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

Goldcrests are smaller than I had imagined, and photographing them was tiring.

They rarely show off the crown that inspired their name.

They showed no wariness toward people at all, but they were high up, so it was a long way to the Goldcrests. ^^;

They were about the same size as the Yellow-bellied Tit, but the Goldcrests felt more slender.

An Osprey hovering impressively despite its large body.

It caught a large mullet.

An Osprey skillfully gripping a fish lengthwise to reduce air resistance.

This one is a Common Kingfisher, a master of hovering.

It was diving steeply to catch fish.

A juvenile Grey-faced Buzzard appearing over the tidal flat.

Down to just one Lesser Crested Tern. Far away again today. ^^;

When a Peregrine Falcon appeared, the White-winged Terns and others were fleeing in panic.

Saunders's Gull, first-winter plumage. The monotone is beautiful.

The White-winged Terns were startled not only by the Peregrine Falcon but also by the Grey-faced Buzzard.

A flock of Eurasian Wigeons and Northern Shovelers. They kept landing on the tidal flat, then taking off in alarm at the roar of aircraft engines.

No Parrot Crossbills… but I had a welcome reunion with a Japanese Sparrowhawk instead.

Two Caspian Terns far away on the opposite shore. Many White-winged Terns were resting around them.

Another Caspian Tern, a little apart from the others. This one was sitting down. It was startled by a Peregrine Falcon and flew up toward me, and when it got closer I could see something that looked like fishing line coming from its bill. I wonder if it had swallowed a fishing rig by mistake. There was a Caspian Tern with fishing line coming from its bill last year too.

The Caspian Tern from above was startled by the Peregrine Falcon and came toward me. Looking closely, I can see what appears to be tangled fishing line coming from the base of its bill.

The individual above. Even from the front, the tangled-looking line is visible.

A Saunders's Gull that ran and caught a fiddler crab.

Mangroves and Saunders's Gull. It's a scene you can only see in Okinawa.

From the wing pattern, this is a first-winter juvenile. Most of the other Saunders's Gulls were also juveniles.

Saunders's Gulls would sometimes dive steeply from low flight to catch crabs.

Fiddler crabs — prey for Saunders's Gulls, Eurasian Curlews and others. There are huge numbers of them.

Eurasian Curlew.

A White Wagtail also came by and caught a small crab.

A Spot-billed Duck and a male Mallard with juveniles, startled by a Peregrine Falcon that arrived. I hadn't noticed them when they were down on the tidal flat.

A juvenile Yellow-bellied Tit. It was yellower than I expected. I wonder if adults are even more vivid.

It was eating pine nuts held between its feet.

This individual's grey areas, including the head colour, looked slightly darker.

Two Yellow-bellied Tits. The one in the background, slightly out of focus, is the individual from the photo above.

I'd like to shoot carefully with the 600mm and a tripod, but Yellow-bellied Tits cover a wide area and are hard to track down, so I used the more mobile 100-400.

A male Brambling pecking at cluster-fig fruit.

A female Brambling extracting seeds from a pine cone. When dozens of Bramblings fed on pine seeds all at once, the thin husks covering the seeds fluttered down like a fine snow.

A male Eurasian Siskin. It also appeared to be eating pine seeds.

When Eurasian Siskins arrived in a flock, they would perch high in the trees and look all around.

A partially leucistic Oriental Turtle Dove.