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

A Hen Harrier quartering the rice paddies in search of prey.

It was wheeling around so close it nearly filled the frame. The paddy birds were in total panic.

It didn't manage to catch anything in the end, but the dynamic flight was well worth watching.

A Black-faced Spoonbill resting in a canal.

Multiple Chinese Pond Herons are staying.

First-winter Taiwanese Wagtail. Staying alongside a White Wagtail.

My first Saunders's Gull of the season. It was with a Black-headed Gull but looked a little put out. ^^;

A Black-headed Gull that was with the Saunders's Gull.

Common Snipe were not seen in great numbers.

A Common Kingfisher was going back and forth along the canal.

A juvenile Greater White-fronted Goose. Why does it get misidentified as a Greylag Goose?

Comparing it with the Eurasian Coot behind, you can tell it's quite a small individual.

A lone Tundra Swan on arrival.

A male Falcated Duck was present. It had come into breeding plumage and looked strikingly beautiful among the rice paddies.

A Pied Avocet moving back and forth between the irrigation channels and the rice paddies.

This Pied Avocet was in a different area. Some worn juvenile feathers remain.

Same individual as above. Four birds were resting together in a tight group.

Northern Lapwings in a small flock — all juveniles.

A juvenile Pacific Golden Plover.

Common Snipe were present like this, about a dozen or so. Unfortunately, no other Gallinago snipe were mixed in.

The most beautiful juvenile Common Snipe of the day.

A small number of Common Redshanks are wintering.

A small flock of Dunlins was in the rice paddies.

On Ishigaki Island at this time of year, Kentish Plovers turn up in the rice paddies regularly too.

A Black-headed Gull with an injured leg.

A female of the subspecies White Wagtail has finally appeared.

A White Wagtail that was together with the individual above. This one is a male.

A Red-throated Pipit with a short tail. There were also several Citrine Wagtails in the same condition. Perhaps they were grabbed by the Eurasian Sparrowhawk that has been holding territory over this paddy.

A (Yellow-browed) Citrine Wagtail in first-winter plumage.

A superciliated Citrine Wagtail in first-winter plumage.

White Wagtails are scarce this season — a bit lonely.

A female Siberian Stonechat wintering alone.

Tree Pipits that can be watched from the living room. Several are present, but they are being spooked by a Black-winged Kite.

A Crested Serpent Eagle appeared in the garden. It seems interested in the frogs in the biotope pond. December is the peak breeding season for Ryukyu Green Tree Frogs, so they are calling even during the day.

The kids watching the Crested Serpent Eagle from the bedroom. ^^

A Common Kestrel also appeared in the same tree. It was targeting grasshoppers and the like.

A Common Kestrel perched on the security camera at Omoto526. It stayed through the night.

Omoto526, opening soon. Named after Mt. Omoto, the highest peak in the prefecture at 526 metres above sea level. Of course you can see Mt. Omoto from the lodge too. ^^