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

A Garganey that has been staying at Sankaku Pond since January.

The Garganey on the right is thought to be a newly arrived individual.

A Garganey (upper right) mixed in among Common Teals.

The two Garganeys stayed close to each other within the large flock of Common Teals, keeping near one another.

Black-faced Spoonbill at Toyosaki tidal flat.

A Black-faced Spoonbill bathing.

Oriental Storks go into the grass so often that, despite their size, they can actually be surprisingly hard to spot.

An Oriental Stork in flight. It was large and impressive.

When I found it, it was standing like this at the edge of a sugarcane field.

It was pushing steadily into the grass, apparently searching for prey.

In the sugarcane field it caught a snake. Zooming in, I could see it was a habu. Even habu venom appears powerless against the Oriental Stork's long, powerful bill.

The Oriental Stork didn't slam the habu against anything — it simply crushed the head with its formidable bill to finish it off, then swallowed it whole.

This is what it looks like with wings spread. A juvenile, clearly. It must have hatched and grown up on the continent this year.

The Collared Kingfisher showed up a little later than usual. I'm glad the visitors who had come all the way from Tochigi and Nara specifically to see it were able to get a look.

At high tide a Common Kingfisher came and was catching small fish.

There were nine Red-throated Pipits at Tomishiro. The other day there were two, but the number had grown.

This Red-throated Pipit is transitioning into breeding plumage — the face is turning red.

The Red-throated Pipits appeared to be pecking at seeds from plants like wood sorrel.

A small flock of White-cheeked Starlings. Some individuals were carrying nesting material, suggesting the breeding season has begun.

The Chinese Bulbuls also seem to have entered the breeding season — they were noisy.

There were Asian Elephants in the grassland.

A Ryukyu Scops Owl was perched in a low shrub at the edge of a field. I got down on one knee — it was roughly at eye level.

This one was perched in a leucaena tree bordering a pasture. Perhaps it was after mice living in the grass.

A Eurasian Scops Owl perched on a field stake. It was far off when I first spotted it, but after a while it came quite close.

It appeared to have found prey. It was in the shadow of the guardrail in the foreground, so I couldn't make out what it caught.

The scar on the bill tells me it's the same individual I always see.

It was moving from branch to branch searching for small insects.

They appeared to be travelling in a small flock, occasionally calling back and forth with a "hireeee" note.