ハイイロガン5羽とリュウキュウオオコノハズク、ヤンバルクイナ、ヤマシギ夜の御三家ほか
家族旅行で年末年始を沖縄本島で過ごしたついでに昨年の11月22日から滞在中のハイイロガン5羽を見てきました。正月の夜には4時間ほど夜探にでかけ、リュウキュウオオコノハズクやヤンバルクイナ、ヤマシギなどを観察しました。
出だしが悪く、やんばる夜の御三家コンプリートは厳しいかと思われたのですが、午前2時過ぎまで粘ってなんとか。オオコノハズクは鉄板ポイントを何カ所か回るも見つけられずでしたが、小雨が降り出すと鳴き声も3個体聞け、姿も3個体見ることができました。繁殖期のさえずりと思われる鳴き声も録音できました。下の動画から聞くことができます。
ヤンバルクイナは2羽、ヤマシギも2羽でした。久しぶりの長時間夜探は疲れました…。^^;
三角池では、2013年に韓国で標識された個体含めて15羽のクロツラヘラサギが所狭しと採餌していました。
A Grey-lag Goose — a first record for me, seen on New Year's Eve. I think it's an adult, but I'm not sure.
All five were moving around together in a tight group. Against the harsh backlight the glare off the water was so intense that to the naked eye they were just silhouettes… I thought my eyes would give out.
An individual believed to be a male Ryukyu Scops Owl. It did sing for me, but when it called it was deep in the forest, so I couldn't get video. I did manage an audio recording. ^^
Same individual as above. No matter how many times I see one, a Ryukyu Scops Owl always gets my pulse up.
An Okinawa Rail roosting in a Ryukyu pine. This was a find in an area where I had never seen one before.
A different individual near the one above. Perhaps they are a pair.
A Eurasian Woodcock foraging in the grass.
A Spot-billed Duck hybrid — probably a Spot-billed Duck × Mallard cross.
First-winter Black-tailed Gull. This is only the second time I've seen a young Black-tailed Gull in Okinawa. A genuine rarity here.
Whenever a Great Cormorant surfaced with a fish in its bill, the Black-tailed Gull would try to steal it.
It landed nearby. It was bathing.
A Black-tailed Gull scattering Northern Pintails and Eurasian Wigeons. I noticed in the photo that an American Wigeon was in the frame right beside the Black-tailed Gull. ^^;
There were lots of Common Snipe in the sweet-potato fields. Same scene as the rice paddies on Ishigaki Island.
This individual was banded S39 in South Korea in 2013. A veteran in its eighth year.