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

Red Collared Dove for the third day running. On day one there were two, but I stayed too long on the Pechora Pipit and didn't get them , on day two there was one , and today I found four.

Yesterday there was a single Red Collared Dove in a flock of several dozen Oriental Turtle Doves. Today there were hardly any Oriental Turtle Doves and the atmosphere felt uneasy. The Eastern Yellow Wagtails and Eurasian Tree Sparrows were on edge too, as if raptors had just been through. Still, searching the area I found an adult male Red Collared Dove in the woods up on the hill side. But it was too far away to photograph properly.

I gave up and was wandering around the area when a flock of several dozen Oriental Turtle Doves arrived from the south. Thinking this might be it, I searched through them and managed to find four Red Collared Doves at two spots. ^^

I found a Bull-headed Shrike, a rare bird on Ishigaki and Okinawa!! Its silhouette is different from the Shima Akamozu, so I knew it right away even against the light. When I looked through binoculars it had white patches on the wings and my hands shook. ^^

I also got to watch it catch a frog and make a "shrike's larder" (hayanie). I don't know when I'll next see one in Okinawa. ^^;

It has been two weeks since the White Wagtails started arriving. After the Amur Wagtail (Hoojiro Hakusekirei), the Taiwan White Wagtail (Taiwan Hakusekirei) can now be seen as well.

Eastern Yellow Wagtails and Pechora Pipits are also staying, but they are frightened of the shadows of raptors and won't come out of the rice plants. I can hear the Pechora Pipits calling.

I went to photograph the Red Collared Dove I forgot to shoot yesterday . Unlike yesterday there were many raptors and the birds were keeping hidden. Neither the Red Collared Doves nor the Oriental Turtle Doves would come out of the thickets. There were two Red Collared Doves yesterday, but today I could find only one.

The Javan Pond Heron was at its usual spot. It is always at either this waterway or a patch of grass a little further off. When something startles it, it flies to its roosting woods, but you can't see inside from the path.

A few Grey-streaked Flycatchers are still around. White Wagtails have also been increasing steadily since the middle of October.

I could hear what sounded like a Pechora Pipit calling from a flock of about 30 Eastern Yellow Wagtails mixed with pipits. I wanted to settle it one way or the other, so I stayed several hours waiting for the extremely wary flock to come closer. In the end I didn't get the Pechora Pipit, and I spent so much time that I forgot to photograph two Red Collared Doves right nearby. There was one male and one female.

Heat haze was shimmering, but they came to a distance where identification seemed possible, so I photographed the likely individuals. Checking the photos, though, almost all of them look like Red-throated Pipits.

One of them was a bird that made my heart jump because it looked like a Pechora Pipit. But the face and so on are those of a Red-throated Pipit. As expected, skulking species like the Pechora Pipit are hard to find unless you search by call.

Daurian Redstarts, which began to increase yesterday, had increased further and I could see them all over. I hoped for other small birds too, but all I saw was a few Eurasian Siskins...

The Javan Pond Heron was at its usual place. It is a small area, yet it is in the same place almost every day. Does it like it that much?