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.
I was worried about damage from the recent heavy rain, so I went to check on the Ryukyu Scops Owl and Ryukyu Northern Boobook nests. All four Ryukyu Scops Owl nests and three Northern Boobook nests were unchanged and appear to be progressing well.
A Ryukyu Scops Owl keeping watch from its usual branch.
A Japanese Scops Owl nesting in a conspicuous spot — I'm a little worried.
Three Gull-billed Terns had been flying around in the morning, so when I found a break in my work and headed back out with the camera, they had been replaced by a Chinese Egret… ^^;
Chinese Egrets, as expected at this time of year.
I managed to get a miraculous shot with, from back to front, a Little Egret, dark-morph Pacific Reef Heron, Chinese Egret, Little Egret, and white-morph Pacific Reef Heron all lined up. ^^
Chinese Egret in breeding plumage.
Pacific Reef Heron, juvenile.
Pacific Reef Heron, white morph, adult.
Lesser Sand Plovers are few, but a handful are staying.
There were three Red-necked Stints.
About ten Ruddy Turnstones.
Day three of the Pheasant-tailed Jacana's stay. After the rain cleared, Ruddy Kingfishers and Crested Serpent Eagles were out and active.
With rain coming and going, the Ruddy Kingfisher was actively foraging.
It was calling back in response to the cry of a Ruddy Kingfisher heard in the distance.
A Crested Serpent Eagle drying its wings on a utility pole. I can't read the code, but from the green band on its right leg and its territory, I believe this is
Day three of the Pheasant-tailed Jacana's stay. The bad weather may be what's keeping it here.
Many Ruddy Kingfisher pairs are incubating or raising chicks, but numbers are high this year so I'm running into them all over the place. The earliest broods should be fledging around the end of this month.
Crested Serpent Eagles are also raising young. Rice harvesting and summer sugarcane planting have started, so there are more chances to watch them hunting.
The Ryukyu Scops Owl that took over a tree hollow where honeybees had nested two years ago appears to be breeding in the same spot again this year.
A Ruddy Kingfisher in the park. Completely unafraid.
A Ruddy Kingfisher along a forest road. I haven't confirmed a female, but this is an area with a high density of individuals, so it's presumably paired up.
A Ruddy Kingfisher near home. Foraging along a service road.
A Crested Serpent Eagle that caught a Cane Toad in a field being turned over in preparation for summer planting of sugarcane.
The crows were a nuisance, so it carried the prey into the undergrowth before eating.
A Crested Serpent Eagle in the park. My daughter was delighted watching it. ^^
A Ryukyu Scops Owl was peering out from its nest hole. Presumably the same female individual I photographed two years ago.
A Ryukyu Scops Owl at a different spot from the one above. This one is a male.
One Pheasant-tailed Jacana arrived. Summer records of Pheasant-tailed Jacana fall roughly between late May and the end of June.
A Red Collared Dove also turned up — numbers have been low this season. Two years ago was a banner year, with flocks of twenty-plus birds coming through, but last autumn and this season have been quiet.
The Whiskered Tern peak seems to have passed, but birds are still trickling through. An out-of-season Black-headed Gull was also noted. It appears to be a different individual from last week's bird.
Pheasant-tailed Jacana, first-summer plumage.
Crimson Dove, male. First-summer, perhaps.
White-winged Tern, winter plumage. It was catching grasshoppers.
Black-headed Gull in a rice paddy. Second-winter plumage.