Shika

History

The area around Shika was part of ancient Noto Province. During the Sengoku Period (1467–1568), the area was contested between the Hatakeyama clan, Uesugi clan and Maeda clan, with the area becoming part of Kaga Domain under the Edo period Tokugawa shogunate. Following the Meiji restoration, the area was organised into Hakui District, Ishikawa, and the village of Shika was established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. Shika was raised to town status on February 1, 1936. On September 1, 2005, the former town of Togi was annexed by Shika. On January 9, 2015, a resident reported a wooden boat to the local police, which was washed up on the shore. Due to Hangul characters on the boat it was suspected to be from North Korea. The police arrested one man on the boat, who claimed he had left North Korea unintended in mid-December 2014 when conducting an inspection of the boat. On January 1, 2024, the region experienced intense shaking due to the 2024 Noto earthquake. The town experienced the highest possible intensity on the Shindo scale - 7, and 23 people were killed. It was also among the first to receive a major tsunami warning since the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake.

Geography

Shika occupies the southwestern coastline of Noto Peninsula, facing the Sea of Japan on the west. It is one and a half hours from Kanazawa by car. Shika has a humid continental climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by mild summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Shika is 13.3 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2405 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 25.7 °C, and lowest in January, at around 2.5 °C. Part of the town is within the limits of the Noto Hantō Quasi-National Park. *Ishikawa Prefecture **Anamizu **Hakui **Nakanoto **Nanao **Wajima

Most-observed species

• Black Kite

  Milvus migrans (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  111
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  95
• Eurasian Tree Sparrow

  Passer montanus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  94
• Eastern Spot-billed Duck

  Anas zonorhyncha Swinhoe, 1866 · Aves
  90
• Gray/Purple Heron

  Ardea cinerea Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  87
• Brown-eared Bulbul

  Hypsipetes amaurotis (Temminck, 1830) · Aves
  75
• White Wagtail

  Motacilla alba Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  75
• Large-billed Crow

  Corvus macrorhynchos Wagler, 1827 · Aves
  73