MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
In September I moved to a new job at Hong Kong International Airport and this week, as a change from spending lunchtime in the terminal building, I went looking for somewhere to sit outside.
Tuesday:(no bins)
It would be an over-statement to say that I scored big-time, but I did almost immediately come across a couple of Asian Brown Flycatchers hunting from the wires supporting some young trees on a small patch of grass on the edge of a roundabout. The roundabout itself is about forty to fifty metres in diameter, and holds a plantation of alien trees - Brisbane Box and acacias, a few low bushes, a tight thicket of some sort of palm, including a thick patch of bougainvillea and some short arid grass. Closer inspection revealed various scattered bits of toilet paper and it quickly became clear that it was an alternative toilet for the taxi drivers, who can queue for over an hour before getting a fare back to town.
Undeterred, and being an optimist, I also noted that it was close to the runway and was undoubtedly the best patch of cover for migrants attracted by the lights. I didn't find much more that day except a confused-looking White-throated Kingfisher, but resolved to come back the next couple of days to check it out more thoroughly.
Wednesday: (no bins)
A Brown Shrike flew off from the same area that the Asian Brown Flycatchers were again occupying and a Black Kite drifted over.
Thursday:
Nnow equipped with a pair of 8x25 Pentax mini bins, the line of heavily pruned bushes inside the roundabout held two Dusky Warblers and the Asian Brown Flycatchers were again present. There was also a mystery warbler skulking in the palms, I never got enough to do anything with it
Friday:
By rushing though my lunch I had a bit more time, and a stronger NE wind and a bit of low cloud had brought a couple of Stejneger's Stonechats to the staked-out trees, where one of the Asian Brown Flycatchers was still present for its fourth day. There were two more Dusky Warblers in the pruned bushes and as I poked along the trail between the palms I came across a small dark-plumaged rather slender, long-billed warbler walking on the ground. The path went the right way and I followed it in. It had hopped up into a low bush no more than five feet away, and gave pretty good front and side views for about ten minutes.
I was immediately struck by the complete lack of rufous in the plumage and the uniformly cold plumage tones. It had a long slender bill with a patchily paler lower mandible, and the curious hint of a hook on the upper mandible, a supercilium that curved over the eye and extended just a short distance past it, flaring and fading away, and with no hint of a dark shadow above. It was too dark to do anything with iris colour, and perhaps as a result of the darkness the flanks and breast were noticeably darker than the white throat. The side views did not give a clear sense of the primary projection.
Surprised by seeing it walk, which it did also when it got down from the perch and wandered off, I checked the undertail coverts to make sure it wasn't a Bradypterus or Locustella, but they appeared to be short and unmarked in any way.
I followed it back along the path as it hopped off into the palms, but lost it, and a scuttling on the other side turned out to be a fine male Siberian Rubythroat instead, which would have made my day on its own!
My gut feeling from the first view was that it was a Blyth's Reed Warbler. I eliminated Black-browed Reed, Manchurian Reed and Paddyfield on the lack of any dark shadow or lateral crown stripe above the supercilium, and Blunt-winged Warbler (in my view the only real contender as an alternative) on the uniformly cold tone to the plumage and the absence of any hint of a stubby-winged long-tailed jizz. I also toyed with the idea of Styan's or Middendorff's Warbler, but it was much too small for the latter and too coldly-plumaged (and without white tail tips) for the former.
I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has seen Accros walking rather than hopping, or with experience of a hook-tipped bill.
Whatever it was it was a rocking good bird for a a lunchtime poke about a highly dubious bit of habitat. There will definitely be more to come!
Cheers
Mike
Tuesday:(no bins)
It would be an over-statement to say that I scored big-time, but I did almost immediately come across a couple of Asian Brown Flycatchers hunting from the wires supporting some young trees on a small patch of grass on the edge of a roundabout. The roundabout itself is about forty to fifty metres in diameter, and holds a plantation of alien trees - Brisbane Box and acacias, a few low bushes, a tight thicket of some sort of palm, including a thick patch of bougainvillea and some short arid grass. Closer inspection revealed various scattered bits of toilet paper and it quickly became clear that it was an alternative toilet for the taxi drivers, who can queue for over an hour before getting a fare back to town.
Undeterred, and being an optimist, I also noted that it was close to the runway and was undoubtedly the best patch of cover for migrants attracted by the lights. I didn't find much more that day except a confused-looking White-throated Kingfisher, but resolved to come back the next couple of days to check it out more thoroughly.
Wednesday: (no bins)
A Brown Shrike flew off from the same area that the Asian Brown Flycatchers were again occupying and a Black Kite drifted over.
Thursday:
Nnow equipped with a pair of 8x25 Pentax mini bins, the line of heavily pruned bushes inside the roundabout held two Dusky Warblers and the Asian Brown Flycatchers were again present. There was also a mystery warbler skulking in the palms, I never got enough to do anything with it
Friday:
By rushing though my lunch I had a bit more time, and a stronger NE wind and a bit of low cloud had brought a couple of Stejneger's Stonechats to the staked-out trees, where one of the Asian Brown Flycatchers was still present for its fourth day. There were two more Dusky Warblers in the pruned bushes and as I poked along the trail between the palms I came across a small dark-plumaged rather slender, long-billed warbler walking on the ground. The path went the right way and I followed it in. It had hopped up into a low bush no more than five feet away, and gave pretty good front and side views for about ten minutes.
I was immediately struck by the complete lack of rufous in the plumage and the uniformly cold plumage tones. It had a long slender bill with a patchily paler lower mandible, and the curious hint of a hook on the upper mandible, a supercilium that curved over the eye and extended just a short distance past it, flaring and fading away, and with no hint of a dark shadow above. It was too dark to do anything with iris colour, and perhaps as a result of the darkness the flanks and breast were noticeably darker than the white throat. The side views did not give a clear sense of the primary projection.
Surprised by seeing it walk, which it did also when it got down from the perch and wandered off, I checked the undertail coverts to make sure it wasn't a Bradypterus or Locustella, but they appeared to be short and unmarked in any way.
I followed it back along the path as it hopped off into the palms, but lost it, and a scuttling on the other side turned out to be a fine male Siberian Rubythroat instead, which would have made my day on its own!
My gut feeling from the first view was that it was a Blyth's Reed Warbler. I eliminated Black-browed Reed, Manchurian Reed and Paddyfield on the lack of any dark shadow or lateral crown stripe above the supercilium, and Blunt-winged Warbler (in my view the only real contender as an alternative) on the uniformly cold tone to the plumage and the absence of any hint of a stubby-winged long-tailed jizz. I also toyed with the idea of Styan's or Middendorff's Warbler, but it was much too small for the latter and too coldly-plumaged (and without white tail tips) for the former.
I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has seen Accros walking rather than hopping, or with experience of a hook-tipped bill.
Whatever it was it was a rocking good bird for a a lunchtime poke about a highly dubious bit of habitat. There will definitely be more to come!
Cheers
Mike
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