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

Ng Tung Chai, Hong Kong (1 Viewer)

Hi Mike, I know exactly what you mean: I was watching a Yellow Bittern like that a few days ago, and just yesterday a Cardinal (yes, I've changed continents temporarily), and both had that awkward teenager bearing. Younger birds are clumsier - they're just learning the skills. I had wondered if there were any clues from the pic - makes sense that there aren't and just goes to show how observations are an important supplement to still pictures.
 
There are clues in the picture to help age this starling. These include:
Pink base to bill (adults have a blue-grey bill)
No white in wing coverts (all adults have white in the greater coverts, males in the lessers/medians as well)
Overall brown tone to the plumage (adults are greyer, less brown)
"Scruffy" appearance
Slgiht blue tone to the eye (OK, it's not very obvious on this photo, but the eye appears bluer than is typical for an adult)

I see a lot of these (there are many breeding in my part of Hong Kong), and I'm very familiar with the age-related plumage variability. As Mike mentions, the juveniles are generally much scruffier and clumsier (and more vocal!) than the adults
 
Thanks for the clarification John.

A super-hot day today in the valley, but while collecting laundry before going for a walk I had a part of five White-cheeked Laughingthrushes from the roof, a Greater Green Snake crossing the path at the spot where Dylan had a 6-ft long Burmese Python last night, and just as I arrived home, the Brown Wood Owl called for the first time in ages.

Cheers
Mike
 

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Having watched the White-cheeked Laughingthrushes hunting over the melon frames just behind the house on Saturday I braved the heat to try to photograph them the next morning.When they’re silent they’re very unobtrusive, but like many laughers, its not an act they can keep up for long, and eventually I got a couple of shots of them foraging in a neighbouring veggie patch.

While waiting for them to emerge I found a dragonfly that has been something of a nemesis when it comes to getting a photograph, Emerald Chaser. Usually its flies without ever resting, but this one had the good manners to sit still for a couple of minutes at perfect digiscoping range.

The Large Woodland Spider, black as depression, I found poised menacingly over one bank of the river was one of the darkest (and therefore oldest) I’ve ever seen. However it had attached one side of its web to the tree with the screaming red seed pods sp., which provided a fine contrast in tone.

Since this is prime dragonfly season I went down to the ponds at She Shan which the Common Teal and the Black-browed Reed Warblers had favoured earlier in the year. With lots of emergent vegetation and apparently few fish these ponds are excellent for dragonflies, and in the space of 40 minutes I recorded thirteen species including a new one for me - the uncommon but very lovely Sapphire Flutterer – which I have lusted after since the first time I saw it’s metallic purple-blue wings in the field guide.

A family party of four Hair-crested Drongos – almost certainly the pair that had bred in a nest overhanging the river - were hanging around in the general vicinity, and a pair of Common Kingfishers zipped through, shrieking at full volume.

Also of interest were a couple of Pacific Swifts in the Hose Swift flock.

I also had a random bonus this morning in the shape of a very excited and vocal Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker which was bouncing around in the lower branches of the magnolia tree next to the egretry bamboos.

Cheers
Mike
 

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Nice observations! The seed pods are very impressive, and the laugher very good looking too. Not too bad for other birds too - glad to hear there are some things around to see.
 
Thanks for the clarification John.

A super-hot day today in the valley, but while collecting laundry before going for a walk I had a part of five White-cheeked Laughingthrushes from the roof, a Greater Green Snake crossing the path at the spot where Dylan had a 6-ft long Burmese Python last night, and just as I arrived home, the Brown Wood Owl called for the first time in ages.

Cheers
Mike

If those snakes had been around when you showed Bridgette and I around you would have seen her run faster than Usain Bolt!
Great blog Mike, look forward to it each week.
 
Many thanks for all your encouragement - especially in summer, when actual birds are a bit thin on the ground! The second dragonfly is indeed the flutterer Larry.

But with the first palearctic migrant - an Eastern Crowned Warbler - found at Tai Po Kau by some brave soul last weekend, autumn is only just round the corner.

Not much in the valley last weekend, but I did get a couple of hours at Long Valley on Sunday morning.

Cheers
Mike
 
Wide awake at 0500 a few days ago had its compensation - a Barred Owlet giving its bubbling call from a neighbour's TV aerial stayed long enough to have is picture taken.

Hoping for more birds this weekend.

Cheers
Mike
 

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The highlight of the morning was seeing at least 6 Crested Serpent Eagles in the air with two other raptors. My suspicion is that they were Oriental Honey Buzzards, as they looked smaller, and had a broad-barred longer-tailed jizz and fine barring on the primaries. I suspect they were something of a curosity, as two pairs of the eagles came drifting in for a look.

Magpie Robin was a bird I have not really tried to photograph, but this one posed well for a single shot, and a few minutes later the Scaly Breasted Munia did the same.

The breadfruit were on a tree right next to the munia and the people on the path were right at the spot where Dylan had the python a few days ago.

At least five Night Herons were in the trees above the overgrown ponds at She Shan - a new high count for the valley.

There were also some good dragonflies and other creepy-crawlies, which I'll post later.

Cheers
Mike
 

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and now . . . the pix from last weekend's extraordinary exoskeletal extravaganza!

Amorous damselfies (Black Threadtails) making wierd runic symbols in mid-air , a hungry Large Woodland Spider epitomising black silent death, an unspeakably elegant yellow dragonfly, and the black beetle with a funky snout - all part of the background to birding in Lam Tsuen.

Back to birds . . . on Monday evening I saw what was probably the Brown Wood Owl flying from one distant patch of fung shui woodland to another at dusk, an on the way home a Barred Owlet was again calling from a perch on the tv aerial of one of the nearby houses.

Migrants are popping up in various places in HK, so hoping for a bit of action this weekend . . . Actually the best was a Fairy Pitta on Po Toi last weekend.

Cheers
Mike
 

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I like these... to me the yellow dragonfly looks like it's trying to uproot the grass on its own.

Glad to hear your migrants starting to appear too - I've been inside for nearly a week solid, so hoping to see the outdoors this weekend.

By the way, what are the fung shui woods? Are they left standing to enhance the fung shui (luck) for local residents?
 
Hi Gretchen, and welcome back to China.

I never saw the dragonfly like that, but your absolutely right - can't see it any other way now!

Fung shui is all about alignment of man's activities with the environment.

Fung shui woods are the semi natural woods behind villages which serve a range of purposes from protection from harsh winds, provision of fruit (starfruit, Breadfruit,pomelo), wood (camphor for cupboards), bamboo, rattan, traditional medicines, refuges for spirits and decoration. This means they have a wide range of species of plants and with them a variety of microhabitats. They are a major feature of the valley I live in, and there are pix in various places in this thread.

As you can imagine this makes them good for woodland birds and a refuge for a wide range of wildlife. They also served as a source for seeds for reforesting the formerly denuded hillsides of Hong Kong.

A far remove from putting a goldfish bowl in the auspicious dragon's eye quadrant of a New York real estate office to attract the wealth god, but that's where it came from!

There were some birds today - 2 Great Egret, 6 Little Egret and Chinese Pond Heron flew over the house this morning, and the White-breasted Waterhens in the field behind the house had at least two fledged chicks.

More interesting Dylan has heard the Brown Wood Owl two evenings in a row - the first time in two and half years it's been heard on consecutive evenings

Cheers
Mike
 
A rather soggy walk up Ng Tung Chai today was my first in several months, and my first real go at picking up some autumn migrants in the valley. Given the rain I did OK with a couple of Eastern Crowned Warblers, a rather big-billed Greenish Warbler and a calling Pale-legged/Sakhalin Leaf Warbler that I heard but did not see.

I also heard Mountain Tailorbird and Pygmy Wren Babbler, and Mountain Bulbul, and had a small blue bird come off the ground and away that was possibly a Siberian Blue Robin, but I didn't get enough on it . . . one that got away.

Cheers
Mike
 
Oooh, sounds like it's getting more interesting as Sept runs on - though wet weather may not be the best part. (I don't actually try wet weather very often, so don't know too much about birdlife in the wet...)

Thanks for the great description of the feng shui woods. I knew what the general purpose was, but hadn't realized quite how good they would be for birds - that there were so many species of flora found in them - sounds much better than what we get for newly installed "woods" up here ;) I guess that they are both natural and purposefully added to from your description.

By the way, what happened to the local hillsides ("denuded")? Were they cultivated or ...?

Hope more migrants are on their way!

Cheers! Gretchen
 
Autumn is really here - a patch tick in the veggie patch before breakfast this morning - a fine Oriental Reed Warbler. I'm checking with other HK birders to see if this might be a new bird for the Lam Tsuen Valley.

Anyway, I picked it from the window up hopping about the bean canes with the Crested Bulbuls, and after a short wait in stuck its head up with a faceful of wings and legs of some unfortunate insect, and having demolished that inside an aubergine bush it hopped into full view on a bare cane for 30 seconds, giving fine views and allowing me to discount Thick-billed Warbler, which I have never seen in HK, but also comes through at this time of year.

Cheers
Mike
 
And today . . . the Dollarbirds have landed. Dylan had one this morning and, working at home this afternoon, two on the powerlines across the valley.

I also had a Collared Crow yesterday right after the Oriental Reed Warbler and on the way to the bus stop a Barking Deer across the road.

Cheers

Mike
 
The week has continued pretty well:

I had four Dollarbirds yesterday morning. They were all distant, with one over the pass at the SW end of the valley and three more flying round pylons at the far NE end of the ridge at the other end.

Arriving home at about 2pm, there was an immature White-bellied Sea Eagle soaring over the village. It drifted off towards Lung A Pai and the Lin Au ridge, but not before Dylan was able to get onto it too.

This is just my second record in Lam Tsuen - the first was an adult that flew past Kadoorie Farm when I was working there a few years ago.

Cheers
Mike
 
Having had a couple of Dollarbirds from the window I went up on the roof to see how many I could pick up with a proper scan . . . and found 10! Four we above Wo Hop Shek, four were over Ng Tung Chai and two over Lung A Pai.

While I was counting them a total of 61 Chinese Starlings (two flocks of 6 and 55) flew down the valley, looking like a chessboard which had decided to disconnect itself and fly away.

While I was admiring a juvenile Lesser Coucal a couple of Black Drongos, the first of the autumn in the valley, appeared, and a few minutes later a couple of Yellow Wagtails called as they flew over, but too high to be seen.

Not bad for 30 minutes!

Cheers
Mike
 
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