Ng Tung Chai, Hong Kong (3 Viewers)

A swift 40 minutes before work this morning brought a nice collection of winter birds:

Common Buzzard was up pretty early at 0640 and again this evening when I came home early, and the grassland around my place had both Little and Black-faced Buntings, a Manchurian Bush Warbler, a couple of Grey-backed Thrushes and half a dozen Silky Starlings. I could also hear a Red-throated Flycatcher buzzing in the lychee orchard before I got out of bed.

The Common Kingfisher is still around - I saw it yesterday ziping down the stream on the way to the bus stop, and a fan of short white splashes mark its favorite fishing perch.

Cheers
Mike

I visted two of the Lam Tsuen side valleys in the last couple of days. Ng Tung Chai on Saturday and then Tai Om Shan this morning.

Ng Tung Chai was pretty hard work, but I did reap some reward for my first climb into the valley for almost six months. There was a male Grey-backed Thrush in the big tree on the edge of the farmland in the village (and a female scavenging under a fruiting tree on my way out), a wonderful male Red-flanked Bluetail just past the temple, plus a couple of females, a smattering of Tristram's Buntings - I saw them in three widely separated locations, and about 15 Pallas' Leaf Warblers (this is a very good year for this species).

I also had good views of a Goodson's Leaf Warbler, but failed to see any of the very vocal Lesser Shortwings, although a couple of Asian Stubtails did choose to show themselves. In someways the most interesting aspect was the absence of both Grey-headed Flycatcher and Rufous-tailed Robin, which I would have expected to be both present and vocal on a cold sunny morning.

Two male Common Kingfishers were sitting on a rock in the stream as I came out past the little farm. Every so often one would lift its head very slowly - but I have no idea what all this was about.

The other highlight of the morning was 7 Little Buntings and 12 Hair-crested Drongos seen from my balcony before heading out.

This morning I tried Tai Om Shan instead.

It started well, first with a Manchurian Bush Warbler and about the same time a Black-naped Monarch shrieking before giving reasonable views, and I then enjoyed a Red-flanked Bluetail, a female Siberian Rubythroat, and a typically skulking Russet Bush Warbler all within a few metres of each other.

The latter are amongst the hardest birds to clap eyes on in Hong Kong, but it found a perch in cover from which it felt safe to rattle at me, but where I could see it pretty well.
The key features to separate it from the much rarer Brown Bush Warbler are the all-dark bill and the pale-tipped undertail coverts, both of which I eventually saw.

A couple of hundred metres up the hill I did amazingly well to pish in another bradypterus warbler, which had a yellow lower mandible, and after almost ten minutes showed plain brownish undertail coverts - confirming it as Brown Bush Warbler and giving me a wonderful double! BBW is sandier less contrasting colour than teh darker and more obviously white-throated RBW, and today's bird showed no sign of the short but distinct supercilium of the RBW.

Other birds of interest included a Grey-backed Thrush, an Ashy Drongo, my first White-bellied Yuhina (or Herpornis if your prefer) for a while, and a Black-winged Cuckooshrike.

Cheers
Mike

Sounds like a very nice weekend of birding! (I was indoor working on Christmas instead - also nice but very limited birds - just a few doves )

Interesting comments on the Asian Stubtail. I've only seen one once, but it did seem quite skulking, but did eventually come out in the open and seemed fairly at ease (trusting its camouflage?).

I wonder if it was a very good year for Pallas' Warblers in general... maybe you saw Shi Jin's late sighting up here.

Kingfishers don't ever flycatch do they? That doesn't sound right but I remember reading recently about some bird doing it which I didn't expect. Only other reason I can think of a bird lifting its head is if a predator is flying overhead - but guess that wasn't the case. Stiff neck? :-O

Congratulations on the two bush warblers - very nice to have them show up in the same vicinity giving a clear comparison.

Hi Gretchen

I think the kingfishers were indulging in a bit of testosteroning - no sign of a predator, and two males posturing at each other is hardly a world first . . . for any species!

I'm also intrigued about you working on Christmas - it seems to happen by itself here. But then again itself rhymes with elf . . . maybe there's something you should be telling us!

Anyway, back to the birds here.

Dipped on the Grey Bushchat found this morning by Dylan, but did get my first Peregrine in Lam Tsuen circling over the valley at about 10am.

I believe the Peregrine is a first record for the Valley . There is at least one other record of Grey Bushchat - a record of 4 in 1940!, but the habitat is so suitable that there must have been more in the last 70 years!

Other good birds included a fine male Verditer, Grey-headed Flycatcher, Greenish Warbler, and Emerald Dove and again several Pallas' Leaf Warblers in the Golden Triangle, and two Red-throated Flycatchers calling in other parts of the valley.

Also, the Northern Pintail (also found by Dylan, and another probable first for the valley) was still on the Lam Tsuen River near the Hong Lok Yuen Roundabout on Friday morning, and there was a Birdline message about a Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush at Kadoorie Farm.

Following up from last week I also heard Russet Bush Warbler singing from my home at about 8:00am.

Cheers

Mike

This morning both Russet and Brown Bush Warblers showed well at Tai Om Sham at close range - in fact the Russet Bush Warbler was so close my bins could not focus. Once again it was a bird in cover that announced its presence with a very sharp "takk" - louder and cleaner that Dusky Warbler, and then stayed around almost within touching distance for several minutes.

The Brown Bush Warbler showed in the same spot as last weekend - up to Tai Om Shan , over the stream, and first left just up the hill at the shrine under the canopy. It came into the vegetation at the edge of the clearing after persistent pishing, calling repeatedly.

Other good birds included a male Verditer Flycatcher, a Red-throated Flycatcher, a rather long-billed Greenish Warbler that pished in superbly and give its distinctive sparow-like three-note call, a female Red-flanked Bluetail and my first White's Thrush of the winter in the valley. In Tai Om Village a pair of both Scarlet and Grey-chinned Minivets came out of the big trees above the playground, while Asian Stubtail was by the stream at Tai Om Shan, and a Japanese Bush Warbler called from a creeper-covered cable back in Tai Om village.

Cheers
Mike

A Collared Scops Owl has called for the last two nights - the first for a while here.

However the real interest (for me at least) must of course be to find out what my 200th patch bird will be.

Since its Christmas I'll make a couple of wishes -

Grey-sided Thrush in the veggie patch
Bohemian Waxwing in a big enough flock that they won't be considered escapes
Silver Oriole at Tai Om Shan

All of these would be HK firsts, but only the Thrush would be a patch tick, a China tick and a lifer!

Cheers
Mike

Dipped on Dylan's Common Rosefinches, but had some compensation in the form of a female Bull-headed Shrike on the path up to Tai Om Shan (badly digiscoped through my hand-held bins and brand new p6000), a fine male Hainan Blue Flycatcher was rather late, and a couple of Grey-backed Thrushes further up the path. Earlier this morning a lovely male Black-naped Monarch, a couple of Chestnut Buntings, plus one each of Little and Black-faced Buntings and a Brownish-flanked Bush Warbler.

I also did well for raptors - a Besra, a Common Buzzard, calling Crested Serpent Eagle, and best of all a displaying pair of Crested Goshawks, complete with fluffy undertail coverts and flickering wingtips.

It was good to get both Lesser and Greater Coucals, Hwamei and White-cheeked Laughingthrushes, at least 4 Red-flanked Bluetails (including a cracking male) and a couple each of Daurian Redstart and Siberian Rubythroat - although the latter did not show.

I also heard what I think was the Brown Bush Warbler again, and coaxed a Russet Bush Warbler into coming very close, while Lesser Shortwing and Pygmy Wren Babbler also called.

All told a good day, but hoping for rosefinches tomorrow morning!

Cheers
Mike

A tough morning in Lam Tsuen with visiting birder Jeff Hopkins on Monday - the highlight being a pir of Collared Crows flying down the valley, a Manchurian Bush Warbler and an Asian Brown Flycatcher.

This morning was a little better - I finally caught up with the male Plumbeous Redstart on the river channel underneath the road bridge at the roundabout at the bottom of the valley. This turned out to be a good five minutes - there was another Collared Crow, Common and White-throated Kingfisher, a Common Sandpiper, Grey Wagtail, Chinese Blackbird, White-breasted Waterhen(2), Dusky Warbler, Great Egret, Little Egret, and Chinese Pond Heron.

At home this afternoon there were a couple of Daurian Redstarts and an Emerald Dove around the veggie patch, but none came in range of my fumbling efforts at digiscoping with the new camera.

Finally, as I write a Collared Scops Owl is calling nearby.

Cheers
Mike

It may have been a tough morning, but I enjoyed it anyway. Here's the list of what we saw at Lam Tsuen:

Chinese Pond-Heron*
Crested Goshawk
Eurasian Buzzard
White-breasted Waterhen
Oriental Turtle-Dove
Spotted Dove
Lesser Coucal
White-throated Kingfisher
Long-tailed Shrike
Scarlet Minivet*
Eurasian Magpie
Collared Crow*
Great Tit
Red-whiskered Bulbul
Light-vented Bulbul
Sooty-headed Bulbul*
Golden-headed Cisticola*
Yellow-bellied Prinia
Plain Prinia
Japanese Bush-Warbler
Common Tailorbird
Dusky Warbler*
Pallas' Leaf Warbler
Yellow-browed Warbler
Asian Brown Flycatcher
Red-flanked Bluetail
Oriental Magpie-Robin
Daurian Redstart
(Siberian) Stonechat
Blue Rock-Thrush
(Chinese) Eurasian Blackbird
Masked Laughingthrush
Black-throated Laughingthrush*
Japanese White-eye
Fork-tailed Sunbird
Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker
Hair-crested Drongo*
Crested Myna
Black-collared Starling
Western Yellow Wagtail
Gray Wagtail
White Wagtail
Olive-backed Pipit
Little Bunting*
Black-faced Bunting
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
Nutmeg Mannikin

The birds with asterisks were lifers for me. Also heard siberian rubythroat, asian stubtail, velvet-fronted nuthatch, streak-breasted scimitar-babbler.

Thanks again, for a great day, Mike.

JH

Thnaks for posting the list Jeff. How many species did you finish with for the day?


This morning I went to Ng Tung Chai hoping for some winter magic. While I saw some birds there was no special gem amongst them, and I worked hard for these. I walked to the landslide valley next to the top falls. The best birds were a couple of Mountain Bulbuls and a Tristram's Bunting near the temple, and three Grey-backed Thrushes and a White's Thrush feeding on fruiting trees. I also had 3 Red-flanked Bluetails, a Greenish Warbler, a poorly-seen Rubythroat and at least 4 Asian Stubtails. There were also about 15 Pallas' Leaf Warblers and a Blue Whistling Thrush was my first for a while.

Cheers
Mike

After 8 years in Lam Tsuen I finally tried birding on the northern side of the road, especially along the river. I'm also considering extending the patch boundary to include Mui Sue Hang Park, as it straddles the Lam Tsuen River about 500m below the roundabout.

I worked pretty hard and got a few birds between 0900 and 1430

Crested Serpent Eagle - 1
Green Sandpiper - 2
Common Sandpiper - 5
Common Kingfisher - 5
Plaintive Cuckoo - 3
"Ocularis" White Wagtail - first Lam Tsuen record at Mui She Hang park
Grey Wagtail - 6
Siberian Stonechat - 1
Daurian Redstart - 1 veggie patch
Plumbeous Redstart - 1 male and maybe also a female @Hong Lok Yuen Roundabout
Grey-backed Thrush - 1 female, veggie patch
Unidentified thrush - 1
Blue Whistling Thrush - 1
Greater-necklaced Laughingthrush - 8
Pale-legged Leaf Warbler - 1 a green-backed one
Goodson's Leaf Warbler -1
Blyth's Leaf Warbler - 1
Asian Stubtail - 1h
Grey-headed Flycatcher - 1
Red-throated Flycatcher - 1 Mui She Hang Park
Verditer - 1 Mui She Hang Park
Asian Brown Flycatcher - 1 MSH Park the day before
Black-faced Bunting - 1
Collared Crow - 1 HLY Roundabout

I also managed to photograph the endemic Hong Kong Newt for the first time, although I see them regularly enough.

Cheers
Mike

Yesterday I walked all along the northern boundary of Lam Tsuen, starting opposite Kadoorie Farm and climbing Tai To Yan and walking all the way long the ridge-top and down the Ngau Kwu Leng Hiking Trail. This is a great trail for exactly covering the whole northern catchment of Lam Tsuen.

Initially I intended to go to Kadoorie Farm to look for the Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush but got distracted down the trail on the other side, followed the Pak Ngau Shek Trail, whih doesn't lead to Pak Nagu Shek and then decided what the heck and started climbing. However the lower areas were OK. Asian Brown and Grey-headed Flycatchers were in the trees near the stream, the first of three Grey-backed Thrushes showed OK and a flock of about ten Pallas' Leaf Warblers kept me searching for something a bit more special.

A couple of fruiting trees on the PNS trail should have held more than bulbuls, but didn't with the exception of a briefly seen Goodson's Leaf Warbler. It was quieter on top and my earnest pishing was not a huge success until I pulled in a Black-faced Bunting and a Rufous-rumped Grassbird in the grassland right on the top. Interestingly there were burned out bush stems in the grass, and It's safe to say that the grassbird is one of very few species (the others are Chinese Francolin, Bright-capped Cisticola and Upland Pipit) that actively benefit from hillfires maintain areas of grassland on our hills. The only other birds on top were a calling Rubythroat that wouldn't come out and a female Blue Rock Thrush.

Things got better as I started my descent. An area of twisted black-trunked trees interspersed with slender bamboos held Mountain Bush Warbler and Tristram's Bunting, and a chat that chucked, but didn't show. As I turned down the NKL hiking trail I found a couple of Red-flanked Bluetails in a very beautiful and promising-looking area (for those brave enough for the 2,600m climb from the Lam Tsuen River!) but had to rush back home in time for lunch so didn't stay here as long as I would have liked.

Cheers

Mike

Mike,

Sounds like your winter birding is going well! Glad to hear that pishing is working on some species - I'm always hoping it will work for me (and it has a few times).

By the way, why do grassbirds benefit from hillfires? They reduce shrubs and encourage grass?

I'm back to work now after an emergency trip back to the States (death in the family). Enjoyed seeing a few of the familiar birds at home, but no active birding for a while now, and probably not for the next few weeks as my tight deadlines just got tighter with an unexpected 3 week absence.

Gretchen

Hi Gretchen

Sorry to hear about your bereavement.

I know it's pretty cold in NE China right now, but hope you can steal an hour or so to get a breath of fresh air between deadlines. In the meantime at least there is plenty of various birding to be done on BF.

I've worked hard for the birds in my valley without finding anything too far out of the ordinary although I did have a good day at Mai Po on New Year's Day.

And yes grassbirds depend on montane grassland.

Cheers

Mike

Brief notes from Saturday from my home and a highly worthwhile visit to Tai Om Shan

Crested Goshawk - 2 (1 displaying)
Besra - 2
Crested Serpent Eagle - 1
Emerald Dove - 1 in veggie patch seen from my roof)
Black Bulbul - 12 just my second record of this species in Lam Tsuen/Ng Tung Chai. They were hunkered down in cover, but exploded into view when a sneak attack by a Besra almost nailed one of them. Just one had a white head.
Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike - 2 one very short-tailed bird in veggie patch
Japanese Thrush - 1 male (my first this winter)
Rufous-tailed Robin - 1(my first this winter)
Tristram's Bunting - 3
Ashy Drongo - 1

An excellent follow-up morning at Kadoorie Farm:

I went looking for the Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush reported a few weeks ago,and photographed last weekend and after scanning the terraces between the helipad and the Main office for about 90 minutes I found it - a superb male Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush, perched high on a bare branch rich blue upperparts almost shining in the sunlight - fantastic! A little later I found it again - this time on the road eating a short-bodied, but long-legged cricket.

While I was searching I was distracted by three Black Kites chasing a smaller raptor. I assumed it was a Besra, but I was blown away to discover it was a Black-shouldered Kite, that twisted all over the place to keep the Black Kites at bay! This is the first ever in Lam Tsuen and my 200th Lam Tsuen bird!

Other good birds included first a male and then a female Pale Thrush in the fruiting trees at the bottom corner of the fern walk, a wonderful male Orange-bellied Leafbird that washed itself in a stream by diving off a branch bout 3 feet above the level of the stream like a kingfisher, and then flying back up tot the branch for a wiggle and shake to dry itself off. It did the at least 5 times within a couple of minutes.

I also had 4 Red-flanked Bluetails, a female Daurian Redstart, a female Grey-backed Thrush, and two Blue Whistling Thrushes

Cheers
Mike

Congrats on #200, Mike!

Jeff

Thanks Jeff

and hot on its heels Lam Tsuen bird no 201 - Great Cormorant 26 were flying over the Hong Lok Yuen Roundabout this evening.

However my main birding was in the morning , and it was also pretty good:

Wryneck - 2 one bird calling and one heard responding in the grassland near Ping Long - just my second ever record in Lam Tsuen

Brown Shrike - 1 adult lucionensis near Siu Om Shan (rare in Lam Tsuen). I also saw this bird very briefly last year, but so briefly I was reluctant to tick it. Luckily I didn't need it on the patch year list, but they are surprisingly scarce

Crested Goshawk - 2, one displaying
Black-winged Cuckooshrike - 2
Red-flanked Bluetail - 2
Daurian Redstart - 3
Grey-backed Thrush - 2
Chinese Blackbird - 7

Mountain Bush Warbler - 1
Russet Bush Warbler - 1
Bright-capped Cisticola - 2

Ashy Drongo - 1
Hair-crested Drongo - 2


Cheers

Mike

I'm just back from booking a flight at the start of December out to Oz. Naturally I've managed to include a two day stop en route via HK. Equally naturally the first thing I did on getting home is to read through MKinHK's posts. Very mouth watering stuff! I shal try to keep a closer eye on the posts here in future!

Mike, sorry I forgot to offer you congrats on # 200 - I guess I'm not too late to say good work on # 201! Lots of nice birds for your day yesterday, but I do have a special feeling for Cormorants, and think calling Wryneck would be great! (And is it surprising for the gos to be displaying now? is it year-round, or just preparation for the new season?)

HK sounds so nice and warm now, and so many birds!!! I guess I'm headed to Thailand (not a birding trip, though maybe a few days to look around) so I shouldn't complain

cheers!

Gretchen

A quiet weekend, probably brought about by the mist in the valley for a full 48 hrs. However, as I was guiding this weekend we tried anyway - at Tai Om Shan yesterday morning and with a walk up to Lin Au this morning:

The best birds were two ocularis White Wagtails well and truly on the patch - one yesterday on a ploughed field and the other on the river about 1km upstream from the the one I saw off-patch 3 weeks ago.

The male Plumbeous Redstart was also at the roundabout, along with at least 8 Chinese Blackbirds, and later in the afternoon Dylan hard about a female just upstream from my village.

Other birds of interest included 3 Taiga Flyactchers, a White's Thrush, three Black-winged Cuckooshrikes and a White-bellied Yuhina this morning and a couple of Siberian Rubythroats calling but not performing at Tai Om Shan.

Tai Om Shan was very dark yesterday morning and we struggled to connect as many birds were not singing. However the Black Bulbul flock from last weekend was still around and we had at least 12, and possibly 18.We had my first White-browed Laughingthrushes for a couple of months yesterday and this morning a Black-throated Laugher showed flair by imitating a Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler, which then called back - doing it properly - and without the little growl on the end that gave away the BTL.

Cheers

Mike