Roost

While taking a walk at night, I happened to notice a cherry tree as I approached Omokage Bridge.

Cherry trees put on a magnificent display of blossoms in spring, but now, in the height of summer, their leaves are lush and they look thick and dark at night.

I could see a number of white shapes clinging to that cherry tree.

The exposure has been turned up in the photograph, so they appear quite clearly, but to the naked eye the white shapes were only faintly visible.

I took a photograph to find out what they were, and only then did I discover their identity.

That’s right—they were birds.

Perhaps they were the white egrets we see by rivers and ponds during the day.

Besides white egrets, the Kanda River is home to many different birds, including ducks and Eurasian coots. I usually see them during daylight hours, but this was my first time seeing them at night.

White egrets and the like are rather large birds, but this is how they sleep.

It is too dark to see clearly, but since they appear oval, they must sleep with their necks drawn in or tucked beneath their bodies.

How utterly adorable.

Shin-Mejiro-dori runs right beside the Kanda River, with cars and trucks passing along it 24 hours a day, but the birds seem quite used to it by now.

Wild creatures are resilient.

Speaking of the Kanda River, a few years ago, during cherry blossom season, I took a photograph of a magnificent raft of fallen blossoms.

At the time, a pair of ducks was happily swimming among the blossoms, so I’ll share that photograph as well.