MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
Autumn migration has started again at Long Valley. Braving the summer heat I headed out for a couple of hours in the late afternoon, having heard that the first Wood Sandpipers had returned last weekend.
Usually this time of year is so hot that you just end up sweating buckets, feeding the mosquitoes and seeing nowt, but this evening a veil of high cloud and a breeze made for a surprisingly pleasant evening.
As I arrived at the top of the drainage channel I found a Common Sandpiper teetering over the edge and dipping into the water, presumably in search of food, and 30 yards down stream the first of 3 Green Sandpipers. Other birds in the channel included half-a-dozen Little Egrets and a young Chinese Pond Heron.
Taking the path off the channel onto the fields I was surprised to see a big flock of White-rumped Munias. It turned out that there were over 300, by far the biggest flock I have ever seen, feeding on a newly-cut rice field that was planted as part of HKBWS's management regime for Long Valley. This was a wonderful sight since it is a long time since rice was grown in Hong Kong. Until today I had thought that such a gathering of munias feeding between the stubble, was a sight that HK would never see again.
However, it was really the waders I had come for. Knowing that July is usually pretty dull I have decided that the only way to generate any interest is to be searching for a rare American wader, with Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs, Stilt Sandpiper, Solitary Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher and Least Sandpiper being my wildly optimistic target birds.
Back to reality the first waders I found were a group of Little Ringed Plovers. They breed locally, so it was no surprise to see up to 25 birds together on the bare fields, which also attracted the interest of a similarly-sized creche of young Black-collared Starlings and a party of 20-odd leucopsis White Wagtails.
A recently harvested and still-wet field of Morning Glory held the first Wood Sandpipers - five of them picking between the submerged stems, and my bird of the day - a Long-toed Stint - which I tried without success to turn into a Least Sandpiper (although they are not at all easy to separate). However, when I checked the Avifauna of HK it appears this bird may be a new early record - by two days - for an autumn migrant L-TS (although there are a few records of summering birds, which creates some confusion).
Long Valley is always birdy, and between checking out the waders I had a couple of Night Herons fly over and kept being distracted, first by a noisy pair of Black Drongos hawking from the wires, then by a couple of White-breasted Kingfishers, and later on a recently-fledged Magpie and a party of Crested Mynas.
The eastern end of Long Valley was simply a delight - these ponds have been good for a couple of years, and I very much enjoyed watching a pair of Black-winged Stilt lording it over the flock of 40+ Wood Sandpipers, which had been joined by the Green Sandpipers and the Long-toed Stint.
Adding to the tableau a pair of Greater Painted-snipe were huddled down at the edge of the pond beind the stilts, allowing good views of the boldly-patterned female, and the subtler soft green and straw-coloured crypsis of the male. In the farthest field a pair of speckle-backed young Black-winged Stilts must have been Hong Kong-born birds.
In the same area, I had brief views what looked suspiciously like an Oriental Turtle Dove (a recent addition to HK's list of breeding birds) dropping into a tree, and on my way a pair of sharply ticking Scarlet-backed Flowerpeckers zipped past at eye level.
Al in all a good, if gentle, start to HK's autumn migration.
Cheers
Mike
Usually this time of year is so hot that you just end up sweating buckets, feeding the mosquitoes and seeing nowt, but this evening a veil of high cloud and a breeze made for a surprisingly pleasant evening.
As I arrived at the top of the drainage channel I found a Common Sandpiper teetering over the edge and dipping into the water, presumably in search of food, and 30 yards down stream the first of 3 Green Sandpipers. Other birds in the channel included half-a-dozen Little Egrets and a young Chinese Pond Heron.
Taking the path off the channel onto the fields I was surprised to see a big flock of White-rumped Munias. It turned out that there were over 300, by far the biggest flock I have ever seen, feeding on a newly-cut rice field that was planted as part of HKBWS's management regime for Long Valley. This was a wonderful sight since it is a long time since rice was grown in Hong Kong. Until today I had thought that such a gathering of munias feeding between the stubble, was a sight that HK would never see again.
However, it was really the waders I had come for. Knowing that July is usually pretty dull I have decided that the only way to generate any interest is to be searching for a rare American wader, with Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs, Stilt Sandpiper, Solitary Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher and Least Sandpiper being my wildly optimistic target birds.
Back to reality the first waders I found were a group of Little Ringed Plovers. They breed locally, so it was no surprise to see up to 25 birds together on the bare fields, which also attracted the interest of a similarly-sized creche of young Black-collared Starlings and a party of 20-odd leucopsis White Wagtails.
A recently harvested and still-wet field of Morning Glory held the first Wood Sandpipers - five of them picking between the submerged stems, and my bird of the day - a Long-toed Stint - which I tried without success to turn into a Least Sandpiper (although they are not at all easy to separate). However, when I checked the Avifauna of HK it appears this bird may be a new early record - by two days - for an autumn migrant L-TS (although there are a few records of summering birds, which creates some confusion).
Long Valley is always birdy, and between checking out the waders I had a couple of Night Herons fly over and kept being distracted, first by a noisy pair of Black Drongos hawking from the wires, then by a couple of White-breasted Kingfishers, and later on a recently-fledged Magpie and a party of Crested Mynas.
The eastern end of Long Valley was simply a delight - these ponds have been good for a couple of years, and I very much enjoyed watching a pair of Black-winged Stilt lording it over the flock of 40+ Wood Sandpipers, which had been joined by the Green Sandpipers and the Long-toed Stint.
Adding to the tableau a pair of Greater Painted-snipe were huddled down at the edge of the pond beind the stilts, allowing good views of the boldly-patterned female, and the subtler soft green and straw-coloured crypsis of the male. In the farthest field a pair of speckle-backed young Black-winged Stilts must have been Hong Kong-born birds.
In the same area, I had brief views what looked suspiciously like an Oriental Turtle Dove (a recent addition to HK's list of breeding birds) dropping into a tree, and on my way a pair of sharply ticking Scarlet-backed Flowerpeckers zipped past at eye level.
Al in all a good, if gentle, start to HK's autumn migration.
Cheers
Mike
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