Ng Tung Chai, Hong Kong (4 Viewers)

MKinHK · May 24, 2011

Hi Larry

Delighted to know that pix of CPH can give you a warm tingle, but even after a Google search I have no idea what a "kerf" is (a bit of a chainsaw or something to do with guitars seemed the commonest references) or how it relates to a CPH.

Any enlightenment would be much appreciated!

An eye AND an ear Gretchen!

Cheers
Mike

Dong Bei · May 24, 2011

Mike, I just cruised through your USA trip report. Excellent stuff. Good to see your reports again. Over 50 Chinese Egrets here on an all day wader trip up the coast. I know you wanted info about them.

MKinHK · May 25, 2011

Many thanks Tom - I hugely enjoyed the trip.

Thanks also for the Chinese Egret numbers. They are still trickling through here in ones and twos.

Cheers
Mike

MKinHK · May 31, 2011

A Dollarbird patrolling above the fung shui woods on Sunday morning was my latest spring record in the valley by 9 days.

Also in the week breeding birds with fledged young have included Chinese Bulbul and Magpie, while Chestnut-winged Cuckoo is now in full song during the night.

Cheers
Mike

Larry Sweetland · Jun 1, 2011

MKinHK said:
Hi Larry

Delighted to know that pix of CPH can give you a warm tingle, but even after a Google search I have no idea what a "kerf" is (a bit of a chainsaw or something to do with guitars seemed the commonest references) or how it relates to a CPH.

Any enlightenment would be much appreciated!

Cheers
Mike

Sorry Mike, bit obscure I guess. I was trying to indicate how we pronounced CPH. ie we would'nt say "See-pee-aych", when we saw a Chinese Pond Heron, we'd say "Cph" (Kerf) as if it were a monosyllabic word itself.

Hope that makes sense, but if it doesn't, don't worry, it's far from important!

MKinHK · Jun 2, 2011

Logical . . . no, but clear . . ?

Absolutely!

johnallcock · Jun 9, 2011

Interesting that you used to do that Larry. I knew exactly what you meant by 'kerf' because I think of them with pretty much the same name!

It's a bit like using 'lerp' instead of L-R-P (for Little Ringed Plover).

MKinHK · Jun 11, 2011

There can be advantages to a bad night's sleep.

Waking up at 5am with work spinning in my head got me out of bed and onto the roof to enjoy a beautiful dawn breaking over the valley. As the hidden sun turned a silken swatch of cloud from black to pink against the blue-black sky Mercury, amazingly bright and Jupiter with four of its moons faded slowly out of sight in the lightening sky.

There are not many birds at this time of year, but the first off of the nest were pair of Chinese Pond Herons and a pair of Little Egrets from the bamboo stand in the car park as three different Black-crowned Night Herons headed back down the valley to the roost at She Shan.

The top birds for me were pair of newly fledged Black-collared Starlings ambling about without a hint of having the slightest clue, scrambling through an old net and staring at the Masked Laughingthrushes which invaded the veggie patch with their usually exubrerant absence of poise and decorum. A Greater Coucal gave its deep "Poomp, poomp, poomp" call in the grasslands and a pair of female minivets (presumably Scarlet) zipped over.

One of my long-unfilfilled ambitions is to pick out an Eagle Owl perched on the rocks on top of the ridge on either side of the valley. It takes a rare unpolluted day to make such a scan worthwhile, and although it was, again, unsuccessful I did pick out a Chinese Francolin which must have been a good two kilomteres away greeting the dawn atop a very distant boulder.

The other good birds were a pair of Black-throated Laughingthrushes making just their second appearance on my house list as they flipped furtively across the furrows of the veggie patch and disappeared down a slope behind a row of village houses.

Its not exactly the splendours of the Sichuan mountains, but I did head off to work with more than usual cheerfulness as a result.

Cheers
Mike

Gretchen · Jun 11, 2011

MKinHK said:
There can be advantages to a bad night's sleep....

As the hidden sun turned a silken swatch of cloud from black to pink against the blue-black sky Mercury, amazingly bright and Jupiter with four of its moons faded slowly out of sight in the lightening sky.

Beautiful sky!

MKinHK said:
The top birds for me were pair of newly fledged Black-collared Starlings ambling about without a hint of having the slightest clue, scrambling through an old net and staring at the Masked Laughingthrushes which invaded the veggie patch with their usually exubrerant absence of poise and decorum.

Photo shows extremely cute juveniles! Sounds like lots of interesting things to see! (I wish we had laughingthrushes around up here - a great family - and yes I know there is supposedly one of the family up here, but I'm still looking for him.)

MKinHK said:
Its not exactly the splendours of the Sichuan mountains, but I did head off to work with more than usual cheerfulness as a result.

Hey - it's your backyard! Not bad at all.

Cheers, Gretchen

norm farrell · Jun 24, 2011

And quiet reigned over Ng Tung Chai ...

Mike,

Nothing soaring, fluttering, flapping, swooping, skimming over you?
Nothing creeping, crawling, slithering, scampering, scurrying under you?
No moonrise, no sunsets, no gales, no zephyrs?
No cuckoos, no cobras, no finches (crested!), no woodpeckers (bay!)?
No frogs, no toads, no newts, no lizards?
No tigers burning in your forest of the night?
No Baghera sneaked over from Kipling's Injia?
No American cardinals spirited past Hong Kong immigration?

Mr. Postman, wait and see
if there's a posting, a posting for meee,
(etc. etc. )

Best,
Norm

MKinHK · Jun 25, 2011

OK OK . . . but this is a pretty quiet time in Ng Tung Chai.

The most interesting aspect is the Chinese Pond Heron colony. The first juveniles are fledged and just beginning to learn to fly - albeit only as far as the big camphor tree next to their bamboo clump. A few more are clambering around in the bamboos and should take wing any day now.

I've also been watching a Lesser Coucal gathering grass which is obviously for nestbuilding. The location of the nest is out of sight, but it seems to like the grass just beyond the veggie patch.

Other birds with young include a White-breasted Waterhen shepherding three black fuzzballs with gawky green legs and the Masked Laughingthrushes.

Chinese Starling and White-browed Laughingthrush are conspicuous by their absence.

However its not all doom and gloom. Part of the reason for my silence is that last weekend I took off for eastern Guangdong, which produce some amazingly good birding for the time of year.

Big fancy dress party last (one of the rare occasions when us normally reserved Brits really cut loose) night, so it will be a struggle to drag my "slightly dehydrated" carcass out the door, but I will be posting my report on the vacational reports page (here) over the next few days.

All you had to do was ask Norm - but I have to admit you did so in some style.

Cheers
Mike

MKinHK · Jul 2, 2011

Not many birds about at the moment, but a Chinese Soft-shelled Turtle appeared in a pond near my house this morning. It is very rare as a wild animal in HK, but it is widely traded for food, so the likelihood is that it is an escape.

However there is a marsh close to my house, so it would not be impossible for it to be wild.

The only bird of interest was a very newly fledged Chinese Pond Heron stood on the retaining wall next to the stream. It was too young to see me as a threat.

Cheers
Mike

MKinHK · Jul 9, 2011

The highlight of the last week was seeing a juvenile Koel flapping clumsily about before exploring the fruiting fig next to the house. It tried and failed to get a fig down - they were all looking rather too hard, large and green - before flopping away, followed, to my delight, by a couple of harried Magpies, who were quite clearly the foster parents.

This is just the second time in 20 years I have seen a cuckoo with its parasitized parents . (The first time was a Common Tailorbird feeding a Plaintive Cuckoo). The odd thing is that the Magpies have already successfully raised a brood this year, so either there is a second pair or this pair were too dopey to realize that they'd finished for the spring.

Other birds about included four White-rumped Munias, a White-breasted Waterhen moulting out of juvenile plumage, which poked around the edge of the turtle pond and a couple of Long-tailed Shrikes chasing each other acrobatically about above the grassland.

The Chinese Soft-shelled Turtle has continued to show all week and performed like a rock star this morning, hauling out on the bank for some sun. It was joined in the pool by a youngish Checkered Keelback that I also saw gliding along the tiles on the other side of the house yesterday evening.

Cheers
Mike

MKinHK · Jul 10, 2011

A nasty polluted day today so I stayed at home again taking opportunistic shots of whatever happened by. The most photogenic was the juvenile Chinese Pond Heron poised on the edge of the turtle pond. The turtle, had prudently made itself scarce.

However the birds I most enjoyed today were a pair of adult White-breasted Waterhens that were also mooching about near the turtle pond.

One bird was slightly darker and its plumage was in much better nick. Watching it through the scope as it preened, I noticed for the first time that it has a white edge to the outermost wing feathers.

The other bird was more worn and despite preening, wing stretching and butt wiggling there was no hint of a white on the wing. None of my pix were any good, but I did grab some video footage of both birds preening together.

Cheers
Mike

Gretchen · Jul 10, 2011

I've been meaning to comment on the interesting views of the turtle - I'm not very familiar with this type. Was it in danger from the pond heron? I assumed it was bigger, but perhaps rather bite sized? Sounds like some interesting things to see anyway. (Have to wait to watch the vid till morning - too slow internet in the evenings here!)

MKinHK · Jul 27, 2011

This Soft-shelled Turtle is pretty small, Gretchen. However they can get pretty big - there is a famous on in a park in Central Hanoi in Vietnam that is meant to be over 100 years old!

A few bits and pieces of bird news here:

The veggie patch received its first visit by White-browed Laughingthrush for a while. Six birds - presumably a family party came bouncing through yesterday morning and showed very well until they ere chased off by a Masked Laughingthrush .

Yesterday there was also a juvenile Greater Coucal mooching in the veggie patch. Unfortunately it was right into the sun, so its not a great pic, but it is a sign of breeding success.

Also fun was the first froglet I've seen with its tadpole tail still attached. It was resting on a water lettuce leaf in the turtle pond, and seemed happy enough to let me get the pic below.

The final pix are of a longhorn beetle sp. that flew in a few days ago, with and without the flash.

Cheers
Mike

MKinHK · Jul 30, 2011

I was woken this morning by a huge racket coming from the veggie patch - a round dozen Masked Laughingthrushes were screaming at something hidden under the vegetation for more than 10 minutes. I never saw what it was but I wonder if a snake had caught one of the them.

Half an hour later a timid head emerged from the grass beyond, revealing its self as the first juvenile Lesser Coucal of the year. I was surprised to see it had a white belly, that must only be visible with a head-one view.

I went off-site to Mai Po for a monster high tide during the late morning. Highlights included about 500 waders of 18 species, a juvenile Purple Heron, a flock of 60-odd Chinese Starlings and a female Chinese Grosbeak.

Back at home a major surprise was an Azure-winged Magpie which zipped past the big picture window heading north up the valley. This was just my second in nine years in the valley.

I've also had a couple of fly-over White Wagtails in the last week or so.

Cheers
Mike

Cheers
Mike

Gretchen · Jul 31, 2011

Thanks Mike for the comment on the turtle - I had seen some of the articles on the Hanoi turtle, and forget about how turtles start so small and can get so big!

I like the froglet - that is the longest tail I've ever seen on one, hope it's normal enough. (In the States there's lots of news about deformed frogs, but this one doesn't seem to have a problem.)

Interesting that the Azure-winged are relatively rare for you... so common in Beijing! ("rare" often is relative!) We have them sometimes in QHD and I think they are quite good looking birds.

subbuteo71 · Aug 3, 2011

Hi Mike,

I'm back in the valley after a month away and took a walk this morning- resulting in precisely nothing of excitement! Summer is too quiet and I'm looking forward to the first migrants. Azure-winged Magpie would be a nice addition to my Lam Tsuen list. Mustn't grumble though...

Your turtle is interesting- I have seen an adult soft-shell about 300m away from your pond in the stream below Pak Tin Kong. Breeding would be possible but I agree unusual, small soft shell turtles are commonly sold as pets.

Had my second King Cobra in early July- this time between 3 and four feet long and in the garden. Removing it was quite the most exciting thing I have done in a long time.

Dylan

MKinHK · Aug 11, 2011

Welcome back Dylan.

I like the way each King Cobra you catch has a different coloured bucket to set off its stripes!

With few birds around it herps that make for a newsworthy posting once again.

First up, despite the water levels in the pond going up and down like a yoyo and the weeds being cleared with a rake, I was delighted to catch the Soft-shelled Turtle putting in its first appearance in more than a month yesterday morning.

And then this evening on the tiled pathway a lovely Large Spotted Cat Snake (my first live one ever!)was lurking by the wall and rather than gliding off it hunched itself into a loose swirl of coils, ready to strike. It was far too small and not poisonous enough to do any harm, but when I turned to go upstairs fro the camera it sashayed sinuously away with both myself and the neighbour's dog looking on in admiration. For anyone who is curious you can find a pic of this and other HK snakes here.

Cheers
Mike

Ng Tung Chai, Hong Kong (4 Viewers)

Mike Kilburn

Tom

Mike Kilburn

Mike Kilburn

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'

Mike Kilburn

Well-known member

Mike Kilburn

Attachments

Well-known member

Member

Mike Kilburn

Mike Kilburn

Attachments

Mike Kilburn

Attachments

Mike Kilburn

Attachments

Well-known member

Mike Kilburn

Attachments

Mike Kilburn

Well-known member

Member

Attachments

Mike Kilburn

Similar threads

Users who are viewing this thread