Spooky isn't it :eek!:
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Shanghai Perambulations (15 Viewers)
- Thread starter Frogfish
- Start date
Spooky isn't it :eek!:
Chlidonias
Well-known member
hey, a comedy of errors is my usual style of doing things! If you're game enough we sure can try again next time I'm back through. Jess had fun, but not when I made her run for the train (I forgot she had filled her bag with rocks! :-O)Frogfish said:
Many thanks Mike ! I have reviewed the two shots (of the previous juve Sibe and this Swinhoe's) and hope that in future I won't make the same mistake :t:
Chlidonias - note the above for your China list. When you are next passing through Shanghai let me know and we'll pop back down to XYS and also get you those Reed Parrotbills, hopefully it should then be Thrush and Robin migration time.
Chlidonias
Well-known member
Swinhoe's robin is on there. I won't include the shrike though because I only saw it for a second. Same with those juvenile yellow wagtails you noted -- I actually didn't even bother looking at them because of all the white wagtails around, so I still don't have yellow wagtail on the trip list.....
Hopefully when I come back through Shanghai next I will have time for a return run and you will be free. I definitely would like to see reed parrotbills! Have fun in Borneo in the meantime!!
Hong Kong - Mai Po WWFHK Reserve
Not exactly Shanghai but I'll put it in here anyway. My first real birding in Southern China so I hoped for a few birds not usually found from Jiangsu northwards.
Eventually, after all sorts of shenanigans sorting out a permit to visit the reserve, I arose nice and early to meet Neil (from this forum) on Nathan Road, TST, and ride out to Mai Po in his taxi. We arrived I guess just before 07.00 and started birding the ponds and area outside of the reserve before the HQ opens up at 08.00 (I think it was) and I was able to pick up my permit to enter.
Outside of the reserve the birds are much the same as inside of course and a drained pond gave us a fine start with egrets, grey herons and a lifer for me, Black Faced Spoonbills !
Red Whiskered Bulbuls and another lifer, Masked Laughing Thrushes were around the HQ car park and a shock to me were the huge numbers of Great Cormorants flying over - Neil says the reserve holds about 15,000 of them at this time of year, and they were everywhere :eek!:
So permit sorted as soon as the office opened we walked in and strode purposefully in the direction of Shenzhen, pausing only to open the perimeter fence gate to enter No Man's Land :smoke: The land between HK and Shenzhen, clearly visible (well because of the smog maybe not exactly clearly) in the near distance.
We spent most of our time in two hides, after a fair hike along the boardwalk through the mangroves, and were treated to some excellent action as the tide came in forcing the birds in our direction.
Highlight (besides the BF Spooners for me) was a Peregrine causing chaos amongst the waders before singling out a Greenshank and then a high speed chase ensued, with the Greenshank diving, ducking, twisting and turning at breakneck speed to eventually lose his pursuer. Brave little Greenshank lived to fly another day whilst the Peregrine returned to the mangroves to recuperate before finding another lunch.
Many thanks to Neil for a fine day's birding and company !
52 Species
Avocet, Pied
Bulbul, Chinese
Bulbul, Red Whiskered
Coot
Cormorant, Great
Dove, Spotted
Drongo, Black
Drongo, Spangled
Duck, Tufted
Egret, Great
Egret, Intermediate
Egret, Little
Falcon, Peregrine
Grebe, Little
Greenshank
Gull, Hueglin's
Heron, Chinese Pond
Heron, Grey
Kite, Black Eared
Kingfisher, Common
Kingfisher, Pied
Kingfisher, White Throated
Koul, Asian
Laughing Thrush, Masked
Magpie, Azure Winged
Magpie Robin, Oriental
Moorhen, Common
Munia, Scaly Breasted
Myna, Crested
Osprey
Pintail, Northern
Pipit (spp)
Prinia, Plain
Redshank,
Sandpiper, Common
Sandpiper, Curlew
Sandpiper, Marsh
Shoveler, Northern
Shrike, LT Grey Morph
Shrike, Long Tailed
Sparrow, Tree
Spoonbill, Black Faced
Starling, Black Collared
Stilt, Black Winged
Swallow, (spp)
Tailorbird, Common
Tit, Great (Southern)
Wagtail, White
Warbler, Dusky
Warbler, Yellow-Browed
Waterhen, White Fronted
Whimbrel
Kowloon Park (on the way back to my hotel I stopped off here for an hour. What a lovely park).
12 Species
Bulbul, Red Whiskered
Duck, Mandarin
Duck, Wood
Flamingoes
Heron, Black-Crowned
Magpie, Azure Winged
Parakeet, Alexandrine
Pochard, Common
Sparrow, Tree
Starling, Black Collared
Swan, Black Headed
Teal, Common
Not exactly Shanghai but I'll put it in here anyway. My first real birding in Southern China so I hoped for a few birds not usually found from Jiangsu northwards.
Eventually, after all sorts of shenanigans sorting out a permit to visit the reserve, I arose nice and early to meet Neil (from this forum) on Nathan Road, TST, and ride out to Mai Po in his taxi. We arrived I guess just before 07.00 and started birding the ponds and area outside of the reserve before the HQ opens up at 08.00 (I think it was) and I was able to pick up my permit to enter.
Outside of the reserve the birds are much the same as inside of course and a drained pond gave us a fine start with egrets, grey herons and a lifer for me, Black Faced Spoonbills !
Red Whiskered Bulbuls and another lifer, Masked Laughing Thrushes were around the HQ car park and a shock to me were the huge numbers of Great Cormorants flying over - Neil says the reserve holds about 15,000 of them at this time of year, and they were everywhere :eek!:
So permit sorted as soon as the office opened we walked in and strode purposefully in the direction of Shenzhen, pausing only to open the perimeter fence gate to enter No Man's Land :smoke: The land between HK and Shenzhen, clearly visible (well because of the smog maybe not exactly clearly) in the near distance.
We spent most of our time in two hides, after a fair hike along the boardwalk through the mangroves, and were treated to some excellent action as the tide came in forcing the birds in our direction.
Highlight (besides the BF Spooners for me) was a Peregrine causing chaos amongst the waders before singling out a Greenshank and then a high speed chase ensued, with the Greenshank diving, ducking, twisting and turning at breakneck speed to eventually lose his pursuer. Brave little Greenshank lived to fly another day whilst the Peregrine returned to the mangroves to recuperate before finding another lunch.
Many thanks to Neil for a fine day's birding and company !
52 Species
Avocet, Pied
Bulbul, Chinese
Bulbul, Red Whiskered
Coot
Cormorant, Great
Dove, Spotted
Drongo, Black
Drongo, Spangled
Duck, Tufted
Egret, Great
Egret, Intermediate
Egret, Little
Falcon, Peregrine
Grebe, Little
Greenshank
Gull, Hueglin's
Heron, Chinese Pond
Heron, Grey
Kite, Black Eared
Kingfisher, Common
Kingfisher, Pied
Kingfisher, White Throated
Koul, Asian
Laughing Thrush, Masked
Magpie, Azure Winged
Magpie Robin, Oriental
Moorhen, Common
Munia, Scaly Breasted
Myna, Crested
Osprey
Pintail, Northern
Pipit (spp)
Prinia, Plain
Redshank,
Sandpiper, Common
Sandpiper, Curlew
Sandpiper, Marsh
Shoveler, Northern
Shrike, LT Grey Morph
Shrike, Long Tailed
Sparrow, Tree
Spoonbill, Black Faced
Starling, Black Collared
Stilt, Black Winged
Swallow, (spp)
Tailorbird, Common
Tit, Great (Southern)
Wagtail, White
Warbler, Dusky
Warbler, Yellow-Browed
Waterhen, White Fronted
Whimbrel
Kowloon Park (on the way back to my hotel I stopped off here for an hour. What a lovely park).
12 Species
Bulbul, Red Whiskered
Duck, Mandarin
Duck, Wood
Flamingoes
Heron, Black-Crowned
Magpie, Azure Winged
Parakeet, Alexandrine
Pochard, Common
Sparrow, Tree
Starling, Black Collared
Swan, Black Headed
Teal, Common
Last edited:
Jeff Hopkins
Just another...observer
FWIW, the Alexandrine parakeets in Kowloon Park are not native - they're feral. Some people count 'em, some people don't.
Thanks Jeff. Yes I did know that - they seem to be doing very well (other parakeets are there too but I didn't seem them).
Pui O - Hong Kong
My 2nd day's birding in HK was with Mike (MKinHK) and I started by taking the MTR from TST around 06.20 to Lai King, changed trains, and finally arrived just after 07.00 at Tung Chung, where Mike had no problem recognising me, with a camera & lens, on a monopod, slung over my shoulder, amongst the early morning commuters :eek!:
Jumping straight into a taxi we soon reached Mike's hunting ground at Pui O (and a lovely site it is too, mountains on one side, a lovely small deeply concave bay on the other and water buffalo fields & woods in between).
The weather, as per yesterday with Neil at Mai Po, was fine, lovely comfortable temperature and what clouds there were, were high and non-threatening. Light was pretty decent and I had no problem adding Nikon's superb x2 TC to the 300/2.8, only taking it off when we entered the light restricted, low canopy woods.
Birds came at a steady rate, with raptors frequent overhead, until we entered the woods about an hour or so into the day's birding in search of a spectacular bird Mike had fleetingly witnessed just a couple of days ago, the huge Brown Fish Owl.
We tip-toed slowly along the path, placing feet carefully to avoid snapping twigs and alerting the owl, if indeed it was still in the vicinity. Having passed the site where Mike had previously spotted it, it looked like our luck was out, but if nothing else I do seem to be a 'lucky' birder (the same can not be said for car breakdown's though).
Our luck held as suddenly the huge owl, superbly camouflaged in the canopy, took flight, to be followed a few seconds later by a Second Brown Fish Owl ! This one offering even better views as it slowly took to the air .... Magic !
We settled down to await their possible return, and after about 15-20 mins that's exactly what happened as one alighted high in the canopy, but disappointingly in an even more difficult location to view than previously. No matter what position we moved to, views were 'restricted' to say the least. And there was no sign of the other owl. After about 30 mins of trying we admitted defeat and left the owl(s) to it's (their) siesta.
Sadly a small Collared Scops Owl was found dead along the roadside, a nighttime victim of a passing motorist.
Around midday we had to make a move away from Pui O as Mike had meetings to attend so, on his advice, I decided to go down to the old fishing village of Tai O to try my luck on raptors and the Hong Kong Pink Dolphin, which Mike had previously seen in the bay there.
Having shared the taxi halfway I continued alone onto Tai O, also a popular tourist site. I walked through the narrow streets of the small town, heading in the general direction of Mike's instructions and came out at the far end of the town, by a bridge across the small river to one of 3 monasteries (from what I could gather from the signposts) and skirted the monastery to head up the mountain following the Black Eared Kites I could see circling above. After walking most of the way up the hillside, through the graveyard, and being eaten alive by extremely voracious mosquitoes, I decided this wasn't one if my two target areas and descended, bird-wise it was decidedly quiet there.
Skirting the fish ponds I walked through the perimeter of the old town, where the houses are built on stilts over the river/estuary, until I reached a divide in the path, I took the high road to get a better view over the bay. Disappointingly, even after sitting around and scanning the bay with my bins for 30 mins, my luck, which it seems does not extend to mammals, had run out, there were to be no Pink Dolphins for me on this visit. Next time.
A really enjoyable day Mike, thanks so much for your time, company and valuable tips - I'll find it relatively easy to recognise Crested Goshawk and Black Eared Kites now ! Please correct any omissions or erroneous additions in the list below !
PUI O
45 species
Blackbird, Chinese
Bulbul, Chinese
Bulbul, Red Whiskered (these seem to be the dominant bulbul in HK, I like them so much more than the dominant Chinese BB in Shanghai) !
Crow, Large Billed
Coucal, Greater
Dove, Spotted
Drongo, Spangled
Egret, Intermediate,
Egret, Little
Flycatcher, Asian Brown
Goshawk, Crested
Heron, Chinese Pond
Heron, Grey
Kingfisher, Common
Kingfisher, White Throated
Kite, Black Eared
Koel, Asian (heard not seen)
Laughing Thrush, Masked
Magpie, Eurasian
Magpie-Robin, Oriental
Munia, Scaly Breasted
Myna, Crested
Owl, Brown Fish (bird of the trip without question) !
Owl, Collared Scops (deceased)
Pipit, Olive-backed
Pipit, Richard's
Pipit, Red-Throated
Plover, Little Ringed
Redstart, Daurian
Sandpiper, Common
Shrike, Long-Tailed
Skylark (spp)
Sparrow, Tree
Snipe, Painted
Snipe, Swinhoe's
Snipe, Pintail
Starling, Eurasian (Common)
Starling, Red-Billed
Starling, Silky
Starling, Black-Collared
Tailorbird, Common
Tit, Great (Southern)
Wagtail, White
Wagtail, Yellow
Warbler, Dusky
Warbler, Yellow-Browed
TAI O
14 Species
Bulbul, Red Whiskered
Dove, Spotted
Egret, Great
Egret, Intermediate,
Egret, Little
Heron, Black Crowned Night
Heron, Chinese Pond
Heron, Grey
Kite, Black Eared
Magpie-Robin, Oriental
Myna, Crested
Sparrow, Tree
Wagtail, White
Warbler, Dusky
KOWLOON PARK (if anyone is staying in Kowloon I recommend they spend an hour or two in this lovely oasis in chaotic TST, or HK Park if over on HK Island).
12 Species
Bulbul, Chinese
Bulbul, Red Whiskered
Dove, Spotted
Heron, Black Crowned Night
Kite, Black Eared
Laughing Thrush, Masked
Magpie-Robin, Oriental
Myna, Crested
Parakeet, Alexandrine
Sparrow, Tree
Starling, Black-Collared
White-Eye, Japanese
Also in the park : Introduced Common Shelduck, Wood Duck, Mandarin Duck, Ringed Teal and Red Headed Pochard, plus Bar Headed Goose, Black Headed Swan, Peafowl and Flamingoes are on the pond here. There is also a small aviary that holds Hornbills and the spectacular Nicobar Pigeon amongst others.
http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/parks/kp/graphics/common/image095.jpg
My 2nd day's birding in HK was with Mike (MKinHK) and I started by taking the MTR from TST around 06.20 to Lai King, changed trains, and finally arrived just after 07.00 at Tung Chung, where Mike had no problem recognising me, with a camera & lens, on a monopod, slung over my shoulder, amongst the early morning commuters :eek!:
Jumping straight into a taxi we soon reached Mike's hunting ground at Pui O (and a lovely site it is too, mountains on one side, a lovely small deeply concave bay on the other and water buffalo fields & woods in between).
The weather, as per yesterday with Neil at Mai Po, was fine, lovely comfortable temperature and what clouds there were, were high and non-threatening. Light was pretty decent and I had no problem adding Nikon's superb x2 TC to the 300/2.8, only taking it off when we entered the light restricted, low canopy woods.
Birds came at a steady rate, with raptors frequent overhead, until we entered the woods about an hour or so into the day's birding in search of a spectacular bird Mike had fleetingly witnessed just a couple of days ago, the huge Brown Fish Owl.
We tip-toed slowly along the path, placing feet carefully to avoid snapping twigs and alerting the owl, if indeed it was still in the vicinity. Having passed the site where Mike had previously spotted it, it looked like our luck was out, but if nothing else I do seem to be a 'lucky' birder (the same can not be said for car breakdown's though).
Our luck held as suddenly the huge owl, superbly camouflaged in the canopy, took flight, to be followed a few seconds later by a Second Brown Fish Owl ! This one offering even better views as it slowly took to the air .... Magic !
We settled down to await their possible return, and after about 15-20 mins that's exactly what happened as one alighted high in the canopy, but disappointingly in an even more difficult location to view than previously. No matter what position we moved to, views were 'restricted' to say the least. And there was no sign of the other owl. After about 30 mins of trying we admitted defeat and left the owl(s) to it's (their) siesta.
Sadly a small Collared Scops Owl was found dead along the roadside, a nighttime victim of a passing motorist.
Around midday we had to make a move away from Pui O as Mike had meetings to attend so, on his advice, I decided to go down to the old fishing village of Tai O to try my luck on raptors and the Hong Kong Pink Dolphin, which Mike had previously seen in the bay there.
Having shared the taxi halfway I continued alone onto Tai O, also a popular tourist site. I walked through the narrow streets of the small town, heading in the general direction of Mike's instructions and came out at the far end of the town, by a bridge across the small river to one of 3 monasteries (from what I could gather from the signposts) and skirted the monastery to head up the mountain following the Black Eared Kites I could see circling above. After walking most of the way up the hillside, through the graveyard, and being eaten alive by extremely voracious mosquitoes, I decided this wasn't one if my two target areas and descended, bird-wise it was decidedly quiet there.
Skirting the fish ponds I walked through the perimeter of the old town, where the houses are built on stilts over the river/estuary, until I reached a divide in the path, I took the high road to get a better view over the bay. Disappointingly, even after sitting around and scanning the bay with my bins for 30 mins, my luck, which it seems does not extend to mammals, had run out, there were to be no Pink Dolphins for me on this visit. Next time.
A really enjoyable day Mike, thanks so much for your time, company and valuable tips - I'll find it relatively easy to recognise Crested Goshawk and Black Eared Kites now ! Please correct any omissions or erroneous additions in the list below !
PUI O
45 species
Blackbird, Chinese
Bulbul, Chinese
Bulbul, Red Whiskered (these seem to be the dominant bulbul in HK, I like them so much more than the dominant Chinese BB in Shanghai) !
Crow, Large Billed
Coucal, Greater
Dove, Spotted
Drongo, Spangled
Egret, Intermediate,
Egret, Little
Flycatcher, Asian Brown
Goshawk, Crested
Heron, Chinese Pond
Heron, Grey
Kingfisher, Common
Kingfisher, White Throated
Kite, Black Eared
Koel, Asian (heard not seen)
Laughing Thrush, Masked
Magpie, Eurasian
Magpie-Robin, Oriental
Munia, Scaly Breasted
Myna, Crested
Owl, Brown Fish (bird of the trip without question) !
Owl, Collared Scops (deceased)
Pipit, Olive-backed
Pipit, Richard's
Pipit, Red-Throated
Plover, Little Ringed
Redstart, Daurian
Sandpiper, Common
Shrike, Long-Tailed
Skylark (spp)
Sparrow, Tree
Snipe, Painted
Snipe, Swinhoe's
Snipe, Pintail
Starling, Eurasian (Common)
Starling, Red-Billed
Starling, Silky
Starling, Black-Collared
Tailorbird, Common
Tit, Great (Southern)
Wagtail, White
Wagtail, Yellow
Warbler, Dusky
Warbler, Yellow-Browed
TAI O
14 Species
Bulbul, Red Whiskered
Dove, Spotted
Egret, Great
Egret, Intermediate,
Egret, Little
Heron, Black Crowned Night
Heron, Chinese Pond
Heron, Grey
Kite, Black Eared
Magpie-Robin, Oriental
Myna, Crested
Sparrow, Tree
Wagtail, White
Warbler, Dusky
KOWLOON PARK (if anyone is staying in Kowloon I recommend they spend an hour or two in this lovely oasis in chaotic TST, or HK Park if over on HK Island).
12 Species
Bulbul, Chinese
Bulbul, Red Whiskered
Dove, Spotted
Heron, Black Crowned Night
Kite, Black Eared
Laughing Thrush, Masked
Magpie-Robin, Oriental
Myna, Crested
Parakeet, Alexandrine
Sparrow, Tree
Starling, Black-Collared
White-Eye, Japanese
Also in the park : Introduced Common Shelduck, Wood Duck, Mandarin Duck, Ringed Teal and Red Headed Pochard, plus Bar Headed Goose, Black Headed Swan, Peafowl and Flamingoes are on the pond here. There is also a small aviary that holds Hornbills and the spectacular Nicobar Pigeon amongst others.
http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/parks/kp/graphics/common/image095.jpg
Last edited:
thirudevaram
Trapped in mist ***s
Tht's hell of a red snipes i'm seeing. Congrats Kevin. Please show us some of the crackers from the hide. I have seen Neil's Videos before, so i'm hoping you would have got some jaw-dropping shots.
Ha ha ! I wish mate. There may be some nice ones to come but I have near on 75GB awaiting processing after Sabah & HK !
However I was playing around with my 'new-to-me' used D3s (sold the D600 and bought this to backup the D800E) and I messed up the settings big time, forgetting that 'fine jpgs' (the setting I use now when I know I'm going to be shooting high 100s or 1,000s of shots on the D800E) on this older camera is not going to produce the file sizes I'm now used to (50-70MB). I forgot 12MP camera vs 36MP camera. *doh* !!
Instead I ended up with 3-5MB files that don't really take any cropping and lead to a real loss of detail
Stupid %^$&%^ that I am, lesson learnt. Still there are some which came out OK. Here's the first two that I've processed. I like to add vignetting (negative or positive high priority) when I get dull grey skies.
Attachments
Jeff Hopkins
Just another...observer
That shot of the spoonbill looks so clear it almost looks like you photoshopped the bird into the background! Nice pic, Kevin.
Ha ha ! Thanks Jeff. And just for you here's some more. The last one tickles me for some reason
Attachments
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Black%20Faced%20Spoonbill%20-%20HK%20-%20Mai%20Po%202a-X2.jpg -
Black%20Faced%20Spoonbill%20-%20HK%20-%20Mai%20Po%208-XL.jpg -
Black%20Faced%20Spoonbill%20-%20HK%20-%20Mai%20Po%206-XL.jpg -
Black%20Faced%20Spoonbill%20-%20HK%20-%20Mai%20Po%209b-XL.jpg -
Spoonbill%20%26%20Duck%20-%20HK%20-%20Mai%20Po_-XL.jpg
A few more from Hong Kong ....
I also forgot to mention the story of the Peregrine .... Neil & I had spotted it a little earlier and when the birds on the sand banks started to take flight we looked for a raptor and soon found the Peregrine strafing them to get them airborne. Then began a dramatic chase as a Greenshank had been targeted and the Peregrine was closing in ..... the Greenshank twisted, turned, banked and tried every trick it knew to shake the Peregrine, which finally it did, after what seemed an age but was probably less than one minute of a high speed flight chase. The brave Greenshank lived to fly again and the Peregrine was off to the Mangroves to recover, leaving Neil & I breathless. Way cool.
I also forgot to mention the story of the Peregrine .... Neil & I had spotted it a little earlier and when the birds on the sand banks started to take flight we looked for a raptor and soon found the Peregrine strafing them to get them airborne. Then began a dramatic chase as a Greenshank had been targeted and the Peregrine was closing in ..... the Greenshank twisted, turned, banked and tried every trick it knew to shake the Peregrine, which finally it did, after what seemed an age but was probably less than one minute of a high speed flight chase. The brave Greenshank lived to fly again and the Peregrine was off to the Mangroves to recover, leaving Neil & I breathless. Way cool.
Attachments
Last edited:
Jeff Hopkins
Just another...observer
I love the tailorbird shot!
thirudevaram
Trapped in mist ***s
Lovely shots of the Black-faced Spoonbill Kevin. The northern Shoveller looks great too. It's been a long time since i had a close encounter with that duck. Never a close enough range in Chongming.
Thanks Jeff !
Cheers Dev. Hope you ahd a good day out today with your 'tour-group'
Thanks Mike ! Just a pity my settings error led to very low res shots - lesson learned.
Besides this one, the first red-whiskered was really lovely I thought.
