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見せてくれる自然の姿 The natural scenery

毎日、いろいろなお客さんといろいろな自然に出会うことができます。どちらも魅力的で、年配の歩くことが大変な方、カメラ機材が超一流の方、若い方、スマホ片手で自然に入りたい方。自然に入るきっかけはなんでも良いと思いますし、写真に収めることができなくても心と思い出にしっかりと残ればそれが一番だと思います。

 

Every day, I get to encounter a variety of nature with a variety of customers. Both are attractive, including elderly people who have difficulty walking, people with top-notch camera equipment, young people, and people who want to get into nature with their smartphones in hand. I think any opportunity to get into nature is good, and even if you can't capture it in a photo, I think the best thing is if it remains firmly in your heart and in your memories.

 

2025年年明けで、少し休みがあったので、鹿を獲りに(撮りにではなく、捕りに)。なので、カメラ片手ではなく、ライフル銃を片手に森に入りました。車を止めて1時間ほど山奥に歩いて入りました。雪は10cm程度で、クマイザサに覆われた林床は、獣道を歩いてもガサガサと音を立てて、こちらの気配を殺して歩くことに集中しないと、相手に気づかれてしまうような森でした。

 

It was the beginning of 2025, and I had a little time off, so I went to hunt deer (not to take pictures, but to catch them). So, instead of a camera in one hand, I went into the forest with a rifle in the other. I parked my car and walked into the mountains for about an hour. There was about 10cm of snow, and the forest floor was covered with bamboo grass, so even if you walked along an animal trail, it made a rustling noise, and it was a forest where you had to concentrate on walking and not be noticed by the other animals.

 

15年前からよく歩いて入るルートで、今回も予想していた日当たりの良い斜面を狙って、気配ムンムン、新しい鹿の足跡を忍足で近づくと、30mほど先のトドマツの茂みの奥から鹿がこちらをのぞいていました。近すぎるというその距離で、鹿も不思議そうにこちらを見てて、ドキッとしてしまい、その気配を鹿が察した瞬間にジャンプして逃げていく鹿。それでも80m先で止まったので、一頭の雌鹿の命をいただきました。

 

I've been walking this route for 15 years, and this time I aimed for the sunny slope I expected, and as I approached the new deer footprints with a strong sense of presence, I noticed a deer peering at me from the depths of the Japanese Sakhalin fir thickets about 30m away. The deer was looking at me curiously from the distance, which was too close, and I was startled, and the moment it sensed my presence it jumped and ran away. However, it stopped 80m away, and one female deer's life was saved.

 

車までは、まっすぐ歩いても30分はかかる距離なので、そこで鹿を解体し持ち運べるだけの肉を運び出すことにしました。荷物を置いて、ナイフで鹿を切り始めると、腰がつらい体勢で、少し起き上がって腰を伸ばすと、目の前に1羽のクマタガが止まっていました。

 

It would take 30 minutes to walk straight to the car, so we decided to butcher the deer there and take out as much meat as we could carry. After putting our bags down and starting to cut the deer with a knife, our back was in a painful position, so we stood up a little and stretched our backs, and a bear-spotted moth was perched right in front of us.

 

いつからそこにいたのか?羽音をたてずに、目の前に止まったクマタカ。おそらく私の銃声で気づいて飛んできたのです。するともう1羽クマタカが飛んできて、近くの木に止まりました。鹿の解体に集中して、続けているとあまりにも、キーキーと鳴いて近くの枝まで降りてくるので、肉を少しナイフで切って、雪の上に投げてみました。20mほどの先の肉ですが、まさかと思ったら私が解体に専念しているすぐ横で、雪の上におりて投げた肉を食べていました。

 

How long had it been there? A mountain hawk landed in front of me without making a sound of its wings. It had probably heard my gunshot and flew over. Then another mountain hawk flew over and landed on a nearby tree. I was concentrating on butchering the deer, but as I continued, it started squealing so much that it came down to a nearby branch, so I cut some of the meat with a knife and threw it on the snow. The meat was about 20 meters away, but to my surprise, it had landed on the snow and eaten the meat I had thrown, right next to me as I was concentrating on butchering.

 

こんな時にかぎってカメラは持ち合わせてなく、後悔しながら、スマホで写真を撮ろうかとも考えましたが、薄手の血だらけのゴム手袋を脱いでまで、、、と思い、撮影は諦めました。解体が終わるころには、肉を持って、2羽ともどこかへ飛んでいってしまいました。これがクマタカと目が合った瞬間でした。

 

I regretted not having my camera with me at this time, and thought about taking a picture with my smartphone, but then I thought about taking off my thin, bloody rubber gloves, so I gave up on taking a picture. When the butchering was finished, both birds flew away somewhere, taking the meat with them. This was the moment my eyes met with the mountain hawk.

 

山の恵、鹿の命。できるだけの肉は回収して、残ったのは骨と皮と内臓。それを笹で多い、雪をかけて、感謝の気持ちで一礼して山を降りました。おそらくそこは、キツネ、テン、カラス、猛禽類、カケスやから類まで、厳しい冬を越すために命が受け継がれるのだろう、どんな動物が来るのだろうと想像しながら山を降りました。

 

The deer's life is a blessing from the mountain. We collected as much meat as we could, and all that was left were the bones, skin, and innards. We covered them with bamboo and snow, bowed in gratitude, and headed down the mountain. I descended the mountain imagining what animals would come there, perhaps foxes, martens, crows, birds of prey, jays, and other birds, whose lives would be passed down to survive the harsh winter.

 

それから、4日後でした。ガイドのお客さんが20代という若いお客さんだったので、訳を説明して、その鹿の現場に行ってみることにしました。暖かい日だったので、汗をかいて山道を登り鹿の現場に着くと、オオワシが陣取っていました。木々の隙間からオオワシを観察し、私たちに気付いたオオワシは飛び立っていき、オオワシが去った後に待ってましたかとクマタカが飛んで、鹿の死体へと降りてきました。息が詰まるような光景で、夢中でした。

 

Then, four days later, our guide's client was a young man in his 20s, so we explained the situation and decided to go to the deer's location. It was a warm day, so we sweated as we climbed the mountain path and arrived at the deer's location, where a Steller's sea eagle was stationed. We watched the eagle through the gaps in the trees, and when it noticed us, it flew off. After the eagle left, a mountain hawk-eagle flew in as if it had been waiting for it, and landed on the deer's carcass. It was a breathtaking sight, and I was fascinated.

 

 

 

クマタカという鳥は、山に入ればすぐ近くにいる鳥でしたが、オジロワシやオオワシと違って、自分で狩をする鷹としては、頭の良さ、見つける難しさはナンバーワンでした。今回の出来事でも、人間が来ることによって、ライバルのオオワシやオジロワシを追い払ってくれるという理解、人間は私を襲うことはないから人との距離感を考える知恵、羽音ひとつ立てずに近寄るハンターの姿、そんなクマタカの思考と動きまでをも、観察できる貴重な時間でした。

 

The mountain hawk-eagle has been around for a long time, but unlike the white-tailed eagle and the Steller's sea eagle, it is very intelligent, and as a hawk that hunts on its own, it is the most difficult to find. In this incident, I was able to observe the mountain hawk's thinking, such as its understanding that humans come to scare away rival Steller's sea eagles and white-tailed eagles, and its wisdom to consider the appropriate distance from people because humans will not attack me.

タイミングが合わないと、出会うことも写真に納めることも難しい野生の姿ですが、毎日山に入っていると偶然出会う驚きがあるものです。そして、そこに偶然遭遇できたお客さんは超ラッキーでした。まだまだ山は歩きます。

 

Unless the timing is right, it's difficult to encounter or photograph these wild animals, but if you go into the mountains every day, you'll be surprised by the chance encounters you'll have. And the guests who happened to encounter them were super lucky. There's still more to walk in the mountains.