Exploring Lantau (1 Viewer)

A mixed bag of a weekend started with a second exploratory trip to the reclamation next to the Disney site. The canned music blaring with relentless cheerfulness from every lamppost nearly drove me nuts, until a little girl dressed as Cinderella and dancing with delight just because she was going to Disneyland reminded me what the whole thing was about.

Once again there was a Pacific Reef Egret on the rock wall of the reclamation, and a little further down a female Blue Rock Thrush as well. The huge expanse of low grass and the ponds was as promising and as unproductive as it had been last time and I worked very hard to winkle out one Little Egret, a solitary Swintail Snipe, a Stejneger's Stonechat and one each of Dusky and Yellow-browed Warbler.

The only relatively abundant birds were the dozen or so Richard's Pipits and 28 and 29 respectively of Black-collared Starlings and Crested Mynas. A pair of Besras upset the flock and chased off a smallish dull-coloured starling which could have been White-shoulderd, or more optimistically Daurian or Chestnut-cheeked. a Silky Starling did appear in the same flock too.

This morning I took a punt that the fast-moving rain belt would pass through Tai O before I got there on the bus this morning. It didn't, and I spent a good deal of time lurking in shelter before 30 minutes staring into the murk from the jetty by the Heritage Hotel delivered a dozen terns that were too far-away in the murk to be identified. This was frustrating, as I only have Roseate and Black-naped on my Lantau list, and I don't think it was either of those.

When the rain did finally stop it appeared that my plan had worked as birds began to appear - a few hawking Barn Swallows and then a flyover Minivet sp. which the balance of probability states should be Ashy, but Swinhoe's has a rather similar call and I've never learned the difference.

The Shaolin Valley was flu of families paying their respect to the ancestors and therefore rather noisy and my expectations were correspondingly low. But taking a path up to the right to scan the treetops immediately delivered a mixed flock of Silky and Chinese Starlings, and then the flicker of a longer, altogether more elegant wing flicked and twisted and then settled just across the valley, allowing me to nail my first Blue-tailed Bee-Eater on Lantau! The punt had paid off, as this was one of the species that I had hoped might be brought in to Tai O by the rain. I snapped off a record shot, and then crossed the valley in search of better views.

Unfortunately the path came up right beneath the bird, and my views and the shots I managed were all little better than silhouettes, which nonetheless allowed me to appreciate the longer-than expected bill, and the elongated streamers of a bird in pristine breeding plumage. Unfortunately my attempt to sneak round it displeased the bird, which took off, calling as it went and settled atop another tree on the other side of the valley. Distant though it was I was still able to appreciate the bronze-tinged back and crown, blue rump, tail and tertials, broad black mask and bill and the yellow chin and lower face above a gingery orange throat patch. Anyone who's see one knows how little justice this description does to a stunning stunning bird, but at least the wonders of photo editing allow a little colour onto my bottom-up photos.

The other birds of note were my fist Black Drongo of the spring, which came over the ridge just like an arriving migrant and eight orange-tinged Cattle Egrets, which also came in over the sea.

As I headed back through the village the Tai O dragonboat team came in under the bridge looking throughly drenched, but adding to the colour of one of my favourite villages in Hong Kong.

A small brown bird on a wire just as the bus crested the ridge above the reservoir might have been a Grey-streaked Flycatcher - they like such spots - but could equally have been any other small brown passerine. Oh well, maybe at the airport during the next few days . . .

Cheers
Mike

Love the Blue-tailed Bee-eater. Some really nice shots on a challenging day.

Great to get the Bee-eater on your Lantau list.....I was doing the Waterfowl Count from Tsim Bei Tsui to Pak Nai at the same time - and the conditions were pretty sporting there, too. Also had Bee-eaters when it cleared up - but mine were attracted by swarming termites, so they hung around for a bit.

Many thanks Owen and John.

For those of you whoa would like to see a really great image of Blue-tailed Bee-eater I can highly recommend John's own pix here: http://www.hkbws.org.hk/BBS/viewthread.php?tid=24918&extra=page%3D1

Cheers
Mike

Some overseas trips and the hottest summer I can remember have kept me firmly indoors for the last few months - with the exception of my regular dog-walking.

The list of less common breeding birds here includes a few surprises:

Chinese Francolin - calling birds from the hilltops

Striated Heron - Adult bird seen on the breakwater of the marsh by Discovery College

Black-crowned Night Heron - Up to six birds adult and juvenile birdson the ponds in Central Park

Reef Egret - One or two birds on the rocks in the bay

Collared Scops Owl - Youngsters heard for a few nights and one view of an adult on the late night walk.

Indian Cuckoo - One heard calling in May and June

House Swift - six or eight pairs

Black Drongo - one pair with at least one youngster.

White-rumped Munia - a couple of pairs nest-building

Spotted Munia - One feeding in the park

Blue Whistling Thrush - two or more pairs.

I finally had another incentive to get out this weekend as I bought a Sony RX10iii bridge camera to replace/upgrade from my trusty Canon SX50HS. This camera has less reach than the SX 50 but a substantially bigger sensor plus a quality Zeiss lens which means the image quality should be substantially better. The pix here were all taken in the park and despite the fact that reducing them to be postable on BF has trashed the quality of some of them they still seem to be substantially sharper than my previous best efforts. They should improve further once people way smarter than me sort out the optimal settings.

Cheers
Mike

Ah!! A new toy to play with! I've had my Canon 7D MKii for over a year now and I am still fiddling with settings. The summer has been unusually warm here too, at least by local standards. That still only means a couple of weeks worth where it barely broke into the 30's, but it has been enough to slow me down to a couple of outings a week. I finally managed to convince the family that it wouldn't kill me and talked them into a fan. That is enough to keep it tolerable.

Another quiet weekend with just a couple of hours dedicated to further experimentation with the new camera and only one bird of real interest - an Emerald Dove over the horse paddock close to the North Plaza and a White-breased Kingfisher feeding from the fence around the same paddock. A larger raptor slipping out of a a tree in the same area which may or may not have had a shorter tail and may or may not have been an owl hinted at a bit more, but no more than that.

Once again it was Crested Myna that posed for pix, plus one of fifteen Spotted Doves lurking in the marigolds - and a male Asian Koel was a somewhat unexpected fly-by this morning.

I'd also forgotten to add half-a-dozen tern sp. - probably Roseates - which I saw from the ferry to Central on Friday morning.

Cheers
Mike

A decent outing to Tai O yesterday following a week of persistent rain that has dropped good birds all over Hong Kong.

The first interesting bird was something small that popped up from the drainage ditch under the starfruit tree. Unfortunately I never got onto it, but a couple of Sakhalin/Pale-legged Leaf Warblers were pinking away and an Arctic Warbler popped up to distract me.

The star bird was the briefest flash of a Thick-billed Warbler - just my second ever in HK and I think the first Lantau record. I saw barely more than the size, colour and the bare-faced supercilium-free expression before it disappeared into a tangle never to be seen again.

Other bit and pieces included half-a-dozen Black Drongos, a Hair-crested Drongo, a Pacific Swift, as second Arctic warbler just as I was leaving, and from the ridge, my first Red Turtle Dove of the autumn.

A dozen Chinese White Dolphins from the ridge was a great count, where the (much quieter) week before I had a couple of yellow-bellied immature Zitting Cisticolas.

Cheers
Mike

Today was one of those wonderful days with clear blue skies and a light steady wind that made it a pleasure to be outside birding. I caught the bus over to Pui O in the hope of a bittern or some waders on the marsh and the outside chance of fining the Brown Fish Owls of which I've yet to get good photos.

I blew out on both counts, but the water hyacinth on the marsh were in full bloom and a dozen Eastern Yellow Wagtails, of which those identifiable to race were simillima, ten Cattle Egrets and three or four Black Drongos were the highlights, along with the usual scruffy bunches of young Crested Mynas and Black-collared Starlings hanging about near the Water Buffaloes.

Entering the wood as carefully and quietly as possible was a different world altogether - greener, darker, and the breeze reduced to the slightest movement of the air. Peering carefully up into the branches from all angles wile drifting slowly I was surprised to find myself staring straight up at the fluffy white underparts and fierce orange eye of a young Crested Goshawk some seven or eight metres above me. It seemed completely unafraid as I spent the next ten minutes trying to improve the angle for some better shots. While I like what I subsequently got, the first shot below remains my favourite for as close an encounter as I've had with this handsome raptor.

Following the buffalo trails up through the woods I was relieved by the lack of Large Woodland Spiders, which generally have huge webs spread across the trail at this time of year. presumably they've been knocked out by the very heavy rains of the last couple of weeks. These rains have however been good for frogs, and as usual I found a good number of Paddyfield Frogs along the upper parts of the trail.

Emerging onto the road I headed downhill and was delighted to find a Forest Wagtail picking its way among the leaf litter in front of me and waving its tail slowly from side to side in the approved manner. Forest Wagtail is a regular autumn and rarer spring passage migrant through Hong Kong in small numbers. I can't have seen more than ten in the last 20-odd years so it was a real pleasure to spend almost two hours watching it feeding on the road and waiting for it to come close enough to nail some reasonable pictures. As you can see below, it eventually performed admirably, coming down to within five metres and giving wonderful views at it fed on the numerous crickets, moths and tiny froglets among the leaf litter. Just brilliant.

Just before I headed out a dog walker with eight or ten tiny dogs went past and shortly after called me over to see the biggest Checkered Keelback I've ever seen. It was angry and defensive - compressing itself laterally to make its body look taller and opening its mouth to show the pale lining. What it didn't do was shoot off, so I was able to get a couple of decent shots, showing the diagnostic double black lines stretching back diagonally from behind the eye.

Cheers
Mike

Love the shots of the Goshawk! That is the sort of thing that draws you out again and again in the future.

Many thanks Owen - totally agree with you, and I have to say that getting decent pictures to keep the memory fresh substantially adds to the enjoyment.

Yesterday I went over to Tai O in the hope of the fall of drift migrants pushed in with the NW wind over the last few days dropping some goodies in NW Lantau.

It turned out ok, but not spectacular.

It started with a Yellow Bittern in the mangroves by the bus stop and then a Grey Wagtail and a calling Asian Brown Flycatcher at the Shaolin Centre, followed by An Arctic Warbler and a couple of Pale-legged/Sakhalin Leaf Warblers before I got fed up of the mosquitoes and called it a day.

Today I made an early start for Pui O, which was rather better, delivering a surprise eight species of waders, plus a Red Turtle Dove, three Yellow wagtails, an Asian Brown Flycatcher, my first three Dusky Warblers of the autumn, a Stejneger's Stonechat, and just my second Common Myna on Lantau.

The first of the waders was a Swintail Snipe that flushed out from under the boat house on the path through the marsh, followed on the beach first by a couple of Kentish Plovers, followed by a lovely monochrome Sanderling on the tideline, which turns out to be my first on Lantau. They were flushed by a dog and flew off down the beach where they joined a couple of Greater Sandplovers, but not before a couple of Whimbrel had flown in to the rocks at the near end of the beach.

Delighted with this unexpected largesse I checked the fields behind the campsite and almost immediately found a Black-winged Stilt and a Pacific Golden Plover on the edge of a buffalo wallow, and topped these of with five Common Sandpipers on the riverbanks at the far end.

Other bits and pieces included a good spread of Cattle Egrets, a solitary Intermediate Egret , a Pacific Reef Egret, eight or so Black Drongos and a distant falcon sp. that looked not quite right for either Peregrine (too slender) or Hobby (rather short-tailed and not "swifty"enough) and probably a week or so too early for Amur . . . Hmmm.

The Long-tailed Skink posed beautifully on a wall in bright sunshine. Looks like the aperture setting was a bit low ...

Cheers
Mike

A bit of catching up to do from last weekend.

A rather quiet morning at Tai O was enlivened by five newly arriving Black-naped Orioles and a Black-winged Cuckooshrike. A skulking wagtail deep in the forest never showed well but was probably a Forest Wagtail given the deep cover it s hiding in a the single call note. I was later given reason to doubt myself by flushing a Grey Wagtail from among the graves, although this did fly away giving the proper call. Other migrants included two Arctic Warblers, a Pale-legged /Sakhalin Leaf Warbler a good passage of 15-odd Black Drongos and an Asian Brown Flycatcher.

As I was early leaving I dropped in at Pui O, which delivered a Yellow Bittern that fed openly out in the marsh, four Swintail Snipe lurking in the scrub, my first Oriental Reed Warbler of the autumn, five Dusky Warblers and a Chinese Starling.

A better session on Sunday started with an exploration of Chi Ma Wan - a new site close to Pui O. This is an east-facing area of coast with decent forest, two small abandoned prisons and a small reservoir where I was delighted to find an adult White-bellied Sea Eagle washing itself in the shallows before hopping up onto a boulder to dry off.

Migrants on show included my first Dark-sided Flycatcher - a nicely spotted juvenile, the first of three Asian Brown Flycatchers and a couple of Arctic Warblers. I then headed back towards Pui O, stopping at the buffalo fields at Shap Long to collect my first Red-throated Flycatcher of the autumn, along with a dozen White-shouldered Starlings and three Eastern Yellow Wagtails.

As I dropped down into Pui O I heard but could not get onto a Pale-legged/Sakhalin Leaf Warbler and then heard and got brief views of a rather late Yellow-rumped Warbler with very prominent wing bars in a roadside garden. The Black-winged Stilt was again on the eastern part of the marsh at Pui O as well as two Swintail Snipe, two adult Red Turtle Doves, six Eastern Yellow Wagtails 20 Black Drongos and a couple more Asian Brown Flycatchers.

As I left Pui O I came across a lion dance which involved lions from two different villages, with one lion seeking permission to enter the territory of the second lion.

Cheers
Mike

Yesterday I tried an area of north Lantau I haven't birded for well over a decade - the stretch of coast between Sham Wat and Tung Chung. A well-wooded patch connects three villages with a mix of wetland, farmland and woodland habitats, but as they lie close to the end of the airport's main take-off runway its not exactly peaceful, especially in the middle two bays.

I started pretty well around Sham Wat with three Sakhalin/Pale-legged Leaf Warblers, three Asian Brown Flycatchers and a couple of Dusky Warblers and a Striated Heron on the mudflat. This was followed by a long and unproductive hike through Sha Lo Wan to San Tau.

San Tau is the opening to a deep well forested valley where I once flushed a bird which I was almost certain was a gorsachicus Night Heron a couple of years before Hong Kong's first Malayan Night Herons were caught on a remote camera on the other side of the island.

On the same path into the forest, which leads to a water tank I first picked up Arctic Warbler, and just before the tank a fourth Pale-legged Leaf Warbler and a Japanese Paradise Flycatcher which was easily identifiable by the contrast between the maroon back and the chestnut-edged tertials. A Lantau tick, and a nice reward for a long walk!

Cheers
Mike

Very useful blog

MKinHK said:

Yesterday I went over to Tai O in the hope of the fall of drift migrants pushed in with the NW wind over the last few days dropping some goodies in NW Lantau.

It turned out ok, but not spectacular.

It started with a Yellow Bittern in the mangroves by the bus stop and then a Grey Wagtail and a calling Asian Brown Flycatcher at the Shaolin Centre, followed by An Arctic Warbler and a couple of Pale-legged/Sakhalin Leaf Warblers before I got fed up of the mosquitoes and called it a day.

Today I made an early start for Pui O, which was rather better, delivering a surprise eight species of waders, plus a Red Turtle Dove, three Yellow wagtails, an Asian Brown Flycatcher, my first three Dusky Warblers of the autumn, a Stejneger's Stonechat, and just my second Common Myna on Lantau.

The first of the waders was a Swintail Snipe that flushed out from under the boat house on the path through the marsh, followed on the beach first by a couple of Kentish Plovers, followed by a lovely monochrome Sanderling on the tideline, which turns out to be my first on Lantau. They were flushed by a dog and flew off down the beach where they joined a couple of Greater Sandplovers, but not before a couple of Whimbrel had flown in to the rocks at the near end of the beach.

Delighted with this unexpected largesse I checked the fields behind the campsite and almost immediately found a Black-winged Stilt and a Pacific Golden Plover on the edge of a buffalo wallow, and topped these of with five Common Sandpipers on the riverbanks at the far end.

Other bits and pieces included a good spread of Cattle Egrets, a solitary Intermediate Egret , a Pacific Reef Egret, eight or so Black Drongos and a distant falcon sp. that looked not quite right for either Peregrine (too slender) or Hobby (rather short-tailed and not "swifty"enough) and probably a week or so too early for Amur . . . Hmmm.

The Long-tailed Skink posed beautifully on a wall in bright sunshine. Looks like the aperture setting was a bit low ...

Cheers
Mike

Click to expand...

Hi Mike, (MKinHK),
I was in Hong Kong recently (26-30th September) and having been to the HK Wetland Park, and Lamma Island we were looking for somewhere new to explore. The previous year we'd gone to Tai O which I really enjoyed but we didn't want a complete repeat of the trip last year.
I did a quick internet search and found your blog/diary on here. It sounded just what we were looking for so set out on the ferry to find it. Fantastic!
Being a keen bird photographer I was in my element there and checking back on your recent posts, we were there at pretty much the same time. I got a shot of the long tailed skink - maybe even the same one as you, and saw the White shouldered starlings, Greater sandplover, Kentish plover and lots of other stuff. I'll post a report on this thread if that's ok with you.
Anyway, thanks for the inspiration and the reports (I didn't get to read the later posts, I started at the beginning and thought, "this sounds good", so we went there).
Nick

Exploring Pui O

Having read Mike's thread during a visit to Hong Kong, and looking for somewhere 'birdy' to explore, Pui O on Lantau Island seemed ideal.
It was better than I expected, it was a great place to wander around, it seems incredible this amount of green open space is only ~50 minutes away from Victoria Harbour by boat!
We went on September 29th and spent the day wandering around. Plenty of Cattle egrets and a few Intermediate egrets were in the Water buffalo meadows. Lots of Crested mynas flying around and of course Red whiskered bulbuls. A walk along the river path yielded a Common kingfisher and a White throated kingfisher some way off downstream. At this point a flock of ~15 White shouldered starlings made a noisy appearance in the trees on the far bank of the river. I managed a couple of shots but they were a bit distant.
Out to the beach through the campsite we saw 2 Greater sandplovers and a Kentish plover.
The highlight for me was a glimpse of a bird I'd not seen before (at this point I didn't know what it was, only that I'd never seen one before) in the trees at the back of the campsite, it was a bright-ish russet colour and my first thought was a redstart of some description, but it was gone before I had chance to ID it properly - dark head, reddish back and tail - about redstart size? Anyway, an hour or so later, we were walking (in very sticky mud) along the edge of the river through the mangrove and I saw the bird - or similar one, again. This time I managed a shot (depressingly poor considering how close it was and that it remained for several seconds. - I blame my lack of success on a rather aggressive dog which was making barking forays towards us on the mud). I was keeping a wary eye on it whilst trying to photograph what turned out to be an Asian paradise flycatcher.
A Black winged stilt was in one of the drier meadows (at the rear of the campsite) as were several Chinese pond herons. A pair of Jungle [Large-billed] crows were either feeding in the fields or roosting in a dead tree, and a pair of Stonechats were flitting around.
We enjoyed the day so much we decided to spend the next (our last day) there as well.

Great to see your posts Nick - having someone come and check out the patch and then score well is the best reward for posting here!

I also had a brief flash of a rufous-tailed bird with a dark head, but my view was so quick I absolutely could not justify claiming it as an Amur Paradise Flycatcher (new name for Asian Para), so I'm delighted that you did confirm your bird and even nailed a photo!

A fine shot of the Chinese Pond Heron! I also have a shot of Red-whiskered Bulbul which looks like its on the same patch of vegetation (see below).

The other shots are as captioned.

Cheers
Mike

MKinHK said:

As I left Pui O I came across a lion dance which involved lions from two different villages, with one lion seeking permission to enter the territory of the second lion.

Cheers
Mike

Click to expand...

I never knew Asiatic lions are available in HK. 8-P

2nd day at Pui O

Friday 30th September.
We'd decided that we would spend our last day in HK at Pui O. By a stroke of good fortune we'd eaten lunch at the 'Water Buffalo" in the village the day before and hatched a plan. As we were flying out and the airport is on Lantau, why not spend the day there and get a cab from there to the airport.
The owner kindly agreed to allow us to leave our bags at the restaurant while we explored then we finished up with a late lunch and off to catch our plane.
Another interesting day there. We saw (correction, my wife saw and photographed) an as yet unidentified lizard - prehistoric looking beastie. If anyone knows what it is I'd be pleased to find out [same for a snake I photographed in China, NOT in HK]. Still plenty of Crested Mynas, Black collared starlings and the usual collection of Cattle egrets around the water buffalos. Two or three Intermediate egrets were in the meadows as well and I realised I'd not really got any shots of them. Other than that it was pretty much a rerun of the day before but with fewer 'unusual' birds. There were at least 2 White throated kingfishers (or one very mobile one!) and a Common kingfisher on the river. One Greater sand plover and one Kentish plover on the beach.
We ventured into an area further away from the beach, up river a little way (the track roughly running parallel to the road to the port) and although we didn't see a great deal different bird wise, it looked like it had a lot of potential. Vegetation came down to the river and with lots of trees around the meadows I suspect it could hold all sorts of interesting things. We did encounter the White shouldered starlings here and a number of Red whiskered bulbuls
. Two Snipe (ssp? I can't distinguish common form 'Swintail' let alone Swinhoe from Pintail!) were watching me warily from the meadow while I sat on the concrete path pretending not to be there so I could photograph the Chinese pond heron. So if anyone can help me decide which Snipe they are I'd be grateful. A Long-tailed shrike posed well for me on a garden post
Finally, possibly the same Long-tailed skink as Mike saw scurried along the top of a wall where the path splits opposite the 'Water Buffalo' restaurant.

Photos of snipe, skink and unknown lizar

I hadn't realised I was only allowed 5 photos so didn't attach the unknown ones. If it is a daily limit of 5 photos I'll post them tomorrow, otherwise, here they are.
So if anyone can help with the ID of the lizard, the snipe and the snake.
The snake was NOT taken in Hong Kong but on Chongming Island off Shanghai. It was about 5 foot long and I wondered if it was actually dead as I stood and watched it for a few minutes and it didn't move. It wasn't, it was stalking a frog but at some point it realised I was there, gave a massive leap and shot off into the paddy field - quite alarming me at the speed it moved - luckily it went away and not at me, I'd have had no time to react! The frog hopped out a few seconds later but didn't look quite all the ticket - not sure if it had been bitten or whether it was sickly anyway and thus easy prey. Anyway, I'd very much like to find out what it was.
Thanks
Nick