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

Two Caspian Terns far away on the opposite shore. Many White-winged Terns were resting around them.

Another Caspian Tern, a little apart from the others. This one was sitting down. It was startled by a Peregrine Falcon and flew up toward me, and when it got closer I could see something that looked like fishing line coming from its bill. I wonder if it had swallowed a fishing rig by mistake. There was a Caspian Tern with fishing line coming from its bill last year too.

The Caspian Tern from above was startled by the Peregrine Falcon and came toward me. Looking closely, I can see what appears to be tangled fishing line coming from the base of its bill.

The individual above. Even from the front, the tangled-looking line is visible.

A Saunders's Gull that ran and caught a fiddler crab.

Mangroves and Saunders's Gull. It's a scene you can only see in Okinawa.

From the wing pattern, this is a first-winter juvenile. Most of the other Saunders's Gulls were also juveniles.

Saunders's Gulls would sometimes dive steeply from low flight to catch crabs.

Fiddler crabs — prey for Saunders's Gulls, Eurasian Curlews and others. There are huge numbers of them.

Eurasian Curlew.

A White Wagtail also came by and caught a small crab.

A Spot-billed Duck and a male Mallard with juveniles, startled by a Peregrine Falcon that arrived. I hadn't noticed them when they were down on the tidal flat.

An Osprey hovering impressively despite its large body.

It caught a large mullet.

An Osprey skillfully gripping a fish lengthwise to reduce air resistance.

This one is a Common Kingfisher, a master of hovering.

It was diving steeply to catch fish.

A juvenile Grey-faced Buzzard appearing over the tidal flat.

Down to just one Lesser Crested Tern. Far away again today. ^^;

When a Peregrine Falcon appeared, the White-winged Terns and others were fleeing in panic.

Saunders's Gull, first-winter plumage. The monotone is beautiful.

The White-winged Terns were startled not only by the Peregrine Falcon but also by the Grey-faced Buzzard.

A flock of Eurasian Wigeons and Northern Shovelers. They kept landing on the tidal flat, then taking off in alarm at the roar of aircraft engines.

No Parrot Crossbills… but I had a welcome reunion with a Japanese Sparrowhawk instead.

Goldcrests are smaller than I had imagined, and photographing them was tiring.

They rarely show off the crown that inspired their name.

They showed no wariness toward people at all, but they were high up, so it was a long way to the Goldcrests. ^^;

They were about the same size as the Yellow-bellied Tit, but the Goldcrests felt more slender.

A juvenile gull with a fish in its bill.

In Okinawa, the Mew Gull is seen only about once every ten years.

A Mew Gull flying off to the south. I was hand-holding at 1200mm, so it came out blurry. ^^;

A Yellow-bellied Tit juvenile after a long absence. It was mixed in with flocks of Japanese White-eyes and Japanese Tits. I was just barely able to find it by its smaller body size and call, but it was quite a task. ^^;

A female Daurian Redstart. First of the season. ^^

The Japanese Tit appeared to be searching for insects hiding in the dead branches..

Common Kingfisher male (left) and female. They were moving around together and doing something like a courtship dance. Will they actually breed in such a small pond?

Bar-tailed Godwit juvenile.

It was repeatedly plunging its bill into a hole and catching something.

The median coverts appear to be fairly worn.

Four Black-headed Gulls arrived. On either side are White-winged Terns.

Common Starling adult.

Pacific Golden Plover and Common Starling. A very Okinawan scene.

Are Common Starlings with grey irises juveniles?

Buff-bellied Pipit on guard against a stray cat.

Two Buff-bellied Pipits have been staying in the same spot for about three days. Last year, two Buff-bellied Pipits also wintered in the same location.

Buff-bellied Pipits come to Okinawa Island as winter visitors in smaller numbers compared to Ishigaki Island and elsewhere.

Common Kestrel. It was disturbing the Pacific Golden Plovers on a development site.

The kestrel's prey was a large grasshopper, apparently a Formosan rice grasshopper.

Three American Avocets arrived at Sankakuike.

A beautiful synchronised display by adult American Avocets.

However, if they get too close to each other it turns into a fight. ^^;

Here, a fight between an adult (right) and a juvenile.

With American Avocets, even a fight amounts to little more than hitting each other with their wings or nipping with their bills — nothing that leads to serious injury.

'J15,' the Black-faced Spoonbill, has returned again this year. Ten consecutive years of visits since it was rescued, and now 13 years old.

This is Black-faced Spoonbill 'E24,' which spent the summer on Okinawa Island. Six years old this year.

A very young Black-faced Spoonbill.

Black-faced Spoonbills often preen each other.

Three male Tufted Ducks and a juvenile (right).

A male Tufted Duck (left) and a female Tufted Duck.

An adult Pied Avocet on the short-cropped turf of a sports ground.

There were three Pied Avocets. The left one is a juvenile; the two on the right are adults.

A Pied Avocet catching an earthworm on a waterlogged sports ground.

I was shooting through the fence, but at the closest point it came to about 10 metres away.

A Common Redshank and a Pied Avocet.

A Marsh Sandpiper and a Pied Avocet.

Occasionally it opened its bill wide. It looked almost like it was retching.

A young Pied Avocet chasing the individual on the left that had caught an earthworm.

As I sat still, it kept edging closer and closer.

Another earthworm snagged.

Yet another earthworm snagged.

You don't often get to see a Pied Avocet on a lawn outside of the breeding grounds, so I found myself hammering the shutter like there was no tomorrow… ^^;

Eyebrowed Thrush. Backlit in the undergrowth — poor conditions. ^^;

I could hear plenty of Japanese Bush Warbler calls, but catching a glimpse of one was another matter.

The Japanese Tit was eating pine seeds.

A juvenile male Pale-capped Pigeon in the process of moulting from juvenile plumage into first-winter plumage. It's here whenever I visit, and there are juveniles too — could it be breeding somewhere on Ishigaki-jima?

A juvenile female Pale-capped Pigeon, also moulting into first-winter plumage.

An oddly coloured Oriental Turtle Dove. Just the one stood out.

This one is an overall whitish Oriental Turtle Dove. Completely different from the Ryukyu Turtle Dove next to it.

Size comparison between a Ruddy Ground Dove and an Oriental Turtle Dove. The former is noticeably more than one size smaller.

A flock of Ring-necked Pheasants also came to feed on fallen grain.

One Greater White-fronted Goose. I heard there were also Taiga Bean Geese somewhere on the island, but I couldn't find any.

Tufted Ducks in a flooded paddy field.

A juvenile Crested Serpent Eagle diving steeply. The alula feathers are standing up sharply as it starts to brake.

A sharp-looking juvenile Crested Serpent Eagle.

The wind is raising the Crested Serpent Eagle's crest.

Heading out to the paddy fields.

Hello from behind the leaves. ^^

It was an unexpected flush so my autofocus was set to a single point — I switched to manual focus on the fly. Focus is a little soft… ^^;

Landing. It was too close and got cut off at the frame edge.

A Crested Serpent Eagle walking along a paddy bund.

When the real cold of winter sets in, the number of juvenile birds brought in for rescue increases. There are also many individuals hit by vehicles as traffic picks up, but I can only hope they all grow into fine adults.

I thought this Crested Serpent Eagle might have something wrong with one eye, but it was just keeping it closed.

Even so, it seemed a little lethargic — possibly not getting enough food.

An adult female Crested Serpent Eagle that came to dry her feathers during a break in the rain.

Adult male Brown Shrike.

Male Brown Shrike. First-winter plumage.

A Brown Shrike that was perched right next to the Crested Serpent Eagle. Neither seemed to have any interest in the other.

While waiting for an Ashy Drongo from behind cover, one landed on a branch about 15 metres in front of my lens.

A beautiful wild bird. My mentor says its call is also wonderfully beautiful. I really wished I could have heard the Ashy Drongo's call.

It caught a horsefly-like insect in a remarkable mid-air snatch.

It hunts small flying insects with unerring accuracy. Like the Black Drongo, the Ashy Drongo would loop up from below its prey and circle back to its original perch.

A cute front-on view of the Ashy Drongo.

It would have been perfect with good weather, but unfortunately there was light rain throughout the shoot.