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

A male Japanese Paradise Flycatcher bringing in a moth.

Every prey item the female Japanese Paradise Flycatcher brought was a moth.

The male Japanese Paradise Flycatcher often brought Joro Spiders. The male and female are using different foraging areas.

This one is busy incubating.

A male Brown Hawk-Owl keeping watch over the nest in a belly-baring pose. Relaxed, but keeping a close eye on my movements.

It seems to react when it hears the calls of crows.

The combination of the 600mm f/4 and the 1D X Mark II with a handheld standing shot — no blur. Shutter speed was 1/200.

The image stabilizer on the 600mm is doing its job, but at the same time the new 1D X Mark II clearly has less mirror shock than the 1D X, and I think that's also contributing.

A Japanese Paradise Flycatcher incubating. Shot with the EOS-1D X Mark II. You can see the improvement over the EOS-1D X.

Also a Japanese Paradise Flycatcher incubating. Shot with the EOS-1D X. The EOS-1D X Mark II renders brighter exposures, and noise appears improved as well. The silent shooting on the EOS-1D X Mark II is very quiet, making it ideal for nest situations. ^^ The standard shutter sound is also quieter than before.

A male Japanese Paradise Flycatcher brought in a large Joro Spider. The chicks are now able to handle prey this large.

A male Japanese Paradise Flycatcher waiting for a chick to produce a fecal sac.

At this Japanese Paradise Flycatcher nest, the ratio of food deliveries is roughly three males to one female. Nest construction was done almost entirely by the female, but the males appear to be quite cooperative when it comes to feeding.

From the EOS-1D X Mark II onward, all-point autofocus works at f/8, so I gave it a test. I photographed White-winged Terns flying around the coast. Conditions were good, but the tracking was spot-on.

The Osprey coming straight at me is also in sharp focus. This too is the 600mm with a 2× extender at f/8, autofocus. The EOS-1D X Mark II is feeling good.

At first I couldn't tell what it was, but a look through the binoculars revealed a Great Knot.

There was also one Pectoral Sandpiper.

About ten Marsh Sandpipers.

There were roughly as many Common Greenshanks as Marsh Sandpipers.

A few Little Terns as well.

Gray-tailed Tattler. It looks like winter plumage — what's going on?

On Chichijima I encountered many Bonin Buzzards, whereas I hadn't come across any on Hahajima.

Just like on Hahajima, Chichijima also had plenty of fledglings — Blue Rock Thrush, Japanese White-eye, Long-billed Bush Warbler and others.

There was one White-winged Tern at the dam.

A Great Egret was also at the same dam as the White-winged Tern.