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

A Crested Serpent Eagle I often spotted from my living room. It's always being hassled by a Common Kestrel.

Juvenile Crested Serpent Eagle eating prey. No idea what it was eating….

42 Mallards. You don't often see a flock this size in Okinawa or on Ishigaki Island.

Adult Black-throated Loon. Perhaps it rode the fierce northerly winds that had been blowing for several days all the way down to Ishigaki Island in the south.

Pacific Loon has been recorded in the prefecture, but I never expected a Black-throated Loon to turn up!!

A Marsh Sandpiper wintering in the same rice field. First-winter plumage.

Common Greenshanks wintering in rice fields and along the coast. First-winter plumage.

Common Redshank, first-winter plumage. A small flock of Common Redshanks has been staying in the rice fields.

Common Redshank, first-winter plumage.

Wood Sandpiper, first-winter plumage.

Green Sandpiper, 1st-winter.

Common Snipe flock.

No Swinhoe's Snipe found.

The largest Common Snipe flock was around 40 birds.

A Eurasian Bittern appeared right in front of me. It noticed me but showed no alarm.

It kept coming closer. Seen head-on, it has quite a menacing look.

The Eurasian Bittern came within a few metres. Small fish were the main prey.

A wintering Chinese Pond Heron. Around four individuals are on the island.

Adult Purple Heron.

Not as many as last year, but several Yellow Bitterns are wintering again this season.

It has become considerably less wary than when it first arrived.

Always together with the individual above.

Two adult and one juvenile Ruddy Shelducks. The juvenile has moulted considerably since arrival and now looks much like the adults.

Female Mallard.

A long-staying Tundra Swan. There are many unharvested rice plants this season, so food does not seem to be a problem.