October 13, 2019 These past few weeks, I went to an estuary near Hakata Bay in Fukuoka four different mornings. I wanted to try and capture different images of Osprey, especially diving for fish.
The Osprey, or Misago in Japanese, is an especially photogenic bird. Nothing is more beautiful to me than an Osprey, wings spread in flight in the light of the early morning sunrise.
In the enlarged photo of the Osprey’s head, you can see the clear membrane partly covering the eye of the Osprey. This is called the nictitating membrane, and it fully covers the eyes when the Osprey is diving at high speed and also underwater. There is more information about this membrane in the link below.
Other various photos of birds taken around the estuary on those four days.
Temminck’s Stint, Ojiro-to
Osprey, Misago
Greater Scaup, Suzu-gamo
Glaucous Gull, Shiro-kamome
Great Cormorant, Kawa-u
Black-tailed Gull, Umineko
Two photos from one morning at Yamagami Dam. A Grey-Spotted Flycatcher, Ezo-bitaki, and one photo of two flowers.The small, white flowers are a species of Knotweed, Mizosoba, and the purplish red flowers are called touch-me-nots, Turifunesou. They are called Touch-me-nots because the seed pods burst open and scatter their seeds when they are touched. Thanks go to Unakunisan, my student, and his wife for helping me in identifying the flowers.
Grey-spotted flycatcher, Ezo-bitaki
Knotweed (white flower) and Touch-me-nots
Please get out of the house and away from the TV and commune with Mother Nature.
https://www.audubon.org/news/birds-have-built-goggles
MOSTLY BIRDS 