Raptors, 猛禽類

Early morning - low light - great distance. Too excited to take a decent shot

male Hen Harrier, ハイロチュウヒ 雄  flying by

On top of the tallest building, reigning like a king

Peregrine Falcon, ハヤブサ

Why do we see so many females hunting? Where do the males go?

Eurasian Kestrel, チョウゲンボウ 雌

Ah, a male at last...雄...?

Starlings, cranes and a weasel

From a distance they seem to be all black, but when the light is right their true colors come out, shining green, purple and blue and dotted with little white specks like stars. Starlings

Common (European) Starling, ホシムクドリ

There was a flock of over 50 birds in the field

From small birds to big birds, White-naped Cranes, マナツル

No bird, a mammal. I seem to have special luck with them this month, Japanese Weasel, イタチ

click to enlarge:

Asian Short-toed Lark, コヒバリ

猛禽を見に行きました

着いたらコヒバリは入ていることを聞きました

見たいですね！

自転車レースで出るわるかった、ちょっとだけみました。

それと後ろだけ、鳥の胸見えませんでした

不完全な気持ちです

On Saturday I went to Isahaya to see raptors. I didn’t know anything about an Asian Short-toed Lark, an uncommon visitor to Kyushu and heard about it upon arrival.

Oh, a lifer for me!

It would be difficult to find I thought, but other birders ensured me it came to the road to find food, so it would not be too hard. However, a cycling race was going on and that disturbed the bird constantly. I appeared just a few times for a few seconds.

This way I only got to see the little bird from behind and didn’t get to see its breast.

It makes me feel incomplete…

The face looks a bit like that of a skylark, but the bill is much broader, almost like a finch. The color of the body is rather pale and in flight seemed near white.

Oriental Stork, コウノトリ

What a surprise! 2 birds in Imazu, still very young, both females with rings and one bird with an antenna on its back. They must be closely watched by the people of the Oriental Stork center in Hyogo pref.!!!
(See: http://www.stork.u-hyogo.ac.jp/ )

  Looking for small fish at low tide

Is she trying to eat this fish? It looks like a Fugu (Pufferfish)

I could not see what happened, but it looked like the fish was not swallowed.

Moving to the fields in the afternoon

Side by side. Can they find enough to eat?

  

Sunday, November 5th

It was a beautiful day in Imazu. Neither cold nor hot. But too bright and sunny for birds I thought. However...

A farmer was ploughing the field and some trees had edible 'berries'

so the Common Magpies, カササギ were very happy

A juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron, ゴイサギ flew over 

Who is that running towards me? Japanese Weasel, ニホンイタチ！

The Black-Kites,トビ payed more attention to each other than to me. 

Is that love? It looks lovely...

Now that we have one, sorry, two! foreign visitors I'd better take many photos. For the record

Long-tailed Shrike, タカサゴモズ again.

  

The same bird kept on coming back to catch insects and pose for us.

Common in our area, and we sure see many in Imazu, Bull-headed Shrike, モズ female

Pretty things in autumn. I wonder what these are... something you see in flower arrangements...

It was a lovely day with lots of activity.