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

Arrived out of season and has already been here over three weeks.

The Whimbrels in a flock of nine.

Moult is beginning.

A flock arriving considerably earlier than usual for Whimbrels.

At first I thought some juveniles were mixed in, but on closer inspection they were all adults.

Wood Sandpiper in late summer plumage.

Common Greenshank in late summer plumage.

Female Black-winged Stilt. First-summer plumage.

Juvenile Purple Heron.

A freshly fledged Ryukyu Scops Owl chick.

The parent watching over its chick from a street tree across the road. The tree it was perched in was right next to the Ruddy Kingfisher's nest tree… ^^;

A Ruddy Kingfisher perched on a power line. The dead palm tree visible below was the Ruddy Kingfisher's nest tree, and the parent Ryukyu Scops Owl was perched in the adjacent Ryukyu ebony.

An early-arriving Northern Shoveler. The primaries are badly worn. Late first breeding plumage? Non-breeding plumage?

After a while it was moving around the paddy field, foraging.

Juvenile Purple Heron. It comes to this feeding spot almost every day.

It was tracking a bee flying right in front of it with its eyes.

Adult Eurasian Collared Dove. It was picking up fallen grain in a harvested paddy field along with several Oriental Turtle Doves.

Adult male Common Emerald Dove. Also gleaning fallen grain in the paddy field.

Oriental Turtle Doves are still moving in small numbers rather than flocking.

A male Common Emerald Dove found on a power line.

The harvested paddy fields are a feeding ground for the Common Emerald Doves.

Not as large as the Eurasian Tree Sparrow flocks, but the Scaly-breasted Munia groups have been getting bigger too.

A fledgling Grey Nightjar. It was perched in a Mallotus japonicus tree next to the nest tree.

The wary adult male.

The unbothered adult female was perched on her usual branch, keeping watch over her chick.

The first Ruff of the season — an adult male in breeding plumage!!

It also showed us a stretch.

It was my first time meeting a male in breeding plumage. When I spotted it from a distance, I had no idea what it was… ^^;

My first Marsh Sandpiper of the season as well.

Little Stints have been increasing in number.

Wood Sandpipers are also building up day by day.

An injured Black-winged Stilt. It appeared to have a broken leg.

My first Little Ringed Plovers of the season too. A flock of a dozen or so birds.

Little Terns came to drink water at the rice paddies several times.

When a Black-naped Tern parent returned carrying a small fish, two chicks came flying out from behind the rocks with their mouths open.

A Black-naped Tern chick. Perhaps ten-odd days after hatching.

A juvenile Kentish Plover. There was one more juvenile at a similar stage nearby.

Kentish Plover in late breeding plumage. It may be the parent of the juvenile above.

A parent feeding its chick.

The prey appeared to be mainly Large Brown Cicadas.

A juvenile Black-winged Stilt. Strange, given that there are only a few Black-winged Stilts in the rice paddies of the same area….

Common Greenshank first-winter? Breeding plumage.

Same individual as above.

Wood Sandpipers, always squabbling.

Little Ringed Plovers transitioning from breeding to non-breeding plumage.

I was able to notice it because this type is rarely seen on Ishigaki Island. An adult female Ryukyu Scops Owl.

A chick that appears to be at least two weeks out of the nest. Blood-sucking insects were swarming around its face and it looked thoroughly annoyed.

A blue and yellow flag ring is visible on the left leg.

First Common Redshank adult of the season.

Red-necked Stint adult. Late breeding plumage.

The Red-necked Stints were being chased by Long-toed Stints and Wood Sandpipers.

A Wood Sandpiper in transition from breeding to non-breeding plumage.

Black-winged Stilt juvenile.

A Greater Painted-snipe pair. The male is at upper right.

Javan Pond Heron in non-breeding plumage. A bird in breeding plumage was present in the same area.

Ruddy-breasted Crake male.

At first it was in the grass, but after watching for a while it came out onto the farm track.

When it senses something is wrong, it ducks back into the grass.

The female paired with the individual above.

She seemed slightly more wary than the male.

A Greater Painted-snipe pair.