A birdwatching & drawing adventure in Japan

Introducing Season 2 of Drawing to See

Hello friends, and happy July!

It’s been over a month since Arley and I packed up our tiny Jerusalem apartment and moved to Japan. We’re growing roots in Chiba Prefecture (next to Tokyo), where I was born and raised for half of my childhood. We live along the border of a Satoyama landscape. This term is made up of the characters for “village” (里) and “mountain” (山) and describes the environment where people coexist with nature, surrounded by wooded hills and rice fields. It’s a peaceful place to call home.

As we are slowly transitioning to life here, I’ve been reflecting and brainstorming with others about how I might continue this newsletter in a new environment. One of the most meaningful elements of Drawing to See this past year has been drawing my attention towards wildlife—especially birds (no surprise to everyone who has been reading along).

To go deeper into this interest and connect with the natural landscape of our new home, Arley and I have set a goal to see and draw 150+ birds in Japan between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024. We plan to share weekly posts that highlight recently identified birds with drawings, fun facts, and other observations about Japanese nature and culture. Once a month we’ll send out a monthly roundup of all the birds we’ve identified so far, soundscapes, drawings, and stories we gather along the way.

I’ll also start drawing phone wallpapers that paying members can download once a month to bring nature to your screens. To build community with fellow artists and/or nature lovers, we’ll utilize chat threads (an interactive Substack feature) where we can update each other on our birding life lists, share nature drawings, and chat about birdwatching experiences.

Drawing to See will continue to evolve as we learn, experiment, and grow. We’d genuinely love to hear your feedback on any ideas you have to make this space more engaging. We’re excited about this next season and hope it will inspire all of us to find ways to (re)connect with the natural world around us as we meet our wild neighbors.

And with that, I share with you one of the first birds we identified on Day One of our birdwatching adventure. We went for a 30-minute walk around our Satoyama neighborhood and identified 11 different bird species, including these cute little songbirds.

Eurasian Tree Sparrows

• Latin name: Passer Montanus | Japanese name: すずめ (suzume)

• Size: 14cm

• Listen to its dawn song →

• Lives throughout most of Asia, Europe, and a few small portions of North America, where it was introduced in the mid 1800s.

• Their diet includes seeds, grains, arthropods, and cherry blossom nectar. In urban environments they compete with pigeons for food crumbs. Parents of recently hatched eggs also eat eggshells for a calcium boost! (Talk about zero waste 😅)

• In northern Japan, a famous traditional dance called the suzume odori was inspired by this bird. Watch this video to see the cute fluttering wing motions of sparrows in the dancers’ movements.

the original pencil sketch

As a gift to thank everyone for following our adventure, this first phone wallpaper featuring the Eurasian Tree Sparrow is free for everyone!