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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

The Magic Roundabout (1 Viewer)

My first attempt at the roundabout before work produced a couple more new ones today - three Silky Starlings swirled around before landing briefly in the top of a Brisbane Box, where they were joined by a female Chinese Blackbird, and an incredibly tame Brownish-flanked Bush Warbler came in to within a foot of me ticking very softly.

Other birds included a Dusky Warbler, two YBWs, a male Daurian Redstart, a Richard's Pipit and a female Stejneger's Stonechat.

Cheers
Mike
 
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More rewards for an early start this morning in the shape of two Red Turtle Doves which flew up and sat nicely in a meelia tree.

Other birds were similar - the rather dark-bellied Richard's Pipit, two OBPs, two YBWs and the male Daurian Redstart

One more bird from my commute yesterday (stop press: -and again today on my way to a meeting in town) - an Osprey was again on the timber piles at Yam O as I went past. Shi Jin is right - they are wonderful!

Cheers
Mike
 
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How's the White Wagtail roost going at Carpark 1. Must be starting to increase in numbers now - I reckon there's potential for HK maximum count if its watched regularly
 
Many thanks for letting me know about this Dave - I'll start looking out for it.

What's the current high count from this site?

Cheers
Mike
 
30 minutes brefore work this morning produced one new species, a Pale Thrush that flew up from the grass and had the good manners to perch nicely in an most unthrush-like way. Having said that a male Grey-backed Thrush also dropped into a Brisbane Box and gave very good views from underneath.

Other birds included a new high counts of Olive-backed Pipits (3) and Silky Starlings (15), a single Brown Shrike, four Dusky Warblers, and two Yellow-browed Warblers.

Cheers
Mike
 
Turnover is certainly pretty good Frogfish

I'm making about two visits a week (today was my 13th since the first on 16 October) for not more than 45 minutes and have so far racked up 32 species. Bird density is pretty low, as the habitat is distinctly sub-optimal, and very few birds stay around for long. Regular short visits is definitely the way to go.

Today's new bird was a sadly long-dead female/juv Watercock on the grass verge, while I have never remembered to write down the resident Tree Sparrow and Common Tailorbird previously.

Other migrants today included some of the usual suspects - single Stejneger's Stonechat and Daurian Redstart and two YBWs.

Cheers
Mike
 
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149 (all leucopsis). They gather of the flat roofs near the arrivals lounge and pile into the line of Ficus in Carpark 1 just before dusk. Easy enough to watch from the escalators/stairs outside. The only limitation I've found is when VS201 arrives early and you miss them going into roost as you have to go into the lounge to meet your visitors!

The peak count could/should easily be greater than this given the numbers of white wags at the airport.

If you have time/inclination you could get to the Golf Course to boost your list - Little Grebe and Richard's Pipits are guaranteed!
 
. . . and here's the big question Dave.

I'm pretty sure I can add more birds by extendign the patch, but part of the attraction of the current patch is its tiny size and proximity to the office.

Should an Oriental Plover, Little Curlew or similar turn up the temptation to expand would increase rapidly, but right now the fact that even this very degraded area is producing such good birds is good enoyuugh reason to stay small.

Also, I 've already got Richard's Pipit on my list!

Cheers
Mike
 
Long overdue, here's a pic of the patch from the building I work in. A good job my office doesn't have this view or I wouldn't get much done!

This actually makes the area I bird in look bigger and better habitat than it really is. The actual roundabout with the palm trees is pretty useless, and the area that the great majority of the birds appear is the patch behind the bus with the yellow roof and the grass verge just in front of that, which can not really be seen on this view.

The other thing worth noting is that this is an exceptionally clear day! The hill in the distance is Castle Peak, which marks the southwestern corner of the New Territories, with the town of Tuen Mun just to the right.

The other pic is of course of the unfortunate Watercock.

Cheers
Mike
 

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Good one Mike, I like this kind of thread. Keep it going :t:

Hong Kong still climbing on my list of destinations, didn't have a roundabout/part-time toilet in mind, but hey been to worse :-O
 
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Thanks for the pic - it is nice to visualize this patch. It reminds me of my least favorite aspect of the semi-urban birding I do - traffic noise. I guess you have lots of it here too. I shouldn't be so grumbly about it. Twas a great day for a photo!
 
Gutted not to have got to the roundabout on a single day last week in what I expect were very good falls conditions with all the rain and cloud.

Anyway half an hour at lunch today delivered two Stejneger's Stonechats, including a smart male, at least five each of YBW and Dusky Warbler, a definite five Silky Starlings foraging with the Crested Mynas and a Cettia that was I think a Japanese Bush Warbler, but looked rather small.

Cheers
Mike
 
A good session on the roundabout this lunchtime - more migrants moved in by the cold front and generally dingy weather. as I arrived the same two Stejneger's Stonechats and a couple of Yellow-browed Warblers were on the grassy verge and five Oriental Turtle Doves flew over.

The same rather small Japanese Bush Warbler as yesterday popped up as I was trying to turn three more YBWs and a couple of Dusky Warblers into something more interesting, but better still a female Japanese Thrush flew into a tree, showing its finely spotted belly and a Brown Shrike almost directly above me in another tree showed little more than a flash of a neatly barred flank.

Just a few further inside the wood the Oriental Turtle Doves came up off the ground and peered at me suspiciously from the cover of the higher foliage, and a second, very dark male Japanese Thrush was rooting on the deck with a second feale and a male Chinese Blackbird.

As I stepped out from under the canopy a Chinese Pond Heron flew over- my first one at this site. Even better was to come - as I headed back towards the office two Red-rumped Swallows flew low overhead, over the grassy verge and away to the East giving me a fine hatrick of new patch birds!

Cheers
Mike
 
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It had to happen . . .

Yesterday as I headed for the roundabout a sixty-ish year-old taxi driver wandered in ahead of me while I stopped to check out a female Daurian Redstart and a Stejneger's Stonechat on the grassy verge.

When I did get there he'd hung his shirt on the pole barrier across the road and was doing various stretches and exercises. I did my best to carry on birding, but it was just too wierd, and I beat a hasty retreat - thankful that it wasn't a really birdy day.

Today was my first day for a long time without a Stonechat. Best bird was a juvenile Oriental Turtle Dove, and the slim support came from two YBWs, a female Daurian Redstart, what was likely the same thrush from yesterday - possibly a female Grey-backed on very brief flight views - and a female Chinese Blackbird as I headed back to the office.

Cheers
Mike
 
. . . and here's the big question Dave.

I'm pretty sure I can add more birds by extendign the patch, but part of the attraction of the current patch is its tiny size and proximity to the office.

Should an Oriental Plover, Little Curlew or similar turn up the temptation to expand would increase rapidly, but right now the fact that even this very degraded area is producing such good birds is good enoyuugh reason to stay small.

Also, I 've already got Richard's Pipit on my list!

Cheers
Mike

You wish! ;)
 
The highlight today was a very distinctively-plumaged and very handsome male White Wagtail which, after consultation with John Allcock appears, to be a leucopsis x alboides cross.

Unfortunately I don't have any pix but you can see what the front end looks like from these pix:

here and here.

What these pix don't show is the strikingly black upperparts (from crown to tail tip) with just the broad white coverts and an outer tertial for contrast. My bird also showed a larger breast patch than these two.

The English name for Alboides is Himalayan Wagtail, but it is known in China from as far east as southern Shaanxi and as close to Hong Kong as Guizhou. Leucopsis x alboides has been proposed for a couple of other birds in HK (see here), but none have shown anything like the striking plumage of my bird.

Randomly, I was also delighted to learn that the Italian for wagtail is "ballerina"

Not too much else except for a couple of female Daurian Redstarts and a female Stejneger's Stonechat, plus two thrush sp. one of which might just have been Japanese.

Cheers
Mike
 
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