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

While at work, a message came in through our group chat: "Greater Racket-tailed Drongo confirmed." I fidgeted through the rest of my shift, then rushed to the spot two hours after the alert — and managed to find the bird in driving rain and wind!!

Thanks to 石垣島BIRD観察, the first to find it, my life list got a new entry. ^^

It was larger than Black Drongo and Ashy Drongo, and gave an impression of being more composed. Slightly wary of crows and Grey-faced Buzzards, it still perched at branch tips and caught insects blown in by the strong wind.

It was skittish, taking flight every time a rental car approached.

Female Ruddy Shelduck.

A different individual from the one above. Also a female.

After the harvest, many Oriental Turtle Doves gather in the paddies to pick up fallen grain — and on Ishigaki, there is almost always a Crimson Sunbird among them.

Crimson Sunbirds and Oriental Turtle Doves that had taken refuge at the forest edge, startled by a raptor.

The Pied Avocets that have been staying for a long time. There are two of them, but they are being harassed by a raptor.

A Hen Harrier appeared in the strong wind. The Black-winged Stilts and Eurasian Teals panicked.

A juvenile Ryukyu Sparrowhawk that appeared while I was watching the Greater Racket-tailed Drongo.

A small number of Grey-streaked Flycatchers are also lingering.

Juvenile Common Coot. There are a few white feathers around the neck. Partial albinism?

Tundra Swan for the first time in two years. It doesn't seem particularly wary.

A Crested Serpent Eagle perched beside a waterway, hunting for prey.

The number of Chinese Pond Herons goes up and down. There were 2 that day, but 5 were recorded the following day.

Chinese Pond Herons flushed by a raptor.

Common Coots suddenly increased to several dozen.

Common Greenshank moving from juvenile to first-winter plumage.

Common Greenshank moving from juvenile to first-winter plumage.

Common Snipe in wintering mode.

First Eurasian Wigeon of the season. All males in eclipse. The individual on the right is mid-transition into breeding plumage.

A Great Cormorant came running toward me along the waterway. ^^

The lunar eclipse reached maximum at 7:59 p.m. The tiny point of light at lower left is Uranus.

A Black Baza wintering on Ishigaki Island. This marks its fifth year visiting. It typically stays until around March.

A Black-winged Kite in a mown grassland. An extremely unwary individual.

A Black-winged Kite hovering right in front of me.

It was completely unfazed even when cars passed beneath the wire it was perched on.

A Black-winged Kite at a different location.

In the evenings, I often see Black-winged Kites hunting over rice paddies, sugarcane fields, and pastures.

White Wagtails have been increasing too.

A Grey Wagtail with a deformed bill. Whether from injury or congenital, I'm not sure.

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper in late juvenile plumage.

The snipe in the rice paddies are all Common Snipe. All juveniles.

I thought the area around the throat might be partway through changing to adult male plumage, but it looks as though feathers have been lost, exposing the black area beneath. Even so, the whitish feathering from above the eye toward the cheek area looks like a male's.

That said, when Daurian Redstarts transition from juvenile to first-winter plumage, male individuals apparently develop vivid orange feathers. This individual shows some orange in places, but is otherwise brown.

The hindcrown and hindneck are a pale brownish buff, more like a female. A genuinely puzzling and intriguing individual.

A Pale-legged Leaf Warbler — I could hear several calling. One came up into view.

A female Black-faced Bunting. I could hear many calls coming from the sugarcane field, and after waiting a short while it came in very close.

The small birds fell silent when the rain started, but were active again once it stopped.

Two female Ruddy Shelducks. Both are adults.

Adult Lesser White-fronted Goose.

The Common Crane has become less wary than at first and is now easier to observe.

There were 22 Greater White-fronted Geese in total.

A Tundra Swan is also staying. It shows little wariness and does not flee even when walkers pass by.

I had already seen a flock of five Greylag Geese at the end of last year on Okinawa Island, but this was my first encounter with the species on Ishigaki Island.

A juvenile Crested Serpent Eagle that plunged into a rice paddy. Did the hunt fail?

Scanning for prey from a good vantage point.

An individual with no fear of people — it came and perched on the wire right in front of me.

An adult female Crested Serpent Eagle. This is 'Kikki,' an individual rescued in 2009, with a red band on the right leg.

A Caspian Tern resting on a sandy beach.

It took off, but flew off somewhere without hunting.

Lesser Sand Plover in winter plumage. Numbers have dropped from their peak but birds are still present along various stretches of coastline.

Kentish Plover in winter plumage. Numbers are well down compared to the peak here too.

Little Ringed Plover in winter plumage. Still present on beaches and in rice paddies.

The third Ruddy Shelduck of the season was a juvenile — in the process of moulting from juvenile plumage into first breeding plumage.

Feeding in a dry, unflooded rice paddy. I wonder what it's eating.

The Greylag Goose, completely unafraid, is in the middle of a long stay. Does it intend to winter here?

The bird always accompanying the Greylag Goose is a Tundra Bean Goose. For some reason these two never join the flocks of Greater White-fronted Geese and Lesser White-fronted Geese.

Lesser Sand Plover in breeding plumage. At this season almost all individuals are in winter plumage, but every now and then one turns up that still hasn't shaken off its summer mood. Where do they come from?

Lesser Sand Plover in winter plumage. This is what the vast majority look like.

Lesser Sand Plover, juvenile. Molting into first-winter plumage.

Spotted Redshank, adult. Molting into winter plumage.

Common Greenshank, juvenile.

Kentish Plover, juvenile.

Dunlin, winter plumage.

Dunlin resting on the coast and in rice fields.

White-winged Tern, juvenile.

Rosy Starling, adult male. Most of this year's flocks have been on the small side.

Rosy Starling, juvenile. Molting from juvenile into first-winter plumage.

Size comparison with White-cheeked Starling. The Rosy Starling looks slightly smaller.

A Rosy Starling that caught some kind of larva.

By around the new year, the molt should have progressed and the bird will likely have taken on the colors typical of a Rosy Starling.

Grey-tailed Tattler, first-winter plumage.

Ruddy Turnstone, winter plumage.