Bristol to Kagu ? (1 Viewer)

[Jon Turner]

It's amazing seeing pics of Hong Kong (where I was born in.... well um quite a few years ago!). Sadly I was only there for 3 months, and haven't been back. If your pic was taken from the peak, we used to live at number 5! The view when I was there (my Dad still has his photos) was much less congested.

Still a fascinating thread, I'm sure I'll never see most of these birds!

Jon

 

[birdboybowley]

Excellent Larry!! What a great find....the luck holds out.....!

 

[Gretchen]

I think this is a quick link for pics of the duck.

 

[JWN Andrewes]

I think this is a quick link for pics of the duck.

And Larry gets a name check! Nice one!

James

 

[MKinHK]

Larry & Nicky

Great to hear you got the bird! Sorry I missed your call yesterday - I left left my phone in a taxi and only got it back pretty late last night.

Did I get it, did it die of hypothermia or a love bite from an Imperial Eagle, or just disappear into the distance, never to be seen again?

WELL . . . I was stuck in the office all day yesterday and today, right up to 3:40 this afternoon, when I couldn't take all the text messages from birders on-site and fears I might dip any longer and jumped on a bus, then a taxi down a twisting dirt track and, still dressed in office attire with a laptop slung over one shoulder, scrambled across a drained fishpond, over the bridge into the south end of Mai Po, and 63 minutes after setting off from Central nailed the Philippine Duck loafing with a couple of Chinese Spotbills just 20 minutes before it flew into the reedbed to roost, for a full-blown totally cosmic 10,000% monster tick!

Great to meet you, delighted that HK delivered, and best wishes for the rest of your time in China and the journey home.

Cheers

Mike

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Just to put the record straight it was Nicky that re-re-found the duck that afternoon and not me. A major blow for International Women's Day, which was that day (we think?). The bird was originally photographed on Sunday, but wasn't identified and made public knowledge until very late Monday night. Someone then re-found it (the warden?) early on Monday morning, but it did a disappearing act before other morning twitchers arrived. Hope it's happy there.

Really glad you saw it Mike. Phew! We can sleep nights now. It would have been aweful if your scope had seen the bird without you!

And what's with all the Mr Nice Guy Triple B?

We're getting a bus to Xiamen tomorrow night so it really is goodbye to Hong Kong. Difficult place to leave for so many reasons. We both really hope we'll be back one day.

 

[birdboybowley]

And what's with all the Mr Nice Guy Triple B?

Just jealous as hell is all so working on my anger issues and trying something new....! :-O
Good thing you've got Nicky with ya to find these birds innit?? See, they do have uses after all - Dawn found NZ Rock Wren, Nicobar Pig, Whitehead's Trogon, Black-tailed Crake, Jerdon's Bushchat and Regent Honey to name but a few!

Thinking of doing PNG in 2012 (for my 40th - eek!) - you 2 interested?? (4/5 of us going so far....gonna hopefully get a really good deal with the contacts we know...)

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Thanks for asking Ads, and that's a brilliant offer, and I'm sure it would be lots of fun. I can't imagine that we'll be in a position to join you then though, but you never know. Certainly can't commit to it soon, if that's required.

Hope we do get a chance to meet up one day though, even if it's just to find a Sibe Blue Robin at Church Norton, or to meet up in a pub, which I guess could be easier now that you've had the crocodile removed and can fit through smaller doors. :t:

 

[birdboybowley]

Thanks for asking Ads, and that's a brilliant offer, and I'm sure it would be lots of fun. I can't imagine that we'll be in a position to join you then though, but you never know. Certainly can't commit to it soon, if that's required.

Hope we do get a chance to meet up one day though, even if it's just to find a Sibe Blue Robin at Church Norton, or to meet up in a pub, which I guess could be easier now that you've had the crocodile removed and can fit through smaller doors. :t:

Sounds great mate, looking forward to it!! Yeah that croc was a hindrance...as to committing to PNG, nothing will be done until the end of '11/start of '12 anyway so see how it goes. It's my Numer 1 destination ever - have loved BoPs all my life but just can't afford (justify?) over 6 grand for a tour (!)

 

[GDK]

Well done on the quack guys, and mike too ofcourse.

:t:

 

[halftwo]

Excellent Larry!! What a great find....the luck holds out.....!

I nearly choked when I read that BBB! Then I read this:

And what's with all the Mr Nice Guy Triple B?

It's all getting awfully nice in here.
What a top bloke that Mike is. Glad you got to grips with it, Mike.

Mega ticks continue L & N. Fantastic!

How much is cheap for PNG these days?

 

[birdboybowley]

I nearly choked when I read that BBB! Then I read this:



It's all getting awfully nice in here.
What a top bloke that Mike is. Glad you got to grips with it, Mike.

Mega ticks continue L & N. Fantastic!

How much is cheap for PNG these days?

I'm starting to get a complex now H...... I'm really nice me!!! :-O
Hoping to do PNG for at least half a normal tour (most tours seem to add at least 50% on top of everything - disgraceful!! Eg - how can 5 days in southern Thailand to see Gurney's and go out in the mangroves cost £800 per person extra??? Morakot Resort's what...£8pppn, Yotin charges over a ton, but that's not per person, that's for the group...food is negligible....I was in Thailand for 5 weeks and didn't spend £800!!!)
oops, ranting!....back to PNG, we should be able to get a good deal from mutual friends that do tours there by using their ground agents....bring it on!!!

 

[Jacana]

I'm starting to get a complex now H...... I'm really nice me!!! :-O
Hoping to do PNG for at least half a normal tour (most tours seem to add at least 50% on top of everything - disgraceful!! Eg - how can 5 days in southern Thailand to see Gurney's and go out in the mangroves cost £800 per person extra??? Morakot Resort's what...£8pppn, Yotin charges over a ton, but that's not per person, that's for the group...food is negligible....I was in Thailand for 5 weeks and didn't spend £800!!!)
oops, ranting!....back to PNG, we should be able to get a good deal from mutual friends that do tours there by using their ground agents....bring it on!!!

There's so much gen on Thailand as it is and it's such a safe country that going on an organised tour is just a waste of money

 

[birdboybowley]

There's so much gen on Thailand as it is and it's such a safe country that going on an organised tour is just a waste of money

My point exactly but then the same can be said for most countries, eg Oz, New Zealand....both so easy yet hugely expensive on a tour - but then alot of people like the 'no hassle' element and are willing to pay for that...look at the Lesvos tours...£1300 really?????
Sorry Larry, best stop ranting now as don't wanna drag thread off course

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Into China

Don't worry if you think your posts might be slightly off topic, it's all helping to get us over that 1000 post hurdle! Rant a bit more why don't you?

Whilst in the limbo zone between check out time and having to get on a bus we returned to Kowloon Park for a while. Here I experienced a bit of a surprising sight. A White-throated Kingfisher flew up into a tree with something in it's bill, which it then started to bash on a branch in a typical way. Looking at it through the bins I was rather shocked to see that it was a Japanese White-eye. I felt like I was witnessing a scene from a zosteropidological splatter movie. Does anyone know if halcyonid kingfishers regularly exhibit such tarantinoid indulgences?

Also can anybody remember for 50 points where in this thread an actual still from another zosteropidological splatter movie can be found? If you can you should get out more.

From HK we travelled overnight to Xiamen in China by bus, arriving pre-dawn. The confusion has been significant. Holistic even. Although we surprised ourselves today by managing to eat stuff and we think buy a train ticket to the place we want to go to next. Oh yeah, birds. We saw some Blackbirds. What idiot classified these as the same species as the ones back home? There were also a few gulls including Black-tailed on the harbourfront.

 

[dantheman]

(Post #976)

Exciting stuff those last instalments. Know nothing about the birds of the region but at least the P Duck had been brought up elsewhere (in the rarities section I think).

Funnily enough my brother is out in Hong Kong/ China for a few days to a trade convention with his work. I tried persuading him he should go and look at some wild places/wildlife but he think he's more interested in the bright lights and stuff. What a waste of an airline ticket ...

 

[halftwo]

zosteropidological halcyonid tarantinoid

Tarantinoid halcyonid japonicuszosteropidexterminological tales now!

And I still need Japanese white-eye.

Anyone know the chances of them still being in far northern Thailand in mid April? (Along with any other winter visitors still being present, please?)

What chance of Grass owl?

 

[Lappkrabben]

halftwo i think you with; "japonicuszosteropidexterminological" and Larry with "zosteropidological halcyonid tarantinoid" created something similar to;

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

(wich i by the way had to copy and paste, and please don't ask me how to pronounce it)

Take care L & N!

Hope you'll get some goodies in China! (wich i'm convinced you will)

 

[MKinHK]

Totally agree with you about Chinese Blackbirds - just don't see them as the same species as the slender European ones.

Still haven't had confirmation about the status of Yangxian for foreign visitors, but Bjorn Anderson's report did make me wary.

Cheers
Mike

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Just to get the thread back to sensible birding advice:

H- I fear that mid April may be too late for Japanese White-eye. The kingfishers will probably have wiped them all out by then.

Mattias- It might be wise to stay ahead of the game and start learning how to actually say llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochensis. When the complexities of wren taxonomy are finally fully resolved, you may be finding yourself asking for directions to the place when in search of the endemic Anglesey Wren Troglodytes llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochensis

Interestingly note that the gap in llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochensis is seemingly impossible to remove (have we exceeded the maximum legal length of word on BF with this one?). This may cause confusion for some of you who may be assuming that gogogochensis is a subspecies of the proposed new wren split. That would be silly.