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

The second Pied Avocet of the season.

This is the first Curlew Sandpiper of the season. It is coming into breeding plumage.

Four Red-necked Stints in the same paddy field as the Curlew Sandpiper.

Numbers are not large on Ishigaki-jima, but they pass through every year during the migration season.

The reddish breeding plumage is conspicuous around the breast.

Sanderlings still in full winter plumage. On the Okinawa main island they winter in flocks, but on Ishigaki-jima only small numbers are seen during the migration season.

A Whimbrel was in the mangrove area.

Common Snipe are plentiful, but Swinhoe's Snipe and Pin-tailed Snipe will be next month. Something to look forward to.

First-winter plumage still makes up the majority, but breeding plumage is beginning to show on some individuals.

A different individual from the one above. This bird is also still far from breeding plumage.

A male White-faced Wagtail. It looked tired, so it may have just arrived on migration.

Eastern Yellow Wagtail moving from first-winter to breeding plumage. Individuals wintering on Ishigaki-jima are almost all juveniles.

A Red-throated Pipit coming into breeding plumage.

It was a flock of around 30 Red-throated Pipits, and most individuals were at roughly this stage of moult.

There are three Javan Pond Herons in the same spot, but one of them is very wary and hard to photograph. The other two come out obligingly.

A different individual from the one above. The plumage colour on this one is paler.

A young Black-faced Spoonbill. It was feeding on snails — something like pond snails — in a paddy field.