Children’s International Conservation Collaboration
June 28, 2018
The Latham’s Snipe project team has returned from Japan after a fabulous trip to Hokkaido with the Canberra Young Rangers. Between May 18 and 23, Birgita, Lori, Jodie and Richard, accompanied by Ted, Carol and the Young Rangers Connor, Kelly, Olivia, Ryu and Sophie, joined the Wild Bird Society of Japan team at Lake Utonai Nature Center to exchange information and stories about Latham’s Snipe.
The trip began with a visit to Tomakomai City Council to meet with the Mayor Hirofumi Iwakura. Nakamura-san gave an overview about Latham’s Snipe research and monitoring in Japan and Birgita followed with complementary information from Australia. The mayor asked some very insightful questions about the birds and their conservation. This visit was a very great honour for the team and even featured in the local news!
After that we had a weekend of meeting and greeting children and their parents from the local community, learning about snipe research and monitoring in Hokkaido, and Then participating in snipe surveys around Tomakomai. On a freezing cold sunday morning at 5am, with snow still visible on the hills in the distance, the Australian team joined around 20 Japanese children and parents, and Hokkaido Television Broadcasting, lead by WBSJ members Tatsuya Ura, Takemae Asako, Hironobu Tajiri, Satoshi Nakamura, and Usui Shunji to count displaying snipe at survey grids (meshes) located around the area.
The following week, the team then visited 2 schools in the Tomakomai area, the first being Uenae Elementary School and the second being Utonai Elementary School. The team was really pleased to meet up again with some of the school students they met in 2016 at Uenae. Participants exchanged greetings in each other’s languages, learned about the current status of the global snipe population and then joined in on the snipe games and art.
A much bigger group of students awaited the team at Utonai, but all were fantastic and hugely attentive, remembering facts and figures about snipe provide during introductory talks by Satoshi and Birgita. The team also got a tour of the school and its fantastic facilities.
We are exceptionally grateful to staff at both schools for hosting our visit and giving us the opportunity to interact with school children. We are also immensely grateful to Nakamura-san for organising our visits and especially, arranging the honour of a visit with the Tomakomai Mayor.
After the school visits, some of the team members joined the WBSJ to undertake snipe surveys in other parts of Hokkaido. This was a really great opportunity not only to see snipe in their breeding habitats and observe their amazing display flights, but also to see the wonders of Hokkaido’s landscapes in spring when the cherry blossums were still flowering and the snow still lying on the hills.
And here’s a short video of a snipe display flight taken on Bigita’s phone – turn the volume up for this one! If anyone has a better video they’d like to contribute, we’d be very happy to replace Birgita’s video with it.
And of course tasting the local cuisine is always high on the list of visiting priorities!
Dinner on the last night with the WBSJ was at an Izakaya restaurant in Tomakomai where we were treated to delicious Japanese food – a classic Nabe (hot pot) pictured right.
The Latham’s Snipe project would like to thank all the staff at the Wild Bird Society of Japan for being such fabulous hosts and generously giving up so much of their time. We would particularly like to thank the nature center staff Satoshi, Rika, Rumi and Hiro for having us stay. And many thanks also to our delightful and entertaining translator Usui Shunji.
We gratefully acknowledge the support provided by the Australia Japan Foundation that allowed us to make this trip.