MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
I'm somewhat shamefaced to admit to my filthiest ever twitch today.
John Alcock, who is on an amazing roll this autumn, found Hong Kong's fifth Common House Martin yesterday at Pui O, just one day after identifying our first ever Green(ish - opinions differ) Warbler at Tai O. . . and finding a fifth or so Grey-backed Shrike on my old patch at Ng Tung Chai in October!
Having badly neglected both of these sites over the last three months as I've invested every spare moment in covering the Magic Roundabout ,I have absolutely no right to be scoring here, but once in a while it's great to benefit from others' hard work. So, having achieved my Roundabout target of 100 species in the quarter, and spending a morning at work watching the Whatsapp group delivering up to the minute reports on the martins I flew out of the office, grabbed a bus to Tung Chung and a taxi to Pui O and within one minute of arriving I had crippling zoom-past-your-nose views of two Common House Martins feeding low over the buffalo fields in the company of a Red-rumped Swallow.
One bird was a cracking piebald adult with a shiny black cap, huge white rump that extended down onto the upper tail coverts, as is typical of the race lagopodum that breeds in NE China, and undertail coverts that reached all the way to the fork of the tail. The other, duller, individual, with brown cap, wings and tail was presumably a juvenile. As and when photos are posted I'll provide a link. It was also reassuring to confirm that I had correctly identified the Asian House Martin that appeared on the Roundabout on Saturday morning.
Other birds seen in the approximately four minutes I was there, before racing back to the road and whizzing - unsuccessfully - off to Tai O for the Green(ish) Warbler included a handful of Eurasian Teal and fifty or so Red-billed Starlings.
In retrospect the dash to Tai O was a poorly-considred rush of blood. No one was there, let alone on the bird, and after a couple of passes I ran out of time and headed back to the office, exultant in nailing the martins, but regretting that I had not given them more time.
Cheers
Mike
John Alcock, who is on an amazing roll this autumn, found Hong Kong's fifth Common House Martin yesterday at Pui O, just one day after identifying our first ever Green(ish - opinions differ) Warbler at Tai O. . . and finding a fifth or so Grey-backed Shrike on my old patch at Ng Tung Chai in October!
Having badly neglected both of these sites over the last three months as I've invested every spare moment in covering the Magic Roundabout ,I have absolutely no right to be scoring here, but once in a while it's great to benefit from others' hard work. So, having achieved my Roundabout target of 100 species in the quarter, and spending a morning at work watching the Whatsapp group delivering up to the minute reports on the martins I flew out of the office, grabbed a bus to Tung Chung and a taxi to Pui O and within one minute of arriving I had crippling zoom-past-your-nose views of two Common House Martins feeding low over the buffalo fields in the company of a Red-rumped Swallow.
One bird was a cracking piebald adult with a shiny black cap, huge white rump that extended down onto the upper tail coverts, as is typical of the race lagopodum that breeds in NE China, and undertail coverts that reached all the way to the fork of the tail. The other, duller, individual, with brown cap, wings and tail was presumably a juvenile. As and when photos are posted I'll provide a link. It was also reassuring to confirm that I had correctly identified the Asian House Martin that appeared on the Roundabout on Saturday morning.
Other birds seen in the approximately four minutes I was there, before racing back to the road and whizzing - unsuccessfully - off to Tai O for the Green(ish) Warbler included a handful of Eurasian Teal and fifty or so Red-billed Starlings.
In retrospect the dash to Tai O was a poorly-considred rush of blood. No one was there, let alone on the bird, and after a couple of passes I ran out of time and headed back to the office, exultant in nailing the martins, but regretting that I had not given them more time.
Cheers
Mike
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