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

Grey-faced Buzzards are now down to just a few. Those still lingering are all young birds with no stake in breeding.

Pale Thrushes are still around in good numbers, but they too will soon be gone as breeding season approaches.

With the cold snap returning and the daytime high only 18°C, even the Blue Rock Thrush looks chilly.

They were glancing up at the sky from time to time. Perhaps a raptor was flying over.

A Collared Kingfisher coming through the one gap in the mangroves where the view opens up. It was glowing in the sunlight.

A Collared Kingfisher driven off by a pair of Light-vented Bulbuls.

This is what it looks like from near the observation platform on the boardwalk. A bit distant.

If you walk back a short way from the observation platform toward the center, you can shoot at close range in good light. And because you're shooting through a gap in the mangroves, the Collared Kingfisher doesn't seem to mind.

I thought two Kentish Plovers were chasing each other around, but then the male started displaying — holding out one wing toward the female. Courtship, no doubt.

The male (right) displays to the female by showing his wings and raising his tail feathers.

The female lowered her posture. A sign that mating is imminent.

The male flew onto the female's back. Copulation.

Bird copulation is usually brief, but this pair mated for about a minute and a half.

A male (left) and female Kentish Plover immediately after mating.

Kentish Plovers and Little Terns used to breed here, and around this time last year Little Whimbrel and Greater Sand Plover also turned up. Greater Sand Plover, Lesser Sand Plover, and Pacific Golden Plover were among the other species using the area as a stopover on migration — but development now appears to be getting under way.

A few Kentish Plovers had taken refuge in a rental-car parking lot.

As construction intensified and heavy machinery, vehicles, and people multiplied, the Kentish Plovers disappeared.

The Garganey at Sankaku Pond was still there.

There were two male Garganey at Sankaku Pond.

A two-shot of the Garganey.

Male Brown Shrike.

It's a Brown Shrike I haven't seen around before, so perhaps it's one of the northbound birds passing through.

Common Greenshank numbers are increasing too.

There were around 50 Black-winged Stilts.

Long-toed Stint numbers will be picking up from here as well.

Greater Sand Plover in winter plumage. Something seems to be stuck to it around the neck.

The Greater Sand Plover was found just before sunset.

There were two Greater Sand Plovers.

The first Oriental Pratincole of the season. Numbers will keep building from here, with some individuals continuing north and others breeding on the Okinawa mainland.

The Oriental Pratincole had changed into its beautiful breeding plumage.

In a nearby park, a Whistling Green Pigeon was nest-building.