Kera no Kuni

Location: Kodomo no Kuni, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture

Access: Shinjuku Station to Chuo-Rinkan Station - Odakyu Line. Chuo-Rinkan Station to Nagatsuta Station - Tokyu Denentoshi Line. Nagatsuta Station to Kodomonokuni Station - Kodomonokuni Line

Weather: Mainly Clear, Cool, Still

Time: 12.30pm - 3.30pm

Birds: Black Kite, Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Japanese Green Woodpecker, Oriental Turtle Dove, Rock Dove, White Wagtail, Brown-eared Bulbul, Dusky Thrush, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Japanese White-eye, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Carrion Crow, Jungle Crow

Comments: While the correct name for the park is Kodomo no Kuni (translated roughly as Children's Land or Kid's Country), we dubbed it Kera no Kuni - Woodpecker Country - after seeing more woodpeckers than any other type of bird in the field today.

Entrance to the park costs 600 Yen per adult, and the park is open from 9.30am to 4.30pm. Various walking paths extend throughout the park and through a variety of habitats. We elected to take the path that leads around the perimeter of the park through forest and scrub.

Japanese Pygmy Woodpeckers were the most conspicuous species along the path, with single birds and couples easily found every 50m to 100m. One Great Spotted Woodpecker was found near and right of the entrance gate, in tall trees on a hill overlooking the mini-railway. A second was found along the perimeter path near a group of wooden chalets. Further along the path, which follows the top of a hill surrounding the park, a single Japanese Green Woodpecker was found high in a tree overlooking the childrens farm area in the valley below.

Links: Kodomo no Kuni (Japanese)

2006 Japan Bird Count: 39 Species