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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Ng Tung Chai, Hong Kong (2 Viewers)

With the exception of a [B]philippensis Blue Rock Thrush[/B] in Ng Tung village, and two Yellow-cheeked Tits and a Ferruginous Flycatcher, which gave superb prolonged views in the clearing in front of the temple (I even got some nice video of it flicking about and preening), Ng Tung Chai was rather quiet this morning.

The only other birds of interest were two Velvet-fronted Nuthatches collecting nesting material, five different Streak-breasted Scimitar-Babblers , and a Black-winged Cuckooshrike on the village access road.

Additional interest came in the form of a wandering Hong Kong Newt - they occasionally abandon their streams and go walkabout in the most un-amphibian manner, and a wholly albino plant.

Cheers
Mike
 

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Well, if the stuff you didn't get good pics of look half as good as those you did post... it doesn't seem like a bad day. Great set - flycatcher is really good looking and the
video capture is great. I'm not sure I've seen an albino plant before... Flower is very pretty too.
 
Thanks Gretchen

Easter weekend is generally very good for birds - actually a bit too good to stay on patch - and I had a terrific trip to Po Toi, a fine morning in Long Valley, and a very nice day's hiking in beautiful Sai Kung Country Park which I'll write up separately, but this morning a White-throated Kingfisher was calling on my neighbour's rooftop TV aerial and on Saturday morning I heard the first "workle" call from the Chinese Pond Herons as breeding gets properly underway.

Cheers
Mike
 
I'm still waiting Dev!

The big news here was the discovery that a Needletail photographed yesterday on Po Toi is Brown-backed - a completely unexpected first record for Hong Kong. Pix can be seen on the HKBWS website.

Cheers
Mike


Hi Mike,
Just seen this belatedly. A great find and some very instructive images to go with it! Sounds as if Po Toi is a good spot. I see from more recent posts that you have also just visited there... looking forward to hearing what you have to say about the place.
Good birding! Terry
 
Hi Terry

My brief report of my day is here. Other good birds seen over the weekend - and on a regular basis can be found on the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society website here

Cheers
Mike
 
A gentle couple of hours down to and around Tin Liu Ha.

First out of the blocks was a Black-winged Cuckooshrike that flew across the path in front of me and landed in a camphor tree where it gave good enough views to reveal abraded tail feathers as it preened itself.

A few metres down the track a pair of Barn Swallows had come down to a muddly pool (mud and puddles) to collect mud for building their nest. Its not a great picture, but you get the idea.

Looking down from the bridge across the river a Red-eared Slider - an unwelcome alien species of terrapin - was hiding under a branch in the river.

Walking on I hard a Plaintive Cuckoo calling and found it on an overhead wire. It allowed me to get close enough to photograph and get a short video (here).

Other birds in the last hour of light included four Red-vented Bulbuls, three Ashy Drongos (all of the white-cheeked race leucogenys) and four Hair-crested Drongos in the same stand of bamboo and bare trees,which I'm tempted to refer to from now as Drongolia.

Top bird of the day was a Hodgson's Hawk Cuckoo (92) calling in the fung shui wood behind the row of abandoned village houses in the (attempted) arty black and white photo, but the Long-tailed Shrike perched on the wires against the sunset made for the best image.

Cheers
Mike
 

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Glad you got the Hodgson's- not a figment of my imagination! It was calling again this evening. I note the Ferruginous Fly pic has been posted twice. I think once is more than enough until I see one. (i do like the shrike pic though).
 
All nice photos - like the action on the swallow, and the flycatcher is a beaut! The 3rd and 4th are just good photos... you thinking about a publication or at least a photo essay on your neighborhood? It would be nice to see some of your general photos in a collection....
 
Thanks for the encouragement Gretchen.

I have to say I like the limited admin of posting the odd online, and I am first and foremost a birder and I spend my day writing and publishing research reports, so right now it seems a bit too close work to put out another book.

On Sunday morning a bit of low cloud and a drizzle of rain sent me up to Ng Tung Chai full of hope of adding some more passage migrants.

Even though I did get a male Hainan Blue Flycatcher (93) and the distinctive "toot toot" of a distantly calling Chestnut-winged Cuckoo (94) it didn't seem like much was happening.

However resident birds were more interesting. I noted pair bonding in both Grey-cheeked Fulvetta and Striated Yuhinas, both of which are pretty rare (and possibly unproven) breeders in Hong Kong, and two Pygmy Wren Babblers poking about in the rocks next to the stream by the temple. I also heard at least seven singing Lesser Shortwings and several Mountain Tailorbirds were also in song.

Th real pleasure of the the day was cooling off after the climb with a swim at the lower falls and then watching the freshwater crayfish explore my feet and try to workout the bigger fish that came to check me out when I touched bottom. Turns out it was Pterocryptis anomala.

I also got up close and personal with this carpenter bee - Xlyocopa collaris no less, and this fine toadstool. I also liked these sprouting figs which look like miniature Granny Smith apples.

There's more rainy weather this week, so hopefully there'll be a few more flycatchers and other goodies.

Cheers
Mike

Cheers
mike
 

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Thanks Frogfish - I certainly enjoy them.

At 5pm this evening after a day of clouds rain thunder, lightning tempest storm and wind five Dollarbirds (95) flew up and circled above Tai Yeung Che and Ping Long before continuing their migration northeast along the valley. They were not the first of the spring however as Dylan had one whilst walking his dog Kitty (what would you expect of an Irish bloke with a Welsh name who teaches English!) this morning.

I also heard Chestnut-winged Cuckoo and at dusk a Brown Wood Owl was again calling.

I should work at home more often!

Cheers
Mike
 
Friday morning there were three more Dollarbirds perched on a tree in the valley and two more this morning brought the total to 10. With so much of their passage period still to come the record of 17 (2009) seems very breakable!

There were not may other birds about today, but I did pick up a somewhat unexpected pair of Hobby (96) circling over the village.

Also of interest today was the 23rd snake species for my patch list - Brahminy Blind Snake or more collquially Flowerpot Snake. Its a small shiny black snake that is most remarkable for reproducing asexually - also known as being parthenogenetic. Not sure if this is a curse of a blessing, but very oddly all specimens collected to date have been female.

Another snake record this week was a young Chinese Cobra that had been killed inside the village just below the Chinese Pond Heron colony.

I also got a decent pic of our most spectacular dragonfly - Chinese Gossamerwing, and brief views of the diminutive Asian Widow, along with twelve or thirteen other species including the amorous pair below.

Cheers
Mike
 

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I also got a decent pic of our most spectacular dragonfly - Chinese Gossamerwing, and brief views of the diminutive Asian Widow, along with twelve or thirteen other species including the amorous pair below.

Cheers
Mike

Hi Mike

I've been meaning to repay your kind words on my thread with some appreciation of the effort you put into maintaining your thread(s) on here...it's only now I've begun I realise what extra effort is required to post this stuff and so to be doing it as long as you have is to be applauded!

Also, while I'm here, do you have any recommendations for references for the dragons and darters? I'd like to broaden my knowledge in that area if possible?

cheers
Mark
 
Many thanks Mark

Its great to have a record of the patch - and posting pix of other stuff has expanded my interest to other biodiversity in the valley - only wish I'd started when I first moved to Ng Tung Chai in 2002.

We have a couple of books on dragonflies in Hong Kong. Keith Wilson is the author of both that I know of. Whether this will cover all or even most of the species in the Shanghai area I don't know - we have around 115 spp. in HK.

This link to David Diskin's site on nature walks in Hong Kong should provide some help - especially the further reading section on the second page.

And back to birds - there were two more Dollarbirds in the same tree as held three on Friday last week.

Cheers
Mike
 
Also, while I'm here, do you have any recommendations for references for the dragons and darters? I'd like to broaden my knowledge in that area if possible?

The definitive guide is recognised as Jill Silby's Dragonflies of the World, however it wasn't definitive for the multiple species I photographed in Hai-Nan !

This is an excellent site .. if you know where to start !
http://www.odonatacentral.org/index.php/FieldGuideAction.browse
 
Two more Dollarbirds this morning - the first I've had on the ridge-top powerlines this spring, and I've also head from Dylan that he had one yesterday and one on Saturday, which would bring this spring's total to 16.

He also had a Grey-streaked Flycatcher in his garden, prompting m to get up on the roof with for a session with the hula hula hoop from hell to look for one of my own - I've had them in two of the last four springs from the house.

I also heard a Chestnut-winged Cuckoo calling at the bus stop yesterday evening.

Cheers

Mike
 
Friday morning I had the pleasure of adding Indian Cuckoo (97) to the year list without getting out of bed - one was calling loudly outside the house at about 6:00am. I was even more delighted with supine year tick when I discovered Dylan had also heard it -on his 5:30 am de-lard-ifying early morning run.

This morning an easterly breeze, low cloud and occasional rain looked ideal for migrants, and so it proved - a terrific spring score of seven Dollarbirds, bring the total to 23 has smashed the record passage for a single spring - and there looks like more of the same weather to come.

Another highlight of the day came from a much more common bird. I was sat on the sofa when a Chinese Pond Heron flew over the roof and turned back towards the house, giving me a terrific eye-level view as it floated past. I learned that there were a dozen pairs in the small bamboo stand next to the carpark - the expert eyes of our egret research group picking out at least five more nests than I had found.

A few pix from last week's visit to Mai Po can be found here.

Cheers
Mike
 
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This morning it absolutely poured - an amber rainstorm warning dumped somewhere between 150 and 200mm on us between midnight and 10am this morning. This completely flooded the veggie patch, and knocked out visibility any further away - thereby creating the best ever possibility of getting Red-necked Phalarope on the patch list.

As soon as the rain stopped I headed up onto the roof and added five more Dollarbirds to the spring total (but missed at lest one that Dylan had). However, there were two ore patch ticks in the shape of the first and long overdue Black Drongo (89) of the spring and a couple of Intermediate Egrets (99) which flew up the valley. An Indian Cuckoo also called once.

Most interesting however was a Long-tailed Shrike with a Checkered Keelback, which had presumably succumbed to the deluge. The snake was at least half as long again as the shrike, but it still managed to fly with it a couple of times, perching on bamboo canes while trying to figure out how to eat it. This reminds that while I was photographing the Chinese Gossamerwing last weekend another Long-tailed Shrike flew over my head carrying a Changeable Lizard.

Cheers
Mike
 

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Working at home today paid off as the sporadic showers dropped four more Dollarbirds and a very late but splendidly white-headed Black Bulbul in the same tree - at long last my 100th patch bird for the year.

According to the Hong Kong Avifauna the latest recorded migrant Black Bulbul was on 27th April, but there are odd records from May and June of birders that may have tried to breed - we are not far from breeding populations in Guangdong.

I also had a pair of Lesser Coucals, a Besra and a Crested Serpent Eagle

Cheers
Mike
 
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