A rather quiet morning in Tai Om Shan, but I did accomplish the near impossible - photographing and filming a
Russet Bush Warbler without using a tape recorder to pull it out!
There were a few other birds about, but not many of them chose the show themselves - thus two
Rubythroat, an
Asian Stubtail and a
Red-flanked Bluetail stayed well hidden, but unusually I had brief views of a couple of rather perky
Mountain Tailorbirds, which have been giving me the runaround for the last month or so.
Other birds that did show included a female
Verditer, a
Black-winged Cuckooshrike, three
Black-faced Buntings and at least 5
Pallas' Leaf Warblers.
The
Russet Bush Warbler was in a patch of grass on top of a small rise by the path that caught the early morning sunlight just right to allow views of a rather pale-billed bird. However, the undertail coverts were unequivocally white-tipped and there was a hint of dark spotting on the sides of the throats.
Being rather static I was able to get the scope on it and fired of a couple of shots more in hope than expectation of any worthwhile results, and was astonished when the first pic came out as well as it did. The video,
here, was an even bigger surprise. unfortunately the mike on the camera was not powerful enough to pick up the call (you can just about hear something if you really strain!)
A little higher up I had another bird which seemed to have a slightly different call, lighter ground colour and more prominent eyering, but I just couldn't get a decent look at the undertail coverts, so it can only go down as a possible Brown Bush Warbler (this species also wintered last year).
The view from the top of the hill looks over the farmland areas of the patch. The grassland close to my flat is in the bottom left corner, with the marsh stretching across from the trees next to the grassland all the way right to the three blocks on the middle right edge. The wagtail field is just above and to the right of centre.
The other highlight of the week was either re-finding HK's third Smew or actually finding the fourth record at Mai Po yesterday. I've posted separately on BF
here.
Cheers
Mike