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

For some reason, a Ryukyu Scops Owl froze with its right foot extended.

I was surprised to find it perched right in front of me. I watched and photographed it for a while — it seemed very relaxed.

A Brown Hawk-Owl appeared overhead. It had just stopped raining heavily, so perhaps it came out to dry its feathers?

I encountered a very similar scene just the other day.

A Ryukyu Scops Owl among the green. Quite charming.

A cool-looking profile of a Ryukyu Scops Owl. Both the Brown Hawk-Owl and the Ryukyu Scops Owl are wonderfully expressive.

When it closes its eyes with a smiling expression, it is genuinely relaxed and asleep. When it closes its eyes in a straight line, it is actually on guard and watching you through half-open eyes.

It wasn't carrying food back to the nest, so the chicks have probably not hatched yet.

It had been bathing, but then someone came along walking their dog off-leash and it disappeared somewhere…

A Black-naped Tern bathing.

They came as a pair and left as a pair.

A flock of Kentish Plovers was milling about on the beach in the foreground.

A Lesser Frigatebird gliding effortlessly toward me on a thermal. There's something a little eerie about it — almost an ominous feeling… ^^;

Huge… According to the field guide, the wingspan is over 180 cm.

A Greater Crested Tern also searched for prey, soaring leisurely over the kuruma prawn aquaculture ponds.

Success — it caught a kuruma prawn. According to someone at the farm, the prawns that get taken are weak ones, so it's no problem. ^^;

A colony of Black-naped Terns. About five pairs were present.

A white-morph Pacific Reef Heron crouching low, eyeing its prey.

The catch turned out to be a small fish… ^^;

A White-winged Tern that arrived later knocked off an individual that was preening.

Adult and juvenile.