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

Two male Cream-coloured Doves. A female had also been present a few days earlier.

Several raptors were in the area, and the birds — including the Cream-coloured Doves — looked unsettled.

Black-winged Kite, adult. Two birds, presumably a pair, perched on a power line. The individuals here have become used to cars and motorbikes passing by and no longer flush.

A Crested Serpent Eagle near my home.

Brambling — my first shots of the season. Two birds were associating with Red-throated Pipits and others.

Red-throated Pipits are increasing in number.

White-browed Wagtails and Eastern Yellow Wagtails are roosting together in mixed groups. Juveniles are difficult to identify.

Little Egret, juvenile. Whether it's dirt or a colour morph, I'm not sure.

A Purple Swamphen walking along a farm track toward me.

After it disappeared into the undergrowth for a while, it reappeared at its usual spot to eat rice.

The Javan Pond Heron was feeding on dragonflies and grasshoppers around flocks of Eastern Cattle Egrets and Great Egrets.

Eastern Cattle Egrets now fully in non-breeding plumage. These and Great Egrets are what's in the paddies at the moment.

A flock of a dozen or so Common Redshanks is staying in the area.

Temminck's Stints are scarce, but some are also lingering.

Little Ringed Plover, first-winter. The most common plover in the rice paddies.

A completely unwariness Hen Harrier juvenile. It was an extremely aggressive hunter, and the upper surface of its flight feathers was stained with mud.

It was stooping and harassing a Common Pheasant.

Every time the Hen Harrier swept low over the paddies, the waders and small birds panicked. The Purple Swamphen scrambled into the undergrowth in a hurry too.

A Hen Harrier hovering with its eye on something.

While the Hen Harrier was quartering the area, a parent and juvenile Black-winged Kite — the ones that hold this paddy as their territory — scrambled into the air. The bird above is the juvenile, the one below the adult.

A juvenile Pheasant-tailed Jacana, currently staying in the area.

A Garganey among a flock of Common Teal.

Two Greater White-fronted Geese arrived — the first of the season.

A Whiskered Tern that caught a large Lesser Emperor dragonfly. Even a master flier seems no match for a bird.

Juvenile Red-rumped Swallow. A flock of around ten birds was flying around the paddies.

Also a juvenile.

A female Siberian Stonechat. Birds have turned up at several sites across the island.

The first White Wagtail of the season was of the subspecies leucopsis. Every year, leucopsis is the first to arrive.

A partially leucistic juvenile Common Moorhen.

Juvenile Ruff. The bird in front is male, the one behind female.

A partially leucistic Eurasian Tree Sparrow. Birds with leucism and other colour variations turn up fairly often among the sparrows in this area.

A Western Swamphen that had gradually been coming closer.

Pecking at rice grains.

A Western Swamphen's feet, enormous in proportion to its body.

The Western Swamphen used these large feet to draw food toward itself before eating.

A Western Swamphen on an overcast day.

When the sun hits it, the colours become even more brilliant.

A Western Swamphen running across the paddy fields. A typical day consists of eating rice here, or moving to another field to drink water and eat plant stems.

While watching the Western Swamphen, an Oriental Reed Warbler appeared.

It wouldn't come out of the thicket…

A Eurasian Tree Sparrow with partial leucism on its face.

Red-throated Pipits have been increasing.

A Western Swamphen photographed at about 30 metres. It has an air of quiet intensity about it.

A Western Swamphen that moved into the paddy field. It was pulling up rice plants and eating the roots.

A Western Swamphen taking flight from the grass.

In an abandoned, unharvested paddy field, it was feeding on the remaining rice.

At a glance the head alone might be mistaken for a Common Moorhen, but the size is completely different. The Western Swamphen is larger than you might expect.

Whenever seeds of grass-family weeds were available, it preferred those.