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

Male Ryukyu Dwarf Bittern. At about 20 metres away, it showed almost no wariness.

Common Snipe.

It was plunging its bill into the bottom of the channel to catch small earthworm-like prey.

Few of the wintering Common Snipe bother to go on alert when a camera is pointed at them — most are relaxed and foraging like this.

I finally got a shot with the ear-tufts raised. This is a familiar individual, so it wasn't on edge, and yet it kept its ear-tufts up. I've seen and photographed this bird several times before, but this was a first.

Paired with the individual in the photo above. How do you tell male from female in Collared Scops Owl? This one is even more accustomed to people.

It perched on a nice branch, but the expression isn't great. It's not actually angry, though… ^^;

Yet another pair found. Unusually for Collared Scops Owls, they were perched a little higher up. The light didn't reach them, so I had to push the exposure up several stops, and the result is very noisy.

Paired with the individual above. It didn't seem used to people and would only let me get a shot like this. ^^;

The Collared Scops Owls are targeting frogs and the like that appear in the rain.

A Collared Kingfisher perched on its favourite prop root of a Rhizophora stylosa. You can see mud left on its feet from slamming a crab against the perch.

A Collared Kingfisher returning with a crab in its bill.

It swallows the crab whole, legs and all.

The bill is caked in mud too. It swallowed the crab and rested for a while. Will it be heading off to its breeding grounds around next month, I wonder.

This Merremia branch is a favourite too. It caught another crab.

The adult female Garganey had been doing nothing but sleeping, but she finally woke up. ^^

When I was searching for it, it was resting like this among Common Teals.

When I found the Garganey in January, it was while I was sorting through photos back home. It had sneaked into the lower left of one shot. Compared to that time, its plumage looks quite different — perhaps the crown feathers are coming in.

A Red-throated Pipit foraging among sparrows.

Last week there were about four Red-throated Pipits, but today there were only two.

It was moving from branch to branch searching for small insects.

They appeared to be travelling in a small flock, occasionally calling back and forth with a "hireeee" note.

A Ryukyu Scops Owl was perched in a low shrub at the edge of a field. I got down on one knee — it was roughly at eye level.

This one was perched in a leucaena tree bordering a pasture. Perhaps it was after mice living in the grass.

A Eurasian Scops Owl perched on a field stake. It was far off when I first spotted it, but after a while it came quite close.

It appeared to have found prey. It was in the shadow of the guardrail in the foreground, so I couldn't make out what it caught.

The scar on the bill tells me it's the same individual I always see.

The Collared Kingfisher showed up a little later than usual. I'm glad the visitors who had come all the way from Tochigi and Nara specifically to see it were able to get a look.

At high tide a Common Kingfisher came and was catching small fish.

There were nine Red-throated Pipits at Tomishiro. The other day there were two, but the number had grown.

This Red-throated Pipit is transitioning into breeding plumage — the face is turning red.

The Red-throated Pipits appeared to be pecking at seeds from plants like wood sorrel.

A small flock of White-cheeked Starlings. Some individuals were carrying nesting material, suggesting the breeding season has begun.

The Chinese Bulbuls also seem to have entered the breeding season — they were noisy.

There were Asian Elephants in the grassland.