Harvest begins

The local farmers began the harvest with the daikon at the end of September.


None of the rice fields I have seen have been drained, so no rice reaping yet.



They usually drain the fields at least a week or so before harvest. As the rice matures, however, we do begin to see bird-deterrents in various fields.


There are a lot of different ways to deter sparrows from eating the grains. The kids and I were especially charmed by this army of scarecrows--six in all--guarding one field not far from our house.

3 in this photo (click to see it larger), two are out in mid-field on the diagonal from the near one)

and a row of both male and female guardians along the edge of the field

No sparrows to be seen in this field (at the moment, anyway).

Most farmers aren't so creative. They simply employ mylar ribbons.


This brings to mind a question. In the US we are very careful not to throw rice at weddings because we have been told that if it is eaten by birds, it will expand in their stomachs and kill them. Why, then, do we not have a surfeit of bloated sparrows littering the Japanese countryside each fall? They eat the stuff like it's candy, fluttering above the stalks and swooping down to munch, then flying off to nearby trees before swooping in again and again and again.