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.
I've been getting a bit tired of Red Collared Doves, there are so many this season, but there was a male in first-winter plumage and that got me excited. ^^
There were three male Red Collared Doves in a flock of Oriental Turtle Doves.
Male Crimson Dove moulting into first-winter plumage.
Adult Crimson Dove. Still retaining much of the breeding plumage.
A flock of White Wagtails, including the subspecies leucopsis and lugens, and a flock of Red-throated Pipits. The Oriental Greenfinch in the Red-throated Pipit flock was a failure...^^;
Eastern Yellow Wagtail (Taiwanese form), first-winter plumage.
Well, here's a White Wagtail that looks a bit odd. First-winter plumage.
Same individual as above. A type that looks like the Taiwanese form of Eastern Yellow Wagtail.
The white uppertail coverts are intriguing. What could it be?
An ordinary White Wagtail, first-winter plumage.
Red-throated Pipit, first-winter plumage.
The Javan Pond Heron is still here!! I thought, but it had been replaced by a Chinese Pond Heron. ^^; This season I've been able to observe both the Javan Pond Heron and the Chinese Pond Heron over a long period.
The Malayan Night Heron, which I can see every day, is moulting further and the area around the face has changed to adult plumage.
A family of Taiga Bean Geese came to the paddies, but they were on edge, and when a kei truck passed they vanished somewhere in no time.
About 20 Mallards are staying in the paddies. They're close, but weeds get in the way and make them hard to observe.
Chinese Pond Heron, juvenile. Moult is progressing.
Malayan Night Heron, juvenile. Around the face and on part of the wing coverts it is beginning to acquire adult plumage.
The crest of this Malayan Night Heron juvenile has a heart-shaped mark. ^^
A family of Bean Geese. The two birds on the left and right are adults; the two in the middle are juveniles.
Bean Geese gleaning fallen grain. The one on the left is an adult; the rest are juveniles.
Eurasian Teal, adult female (foreground) and juvenile.
A look at the sandpipers and plovers wintering on Ishigaki.
Common Redshank, a bird you only get on a southern island, is in a small flock of a few birds. The most numerous is the Black-winged Stilt, in flocks of a dozen to two dozen or so at several places. Common Snipe are less conspicuous but many are wintering and show themselves in the morning and evening. Small numbers of Common Greenshank, Green Sandpiper and Common Sandpiper are also staying, and today I found a single Dunlin as well.
There are a lot of Northern Lapwings this season, with a dozen or so wintering. Little Ringed Plovers are also happily wintering.
Common Redshank — the quintessential bird of Okinawa in winter. First-winter plumage.
Northern Lapwing, juvenile. Beautiful metallic sheen.
Common Snipe. Moulting from juvenile into first-winter plumage.
Also a Common Snipe moulting from juvenile into first-winter plumage.
Another Common Snipe. The snipe here are almost all Common Snipes.
Common Greenshank, adult winter plumage.
Green Sandpiper, first-winter plumage. The loudest and most conspicuous call of any wader here.
Dunlin, first-winter plumage.
A Caspian Tern for the first time in a while. Only one bird came in.
Three Black-headed Gulls dropped into a rice paddy. In Yaeyama, the only gulls that turn up regularly are about Black-headed Gull and Saunders's Gull.
An adult winter-plumage Caspian Tern resting in a rice paddy. For some reason this paddy often attracts Caspian Terns.
Black-headed Gull, adult, winter plumage. Beautiful.
Black-headed Gull, first-winter.
Also in first-winter plumage, but with more juvenile feathers retained than the individual above.