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

The Magic Roundabout (1 Viewer)

Very optimistic point for seawatching in that photo Mike, fly-bys of buses?

Congratulations on 50, considerably more than my snowbound patch is managing so far this season :)
 
Its taken almost six months to score 50, Jos!

The seawatch point does look pretty grim I admit (mostly because it is!) Next time I'm there I'll take a picture from it point, rather than of it, bu tin the meantime I've updated the aerial photo to show there is actiually some sea nearby!

Cheers
Mike
 

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Lots of disturbance from the landscape gardening team on a day with a blustery ENE wind. A scumbraceous Dusky Warbler moulting its face and a pristine male Daurian Redstart - both on the northern bend - provided encouraging evidence of passage, even if it did seem to be of wintering birds.

Cheers
Mike
 
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A wet dank dreary lunchtime started off pretty grimly when I realised that most of the tangled cover had been cleared out by the landscape gardeneing team. The only birds were a single male alba White Wagtail, ten Crested Mynas two or three Tree Sparrows and a couple of flyover Chinese Bulbuls Not a good start to a new quarter!

There was nothing whatsoever of interest in the core area but the north bend started better as two Olive-backed Pipits called from the ground and then flipped up into a tree. Something else coming up off the ground turned out to be a Wryneck, which perched placidly on a branch giving me a fine view of its evenly-spotted flanks and upper belly.

Much better by far was a wonderful Orange-headed Thrush - a completely unexpected ninth thrush for the airport and the eighth for the roundabout. Equally unexpected was that it twice perched on high branches, giving me very good views of a prominent white wingbar and two vertical dark stripes on the head that identified it as the southern Chinese race melli quite definitely checking me out before panicking and flying off.

I also heard a Yellow-browed Warbler singing and four Japanese White Eyes on the bend, and hurried onto the footbridge to see if the golf course had anything to offer. It did. Three Common Sandpipers - another patch tick - were chasing each other about on the grass before flying off. Not the Oriental Plover I was hoping for, but still my second wader (after the LRP a few weeks earlier). There were of course a couple of Richard's Pipits, but I was more surprised to discovered that the red-bellied philippensis Blue Rock Thrush was still in residence - and still using the short trees as a hunting post.

And as a parting gift a rater bedraggled-looking Chinese Starling - my third patch tick of the day - was huddled on the top of a lamp-post.

All told, a pretty good start to my third quarter at the airport.

Cheers
Mike
 
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Now its arrived spring is shaping up pretty well.

I had a wonderful male Narcissus Flycatcher (54) and an infuriating female from the narcissus-elisae-owstoni complex on the northern bend at lunchtime today.

This bird had an olive-green back, a rufous tail, most strongly marked on the uppertail coverts, a pale yellow wash from the chin to the lower belly (but not the undertail coverts, which were white) and greyish scalloping on the sides of the neck and (more faintly) upper breast.

There was a hint of rufous in front of the eye and a slim pale eye-ring which was stronger below the eye than above.

There was no obvious wingbar and the wingtip did not look pointed.

This group is really difficult, but any thoughts on this admittedly patchy and brief description would be most welcome.

Other birds included distant views of the Blue Rock Thrush, two Richard's Pipits and the alboides x leucopsis White Wagtail on the golf course.

I also had a few Chinese Bulbuls, a bald Crested Myna, and a rather drab, but calling, YBW.

Cheers
Mike
 
Wow, a great couple of days there Mike - Orange-headed Thrush and then an interesting flycatcher. It seems that migration is really going well at the Magic Roundabout!

I'm surprised your hybrid wagtail is still around though. We already have juveniles at Mai Po!
 
Dodging a hammering from a very dark and low thunderstorm before work this morning added Little Egret to the patch list as well as two Chinese Pond Herons and a Black-crowned Night Heron for this quarter - and all without getting up on my seawatch point!

Unsurprisingly passerines were keeping a low profile, although I did see three Crested Bulbuls, two Barn Swallows, a few Tree Sparrows, two Spotted Doves and a couple of Crested Mynas. I also heard a Yellow-browed Warbler.

Not exactly the Japanese Paradise Flycatcher I was hoping for . . . but still well worth the walk!

Cheers
Mike
 
MKinHK said:
and an infuriating female from the narcissus-elisae-owstoni complex on the northern bend at lunchtime today.

This bird had an olive-green back, a rufous tail, most strongly marked on the uppertail coverts, a pale yellow wash from the chin to the lower belly (but not the undertail coverts, which were white) and greyish scalloping on the sides of the neck and (more faintly) upper breast.

There was a hint of rufous in front of the eye and a slim pale eye-ring which was stronger below the eye than above.

There was no obvious wingbar and the wingtip did not look pointed.

This group is really difficult, but any thoughts on this admittedly patchy and brief description would be most welcome.
Cheers
Mike
Click to expand...

They are a nightmare Mike, but I guess it looked something like this? - http://orientalbirdimages.org/birdi...es&Bird_ID=2679&Bird_Family_ID=216&pagesize=1
 
That's a pretty good fit Mark - thanks for digging it out.

Right now the HKBWS records committee does not accept any non adult male elisae or owstoni (and who can blame them!) then if I am to score - I need a man!

Cheers
Mike
 
After a morning at Tai O that promised more than it delivered I did the unthinkable and went back to work - well to the Roundabout - in pursuit of migrants grounded by the fresh northerly winds.

And what a good move! There were single White-cheeked and Chinese Starlings on the core area plus a high count of seven Chinese Pond Herons. As I was after flycatchers I gave the impenetrable tangle area a whirl and was immediately rewarded with a fine male Narcissus Flycatcher.

Once inside (and not in a suit as I had been on my previous visit a couple of months ago) it turned out to be not too bad to push through, and i was able to pick up first a female and then an elegant male Blue-and-white Flycatcher. Delighted with my haul I continued round to the northern edge, where one of two calling Yellow-browed Warblers, a female Daurian Redstart, and another or the same male B&W Flycatcher showed well, while the fast-disappearing back-end of a possible Oriental Reed Warbler left too much hidden to be tickable.

Cheers
Mike
 
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Jos Stratford said:
boo hoo, still snow and minus here :(
Click to expand...
For us, Jos, the joys of spring are best served by a roaring cold front (temperatures down to a chilly 17-20 centigrade, and buckets of rain. So far so good - it's rained while I haven't been birding, but the birds have certainly co-operated - seven patch ticks plus the female flycatcher in less than four hours over five days has livened things up tremendously after a rather quiet March.

Sorry about Chinese Starling Mark - an old Hong Kong name which is not much better than White-shouldered Starling, but a hard habit to break.

Now that birds are appearing in the previously-named "Impenetrable tangle" I've updated the map to split the area in two. These areas are now known as the "Eastern tangle" and the "Western tangle".

Cheers
Mike
 

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It is Kevin - I just can't walk around it and have to view it from the elevated walkway.

This evening a flying visit delivered no migrants, but a couple of yellow-faced juvenile leucopsis White Wagtails - my first breeding record on the patch, plus an adult Black-crowned Night Heron flying towards the golf course.

Cheers
Mike
 
More passage today on a very cool grey day following overnight rain. Nothing so classy as the three Oriental Plovers and Spooners at Mai Po, but a Wood Sandpiper which I suspect had been lurking out of sight on the golf course, called a couple of times and gave brief flight views as it flew off north.

That was my patch (and Lantau Island) tick for the day, but I also had half a dozen White-shouldered Starlings feeding - I think on nectar - in a tree sp. with bright yellow flowers, three YBWs and a couple of Common Tailorbirds in the Western Tangle, an OBP and a Dusky Warbler on the Northern Edge.

The golf course also produced a Barn Swallow, a couple of Common Sandpipers and a Richard's Pipit, plus the impressively site-loyal philippensis Blue Rock Thrush, and the waterlogged Core Area had three Chinese Pond Herons poking hopefully about for a meal.

The star bird of the day however,was the male alboides x leucopsis White Wagtail, which was running about catching flies on the lawn in front of the Northern Edge. Looking closer I realised that it wasn't eating the flies, but collecting them, and after a minute it flew of with several in its bill, strongly suggesting the randy bugger has had his wicked way one of the local pale-faces - and that the juveniles I saw running about on Monday were his!

Full marks to John who suggested that there might be a good reason he hadn't disappeared back off to Central China!

Cheers
Mike
 
A superb day on the patch kicked off when I spotted a wader from the morning bus on the grass at the end of the runway. As I was early I walked back to check it out and was amazed to discover a terrific collection of waders and other migrants that had obviously been knocked down by the overnight rain.

These included four Wood Sandpipers, two each of Pacific Golden Plover, Common Sandpiper and Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, plus a solitary Long-toed Stint, all feeding around the wet puddles on the waterlogged grass. In amongst them were a couple of Red-throated Pipits and three fine blue-headed simillima Yellow Wagtails. A trio of Barn Swallows added further migrants to s splendid start to the day.

Technically these were all off-patch, but since the whole area is on airport island, I pass it five days a week can walk there and back from my office the temptation to include in the patch boundary is growing rapidly!

I also walked round the Magic Roundabout itself at lunch, adding an Oriental Pratincole and two more Common Sandpipers to the philippensis Blue Rock Thrush and Richard's Pipits on the golf course. Before that I had half a dozen more White-shouldered Starlings in the yellow-flowering trees and most surprisingly a Sooty-headed Bulbul which flew across the carpark and landed on the wing mirror of a van - very much as to the manner born.

The alboides x leucopsis White Wagtailwas on the lawn by the S1 bus-stop and a regular male leucopsis White Wagtail was feeding a very brown-backed juvenile on the golf course.

The Northern Bend again held a Dusky Warbler and two YBW, and an Asian Brown Flycatcher and a female Blue-and-white Flycatcher were high in the trees of the Core Area, which was still wet enough to hold the three Chinese Pond Herons seen earlier in the week.

The final birds of the day were a flyover Black-crowned Night Heron and a Long-tailed Shrike. Add in the usual suspects - Chinese and Crested Bulbuls, Japanese White-eye, Magpie Robin, Crested Myna and Large-billed Crow made for a record day of 31 taxa on the airport and 25 on the Magic Roundabout itself.

and just for Dev . . . there was a Brown Rat on the Northern Edge.

Cheers
Mike
 
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MKinHK said:
Technically these were all off-patch, but since the whole area is on airport island, I pass it five days a week can walk there and back from my office the temptation to include in the patch boundary is growing rapidly!



Cheers
Mike
Click to expand...

The list should be servant of the birding, not the other way around; let the patch expand!

James
 
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