A daily record.
Featuring photos of wild birds and nature, mainly from Okinawa Main Island and Ishigaki Island

Is it naturally white, or has the colour faded out?

There is a stream below here, and it is lying in wait for prey.

After stretching, it fanned out its proud crest. Now that's a Eurasian Hoopoe!!

It keeps pecking up cockroaches it finds in the soil. I always think I'll count how many it eats per minute, but there are always too many to keep up with. ^^;

The decisive moment, straight on. ^^

A Eurasian Hoopoe stretching. What a flamboyant bird. ^^;

I watched for a while, but a gust of wind threw it off balance and it disappeared into the woods behind.

On the way back, passing the same spot, it was perched in a pine a little further along than before.

A Crested Serpent Eagle targeting prey from above a small marsh.

It flew in quite close.

A juvenile Crested Serpent Eagle bathed in evening light.

A Crested Serpent Eagle caught off guard by a crow attack while it was dismembering and eating a crab.

Pale Thrushes and Dusky Thrushes are starting to move north to their breeding grounds, but I wonder how long the Brown Shrikes will stay. You do see Brown Shrikes in beautiful summer plumage on Ishigaki during the breeding season, but only in small numbers. I wonder if any are actually breeding here?

Overcast skies wrap the Eurasian Hoopoe in softer, more even light — I like that. ^^ For raptors, though, bright sun gives the shots a sharper, more intense look.

Every Hoopoe I see catches the same cockroaches — just how many cockroaches are there on this island…? ^^;

It circled round and round, then drifted away toward Sokohara Dam.

A Little Ringed Plover with a flag and leg ring. According to records from the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology, the flag was attached at Lake Komuke in Hokkaido. Lake Komuke to Ishigaki Island is 2,800 kilometres. Remarkable that a bird barely 16 centimetres long makes that crossing!!

Yamashina Institute for Ornithology (migratory birds and rings)

It suddenly stretched up and I scrambled to keep up. A Hoopoe really has to do this. I was shooting handheld but got the shot without blur. ^^ The little yellow flowers in the frame were a nice touch. Bird no. 1.

Here I tried composing the Hoopoe with two Ryukyu violets. Another bird visible in the background. Bird no. 2.

And here, one bird alongside the road at its wintering site. Bird no. 3.

Another one close by. Bird no. 4.

Birds 3 and 4 are wintering birds that had always been together as a pair, but I had a hunch and searched the same grounds — and found one more. Three Hoopoes on the same property. ^^; Bird no. 5.

This one was in the garden of a friend's house at Tamatorizaki. ^^; Bird no. 6.

The seventh Hoopoe of the day at Kabiraisaki. If there had been one more it would have been a nice round eight — but no such luck. ^^;

Showing the moult from the front.

A Eurasian Hoopoe foraging in a drift of dead leaves.

It was circling above the pasture, steering with its tail feathers.

A Common Kestrel launching itself at prey.

Guests first, so handheld at 840mm I could only manage 1/60 — a little blurry. ^^;

A Crested Serpent Eagle on the way back.

The moment of takeoff. Came out blurry.

A beautiful adult male Common Blackbird. A very confiding individual — if you stay in the car it keeps walking closer and closer. ^^

I was hoping it would step up onto the perch, but no luck… ^^; The male Common Blackbird's yellow eye-ring against its dark iris gives it such a charming, soulful look.

A Common Blackbird resting on a tree branch.

For just a moment it stepped up onto the perch.

A Common Blackbird — cute from behind too.

It seemed to be listening intently, sensing insects moving in the grass.