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

First confirmed Common Redshank juvenile of the season. Moulting from juvenile to first-winter plumage.

Common Greenshank (left), Common Redshank (right), and Wood Sandpiper. All are transitioning from breeding to non-breeding plumage.

Long-toed Stint in late breeding plumage.

Eastern Cattle Egret in non-breeding plumage. Some individuals in breeding plumage were also present in the flock.

Ryukyu Scops Owls that had fledged from a woodland near my home. There were three siblings.

Ryukyu Scops Owl adult.

Waiting for a parent to bring food. With no crows around at night, it feels safe enough to come out to an open, exposed spot like this. A Brown Hawk-Owl is perched on a nearby wire, but the two seem to have nothing to do with each other.

Bridled Tern, juvenile and adult.

The juvenile is missing a large chunk of primaries on the left wing. I wonder what happened.

A Black-naped Tern colony. The chicks here also appear to be growing steadily.

Greater Sand Plover moulting into winter plumage.

A Greater Sand Plover that has caught a crab.

Common Redshank, juvenile.

Pacific Golden Plovers gradually moulting into winter plumage as well.

Pacific Golden Plover with moult into winter plumage well advanced.

Grey-tailed Tattler, late summer plumage.

Wood Sandpiper, late summer plumage.

First White-winged Tern of the season. A single adult arrived.

First Dunlin of the season. Late summer plumage.

Red-necked Stint moulting from summer to winter plumage.

Little Ringed Plover, first-winter plumage.

Little Ringed Plovers fighting.

Black-winged Stilt moulting from juvenile to first-winter plumage.

Ruddy Turnstone, late summer plumage.

Common Greenshank, late summer plumage.

First Pin-tailed Snipe of the season. A juvenile was the first to arrive.

Wood Sandpiper, juvenile. First juvenile confirmed this season.

Green Sandpiper molting from breeding to non-breeding plumage. Also a first for this season.

Wood Sandpiper, adult.

Pacific Golden Plover molting into non-breeding plumage.

Common Greenshank, late breeding plumage.

First Grey Wagtail of the season.

White-breasted Waterhen chick. I've been seeing them often in the rice fields lately.

A Ruddy Kingfisher that grew up nearby. All the chicks seem to be doing well — four of them were foraging in the same area.

A juvenile male Ryukyu Ruddy Crake sizing up the adult male (foreground) as if about to attack.

It flew off after being threatened by its own offspring.

Ryukyu Ruddy Crake, juvenile.

Ryukyu Ruddy Crake, adult male.

Purple Heron, juvenile. Molting into adult plumage.

Chinese Pond Heron, transitioning to non-breeding plumage.

First Long-toed Stint juvenile of the season.

Also a first for the season — Long-toed Stint juvenile. Numbers of both adults and juveniles are increasing.

Oriental Pratincole, adult non-breeding plumage. Turned up at a rice field far from the known breeding sites on Ishigaki-jima. Likely a migrating individual.

Adult male Ryukyu Ruddy Crake. The usual zero-wariness individual.

Ryukyu Ruddy Crake juvenile. Quite good at camouflage, isn't it. ^^

Ruddy Kingfisher, adult. Breeding season is over — probably waiting for migration time.

The wear on the primaries and tail feathers is noticeable, and the moult into winter plumage is progressing. I wish it a safe journey all the way to Southeast Asia, and hope it will come back again next year.

A Crested Serpent Eagle in flight. Magnificent. ^^

I wonder whether the chick was raised successfully.

A Crested Serpent Eagle watching a tractor ploughing a paddy field. It is waiting for frogs and other prey to leap out.

Swinhoe's Snipe, adult, late summer plumage.

Swinhoe's Snipe in flight.

Latham's Snipe, juvenile (foreground), and Swinhoe's Snipe, adult.

An individual that came down into the paddy and disappeared into the grass in an instant. Tentatively Swinhoe's Snipe.

Swinhoe's Snipe, juvenile.

Latham's Snipe, adult.

Latham's Snipe, juvenile. It had been with the adult above and I'd startled them, so I pulled the blind over and waited — then after all that, a Black-crowned Night Heron came looking for dinner and flushed it…

Latham's Snipe, adult, late summer plumage.

Latham's Snipe, juvenile. Many Latham's Snipe in Okinawa show characters leaning toward Swinhoe's, which makes identification tricky.

Latham's Snipe, juvenile.

Latham's Snipe, adult.

This one is also a Latham's Snipe.

Greater Painted-snipe, female.

Greater Painted-snipe, male. When you're searching for Gallinago snipe, the silhouette is similar enough to give you a start.

A flock of Eurasian Tree Sparrows hatched this year. Groups like this are forming here and there.

First Sharp-tailed Sandpiper of the season. Moulting into winter plumage.

Pectoral Sandpiper in late summer plumage. Two or three feathers are already showing winter plumage.

White-winged Tern numbers are increasing day by day.

White-winged Tern, transitioning from summer to winter plumage.

Ryukyu Yellow Bittern, juvenile.

Dunlin in late summer plumage.

A Rufous-necked Stint transitioning from breeding to non-breeding plumage.

Pin-tailed Snipe, juvenile. The beauty of this bird brought to mind last year's individual.

Pin-tailed Snipe, adult. Moult into winter plumage is well underway.

Pin-tailed Snipe, adult. This one is in late summer plumage. The moult stage is quite different from the individual above.

Pin-tailed Snipe, adult. This one is also transitioning into winter plumage.

Swinhoe's Snipe, juvenile.

Swinhoe's Snipe, adult in summer plumage.

Swinhoe's Snipe, juvenile.

Also a Swinhoe's Snipe juvenile. The ratio of juveniles to adults was the opposite of what I found with Pin-tailed Snipe.

Pin-tailed Snipe, adult in late summer plumage.

Pin-tailed Snipe, underwing.

Three days after first finding it on 17 August, I finally managed to photograph the tail feathers. ^^

Pin-tailed Snipe, adult. Moving into winter plumage.

Pin-tailed Snipe, juvenile.

Swinhoe's Snipe showing beautifully fresh juvenile plumage.

Swinhoe's Snipe, juvenile.

Same individual as above.

A juvenile Swinhoe's Snipe that wouldn't let its guard down. On this day, a Common Moorhen with chicks was the nemesis. ^^;

Underwing of a juvenile Swinhoe's Snipe.

Juvenile Swinhoe's Snipe.

Same individual as above.

A quintessentially Okinawan juvenile Swinhoe's Snipe.

Another quintessentially Okinawan juvenile Swinhoe's Snipe. At first glance, wouldn't those of you from the mainland think it's a Pin-tailed Snipe?

First Eastern Yellow Wagtail of the season — adult. The juveniles come later.

Juvenile Pin-tailed Snipe.

Juvenile Swinhoe's Snipe.

Juvenile Swinhoe's Snipe.

I'd been waiting for this one to come out, thinking it might be a Pin-tailed Snipe, but it was too wary and never showed itself... ^^;

Juvenile Common Sandpiper. Might have been my first juvenile of the season?

Juvenile Pin-tailed Snipe.

Same individual as above.

A juvenile Swinhoe's Snipe liable to be mistaken for a Pin-tailed Snipe.

Juvenile Swinhoe's Snipe. This one also has a Pin-tailed Snipe–ish build.

A Swinhoe's Snipe in the process of moulting into non-breeding plumage.

Adult Swinhoe's Snipe. Shortly after this it was chased off by a Common Moorhen with chicks in the background.

Pin-tailed Snipe adult in moult to winter plumage.

Most of the tail feathers had fallen out. What on earth happened?

Swinhoe's Snipe juvenile, evening.

Swinhoe's Snipe juvenile. As it gets dark, they appear from nowhere.

A confiding Chinese Pond Heron. It may be the same individual that has been here since last month.

As it gets dark, Black-crowned Night Herons clock on for work. Juveniles have increased in number.

Pin-tailed Snipe adult.

Same individual as above. The bird visible behind is also a Pin-tailed Snipe.

Pin-tailed Snipe wing-flap. Same individual as above. You can see the state of moult for this time of year.

Same individual as above. I was able to observe it closely and at length.

A different individual from the above. Pin-tailed Snipe adult.

Same individual as above.

A wing-flap from the same individual again.

Pin-tailed Snipe juvenile. The tail feathers of this individual photographed previously.

Swinhoe's Snipe adult.

Swinhoe's Snipe juvenile.

Swinhoe's Snipe adult.

Pin-tailed Snipe juvenile.

Little Stint in late summer plumage.

Same individual as above. The backlight was intense and it was hard to make out….

A flock of Red-necked Stints and Little Stints.

A female Greater Painted-snipe. Has been active lately.

A male Greater Painted-snipe. Paired with the one above.

Purple Heron in winter plumage.

A juvenile Marsh Sandpiper. In moult to first-winter plumage.

An adult Marsh Sandpiper in winter plumage.

A Common Sandpiper in late summer plumage.

An adult Greater Sand Plover in winter plumage.

Another Greater Sand Plover in winter plumage.

A Lesser Sand Plover in winter plumage.

A juvenile Whimbrel — first confirmed this season.

A Whimbrel in late summer plumage.

A Terek Sandpiper transitioning to winter plumage.

A juvenile Pin-tailed Snipe among a flock of Swinhoe's Snipe on a distant paddy bank.

Same individual as above. After waiting a while, it came out into the rice field. The one on the left is an adult Swinhoe's Snipe.

A flock of Swinhoe's Snipe.

An adult Swinhoe's Snipe. Looked tired throughout.

Another adult Swinhoe's Snipe.

An individual that has been here for several days. All the tail feathers have fallen out.

It still looked juvenile two weeks ago, but has grown considerably. A juvenile Ruddy Kingfisher.

A juvenile (Yellow-browed) Citrine Wagtail — the first of the season.

Also a first juvenile this season. Common Greenshank. It arrived alone.

Adult winter Oriental Pratincole.

Adult Red-necked Stint. Moulting from breeding to non-breeding plumage.

This one shows some non-breeding plumage coming in, but is still mostly worn breeding plumage.

The first Common Snipe of the season was a juvenile.

Pin-tailed Snipe, juvenile.

Pin-tailed Snipe, adult.

Pin-tailed Snipe, juvenile.

Pin-tailed Snipe juvenile (foreground) and Swinhoe's Snipe adult.

Pin-tailed Snipe, juvenile.

Pin-tailed Snipe, juvenile.

A juvenile Pin-tailed Snipe crouching low in alarm at passing vehicles.

Pin-tailed Snipe, juvenile.

Pin-tailed Snipe (right) and Swinhoe's Snipe juvenile.

Swinhoe's Snipe, adult.

Pin-tailed Snipe, adult.

Adult Ruddy Kingfisher. Moult is well under way and the bird is looking rather scruffy.

Male Emerald Dove. A female was nearby too. No juveniles confirmed yet this season.

Adult female Japanese Paradise Flycatcher. A male was accompanying her — and it still had long tail feathers. Could they possibly be breeding?

I was photographing a Emerald Dove when a juvenile Nankeen Night Heron walked right up to me.