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

I couldn't get away for summer vacation because work was too busy, so we made a last-minute family trip to Miyako-jima. We visited the Grey-faced Buzzard migration survey site on Irabu-jima. The terrain is very flat, and the tsunami evacuation shelter at the survey point is only three stories tall — quite different from the mountaintop surveys on Ishigaki-jima. Birds that had headed out over the sea but given up heading south were coming back and dropping down onto Shimoji-jima one after another.

One of the surveyors told me that back when Grey-faced Buzzards were still hunted, crowds of people would show up at night with torches in the Casuarina forest along the channel between Irabu-jima and Shimoji-jima — from a distance it looked like some kind of festival. Of course, nobody hunts Grey-faced Buzzards anymore.

A small patch of scrubby woodland held plenty of Grey-streaked Flycatchers on migration. I also picked up two Blue-and-white Flycatchers. I heard Black Wood Pigeons calling and got fairly easy views by following the sound, but I was out walking with the kids so I never got to the point of raising the camera…

A flock of ten Garganey arrived, a mix of adults and juveniles.

First White Wagtail (leucopsis) of the season. On Ishigaki-jima the leucopsis type typically arrives first, followed by alba and ocularis at around the same time. Eastern Yellow Wagtail numbers keep fluctuating. The wintering birds should build up a bit more yet.

Whiskered Tern passage birds are increasing. From around late October the proportion of juveniles starts to rise. Black-winged Stilts can be seen in groups of around 20 birds at various locations, presumably on the move.

Autumn is well and truly here — White-winged Terns, Garganey, Ruffs and Arctic Warblers are all building up steadily and the paddies are getting lively. Snipe numbers have also jumped sharply: 40 Common Snipe against 2 Swinhoe's Snipe. I couldn't find any Pin-tailed Snipe.

I finally got photos of the Pechora Pipits whose calls I had been picking up from the grassland for the past few days.

Red-throated Pipits have arrived in large numbers, so picking out the Pechora Pipits took some patience — but when I waited by the call, a bird popped up onto a rice-paddy berm right after the rain stopped. Finding a bird exactly as planned is a special kind of satisfaction. ^^

Chinese Sparrowhawk migration has been under way since early September, but bad weather has continued thanks to the typhoon and a lot of birds are lingering on Ishigaki-jima. At peak times three or so were perched on the power lines together. Once the weather clears they should push through all at once.

Grey-streaked Flycatchers on migration and wintering Arctic Warblers are also increasing. A large flock of around 500 Chestnut-cheeked Starlings was moving through parks in the town centre.

Following the Himalayan Swiftlet the other day, a Siberian House Martin has now turned up on Ishigaki-jima.

I only had a short window before work and was shooting casually, thinking it was an Asian House Martin, but I was told afterward it was a Siberian House Martin. Too late to wish I had taken photos that showed the field marks more clearly. A Siberian House Martin was also recorded on 1 October at Nago-dake on Okinawa Island.