GUIDED BIRDWATCHING TOUR
We'll drive you around Ishigaki Island to wherever the birds are showing best that day. Observation is mostly from inside the vehicle, and we keep it to a maximum of 3 guests so everyone can take their time.
この日は、マイナス15度まで下がりました。前日、あまり下がらないとの予報でしたが、一安心。
石垣島を出発するときは、24度だったのでその差は39度。日本列島は縦長ですねー。^^;
On the first day the weather was fine, temperatures dropped, and the ice that had formed on the trees was beautiful.
Beautifully frozen.
A Red Fox was walking across the snow field.
The first night was clear. A sky full of stars. Still, the starry sky over Ishigaki in summer is something else.
天地返しの始まったサトウキビ畑でカンムリワシがオオヒキガエルを襲っていました。毒が心配されるヒキガエルですが、カンムリワシの獲物のかなりの量を占めています。腹から食って毒腺のあたりは食わないのは、カンムリワシが本能的に毒の怖さを知っているのでしょうか。
It was tearing into the cane toad from inside the mouth and eating it. Compared with the Crested Serpent Eagle, you can see just how large the cane toad is.
The calls of another Crested Serpent Eagle could be heard in the distance, so it was eating nervously. It worked through the prey in order: tongue, oesophagus and stomach, then heart and lungs, then the forelegs.
It seemed bothered by the distant Crested Serpent Eagle calls, grabbed the prey, and disappeared into the forest. I wanted to see what was left when it finished eating, but… ^^;
A Crested Serpent Eagle gliding past at close range. What a magnificent bird.
やっとって感じでソリハシセイタカシギが平田原にやってきました。^^;
Rice planting had started, so it will probably move on somewhere else.
The colours look cold, but Ishigaki today is over 20°C. From tomorrow I'm off to Hokkaido, where it's forecast to be nearly 30 degrees colder than here. ^^;
The distinctive bill, slender and upswept.
ヤツガシラ1羽いましたが、車内から撮れない場所にいたので、車から降りて手持ちで撮ってみました。
エクステンダーの1.4倍とつけていたので、840mm。それでもほとんどぶれなく撮れました。やはり、EF 600mm F4 IS II USMの4段分のイメージスタビライザーと軽量化は伊達じゃない!!
It was perched in a tree with a nice background. Better than a lawn backdrop.
This one has a slight subject blur.
Handheld at 1/100 s. About one in five shots came out without camera shake.
100% crop of the photo above.
Handheld at 1/320 s. With that much shutter speed I could get, nearly every shot was a keeper.
This one is also a 100% crop.
It showed no sign of flushing, so I took the tripod out of the car and shot from there.
This is also a 100% crop.
広いサトウキビ畑のど真ん中でカンムリワシが死んでいました。DNA検査のため、環境省経由で本土に送ります。
Cause of death — starvation? Illness? Or did it eat a rat that had been poisoned? …