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

The dark-morph Grey-faced Buzzard is wintering without trouble. It will probably stay until spring again this year.

A Red-billed Starling started showing up a few days ago, so together with Rosy Starling, White-shouldered Starling, Common Starling, Chestnut-cheeked Starling and White-cheeked Starling, all six starling species are now here. They all winter, so it looks like a fun winter ahead. I'm especially looking forward to watching the two Rosy Starlings, which arrived as juveniles, progress through their moult.

I was on Yonaguni Island on a work trip and got in a little birding between jobs. I only managed 45 species, which is on the low side...

There were a great many small birds, with Little Bunting and Daurian Redstart especially numerous. Next came Richard's Pipit, Red-throated Pipit, White Wagtail, Pale Thrush, Brown Shrike and Amur Stonechat, in that order. I managed to photograph one each of Red-flanked Bluetail, Naumann's Thrush and Black-faced Bunting.

The ones that were numerous but that I couldn't photograph were Ryukyu Robin and Siberian Rubythroat. A Siberian Rubythroat appeared right in front of me twice, but on a narrow road it was over in a moment and I couldn't get a shot. I heard Ryukyu Robin calls all around. Japanese Thrush, Yellow-throated Bunting and Japanese Bush Warbler look like they could be had with some persistence.

Among raptors I recorded Eastern Buzzard, Grey-faced Buzzard, Common Kestrel, Peregrine Falcon and Osprey, but photographed only the Eastern Buzzard. I wanted to get a Black-winged Kite on camera, but it was far too wary. They may be breeding there, as they do on Ishigaki.

Among ducks there were several dozen Tufted Ducks and a dozen or so Northern Shovelers. There were also two Mandarin Ducks. And I got to photograph two Greater Scaup, which are rare in Okinawa!! Getting Greater Scaup on camera, like Black Kite, Carrion Crow and Bull-headed Shrike, is a thrill only people in Okinawa will understand. ^^;

The twenty-four solar terms are my beat, so for tomorrow's article on Shosetsu ("Light Snow") I went around the island. Should it be a plant, or a bird since plants have followed one another for "Frost Descends" and "Start of Winter", or perhaps an insect...

In the end I went with a duck, combining it with birdwatching. The subject was the Tufted Duck, partly because my boss has been going on about ducks for a while...

As a bonus, so to speak, I found a juvenile Crested Serpent Eagle, the 14th of the season. I identify individuals by photographing the left and right sides of the face. This is the third one I have seen myself. Numbers are low again this year, as they were last year, which worries me.

The paddies still have huge numbers of Eastern Yellow Wagtails, and mixed in were just a few Siberian Pipits and a single White Wagtail.

I also met a Swinhoe's Snipe for the first time in a while. It was feeding with several Common Snipe.

It was raining so I took no photos, but there were also Eastern Buzzard, Caspian Tern, Eurasian Spoonbill and Chinese Pond Heron. The rest were the usual crowd.

Solitary Snipe are very wary, but I hid my presence and waited, and after a long time it came close!! I think the strong wind and rain helped lower its guard. But when I pressed the shutter, the sound alarmed it and it moved away... Snipe really are great, aren't they.

It is only on its second day here, but I am already hoping it will winter. ^^

There were at least five Citrine Wagtails among a huge flock of Eastern Yellow Wagtails. The flock was so large that it had split across two neighboring rice paddies, so a birding friend and I divided up the checking. In the end my friend photographed 3 and I photographed 2.

All of them are first-winter birds, but something feels a little off. The first-winter Citrine Wagtails I have seen until now were a more washed-out gray, and these seem to have a slight touch of brown.

There are 2 (or possibly 3) subspecies of Citrine Wagtail in the world, and I am told the subspecies that breeds further west than the usual Citrine Wagtails is closer to these.