Ng Tung Chai, Hong Kong (2 Viewers)

Nice link to the local herps! I guess I knew you would have a lot of kinds there, but that is an impressive display - good pics with nice info on them!

That's a great website, thanks, Mike. I hadn't seen it before. As for my multi-coloured buckets, I need a bigger one after that cobra. It never took its eyes off me the whole time.

Still no birds in the heat of summer so I'll do a swift review of the 21 snake species I've seen in the valley since I moved here in 2002.

King Cobra: Two live records and one roadkill (plus Dylan's youngster above)
Chinese Cobra: One I nearly stood on in May last year

Red-necked Keelback: About 10 records - the commonest snake
Chequered Keelback: 6-8 records - the commonest around the house at Ping Long
Buff-striped Keelback: One live and one freshly dead
White-browed Keelback: One photographed at Kadoorie Farm

White-lipped Pit Viper: 4 or 5 records, mostly on roads at night
Mock Viper: One at Ng Tung Chai (NTC)
Many-banded Krait: One each at NTC and Ping Long
Coral Snake: One Roadkill at NTC

White-spotted Slug Snake: Six or seven, often as roadkill
Taiwan Kukri Snake: One at Kadoorie Farm
Common Wolf Snake: One at Kadoorie Farm
Large-spotted Cat Snake: One freshly dead at NTC and one near the house at Ping Long

Common Ratsnake: Two or three records
Greater Green Snake: Four or five records
Copperhead Racer: One roadkill and one released at Kadoorie Farm

Striped Stream Snake: One at Kadoorie Farm
Mountain Stream Snake: One at Tai Om Shan
Diamond-backed Stream Snake: One at NTC carpark disappeared into a gutter

Not bad for a couple of square kilometres!

I know that Dylan has also seen a couple more - Burmese Python and Red Mountain Racer, and there may be others.

Cheers
Mike

That is a very extensive list. The only other I can only add is flowerpot snake (Brahminy Blind Snake, Ramphotyphlops braminus)- seen in a flowerpot in the yard and another on a path in Pak Tin Kong.

Wow. I'm glad I din't know about those when we went bushwhacking around your place, Mike.

Interesting to see your list of snakes Mike, and to see how it compares with the species I am more familiar with in the wetlands of the North-west New Territories. Unfortunately I haven't kept decent records, but from my experience the top 5 in the Mai Po area seems to be:
Checkered Keelback - Common, I probably see this at least 5 or 6 times a year
Common Ratsnake - Common, probably a couple each year
Many-banded Krait - mostly seen at night or roadkill
Common Cobra - occasional (I've probably seen about 4 or 5)
Taiwan Kukri Snake - seen occasionally (4 or 5)

There are also a few seen occasionally in this area which aren't mentioned on your list - Indochinese Rat Snake, Banded Krait, Plumbeous, Chinese and Mangrove Water Snakes (although I've never seen the last 2 alive!)

By the way, the only snake I've seen in Lam Tsuen was a Taiwan Kukri Snake, seen very well (and photographed) towards the lower end of the valley.

This is interesting John.

I can add Burmese Python (one at Mai Po) and Banded Stream Snake (one dead at Nam Sang Wai) to your list for the NWNT.

Dave Diskin's new book notes that Tai Po Kau has 33 species of herps and I know the Barrettos have had about 20 snake species at Tai Po Kau Headland.

KFBG should also know how many species they have.

Cheers
Mike

And finally, at long last . . . migrants!

Autumn officially arrived in Ng Tung Chai today when a Grey Wagtail dropped onto the marsh near Tin Liu Ha and a Green Sandpiper was on the drainage channel downstream of She Shan this morning.

It was predicted to be another blisteringly hot day but the thought of staring moodily out of the window for the whole of Sunday was too depressing, so I decided to see how many dragonflies and damselflies I could photograph in a morning on the patch.I managed to nail 17 of the 22 species I saw, while adding three new species to my patch list. I'll post some pix later.



Cheers
Mike

And here they are - in batches by colour.

Red first:

1. Russet Percher
2. Red-faced Skimmer
3. Common Red Skimmer
4. Crimson Darter
5. Crimson Dropwing

In addition to the next batch of last week's dragonflies . . . there is, finally some proper bird news fro Lam Tsuen:

While flycatchers seem to be raining down all over the rest of Hong Kong, Lam Tsuen's autumn passage started with a superb male Siberian Blue Robin which appeared on the main path at Ng Tung Chai about 50 metres before the trail down to the Lower Falls.

Other birds here included an Eastern Crowned Warbler near the temple and a very vocal male Hainan Blue Flycatcher with a distinctive white throat patch just above the orchard, plus good numbers of Mountain Tailorbirds.

I also failed to get onto dumpy flycatcher which I would have loved to have been Brown Chested Jungle Flycatcher - a very rare September migrant which somewhat overdue in Lam Tsuen. However, it just didn't it still long enough before disappearing into the undergrowth, never to be seen again.

Other wildlife included a Hong Kong Cascade Frog found while I was swimming at the Lower Falls and a young Wild Boar which had second thoughts about crossing the trail when it saw me and scooted away back uphill.

Cheers
Mike

Four Dollarbirds on the powerlines this morning were my earliest autumn record by eight days, but the big news was a pix of a Hoopoe photographed by an unknown photographer, who is yet to disclose the location . . . hmmm.

In the meantime, a few more dragonflies:

1. Orange-faced Sprite
2. Indigo Dropwing
3. Hainan Hooktail (unless anyone knows different?)
4. Blue Dasher
5. Wandering Midget

Cheers
Mike

A few more Dollarbirds during the week, with three on Wednesday and two on Thursday, plus a Dylan has had a couple on wires lower down in the valley.

A gentle walk this evening, made hopeful by the east wind that has been blowing steadily all day came up trumps with my first Pallas' Grasshopper Warbler in a pathside ditch. I first heard it takking in alarm as it disappeared without showing anything except some still shaking grass stems, but a few minutes later, it skipped over the top of the grass for a few feet and was helpfully much too dark to be anything else.

Cheers
Mike

Another early morning trek up to the waterfall at Ng Tung Chai this morning was birdier than last weekend, but lacked the cooling swim in the pool due to lack of time (a hockey match in town).

About 100m up the hill a hard chacking turned out to be a rather scruffy first summer Hainan Blue Flycatcher. Not a patch on last week's bird, but provided it survives the migration and the winter he should be back in all his gorgeousness.

Top bird was the Asian Paradise Flycatcher at the big arch below the temple. I was watching a bunch of juvenile Crested Bulbuls rooting about for berries in a tree by the path when it appeared in trees across the clearing and, in a wonderful response to my pish, it sailed over and checked me out from a telephone line about 10 feet away!

I watched it for about five minutes as it moved slowly away back to the trees above the river, and as it was perched there a Sooty (Dark-sided) Flycatcher with a strong white half-collar appeared behind it - a real bonus!

Above the temple there were lots of Mountain Tailorbirds in song. I counted eight in total. But the quality came in the form of unusually good views of a couple of Lesser Shortwings. One was a juvenile just showing the first hints of the short broad silvery-white eyebrow. It was calling for attention and clearly not yet learned that a key trait of its species was to lurk and skulk in near invisibility. As a result the rather agitated adult could not help but show itself, although much less easily, so I left them alone before I caused too much stress.

The final good bird was an Eastern Crowned Warbler that was associating with a typically noisy and inquisitive group of Silver Eared Mesias, but my first Streak-throated Scimitar Babbler for a few months should not be forgotten.

The pix below are of a female Blue Shadow Damsel, the pool I swam in (and the waterfall you can lean into), a rather straighforward mystery bird from my dragonfly day and a superb butterfly - Common Dragontail

A quiet day today, with the notable exception of a Black-naped Oriole, which was flushed out of the veggie patch by a very bossy Long-tailed Shrike, and a Dollarbird on wires to the north of She Shan this evening.

Tuesday was the Mid-autumn festival holiday this week, and although I was able to get out there were not many birds - two Dollarbirds on the same wires at She Shan and another close to my place were the highlights, but I did get a couple of pix of of some Spotted Munia and an unusually posed Long-tailed Shrike. Coming home in the dark I found, but failed to photograph, a young Chinese Cobra - just my second ever in the valley, but did confirm the identities of three fish species - Freshwater Minnow, the slug-like Oriental Weatherfish and Suckerbelly Loach. I also added a new frog - Chinese Bullfrog to my Lam Tsuen list.

Last week my neighbours left a nest of a White-breasted Waterhen that had been laid in a plastic that had been laid in a plastic flowerpot hanging from my door handle. I was pretty annoyed as there was little I could do with it, so I took it upstairs and left it on the balcony,and forgot about it. A few days later I went onto the balcony to scan for Dollarbirds and heard a cheeping. I was astonished to find that two of the eggs had holes in them and were hatching!

I called my former colleagues at Kadoorie Farm, who collected the eggs and took them up to their incubators. I learned that Waterhen chicks quickly learn to self-feed, and would do event better with a bantam hen as a foster mother. I understand that four of the eggs hatched and look forward to hearing more.

And finally . . . a pic of bamboo in flower which shows why bamboos are grasses.

Cheers
Mike

Wow, though it sounds like things are not "warming up" quickly there, there are nonetheless some good birds arriving and lots of other interesting sightings. Interesting that Chinese bullfrog is new for the list - I think of bullfrogs as making their presence known, though maybe they aren't thriving locally.

I've only seen those munia once (called them scaly breasted, same I guess), but like them a lot. Their communal life and handsome looks are appealing. I take it that at least one of them was moulting into adult plumage. Great shrike picture! I knew bamboo was a grass, but I'm not sure I've ever noticed the flowers before - thanks for sharing.

Great story too about the waterhen eggs, so interesting that they could hatch without incubating (or do you think some bird was sitting on them on your roof?) Very interesting to hear that they may have a dry-land hen for a foster mother...

Hi Gretchen

Chinese Bullfrog is a popular food species and is correspondingly rare in Hong Kong, although I have to admit I have been slow to learn the calls of the local frogs, thi is certainly the first one I've seen.

I think my balcony must be an excellent heat-trap for the eggs to hatch on their own - there's no way another bird would have incubated them.

There have been a few more signs of migration . . .

I had my first Pale-legged Leaf Warbler of the autumn on Sunday, and another high-wire Dollarbird, and this morning mixed flock of some 120 Cattle and Little Egrets performed their usual meanders of uncertainty before heading out the northern end of the valley towards the bay at Tai Po.

Cheers
Mike

No Dollarbirds this morning, but much more interesting were a pair of "Swintail Snipe" that were flushed from the veggie patch as my landlord ambled in at 0645 this morning. A new bird from the house, but another birder saw one last weekend elsewhere in the valley.

Cheers
Mike

A few more birds on the patch this evening following a brief but heavy shower in mid-afternoon.

First up were a couple of Grey Wagtails - one close to home and another near the house where the dog bit me. More interesting was an unidentified bunting which dropped onto the ground directly behind a bush. It did not nook like Yellow--breasted, which is the expected species in September, but I could not see much more than that, although a photographer has posted a shot of Yellow-browed . . . oh well!

I did hear and get fleeting views of my first Dusky Warbler of the autumn and had a typically short view of the back end of a Pallas' Grasshopper Warbler that flipped up and swiftly down again. A couple of Bright-capped Cisticolas were in the same area.

the last migrant of the day was a Swintail Snipe that flushed from an area of cut grass near She Shan.

Cheers
Mike

. . . and the video replay ref says . . . gotcha!

On Saturday evening I flushed a bird down at She Shan which looked like a large all-dark White-breasted Waterhen as it disappeared behind a creeper-covered fence. There aren't many candidates in this part of the world and even at the time I called it as a Watercock, but decided to let it go . . . until 6pm this evening when Dylan (who had been with me on Saturday but had been looing the other way) texted me to say he'd had more views of a large all-dark crake in the same area, and when it flew again he was able to confirm it as a male Watercock.

Now the purists may not be 100% supportive of the decision, but I've decided to add it to my patch list as bird number 212. I'm out of town for a couple days now, so very much hope it will stay until the weekend . . .

Cheers
Mike

PS for more on the Watercock and the snake that bit Dylan at the weekend click here and scroll down from post 17.

Back on the the patch this afternoon after a flying mid-week visit to Delhi for a conference. More details of my visit will be posted shortly on the trip reports page.

Following the typhoon (and a wonderful late breakfast of banana pancakes - 4 eggs 4 small bananas, serve with creme fraiche and maple syrup) which blew through on Thursday the wind finally calmed down this afternoon and Dylan, his Irish terrier Kitty (go figure) and I went to see what it had brought us. Before heading our I was delighted to find a bright male Siberian Stonechat in the veggie patch - a real sign that autumn is properly here.

Once I met Dylan we headed down toward Tin Liu Ha, where the first good bird was a female Siberian Stonechat, followed by greyish bird that was slightly smaller than the Crested Bulbuls it was with. My wildly ambitious first impression was of a Barred Warbler, but since this was based on bins-only flight views at 30 metres and Barred Warbler has never been recorded within 2000km of Hong Kong, this opinion should be taken with a King Kong-sized pinch of salt.

Back to reality . . . we naturally couldn't find it again and headed down to She Shan to look for the Watercock. A small detour to check out a marshy patch delivered big-time - A Japanese Quail flipped up and dropped into the grass - my first for the valley and another patch tick! At the same moment an overhead accipiter showed the short tail and rather pointed wings of a Japanese Sparrowhawk.

The same area also held four "Swintail Snipe" a new patch record, and a couple of Bright-capped Cisticolas came up from the same patch as they had been on my last visit. I also watched a snake of some (most likely Common Rat Snake or Chinese Cobra) 4-5 feet slither off from the point where the pic showing Kitty and the marshy area is taken.

So did a Pallas' Grasshopper Warbler, and despite dropping down within 10 yards of both of us it disappeared completely, much to my frustration, as it looked rather large and heavy giving me more wild thoughts, this time of Middendorff's Grasshopper Warbler.

Next up were four Richard's Pipits on the bare wasteland and a flyover
Black-winged Cuckooshrike was our first this autumn. We flushed some more Swintail Snipe, but since they could have been the original birds we did not add them to the tally.

Our big hope of finding the Watercock was 150 metres of veg-choked river channel. The Watercock wasn't there and has most likely moved on, but we did flush a small warbler which we strongly suspect of being a good accro. However the views were so poor and brief that it reluctantly went down on the "one that got away" list. The three Grey Wagtails in the ditch and the Dusky Warblers we picked out on the return provided some consolation, while an Oriental Reed Warbler in the pond that held the Eurasian Teal last winter was just my second record on the patch.

The day was finished watching England's rugby team squeeze out a win against a typically heroic but hapless Scotland. It wasn't pretty but I'll take a patch tick, a few migrants and a win any weekend of the year!

Cheers
Mike

PS the pic of the Crested Mynas was taken a few days earlier, as was the Grey Wagtail