Daitō vacation: Minami-daitō

Our time in Minami-daito was spent entirely on foot.  This would not have been all that terrible had we been on Kita-daito, which is much smaller.  Minami-daito is not large, but a bit too large for walking around the perimeter.  Ryan and I ate breakfast at our included breakfast option, which was a little place just down the street from Hobbitown.  Breakfast filled the tank, but I let Ryan sleep in a bit more before taking on the day. I left him at peace and went off in search of the wetland areas I'd seen on the maps and hoped to find some birds.  The most interesting find was not a new species, but rather a leucistic Little Grebe.

Part of the fun of birding is finding new species.  The other part of the fun is seeing what you've seen before in a different area, maybe catching them in a different behavior, or getting a fantastic look/photo of the species so that the entire world knows that you saw that bird.  My morning fell into the last of those categories.

Time to wake up Ryan and explore a bit!  I'd forgotten to pack my hat, so our first stop was at the local store to find something to protect my fair skin from the spring sun.  I ended up looking like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, if that good, but one should not mess with the sun.  We'd decided to walk towards what seemed like a port similar to what we'd found on Kita-daito and do some fishing. On the way, we ran into some shisa dogs at an abandoned residentce that someone had a bit of fun with:

We passed either a shrine or historical point of interest along the way.  We can't tell which is which, so I snapped a photo and hoped for historical rather than the distinct possibility that I had disrespected something of sacred significance.

One of the agricultural fields was especially wet, which was unusual because sugarcane doesn't necessarily require lots of water.  We found a soft-shelled turtle, one of the first we've seen in Japan.  Not a bird, but we don't discriminate when it comes to wildlife.

Not much further, I found a lizard and had to take several pictures to ensure I had something decent to share, much to Ryan's dismay.  I believe we had a conversation about how many pictures are enough.  Strange observation: Digital cameras let us see our photos immediately.  Rather than promoting good-shot certainty, we take many more photos in the hopes of increasing the odds that we get at least one good one.  I don't see this as a problem.  However, if I wanted to get somewhere and start fishing in hopes of catching "the big one," I can see how taking several shots might be annoying.

We reached the port and began fishing.  As always, we had high hopes when we began, all of which were to fall flat at the end of our bout of casting.  Oh well.  As my friend Jeremy said, "If you're not casting, you're not fishing!"

On our way out of the port, we stopped to use the facilities at the camping park.  One of the endemic organisms famous on the Daito islands is the Ryukyu flying fox.  We have the same species on Okinawa, but the population on the Daito islands may be a different species given how remote the Daito are relative to Okinawa and some of the nearer islands in the Ryukyu chain.  We saw some of these flying foxes the night before, but the excellent photo eluded us.  The camping park had a theme: flying foxes!  I think state parks should adopt some animal, any animal, to guard their bathrooms and water fountains in a similar manner.  

We opted to take a different route back to our hotel.  Without really knowing where we were, this decision could have ended poorly.  Rather, we found ourselves at the very spot we'd been taken the night before to look for Ryukyu flying foxes and Daito Scops Owl: Daito Jinja.  Jinja means "shrine," as far as I can tell.  It was a pretty park, and we enjoyed the shade after our full-sun exposure during fishing.

We found an old sign with what we believe to be the Japanese equivalent to Smoky the Bear.  A bear beats rabbits, hands down.

After dinner, we joined with the graduate students to participate in their research for a bit that evening. Ryan is supportive of my birding interests and agreed to go without hesitation.  We were both feeling tired, but the opportunity to see an owl is enough to give me a second wind.  I know Ryan is happy to see an owl, but the walking adventures of the day were catching up with both of us.  Happily, the Ryukyu Scops Owl, Otus elegans, Daito sub-species, was very responsive to playbacks and several individuals cooperated with the lights and my camera.

There are three graduate students studying different aspects of the owl's ecology.  One study is investigating demography.  Another is analyzing songs and calls of the Daito sub-species, as well as differences between males and females, and how individuals respond to calls/songs of other individuals.  A third is studying courtship/breeding behavior.  They reminded me of my labmates who worked on distinct projects of Swainson's Warblers in Arkansas, but their collective efforts resulted in the best data of that species ever generated.  Strength in numbers, for sure.

Young male Scops Owls are extremely interested in the playbacks.  Whether curious or territorial or both, the individuals that respond to the playbacks come in very close.  One came in so close that he was blinded by our headlamps and the researchers were able to grab it by hand!  Amazing.  Even better, we had an opportunity to see banding, measuring, and handling of these owls.  First, take the owl back to where the tools were held, because no one anticipated this opportunity.  Once there, apply a metal band:

Next, apply reflective color bands to separate individuals and allow the researchers to identify them in the field based on the markings:

The researchers had reflective bands at the ready, complete with suggested color combinations that had not already been used:

Next, apply a strong, clear adhesive to allow for identification and prevent the owl from gnawing/clawing at his bands and removing them.  There is never a guarantee that color bands will stay on forever, but these efforts do ensure that everything should stay for at least one breeding season.

Now that the owl is marked, time to take some measurements, presumably to compare change over time and with members of the population already banded and measured.

Finally, a few photos documenting the band combination, and then trek out to let the owl get back to his courtship business:

Our fatigue caught up with us, and we decided now was a good time to say good-night and rest our heads.  I thanked the graduate students for inviting us along during their research, for explaining the process, and I promised to share the photos I'd taken.  We exchanged contact information, and I really hoped to see them again at the IOC meeting in Tokyo in August.  Their lab was not far from our hotel, so we were given walking directions and so ended our full day on Minami-daito.