GUIDED BIRDWATCHING TOUR
We'll drive you around Ishigaki Island to wherever the birds are showing best that day. Observation is mostly from inside the vehicle, and we keep it to a maximum of 3 guests so everyone can take their time.
何年も前から継続的に観察しているリュウキュウコノハズクは、今年も無事に抱卵に入ったようです。6月下旬ごろにはヒナが巣立つと思われます。
A male Ryukyu Scops Owl keeping watch.
A Ruddy Kingfisher was perched nearby as well.
This Ishigaki Tit appeared to be searching with its partner for a nesting site. It was peering into a Ryukyu Scops Owl nest hole and alarm-calling noisily.
石垣島の田んぼには、ハリオシギ、チュウジシギ、タシギが滞在中。春のジシギは識別の難易度が上がっていいですね。^^
Pin-tailed Snipe spotted on a distant paddy bank. The backlight makes observation tough… ^^;
Another Pin-tailed Snipe. Looks very similar to the individual above.
Also a Pin-tailed Snipe. Compared to the individual above, this one tends darker.
Common Snipe (left) and Pin-tailed Snipe. The Pin-tailed Snipe is the same individual as the one at the top.
Another Pin-tailed Snipe, mid-moult into breeding plumage.
Swinhoe's Snipe (right) and Pin-tailed Snipe. In this case the size difference is clear, but in the field you basically can't identify them by size alone.
A Pin-tailed Snipe that came up onto a concrete block in the evening. This was the individual that had been hiding in the grass all day.
A Swinhoe's Snipe that wouldn't come out of the grass.
Another Swinhoe's Snipe in the grass.
I don't often get a chance to photograph them, but there was a Common Snipe here too.
While I was watching a flock of Black-winged Stilts, a Whimbrel came down. Looking at it this way, the Whimbrel is surprisingly small — or is it that the Black-winged Stilt is large?
About 20 Oriental Pratincoles had come down. Three are visible in this photo.