First confirmed record!! Pin-tailed Snipe wintering!! (video)
I have been able to document Pin-tailed Snipe wintering on Ishigaki Island as a definite record. This is the individual confirmed last November. Construction started nearby and I was too busy with work over the year-end and New Year period to get out and check, but it was wintering at the same spot.
Pin-tailed Snipe had been observed here as late as late February 2024, but a solid wintering record had remained elusive. Having confirmed this bird from November through to late January, it now stands as a firm wintering record. I can only hope this individual stays on through to the spring Pin-tailed Snipe season in April.
This Pin-tailed Snipe left a strong impression, so I've been able to identify it individually. You can tell at a glance. ^^ First-winter plumage.
I was passing through for work and didn't have much time, but it gave me a bath scene.
A Pin-tailed Snipe preening after bathing.
A Pin-tailed Snipe driving off a Common Snipe (right). The smaller-bodied Common Snipe loses out to both Pin-tailed and Swinhoe's Snipe.
The same Common Snipe as above. First-winter plumage. Around five Common Snipe are wintering here.
Common Snipe are wintering all over the island.
Temminck's Stint — many pass through, but almost none winter here.
A Common Greenshank with an injured wing. It may have difficulty migrating when spring comes.
Little Ringed Plovers are wintering in flocks in the rice fields.
A Eurasian Spoonbill on an extended stay. It was fairly wary.