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Message: <blockquote data-quote="PJSharp" data-source="post: 3550631" data-attributes="member: 118519">Day 6 - Mai Po Nature ReserveTuesday 11 April 2017 (Part 1)I left Kowloon at 06:45, taking the MTR to Yuen Long and then a taxi to the Mai Po Nature Reserve (MPNR) entrance, arriving about 7:30am. The day started bright and sunny, getting hot and then cloudy before a few light late afternoon showers. I spent the first hour birding the fish ponds between Mai Po village and the park entrance, but this area was relatively quiet compared to previous visits - no pipits or wagtails for example. I saw little I wasn’t to see later in MPNR itself, good numbers of White-shouldered Starlings and a Black Drongo were an indication of more sightings to come. Returning to the park entrance 3 Pacific Swifts were the only ones seen during the day. After sorting out my permits I met up with three other visiting birders and we made our way into the park at about 8.30am.As I logged 88 species over the next 8 hours I won’t list them all, only those of more interest to visiting NW European birders like me.Between the entrance and the warden’s hut scanning the fish ponds produced my only White-throated Kingfisher of the day. After checking in with the warden, who confirmed high tide was at 10:30, I was undecided as to whether to quickly head to the mangrove hides or not. Walking past the first tower hide I picked out a single summer plumage Black-faced Bunting, then approaching hide 8 it was clear good numbers of waders were on the adjacent pond. Based on this I reckoned the tide had already pushed waders off of the mudflats and onto the reserve, and so resolved to bird the reserve first.From hide 8 we had great views of a nice selection of waders, the highlights for me, and my only lifer of the day, were a few Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, but other nice waders included Great Knot, Marsh Sandpipers, Terek Sandpipers, Red-necked Stints, a single Long-toed Stint, with many of the waders in stunning summer plumage. Eventually we moved along to the main scrape, seeing our first Collared Crows, but little else of note.To be continued...</blockquote>

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