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

The second nest of Ryukyu Ruddy Kingfishers to fledge this season. While walking the forest road looking for Hoya, I picked up the distinctive calls of fledglings. Holding my breath and searching carefully, I found two chicks.

There was a pair of Ryukyu Black Paradise Flycatchers just starting to build a nest. With no crows around, the prospects feel reassuring.

A fledgling Ruddy Kingfisher perched on a rock.

On Ishigaki Island, where the terns have been arriving late this season, Black-naped Tern breeding has finally started. Roseate Tern has yet to begin. Greater Crested Tern is about average for the time of year. I hear it is much the same on Okinawa's main island — it looks like it could be a poor year for terns across the prefecture….

The reef where Black-naped Terns form a colony every year. It is high tide, so the sea level is up.

The long-awaited autumn wader migration has begun. Six Long-toed Stints have arrived. A few Wood Sandpipers as well. Black-winged Stilt and Common Greenshank are present in small numbers sporadically throughout the year. Little Ringed Plover has also arrived.

First Wood Sandpiper of the season. Summer plumage.

The Ryukyu Black Paradise Flycatcher chicks are coming along well — fledging is imminent. One Ryukyu Northern Boobook fledged, though by evening it had returned to the nest.

Near my home, a Ryukyu Scops Owl is raising young; in the grounds of a nearby primary school, a Ryukyu Ruddy Kingfisher is doing the same. One chick has fledged from the Ruddy Kingfisher nest at a mango orchard — around three more appear to still be inside.

There appear to be two Japanese Paradise Flycatcher chicks. The male parent came to the nest. After feeding them, he carried their droppings away from the nest in his bill.

The Ryukyu Japanese Sparrowhawk chicks have started moving between branches. The eldest is already flying about.

Ryukyu Scops Owls fledged at two locations — I got to meet five adorable chicks in all.

The Ryukyu Northern Boobook also looks close to fledging.

The Ryukyu Black Paradise Flycatcher chicks have just hatched; fledging looks likely around Tanabata.

The Ryukyu Ruddy Kingfisher has had a late breeding season — there was still a pair digging out a nest hole.

The eldest of three siblings. It seems able to fly short distances.

A Ryukyu Flycatcher — whose calls I always hear but rarely get a proper view of — was singing beside a forest road. It was singing from less than a metre off the ground. On the mainland, Narcissus Flycatcher tends to use higher perches, but perhaps on Ishigaki Island, with no Japanese Robin to compete with, it is free to use the lower storey?

Ryukyu Ruddy Kingfishers are at various breeding stages; some pairs have still not started nesting.

Ryukyu Scops Owl and Ryukyu Northern Boobook breeding is going well everywhere.

Ryukyu Fantail, adult male.

I took my children to the shore to catch crabs and found four Gull-billed Terns and two Chinese Egrets. Both species seemed completely unafraid — even with the kids making a racket, they did not appear bothered at all. ^^

Bridled Terns wheeling right in front of me. Three were in breeding plumage and one was in non-breeding plumage.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In the evening I tried for a Black-winged Kite for the first time in a while. I parked in the shade of a tree where I had a view of the bird's favourite hunting ground and waited in the car. An adult appeared around 6 p.m. It made several hunting attempts but didn't appear to catch anything.

An adult Black-winged Kite in flight, bathed in evening light.

Ruddy Kingfishers, Ryukyu Scops Owls, and Northern Boobooks are all incubating everywhere. Typhoon No. 2 appears to have had no effect. Hoping things continue to go smoothly.

There was still a Eurasian Coot on the island. Individuals have occasionally summered here due to injury, but this one looks healthy. Is it really okay not to migrate?

The paddies have little in them besides Black-winged Stilts, but among them I spotted a Common Greenshank that looked unwell. Its bill appeared to be partially missing.

A Ruddy Kingfisher with absolutely no wariness at all.

A look at the terns around Ishigaki Island over the past few days. After Typhoon No. 2 passed, a flock of Whiskered Terns and White-winged Terns arrived. Among roughly twenty Whiskered Terns, three White-winged Terns were mixed in.

Little Terns had been incubating at Painu Hamachō, but with the deployment of PAC3, more than thirty vehicles moved in and that was the end of it. As it's early in the breeding season, I hope they can find somewhere else to nest… We should always keep in mind that human activity affects other living things.

A Gull-billed Tern has been present for several days now. It is completely unafraid — it kept on fishing even with children splashing and making noise nearby.

An out-of-season Black-headed Gull arrived alone. Blown in by the typhoon, perhaps?

I couldn't get a photo, but I also had visual confirmation of several Black-naped Terns. I expect their numbers will build from here as they come to breed on Ishigaki. No Roseate Terns confirmed yet.

A White-winged Tern was flying over the rice paddies in strong winds left by the tail of a typhoon, catching dragonflies.

I found a Pin-tailed Snipe that is the latest spring migration record I've had. In just three more months the autumn migration of Pin-tailed Snipe will be starting… With Typhoon No. 2 approaching Ishigaki, there's a good chance it will stay into June. Something to look forward to.

Shorebird migration is nearly over, but a small group of Black-winged Stilts and Common Greenshanks has arrived.

An out-of-season Pin-tailed Snipe. Almost fully in summer plumage.

Northern Boobooks incubating at 3 sites, Ryukyu Scops Owls incubating at 4 sites. Ruddy Kingfishers are nesting at multiple sites too — too many to count… ^^;

Multiple Black Paradise Flycatcher pairs have formed, but none appear to have started building nests yet.

A male Brown Hawk-Owl (left) and female in the background. This pair's nest changes location every year — the nesting tree has been cut down and so on.

With migration winding down on Ishigaki, the island's breeding species — Ruddy Kingfisher, Ryukyu Scops Owl, Northern Boobook, Ryukyu Sparrowhawk, Malayan Night Heron and others — are busy building nests and incubating.

Ruddy Kingfishers in particular are very active. On this day, while working my regular job, I counted 13 individuals in the morning and 7 in the afternoon — 20 in total with no duplicates. I get the feeling Ruddy Kingfisher numbers are higher than usual this year.

Crested Serpent Eagles are incubating at this time of year, so encounters are fewer. Black-winged Kites breed year-round, so a few sites are also in the incubation stage right now.

Black Paradise Flycatchers have been increasing too, and their songs can be heard from all directions.

A male Ruddy Kingfisher sang at close range on a forest track. I was able to record fine detail in the recording.

A male Greater Painted-snipe was out with four chicks. This area has confirmed breeding every year — hoping the season ends safely again this time.

It has probably been a few days since hatching. It is endearing to watch the chicks following their parent around.

I spotted one suspicious individual among a flock of Pacific Golden Plovers that looked like an American Golden Plover. The primary projection and plumage felt off, and the primaries appear to number four beyond the tertials.

I wanted to get more shots, but while I was zooming in on the camera screen to check, a large black dog came running along the shore and flushed everything away… ^^;

I've been comparing against genuine American Golden Plovers on overseas sites, but it's not easy at all.

There is no brownish tinge, and it looks quite different from the Pacific Golden Plovers I usually see. It has a definite American Golden Plover feel to it.

The rice fields are lively with migrants, though the spring shorebird passage feels like it may be winding down. In good weather, birds seem to be turning over every two or three days.

Pin-tailed Snipe, Swinhoe's Snipe, Little Stint, and Broad-billed Sandpiper — all popular birds — are still present.

A Pin-tailed Snipe foraging along a paddy bund, mixed in with several Swinhoe's Snipe.