Ng Tung Chai, Hong Kong (1 Viewer)

MKinHK · Jun 27, 2012

0442 Spain vs Portugal @Euro 2012 dull as ditch water - Is that Brown Wood Owl calling ?
0443 Up on the roof to check . . . confirmed - first June record of the call!
0443 Chestnut-winged Cuckoo also calling - nice!
0443 A crescent Venus and Jupiter + 3 visible moons bright in the pre-dawn sky
0444 A harder call - "Wuk-wuk wukka wuk-wuk" is it just a distant bulbul warming up?
0445 Nope - Asian Lesser Cuckoo - repeated several times in flight above the fung shui woodland - (8th HK & 2nd Lam Tsuen record - get in!
0445-0514 Stalemate on the football pitch. Penalties - who cares?

Final score: Birder - 3 Astronomer - 2 Footy fan - 123 mins of zzzzzzzzz

Cheers
Mike

Gretchen · Jun 28, 2012

Sounds like the best part of the "footy" was keeping you up to see/hear a few interesting things. View of moons sounds quite nice - with bins I take it?

MKinHK · Jul 1, 2012

Hi Gretchen

I actually got the scope onto the planets to see as much detail as possible and had no chance of seeing the birds, but enjoyed the records anyway.

This morning, finally having a day with no rain, I went into the Tai Om Fung Shui Wood for a poke about. The highlight was pishing in three different Hainan Blue Flycatchers - all of them singing and in three different plumages.

The first was a typical male with the usual dark throat and upper breast, the second was another male, showing the white streak on the throat which also occurs here in smaller numbers.

The most showy - and the most perplexing was a female-plumaged bird that sang persistently and repeatedly came close to check me out. I got some reasonable pix of this bird and also a couple of video clips. Any ideas about why a bird in this plumage would be singing? I assume a hen-plumaged male, but I would love to hear from someone who really knows.

The only other birds of note were a couple of Chestnut Bulbuls

I also had a couple of stick insects locked in passionate perambulatory embrace and a Hoverfly with brilliant plum-coloured eyes.

Cheers
Mike

Condor305 · Jul 8, 2012

Mike's cool patch

Mike, I consider it one of the highlights of my birding life to have had the privilege of setting foot on your patch.
Peace,
Don

MKinHK · Jul 10, 2012

Thanks Don - I think the same thing pretty much every day - nothing like living in a place where even in the depths of summer Lesser Coucal serenades me before breakfast, a bunch of juvenile Chinese Pond Herons are learning the ways of the world in every stream, there's an outside chance of a Brown Wood Owl calling from the fung shui woodland and somewhere out there is a Burmese Python with my name on it . . .

The giant plushy smurfs also help me to keep it real!

Cheers
Mike

Jeff Hopkins · Jul 11, 2012

You had me until the python, Mike.

MKinHK · Jul 20, 2012

More on the snake theme - stunning pix of our summer-visiting Oriental White Stork battling with Chinese Cobra were posted today on the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society website: click here

Cheers
Mike

MKinHK · Jul 29, 2012

A baking hot walk up to the lower falls at Ng Tung Chai today delivered a little more than expected - a juvenile male Hainan Blue Flycatcher and a family party of four Striated Yuhina (or whatever its called now). I also saw a Mountain Tailorbird and heard Lesser Shortwing, plus A female Fork-tailed Sunbird, three Streak-breasted Scimitar Babblers, Eastern Great Tit, Rufous-capped Babbler, Crested Bulbul , Japanese White Eye, and the usual plastics - Blue-winged Minla and Silver-eared Mesia.

On reflection that's not too bad for a midday visit in July

The real interest was seeing the damage from Monday's typhoon - our first No 10 typhoon since 1999 - a few trees smashed, others uprooted and lots of leaves and branches on the path, but the vast majority of the forest looked ok.

The pix below are of Chinese Pond Herons from the egretry in my village, which received a comprehensive thumping from the storm. I found a chick that had fallen out of the nest perched on some twigs just above the ground and delivered it to the Wild Animal Rescue Centre at Kadoorie Farm - and will check in the next few days to see if it survived.

The pix were from the weekend before and show some of the lat season action. I like the one of the adult feeding a 50cm earthworm to one of the chicks. It is likely this adult was one of the birds rescued when a freak gust of wind knocked about a dozen birds out of the egretry a few years ago. I hope these youngsters survived - the good news is that there was no sign of any carcasses.

Cheers
Mike

MKinHK · Aug 26, 2012

Another walk up to the falls at Ng Tung Chai. This time I had high hopes as there have been a few early migrants in HK this year and the twirly whirly typhoon had brought a cooling north wind.

It turned out pretty quiet - not a single migrant. The birding highlight was a mixed flock of Pekin Robins, Rufous-capped Babblers, Mountain Tailorbird, Blue-winged Minla and Silver-eared Mesia. On the way down I added a couple of Velvet-fronted Nuthatches, but there was precious little else.

Compensation came in the form of a wonderfully cooling swim, two good damselflies - Chinese Mountain Damsel and a female Blue Forest Damsel and this rather large Common Ratsnake, which I watched ingesting something it had caught in a hole under a step on the path.

Cheers
Mike

MKinHK · Sep 15, 2012

After a blisteringly hot and horribly polluted summer, autumn arrived overnight with a northerly breeze providing morning temperatures of 22 degrees and humidity as low as 50%

The best birds were a juvenile Dollarbird (Dylan had one earlier in the week too), an Arctic Warbler (104) which I somehow contrived to miss in the spring, got the patch year ticks rolling again, "Swintail" Snipe (105) in the marsh just south of the She Shan Road, and a couple of Olive-backed Pipits. There were also a few Zitting Cisticolas.

Also of interest were some rather vocal Bright-capped Cisticolas, a Lesser Coucal (not the one in the photo below, which is a Greater Coucal), two White-browed Laughingthrushes, two Hair-crested Drongos and two Sooty-headed Bulbuls.

The dragonfly is a Blue Percher - a small, but apparently common species. This is the first time I recall seeing it, so its definitely another patch tick.

Cheers
Mike

It turns out this was a better day than I thought - the Olive-backed Pipits were the earliest autumn record in Hong Kong, beating the previous record of 28 September 1986 by some 13 days.

Gretchen · Sep 16, 2012

"After a (blisteringly) hot and horribly polluted summer, autumn arrived overnight with a northerly breeze providing morning temperatures of 22 degrees and humidity as low as 50%" - Just about the same up here. Clear blue skies and lower humidity are such a relief! (We didn't have horrible heat for the most part though.) Nice to feel like autumn is here!

Nice to see interesting birds returning for you as well, and a couple of ticks - congrats!

MKinHK · Sep 23, 2012

Many thank Gretchen

The heat was back with a vengeance today, and after a very birdy day on Po Toi yesterday it was a hard hard hard grind searching for newly arrived migrants for a couple of hours this morning.

These included a very friendly juvenile Asian Brown Flycatcher sporting a fine buff wing bar in the tree nursery, plus a couple of Siberian Stonechats and a flyover Richard's Pipit. The only other migrant was a Black-winged Cuckooshrike - also a flyover.

It was also a good day for big dragonflies with Pale-spotted Emperor and Common Flangetail patrolling the stream.

Cheers
Mike

MKinHK · Sep 29, 2012

A fine reward for sloth today.

Looking out of the window at a hot, windless and polluted day I could not find the energy to get going, and vegged out at home until the late afternoon.

I was then unjustly rewarded with a fine display of following birds seen from my home between 4:45 and 5:45:

The first hint of quality was the first Black Drongo of the autumn - a grey-bellied juvenile - flipped up on the fence at the edge of the veggie patch and spent an hour hunting among the aubergines. Just before it perched on top of just below a Long-tailed Shrike - it was clearly to big to be threatened. It was followed by an adult that appeared in the grassland and across the veggie patch before moving on.

Just as I was about to head out a casual scan of the powerlines revealed a first a couple of Dollarbirds above Ng Tung Chai and three Black Drongos migrating down the valley. The Dusky Thrush treetop (I love writing that!) held a Black-winged Cuckooshrike and a Siberian Stonechat appeared in the veggie patch from nowhere.

Better still was a distant falcon sp. in the same spot that held the probable Amur Falcons I dipped on last autumn. Zooming to max gave me the pale cheek that confirmed it as either Hobby or Amur, but it was so distant that I had no expectation of nailing it . . . until first one and then another falcon appeared on the same pylon.

More than two birds instantly conjured images of the flocks that Amurs famously migrate in, and Dylan and I made another hopeless dash up to Lin Au to try to confirm them . . . and once again it was to no avail.

I'm very much hoping that, like last year I will have a chance to nail them in the morning. I'd like it even more if they did turn out to be Amurs and dropped into the valley - I'd sacrifice any number of dragonflies for a decent photo!

Cheers
Mike

MKinHK · Oct 2, 2012

A full morning on the patch in typical drift conditions (clear skies, mild northeasterlies) yesterday delivered a few more migrants to the patch.

Two of the falcons sp. showed again on the power lines, but were again very distant, and I headed out towards Sha Shan hopeful of finding one lower down somewhere in the valley.

A wet slog through the uncut high grass in the little marsh next to the She Shan produced nothing but a Siberian Stonechat and a juvenile Lesser Coucal, but there were two more Siberian Stonechats and at least four Richard's Pipits nearby.

The San Tin fishponds held a single Asian Brown Flycatcher, an typically noisy Red-billed Blue Magpie and my first Dusky Warbler of the autumn, but walking downstream along the river a few more birds began to appear, including a nice cluster of five more Dusky Warblers, three Grey Wagtails, a Swintail Snipe, three Green Sandpipers and another couple of Siberian Stonechats and a very confiding Black-browed Reed Warber(106).

A poke into the forest just here was exceptionally productive, as I bumped into a foraging party including a couple of Hair-crested Drongos, Greater Necklaced and Black-throated Laughingthrushes, Silver-eared Mesia, Rufous-capped Babbler and best of all an Asian Paradise Flycatcher (107). I also heard Pygmy Wren Babbler and Mountain Tailorbird.

The tree nursery looks set to repeat its attraction for flycatchers - two more Asian Brown Flycatcher and my first Red-throated of the autumn providing more than ample reward.

As I headed home Dylan (who had seen Radde's and Arctic Warbler at Ng Tung Chai) texted me to say there were nine Black Drongos in a tree between his house and mine.I got onto four, including three flyovers and one in the veggies as I arrived home.

The finale was getting enough on the falcons, one of which had moved onto the closest pylon, to confirm them as Hobby(108).

MKinHK · Oct 4, 2012

A foray to Long Valley which is no more than 10Km away as the crow flies was a humbling experience as it was absolutely humming with birds. Unfortunately I dipped on HK's third Red-backed Shrike, which had been photographed the day before, but did have a casual fly-by of four Daurian Starlings plus unsatisfying flight views of a Scops Owl - just at the beginning of the season when Oriental might occur . . .

Back on patch the next day I made my first visit to Tai Om Shan for several months and was well rewarded with a fine juvenile Sooty Flycatcher (109) and my first Yellow-browed Warbler of the autumn in the same tree, plus a Pale-legged Leaf Warbler(110) "pinking" in the undergrowth.

Up around the abandoned village a small bird wave first revealed a Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler, and then just above it my second Asian Paradise Flycatcher in three days, closely accompanies by an Eastern Crowned Warbler.

A stay of execution on a house hunting trip in the afternoon (my new job at the airport is a long way from the valley) allowed me another couple of hours in the late afternoon. Since it had been so productive I headed back down towards She Shan with high expectations of finding a biggie.

First up was a Black Drongo on an overhead wire, which a I watched was followed by five more arriving from the north, a couple of Siberian Stonechat, and a fine ocularis White Wagtail on the usual corner field below Pak Tin Kong sported a most elegant dove-grey back and a fine creamy yellow wash on the face - was my earliest by over a month.

The tree nursery held two more Olive-backed Pipits, and one each of Asian Brown Flycatcher and Red-throated Flycatcher. A female Chinese Grosbeak was a bit of a surprise in a tree hosting a small pre-roost gathering of Black-collared Starlings. There was no hoped-for crake along the river, but I did add half a dozen Dusky Warblers and just my second ever Oriental Reed Warbler (111) on the patch.

As the gloom gathered a dark shape flying up fro some hillside wires was kind enough to show the large pale wing patches that give Dollarbird its name, and in almost total darkness a Hobby flew almost directly overhead carrying what I presume was a bat in its talons.

So no biggie, but it's good enough just to have the feeling that it could be the next flash of movement that delivers.

Cheers
Mike

Gretchen · Oct 4, 2012

Sounds like fall is getting exciting in those parts! Several nice finds each day.

However, house hunting has an ominous sound for the patch... trust you'll find some place with some birds around.

norm farrell · Oct 4, 2012

Zai jian, Ng Tung Chai ??

Hi, Mike,

I concur with Gretchen.

To me, a "stay of execution" would be discovering that one (you) didn't have to move after all and that the three-hour (?) commute to the airport was worth it after all !! I know you will miss your valley home and birding grounds - we, your readers, certainly will.

I remember you in action up at Ng Tung Chai waterfall over twenty-two years ago when you left the group of birders and came back with a report of a Rufous-gorgetted Flycatcher. A beautiful locale with lots of memories.

I can imagine the criteria for the new place ... swamp within five-minute walk, poor public transportation ( = fewer people ), far from convenient shopping (ditto), abundant cobras and kraits, gekkos and spiders in the bathroom, etc.

Keep us posted,

Norm

Maroon Jay · Oct 6, 2012

Hope to see some of these birds. I am heading to HK in November.

MKinHK · Oct 6, 2012

I too would be sad to leave the valley - and my house hunting is in a spot - (Discovery Bay a weird expatriate enclave once described, not without good cause as "Milton Keynes with humidity") which is both poor for birds and a long and awkward journey from, well, everywhere except the airport.

Despite another house hunting visit today I'm still here for the time being and had another decent morning's birding at the northeast corner of the valley. There's a patch of weeds on a piece of filled land here that has been good for migrants since the Arctic Warbler I photographed there on 15th September.

Today this patch of weeds held two Black-browed Reed Warblers (sooner or later one will be a Manchurian Reed!), an Oriental Reed Warbler and a 1st winter shrike that had me thinking long and hard about Red-backed until a look at the pix in the shade with friends who'd seen a previous bird in HK confirmed too many features that fitted better for Brown Shrike (113), plus two Stejneger's Stonechats and three or four Dusky Warblers.

The flood channel alongside was hosting a major wagtail-fest, half-a-dozen leucopsis White Wagtails, a trio of Grey Wagtails and a solitary grey-buff juvenile taivana Yellow Wagtail(114). There were also a couple of Green Sandpipers and a couple of Common Kingfishers here, and in the channelised stretch with the rocky bed a passerine flashing white tail sides turned out to be my first Little Bunting of the autumn.

A singleton and two Ashy Drongos also flew overhead about an hour apart and a Black Drongo dropped off a wire as I headed back towards She Shan. A couple of Olive-backed Pipits, a Red-throated Flycatcher and a very vocal Greenish Warbler (115) (with two wingbars) in the tree nursery provided a nice finale.

Cheers
Mike

Ps just checked - Chinese Grosbeak was the first of the year - and year tick no 112 - a powerful indication of how poor last winter was!

Frogfish · Oct 7, 2012

Ah DB ! Remember it well, my daughter attended the Int. School there and I would take the daily commute on the cat to Central. That was 16-18 years ago when a tunnel to the airport was still the figment of someone's over active imagination ! Sorry you have to move there Mike.

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