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

It's been a while since my last update. ^^;

I'm on parental leave and looking after the baby every day, so I haven't been out birding, but I got information from Spotter-san, Ishigaki's number one bird guide, and went out to see a variety of birds at pinpoint spots. ^^

It seems that tours with Spotter-san have had cancellations because of the novel coronavirus, so there are openings. Here's your chance!! Your chance to see Chinese Blackbird, Common Hoopoe, Blue Rock Thrush, Long-tailed Shrike, Solitary Snipe and more!! Advertising on his behalf without being asked, as usual. ^^

Spring migration seems to be getting into full swing, and the Common Hoopoe and Chinese Blackbird, which I call Ishigaki's spring heralds on my own authority, have started to appear. I was also told about a Blue Rock Thrush, but I couldn't find it in the short time I had...

The numbers of Red-backed Shrike (Lanius cristatus lucionensis) are also dropping. They seem to be heading north toward their breeding grounds.

I've also started seeing Dusky Thrushes, Pale Thrushes and Brown-headed Thrushes gathering in groups on power lines and rooftops. This too is a spring movement.

After putting the kids to bed, I made my rounds of the neighborhood. Warm days have continued on Ishigaki and the Ryukyu Scops Owls are more active, so I recorded too many to count. For Northern Boobooks, I confirmed the usual three birds perched on the power lines.

More Red-backed Shrikes seem to be on the move. Wintering birds have disappeared, and some turn up in places where there were none during winter, movements that increasingly hint at the start of spring migration.

Eight Dusky Thrushes were perched on the power line in front of my house. A flock of 22 Common Snipe had also come into the rice paddies.

The Solitary Snipe that has been staying on Ishigaki since last November has now passed three months.

I was out birding with my noisy son, so I couldn't close the distance to the Solitary Snipe and could only photograph it as a dot, but I'm glad I was able to confirm it. ^^

The Solitary Snipe is an extremely beautiful snipe. I still haven't forgotten the thrill of the time I got closest. ^^

Along a prefectural road with a fair amount of traffic, three Malayan Night Herons were out. Since the start of February they have appeared in the same place almost every day. I worry about traffic accidents.

On a warm night, partly as a scouting trip for a guided outing with a bird researcher planned for later, I went to see the Ryukyu Scops Owls along a forest road for the first time in a while. Temperatures are high this year, and I don't know whether that's the cause, but the scops owls were showing behavior like the early breeding season, such as males and females chasing each other.

Of the roughly eight individuals I counted, I watched one that was especially unwary at length. There were male and female calling back and forth, and squabbles between the owls.