almost every day with rain for at least a short while and turns into rain all day every day for days or even weeks on end. The rain is usually interchanging between light and heavy periods but the entire day is in clouds. Later in the rainy season you can have weeks of cloud with light to heavy rain.It has brought with it an entirely new set of flowers blooming.

Bur Marigold Species (Bidens sp.)

Chinese Spiranthes (Spiranthes sinensis)

Despite the rainy weather the wildlife in Japan doesn't appear to miss a step. Every period of sun or even light rain you can see butterflies out fluttering between flowers and dragonflies catching a quick meal. Insects are out in abundance now and some of the common ones are Japanese Beetles, an invasive species Paraglenea fortunei, Atrocalopteryx atrata, Skimmer Dragonflies, many different species of wasps, Japanese Copper and Japanese Oakblue along with many other species of butterflies. 

Atrocalopteryx atrata

Pied Skimmer (Pseudothemis zonata)

Japanese Copper (Lycaena phlaeas daimio)

Japanese Oakblue (Arhopala japonica)

Japanese Beetle (Popillia japonica)

Paraglenea fortunei

Ichneumonid Wasps (Family Ichneumonidae)

 Finding a massive caterpillar never gets old and I named this one Fluffy Maximus until I identified it as a Kunugia undans moth.It is difficult to see in the dark photo I took but two fluffy patches of blue hairs puff out when he is startled.

Moth (Kunugia undans)

Applesnails are very abundant in the many ditches and rice fields around the Japanese countryside. These are large snails and they lay bright pink eggs on pretty much any surface just above the waterline.

Channeled Applesnail (Pomacea canaliculata)

Young frogs are metamorphosing on mass and hopping around the rice fields. The calling amphibian season isn't as short as in Canada and despite the emergence of froglets (three species emerging: Japanese Tree Frog, Wrinkled Frog and Black-spotted Frog) adults are still calling in the fields. There has been a shift from the loudest species being Japanese Tree Frogs in the start to now Wrinkled Frogs and Black-Spotted Frogs being the most frequent calls being heard. I was lucky enough to find a Schlegel's Green Tree Frog one rainy night although I still have not seen their characteristic egg masses in any trees.

Japanese Tree Frog (Hyla japonica)

Black-spotted Frog (Pelophylax nigromaculatus)

Schlegel's Green Tree Frog (Rhacophorus schlegelii)

Snakes have been quite active in recent days and I imagine they are out basking as much warmth as they can or catching a meal on the hop. So far I have observed three species. The most common are rat snakes, either Four-lined Rat Snake or Japanese Rat Snake with Tiger Keelbacks being observed quite frequently as well. Three all black snakes (melanistic) were seen in various habitats including rice fields, roadside or in a pile of woody/metal debris. Only one of the melanistic snakes was alive and unfortunately it was gone quite quickly but I did manage to get a quick photo of him coming out of a pile of grass cuttings that also had a skink in it! I actually was so focused on the snake I didn't notice the skink until looking at the photo later. 

Melanistic Four-lined Rat Snake (Elaphe quatuorlineata) and a Japanese Skink (Plestiodon japonicus)

Tiger Keelback (Rhabdophis tigrinus)

Tiger Keelback (Rhabdophis tigrinus)

 Our first typhoon included about a weeks worth of  waves of light-heavy rain occurring both before and after the tropical storm winds and the 2 days of heavy rain that went pretty much horizontal. Afterwards it was followed by flooding conditions from the large volumes of water coming down from the mountain streams/ rivers and flowing into the Monobe or its tributaries. I was out running the day the typhoon hit and the alarms in the countryside rang followed by a bunch of Japanese I could not understand and the single recognizable word 'Typoon'. Later we received a pre-evacuation warning for any people unable to evacuate quickly. We didn't evacuate and despite the water rising to about 1 m away from our house we were fine. The view from our balcony was spectacular with the normally calm river turned into a loud, chaotic mess of large waves and swirling waters.

Monobe River in winter before flooding

Monobe River in winter before flooding

Monobe River Flooding

Monobe River Flooding