Exploring Lantau (3 Viewers)

They were indeed Jeff - and another good bird on a non-birding outing (albeit with bins this time!).

After a day of rain that continued overnight and more ENE winds the stage seemed well set for another exploration of the southwesternmost tip of Hong Kong - the Fan Lau peninsula.

Waking super early I got the 5:30 bus to Tung Chung and the 6:20 bus to Tai O and started walking the 20-odd KM around 0700. Crossing the causeway that separates Tai O's mangroves from the sea I was surprised to hear two different Dusky Warblers calling, one of which popped up to check me out. Another late migrant - a Little Bunting was grotting about on the path through the village at the other end of the causeway and I had the first of the day's dozen Brown Shrikes, a typical late spring migrant, just before leaving the village.

There were few birds in the forested section of the trail before it came down tot he edge of the sea, with just a single Chinese Goshawk moving ahead from perch to perch without ever showing itself properly to hint at the quality to follow.

As I did emerge I had great views of another Chinese Goshawk flying past close-by and three elegant Grey-streaked Flycatchers hunting from overhanging branches, tall grass and even rocks on the beach. Two Blue Rock Thrushes were chasing each other around the rather nice waterfall a short walk inshore from the path.

As I entered Yi O Grey-streaked Flycatchers, were everywhere, and by the time I'd left the village the count had risen to an amazing 24 birds - some nine more than the previous Hong Kong record!

Other good birds in Yi O included a single Asian Brown Flycatcher, two more Chinese Goshawks a couple of splendidly red-billed Dollarbirds (many of the birds in autumn are black-billed juveniles) half a dozen Yellow Wagtails (five simillima and one macronyx), three flyover Cattle Egrets a female Chestnut Bunting and a couple of Olive-backed Pipits. After a flock of 23 Pechora Pipits was recorded on Po Toi yesterday several flyover passerines had me wondering. Three Arctic Warblers, giving the typical "dzzzik" call were my first of the spring

Emerging over the pass at the southern end of Yi O I was completely taken aback by a superb Black Baza landing on an overhead wire less than 100 metres away! I haven't seen one of the these in six or seven years, so to have one perch so close for several minutes, crest blowing in the wind was almost in the same league as Wednesday's needletails.

The same stretch of path also held three more Chinese Goshawks, another Dollarbird, two Brown Shrikes both Greater and Lesser Coucals, a female Blue Rock Thrush and a rather late and unexpected leucogenys Ashy Drongo.

Fan Lau itself initially seemed rather quieter, but a walk around revealed two more Chinese Goshawks, a magnificent pair of soaring White-bellied Sea Eagles, a Black Drongo, a Chinese Pond Heron, two more Arctic Warblers, five or so Pacific Swifts mixed in with the House Swifts and Barn Swallows and another nine Grey-streaked Flycatchers, bringing the total up to 33! The stream at the end of the rather quiet water pipe trail added some non-bird quality - a magnificent Fiery Emperor dragonfly.

The climb out of Fan Lau delivered yet another Grey-streaked Flycatcher single Dusky and Arctic Warblers, calling Chinese Francolins and my tenth Chinese Goshawk. I thought that would pretty much be it, but the 6km walk along the catchment just kept on delivering - three more Chinese Goshawks, another nine Grey-streaked Flycatchers (making an amazing total of 44), three more Arctic Warblers , four more Brown Shrikes, a couple of Grey Wagtails, a briefly seen male Chestnut Bunting. Challenging the Black Baza for the best individual bird of the day a Swinhoe's Minivet helpfull perched back-on showing nicely brown-edged scapulars and brown rump.

The last birds of a wonderful day of spring migration were an Oriental-type cuckoo sp. with a faint brownish wash to the throat a calling Indian Cuckoo (to add to the Large Hawk Cuckoo that had woken me up much earlier that morning) and 31 Cattle Egrets on the grassy slopes of Shek Pik Dam.

Cheers
Mike

A few pics from the last two outings to SW Lantau.

The first is a Google image of the whole SW corner, showing Tai O in the NW, the the Yi O valley running from north to south, then below that Fan Lau headland, with the village on the broad isthmus between the two beaches. Shek Pik Reservoir is away to the east. My path mostly follows the coast, except where it run through the Yi O valley and the Shek Pik catchment dips in to maintain the contour (about 100m above sea level.

The second pic is taken from the needletail ridge looking back inland over Tai O.

Pic 3 is the Yi O waterfall

Pic 4 is a proper record shot of the Black Baza

Pic 5 is a ginger flower, taken in Fan Lau

Cheers
Mike

Looks like great birding countryside Mike.

Yes, beautiful pictures. Great to see the Baza.

Thanks for the map, I am now getting a picture of the area. In terms of scale - is that all about a 10K walk?

It is good Kevin, just a long way - 20K Gretchen!

On Sunday I headed down to Pui O rather than round the western end of Lantau.

Within five minutes of arriving I chalked up thirty-odd Cattle Egrets, ten Intermediate Egrets and thirty-odd simillima Yellow Wagtails on the buffalo fields and an Indian Cuckoo calling behind the village.

There was a bit of quality in the form of a Yellow Bittern lurking at the edge of pool which had a Moorhen coasting along its back edge. A Brown Shrike and an Oriental Reed Warbler were in the beachside scrub close to the excellently translated sign (see below)

Hoping for I’m not sure what I walked along a raised path just inside the edge of the forest and flushed off the deck a medium-sized bird that I got nothing on before it disappeared. As I was searching I had the briefest of glances of the grey-blue back of a cuckoo sp. 50 metres further on a Malayan Night Heron flew up from the leaf litter and perched on an overhead branch from where it checked me out for twenty or thirty wonderful seconds before flying off and losing itself among the trees.

I’ve only ever seen two of these previously in Hong Kong and, apart from a couple of breeding records in 2004-5 it has only been recorded a less than annual spring migrant on Po Toi and heard but not seen in three areas of suitable breeding habitat in the last two years, so I was delighted to find such a good bird. Malayan Night Heron is also noteworthy as the only species to be added to the Hong Kong list without being seen or heard; two adults were caught on a camera trap set for mammals near a remote beach on southern Lantau in the spring of 2003.

I went in search of it in the lower trees but had no success, except for flushing a Crested Goshawk that had just killed and plucked a White-breasted Waterhen. I didn’t get much of a view, but did see the goshawk fly awkwardly away with two pale legs dangling forlornly below its heavily-barred tail.

I decided to give the path through the woods another go and was delighted when an Emerald Dove perched in full view, offering my first opportunity to photograph a bird that I normally see rocketing away through the trees at near-terminal velocity.

I pushed on a bit further and the MNH again flew up, this time onto a more distant branch across the other side of the stream. Deciding I was far enough away to represent no serious risk it stood there for at least the next 45 minutes giving me the most wonderful views. This provided ample opportunity for some pix and even a short video (click here), in which the bird showed great flair by immediately coughing up the gorsachius equivalent of a hairball and then gurking away for the next minute or oas if it were trying to clear the last bits of gunge from the back of its throat.

The most outstanding features were the bright blue facial skin starting behind the eye and covering the lores and the base of the bill, and a distinctive rufous-orange patch on each cheek which strongly suggested this was a first summer bird just beginning to adopt its first adult plumage. It also had a black and white barred crest which it kept folded along its neck and when in dipped its head an all-dark crown.

The body was a warm brown covered in grey and white speckles and a couple of heavy dark streaks adorned the rather paler and splotchy breast. Perched head-on it showed dark flight feathers with a hint of white on the edge of the alula. Along with the blue face and dark cap these features confirm Malayan Night Heron and allow the near-mythical Japanese Night Heron (for which there are just five old records) to be eliminated.

Eventually I got tired of feeding the cloud of mosquitoes and left the heron in peace, absolutely elated with my discovery. Other birds seen that morning included my first Grey-tailed Tattler of the spring on the river, a couple of Grey-streaked Flycatchers, three of four more Brown Shrikes, a Chinese Goshawk and both Large Hawk Cuckoo and Chestnut-winged Cuckoo calling somewhere on the hillsides behind the village.

Cheers
Mike

Fantastic shot of the Malayan Night Heron!!! Kudos Mike. The scenery of Tai O is beautiful.

Love that MNH shot Mike - congrats !!

Brilliant bird, Mike. Hope you were not tempted to stray into the private parts. 8-P

Aiya. I'm so gutted by that Night Heron. I was at Pui O on Sunday, probably while you were watching the bird! But, of course, I was completely unaware of it being there. The best I could manage were a Dollarbird and 55 Yellow Wagtails.

From Pui O I headed out around Chi Ma Wan peninsular, where there were plenty of birds from the fall of migrants - seven Grey-streaked Flycatchers and 21 Brown Shrikes to add to your totals elsewhere on Lantau, plus two Chinese Goshawks, a late Grey-faced Buzzard, a couple of Pacific Swifts and a Blue Rock Thrush. Also a flyover bird that sounded like a Pratincole but I couldn't see. The most obvious migrants though were Arctic Warblers - a total of 44 of these over the day. The next step is figuring out how to separate the new species - they were giving a variety of calls and songs which I think may suggest two or possibly even all three of the new species were involved.

I'm glad Fan Lau is paying off as well. An impressive total of Grey-streaked Flycatchers there. I reckon that one day someone on that path will get lucky with a real mega.

Sorry John

I even thought about calling you but figured you and every other birder would be miles away.

I am convinced Fan Lau will deliver - my main reason for going there in May is for pittas or the totally unexpected.

Cheers
Mike

Thanks Guys

Yesterday I took a day off to walk the Fan Lau trail again. This time it was scorching hot, humid and not unsurprisingly there were fewer birds. However various other bits and pieces certainly made up for it. . .

The first of 16 Brown Shrikes and a Chinese Goshawk were in the shadowed path edges coming out of Tai O, but the first big attraction of the day was a 5-6 foot snake stretched out on the path with its head raised about a foot off the ground. This wasn't a cobra but a good-sized Copperhead Racer with delusions of grandeur. They are not venomous, but are known to be aggressive, so I approached slowly and was finally able to get a decent shot before it oozed slowly back into cover.

Yi O delivered the first two of eight Grey-streaked Flycatchers, plus a couple of Crested Serpent Eagles, plus six yellow Wagtails and five Grey Wagtails - I'm surprised the latter are so late in migrating.

Fan Lau was even quieter, although a did enjoy a third year White-bellied Sea Eagle and four or five Black Drongos as well as a female Japanese Sparrowhawk and another Chinese Goshawk. However the real highlights were not birds at all.

The Fiery Emperor on the pond at the end of the water pipe trail allowed me close enough to get some pretty good shot as it perched, hanging vertically on a long blade of dead grass. This is a terrific dragonfly - very large and strikingly coloured - and one I've only seen twice before.

The other and biggest highlight of the day was enjoying extended views of eight Chinese White Dolphins loafing and feeding off Fan Lau point. I've looked for them on the great majority of my walks around the western end of Lantau so it was great to connect so well with this pod that was hanging about about just offshore.

On the way out I saw what I think is my first ever Green Cicada, making three species for the day (with Red-faced and the common yellow and black one making the set). Climbing the hill out of Fan Lau I felt a bit wobbly and only then realised how hot it was. I became seriously worried about heatstroke and ended up dunking myself in a stream to cool off (note to self - don't count on the store selling drinks and noodles to be open mid-week!).

The 6km walk back along the catchment was shadier and flat and a veil of cloud began to creep over, so I finished up none the worse for wear and just a little bit wiser.

A stop t Pui o on the way back delivered an interesting damselfly that is new for me. Any help with ID would be most appreciated. As far as I can tell the pale legs and front of the thorax are distinctive, but I'm still not sure I can make a match from the dragonfly book. My best guess is a female Short-winged Shadowdamsel Protosticta beaumonti, but it seems to lack the white spot close to the tip of the uppertail shown in the field guides.

Cheers
Mike

A baking hot morning at Pui O had the Water Buffalo huddled down in their wallow holes in the marsh surrounded by a retinue of Cattle, Intermediate and Little Egrets and a peppering of Crested Mynas.

A Black Drongo looped over the marsh and back again an hour later, and in between a Hainan Blue Flycatcher sang in the woodland along the western edge of the marsh along with a pair of Blue Whistling Thrushes and couple of very newly fledged Barn Swallows were another sign of spring.

The pool just below "Private Parts" had filled with rain over the last few weeks and held a couple of warty-backed Chinese Bullfrogs and a fine array of dragonflies. These included the diminutive and elegant Sapphire Flutterer, which I have only ever seen once before, Pale-spotted Emperor, Asian Pintail, Saddlebag Glider, and a new one - the distinctively pale blue Eastern Lilysquatter.

While photographing the dragonflies a group of Masked Laughingthrushes came down to wash, allowing me a couple of shots as two of them sat up on a bare branch to dry.

Beaten by the heat I knocked it on the head by 1115 and headed home.

Cheers
Mike

I was out on both Saturday and Sunday opver the weekend.

Heavy rain on saturday morning had cleared the queues from the cable car up to the Big Buddha so Carrie and I took our first ever ride high above the ground I'd surveyed for the cable car EIA over a decade ago.

Its a great way to see the Lantau hills and the airport laid out to the north but the only birds were a couple of Large-billed Crows hanging around the buddha (the world's largest seated buddha apparently).

Coming down the hill on the bus we got off at Shui Hau for a walk just as a herd of Lantau's feral cattle came strolling up the road. They are pretty tame so we just let them come right past us. One of them had other ideas and walked up to me and proceeded to scratch its head on my hip as if I were a tree or a fence post before strolling off again.

Pui O the next day was alo pretty quiet. A very high tide had deposited a load of briny foam, and a sordid mix of rubbish that had washed down the Pearl River into lastweek's dragonfly pool, with the expected effect of removing all the dragonflies. A good-sized alien Red-eared Slider terrapin seemed not at all bothered as it drifted slowly along, but with the exception of a singing Indian Cuckoo and an unexpected flock of 23 Large-billed Crows birds were in pretty short supply.

The rain had tuned much of the dry pasture into marsh and inundated grassland and I enjoyed watchign a pair of White-spotted Emperors egg-laying in a new pond - the female dropping down to deposit her eggs, while the male hovered alertly above her.

Given the quietness I headed up to the bus stop early, pickig up a couple of Black Drongos, a distantly calling Large Hawk Cuckoo and on the edge of the stream over on the east side an adult Striated Heron, which was easily the bierd of the weekend.

Cheers
Mike

Thanks for reminding me the of the woodland spider which bite me two years back which also led me to arachnophobia. Love the beauty of your country side.

Many thanks Dev - but sorry to hear about your spider bite.

Like Kevin I was out on dragonboat day and carefully avoiding any dragonboaters I went down to Pui O as the cooler overcast weather made the prospect of being outside much more attractive than the previous couple of weeks of blazing heat.

Migration is basically over so I started looking at dragonflies and photographed a decent 16 species in the course of the morning. Going micro turned out to be fascinating. There were hundreds of tadpoles and tiny, newly hatched Paddy Frogs, pale green leafhoppers everywhere and dragonflies ranging from behemoth Emperors down to the the tiniest bright red, but nonetheless leaf-hopper chomping, damsels, half the girth of a toothpick.

While I was poking about in the marsh a White-throated Kingfisher popped up and posed beautifully in a mossy tree, and even better a rattling call from the thicket behind me announced the presence of a Chestnut-winged Cuckoo.

I whistled its simple two-note call and it flipped across the marsh - flashing its brilliant chestnut wings and long black tail - and into a large tree above the now forgotten kingfisher. Even better another bird called and then flew across into the woods a bit further away. These were my first good views this year and the birds were certainly curious, flipping back across the marsh and posing long enough to allow me to get my first ever shots of my favourite Hong Kong cuckoo.

In between more dragonflies, including a spectacular pair of egg-laying Pale-spotted Emperors, a Dusky Shrike and a Yellow-bellied Prinia perched nicely, a fully-plumed Intermediate Egret lorded it over the Cattle Egrets out on the marsh and a Striated Heron with the brightest orange feet I've ever seen flew out of the pandanus.

I also enjoyed watching first a Black-billed Magpie and then a first year Large-billed Crow taking a leaf out of the Crested Mynas' book and using the water buffalo as a hunting perch. Other birds of note included a single Black Drongo, a family of Masked Laughingthrushes (apparently the host species for Chestnut-winged Cuckoo), two White-throated Kingfishers trilling from the top of a beachside casuarina, and a calling but unseen Crested Serpent Eagle.

Cheers
Mike

Love that Chestnut-winged Cuckoo Mike ! Another one for the 'HK list' when I eventually get there for a long weekend.

I was about to complain about the lack of tiny paddy frog pics, but the others are great. So exciting to get good views and pics of the handsome cuckoo.

All in all sounds like a nice day despite the lack of new birds. I enjoy your descriptions of the "micro" world as well.

Just for you Gretchen . . . click here

Cheers
Mike

Since I won't be getting out this weekend (rain yesterday and family commitments today) I'll add some of the micro action from the Pui O buffalo fields on Wednesday - thanks to Gretchen for giving me the excuse!

The highlight was the 16 dragonfly species which, added to the four others I've recorded here, brings me up to a round 20 so far. As I've said above Pale-spotted Emperor is the Top Gun of the dragonfly world, cruising menacingly around their favoured patches in singles, or with the male's abdomen hooked onto the thorax of the female. Does anyone know if he can fertilize her like this, or whether its simply another variation in the extensive lexicon of dragonfly mating rituals?

Since not everyone is signed on to Facebook I'll repost a pic of a young Paddy Frog here. The four leaf clover is actually a species of fern colloquially known as Water Shamrock. There's also a leafhopper on the the same water hyacinth leaf as the frog. This is the same species as the one clamped in the jaws of the tiny female Orange-tailed Midget in the next pic.

The two other pix are of two tiny flowers, both of them are smaller than the top joint of my little finger. The first one is, I think, lindernia antipoda, but the second, which has a fly I never even saw when taking the photo, I have no idea about.

Cheers
Mike

Thanks! (especially since I'm not on FB) What delicate flowers. It all looks lovely green and much cooler than the airport sounds