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

A juvenile Crested Serpent Eagle I hadn't seen in about a month and a half. It seems to be getting along fine, learning to hunt and so on.

This is the Crested Serpent Eagle on my usual forest road. I spotted a juvenile on the same road — I wonder if it's this individual's offspring.

Ruff, juvenile female.

Little Stint, juvenile. It was associating with Long-toed Stints in the rice paddies.

Long-toed Stint, juvenile. These were the most numerous birds in the paddies.

I thought it was a Little Stint!! but it seems to be just a regular Red-necked Stint. Disappointing….

A Long-toed Stint bathing in the rain.

A Greater Sand Plover that caught a crab. A juvenile, perhaps? It crept up on tiptoe and snapped it up.

Terek Sandpipers were also dashing around the sandy beach catching crabs.

Whimbrels walked along the water's edge, finding crab burrows and probing them with their long bills in search of crabs.

When a Grey-tailed Tattler landed nearby, it let out a mournful-sounding call.

Snipe were also moving into paddies here and there in small groups of several birds, but they are very wary.

Eastern Yellow Wagtails were present in good numbers. I think the wintering birds will continue to increase from here.

My first-ever photograph of a Lesser Crested Tern. It was in winter plumage.

It was making passes at ultra-low altitude like this, catching crabs that poked their heads out of their burrows.

Small crabs were swallowed on the wing, but when it caught a larger crab like this, it would land on the ground, dismember it, and then eat it.

The sky was overcast, but the sun broke through occasionally and lit up the Lesser Crested Tern nicely. I'd love to see one in breeding plumage someday.

A first-winter White-winged Tern resting in a paddy field in the rain.

The downpour finally let up, and I managed my first-ever shot of a male Slaty-legged Crake. A handsome rail.