(B) This was photographed during the evening on 3 July 2003 at the Sakata Center for Waterfowls and Wetlands (established in May 1998). This leisure was on the way back from salamander hunting to my laboratory.

In summer, water plants such as irises including the East Indian lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) are growing crowdedly in the lagoon water; and in winter, anatids such as the Bewick's swan (Cygnus columbianus) and the bean goose (Anser fabalis) numerously fly into it. At the time of photographing, several calls of the bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) sounded loud from the lagoon water near the center.

The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands: The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat (signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971). Japan joined this convention with the beginning of registration of Kushiro Marsh (June 1980), and Sakata Lagoon is the tenth wetland registered as Ramsar sites in Japan. Bekambeushi Marsh, where I examined on the brown frog Rana pirica in 1997, was included sixth in the Ramsar list of domestic wetland sites in June 1993.