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Swan pond – Ichinoseki-tameike, Naka city |
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In the winter in Japan, migrant swan visiting is one
of the charming sights. From November to the end of March, swans stop over
in the vicinity of Hitachi which is located in the north of Ibaraki before
their going back to north. Wefd like to introduce a park where swans stop
over which is in f ront of Naka City Office located about 30km southwest of
Hitachi.Naka City Office is located on the west side of Japan Railway Kamisugaya Station on the Suigun line which runs along Route 349. It takes about 15 minutes on foot from the station. Ichinoseki-tameike water park fronting the city office gives comfort to the citizens all through the year. In spring, a lot of acacia trees flush in unison everywhere in the park. Families play on the waterside in summer, there is a clump of hagi (Japanese bush clover) in fall, and then in winter a great number of swans come flying there. This tameike (basin) was built as a storage reservoir to manage agricultural water. @The swan, a herald of winter has come flying in Ichinoseki-tameike every winter to overwinter since 1974, when the swan fist visited there. The largest number of migrant swans was 166 recorded in 1999. Swans usually live in Siberia. In May and June, they lay eggs and then cygnets are hatched. In fall, swans gather into Hokkaido via Sakhalin for food. Then they come down to Ichinoseki-tameike in November. They overwinter in Japan and then go back to Siberia in mid-March with the coming of spring. The number of swans coming flying in the pond as of mid-January is around 60 which is less than usual. In addition, because of this unusual cold winter, half of the water surface turned to ice, you can see the swans and ducks walking on it. |
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There are two feeding platforms by the pond where even children can feed
swans safely. In the daytime, not only swans are sailing peacefully, but
also various ducks swim on the water lively. The number of them might be
hundreds. If you are lucky, youfll see that a common kingfisher tries to
fly into the sky from around the pond. They show us their very beautiful
blue wings and orange bellies sitting in a tree as well as in flight. There are two kinds of swans coming down to Ichinoseki-tameike: one is whooper swan, the other is bewickfs swan. About 70% of them ar  e whooper
swans.Whooper is larger than others at about 140cm length, a 200cm wingspan and 10kg weight and has white plumage (cygnet has gray one). It also has a more angular head shape and a more variable bill pattern that always shows more yellow than black. Bewickfs is smaller than whooper at about 120cm length and a 180cm wingspan and honks differently. Swans eat aquatic vegetation, including the stems, and roots of many types of pond weeds in nature. In artificial feeding, swans eat immature rice, oats and crumbs provided. |
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An old Japanese farmhouse was moved to right next to the swan pond and
reconstructed which you can tour inside. There are a kitchen and a living
room in it which are exactly the same as they were when it was functioned.
The style of the farmhouse is called magariya which was seen more common
in the colder region. Magari in Japanese means bent, in the literature the
house is built in an L-shape. The longer part of building was used as a residence and the shorter one was used as a barn for cattle or a barn. The farmhouse which is preserved there was built in 1862 at Tozaki Naka. It is the last existing one so that the city decided its preservation. It was relocated and reconstructed in September, 1999. |
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 Magariya |
 Irori (fire place) in livingroom |
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is one of them. Many photographers love the fine view including the brush
surrounding the pond and visit there to take pictures. Many photographers
strive to take pictures in which swans are trying to fly in the sky from
the surface that is most scenic even though swans fly only early morning
and at dusk. Kotoku-numa is the first place where swans first came flying
to Ibaraki in 1966.