Hong Kong birding (1 Viewer)

[MKinHK]

At long last the sun came out today, and after watching a cat-fight between two female Bull-headed Shrikes on the patch and photographing Blue Magpie for the first time, I headed over to Mai Po for the high tide.

Late February is traditionally a very good time for gulls and today's high tide covered all but few hundred square metres of mud in front of the boardwalk and stayed there for a couple of hours, keeping a few thousand of gulls, waders and duck within good viewing range of the boardwalk hides.

We missed HK's first Ringed Plover for about ten years by about 45 minutes, but some of the Saunders' Gulls were in full black hoods and looked superb. Others had the odd white feather in the black hood and a couple had a sort of reverse dalmatian pattern - with a fine, even scattering of white spots. On her first visit to Mai Po my non-birding wife Carrie picked out a blue leg-flag on one of the Saunders' Gulls, which I believe was attached in Shanghai.

My top bird of the day was the Relict Gull which has been round for a few weeks. It showed well,close enough to take photos, as did a rather small Slaty-backed Gull.

Actually there was not much change from the day before, except that I did see the Nordmann's Greenshankasleep in a mixed tringa flock.

Cheers
Mike

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Should be in HK tomorrow. Hoping some of those gulls stick around.

 

[Larry Sweetland]

There's a PHILIPPINE DUCK at Mai Po !!!!!! B

also Relict, Slaty-backed and Black-tailed Gulls still around on Sunday.

 

[cwpbirder]

are there any updates on the Relict Gull at Mai Po since last weekend please? leaving UK in a couple of days.....

 

[cwpbirder]

No Relict Gull at Mai Po on 22nd (not seen for over a week?) but a good day with 2 Saunder's Gulls, sum plum Pallas's Gull, Nordmann's Grenshank, Long - billed Dowitcher, Great Knot, Imperial Eagle, 50+ Black-faced Spoonbills, and the Philippine Duck.....back again end of April for the other Dowitcher hopefully.......

 

[MKinHK]

Mai Po is closed to protect us from catching bird flu, but it did have an immImperial Eagle and Tufted Ducks showing well in good early sunlight.

There was also an adult Bonelli's Eagle, but no sign of the Philippine Duck.

Cheers
Mike

 

[MKinHK]

A good day for spring passage yesterday. I visited Long Valley and Mai Po with my mate Richard in the hope of finding a biggie in very good fall conditions - chilly northeasterly winds and a overcast sky.

As we arrived at Long Valley there were immediate signs of passage with the first of at least five Chinese Goshawks flying over the fields, a good spread of Siberian Stonechats, Red-throated, Richard's and Olive-backed Pipits, Yellow-Wagtails, Red-rumped Swallows, Chinese and White-cheeked Starlings, Little Buntings and an Asian House Martin. We both had several Painted, Common and Swintail Snipe each but his 22 Long-toed Stints easily outscored my 3 Common Greenshanks.

20 Black-winged Stilts showed as well as ever in the bloodworm ponds and we had separate Red-throated Flycatchers. I also saw a couple of the elegant lucionensis race of Brown Shrike.

At Mai Po we had another 17 Chinese Goshawks and a Grey-faced Buzzard (all tracking north) our best views of the Philippine Duck (older pic attached) and a fine spread of waders on the scrape, including 47 Asiatic Dowitchers, 8 Eastern Curlews and a single Ruff among 33 species (plus two two more from Long Valley made 35 on the day). We also had 47 Caspian Terns, 430 Gull-billed Terns, 60-odd Whiskered Terns and a Little Tern. Three each of Black-headed and Saunders Gulls added nicely to the show.

However the real highlight was the fantastic flock of 13 Blue-tailed Bee-eaters perched in a tree at the northern end of the reserve. We had excellent views down to about 20 yards - the best views I've ever had in Hong Kong.

Birds kept coming and going - showing the distinctive flight silhouette of narrow pointed wings, slim body, and two streamers in the tail - and with scope views we could see that, true to type, they were catching bees! A cracking sighting and the highlight of my week!

In the afternoon I had a walk at Sha Lo Tung with my wife and had another Brown Shrike, two singing Hainan Blue Flycatchers and heard my first Chestnut-winged Cuckoo of the year.

Cheers

Mike

 

[Gretchen]

Sounds like a great day! I'm very envious of the bee-eaters, how wonderful to see a flock in action! Great to have good conditions when you're actually free to go out and enjoy them. Haven't really heard new birds singing here yet (though the Chinese Bulbuls have lots to say in their lovely way), but then they probably are waiting for me to at least open the windows, or perhaps go outside!

 

[MKinHK]

Thank Gretchen . . .and another good day today too.

Richard and I started at Sha Po to see the long-staying Pheasant-tailed Jacana and also had 20-odd Yellow Wagtails on the pond edges. However this was just a drop-in on the way to the Mong Tseng Hills, where we'd had a flock of 40-odd Ashy Minivets over Easter. Today we went to Mong Tseng village itself, and immediately started scoring with ten Chinese Starlings in the village and my first Dollarbird of the year sitting on a telephone wire. a couple of Indian Cuckoos were definitely making the best of the spring sunshine and were flying slowly around and calling at each other. We heard but did not see a Barred Owlet giving its lovely rolling call and as we headed back to the car a flock of nine Blue-tailed Bee-eaters flew directly over our heads! Unfortunately they did not stop, but they are always such magical birds to see, and we were both delighted to nail them two weeks in a row!

We stopped briefly on the cliff near the Tsim Bei Tsui Police Post to scan the bay, and were rewarded with a couple of migrant Black Drongos moving north over the water, and distant views of a swirl of waders heading towards the receding mud at Mai Po.

Driving along the Fence produced little until we stopped to check out a drained pond, immediately flushing what I think were 3 stints and a tringa sp. as we got out of the car. The churned up mad had attracted a couple of Common Sandpipers and a Common Snipe, but no pratincoles or the hoped for Oriental Plover.

However Richard showed great flair by picking up the same flock of 9 Blue-tailed Be-eaters perched in a tree across the far side of the pond. They were hunting bees for a couple of dead trees, and gave good but distant scope views. After a few minutes a couple of Black-necked Starlings thumped into the tree to check them out, then shouted briefly at each other in what, for them, passes as love talk. The Bee-eaters clearly have more refined approach to the tête-a-tête, and decided to leave the BNS to it, and headed north flying directly over our heads towards Mai Po.

S we drove out through the Fung Lok Wai fishponds we added a few more Black Drongos, a singing Oriental Reed Warbler, and finished with a fine male Yellow-breasted Bunting and four Yellow Bitterns. A late Common Buzzard at Shan Pui village was the final bird of a decent morning's birding.

Cheers
Mike

 

[cwpbirder]

An excellent selection of waders on a return visit to Mai Po yesterday - approx 80 fantastic Asiatic Dowitchers, most in summer plumage, were the highlight, along with 2 Nordmann's Greenshanks - also seen, Terek and Broad-billed Sandpipers, and a single Ruff also a Long-toed Stint. Approx 40 Black-faced Spoonbills present, with Caspian and Gull-billed Terns. 5 Blue-tailed Bee-eaters were on wires along the approach road.

 

[MKinHK]

Glad to hear you had a good day - big numbers of Dowitchers are special at this time of year.

Cheers
Mike

 

[MKinHK]

A very hot and humid couple of hours off-patch at Mai Po this morning made worthwhile by a fine group of seven Nordmann's Greenshanks - following the six birds that were photographed last weekend. Keep scrolling down - the penultimate photo is a real cracker!

At the tail end of the migration there was not a huge variety of birds but I did enjoy the four each of Caspian and Gull-billed Terns, including a white-headed juvenile of the latter that clearly had delusions of grandeur and fancied itself as a Crab Plover.

If only . . . but after the Great Thick-knee last spring . . . It's nice to dream!

Back with reality Black-winged Stilt is now well established as a breeding bird in HK, and one pair were anxiously escorting four little fuzzballs around the scrape, with other pairs on other parts of the reserve.

The scrape also held a tight flock of about 30 Avocets, a scattering of Eurasian Curlews and a couple of Whimbrels, but I had to look further afield to add single Oriental Pratincole, Curlew Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank, Common Greenshank, Marsh Sandpiper and Black-tailed Godwit.

22Black-faced Spoobills was a pretty good number this late in the spring, and I had brief fly-by views of a Striated Heron, while a fine breeding plumage Cattle Egret stole the show among the usual egrets and herons.

I was surprised to find lingering Tufted Duck and Chinese Spotbill, but the long-staying Philippine Duck did not emerge from the rather tall summer vegetation.

Five or six Collared Crows an Osprey and a Black Kite were lounging around in the bare trees at the south end of the reserve, but an adult Bonelli's Eagle with a very full crop was unusual this late in the year, but may be taking advantage of the Stilts for easy pickings.

Lastly I always enjoy the Azure-winged Magpies around the carpark, and in the summer three or four pairs of Chinese Starlings add extra interest.

And finally . . . a Checkered Keelback hunting in crab and mudskipper holes just above the waterline was too engrossed to perceive me as a threat.

Cheers

Mike

 

[MKinHK]

Just when I thought the Nordmann's Greenshanks were going to be the last hurrah of a rather quiet spring, George Ho showed great flair by finding HK's fifth Blue-throated Bee-eater just before the heavens opened late yesterday evening. They are usually one day wonders so I didn't give it much thought until early the next morning I was heading back to Mai Po and got a text saying that the Bee-eater was still there and made a rapid change of direction.

The bird had been seen on telephone wires near the Sheung Yue River, and appeared within five minutes of my arrival - a terrific bird in full spring plumage complete with a fine long pair of tail streamers. However for the next 90 minutes it gave everyone who showed up a major run-around in a difficult area to cover - a village with narrow paths and high walls with no wide views. It would appear on an overhead wire or TV aerial for a minute or before disappearing again.The occasional showers did not help.

However these views were within 25 metres, and my favourite moment was watching it swallow a dragonfly tail-first until all that was left was about an inch of wing pointing upwards at a 45 degree angle on each side of the bill - a long-awaited Hong Kong tick!

There are much better pix from the pros here.

Cheers
Mike

 

[MKinHK]

An enjoyable morning at Long Valley - starting with a noisy Collared Crow and a a good spread of Wood Sandpipers with 62 on a single pond and about 100 in total.

There were a few White-rumped Munias on the remains of the rice husks and a group of volunteers were planting a new field of rice, which will hopefully attract a good crop of buntings in the autumn.

The bloodworm ponds held several Little Egrets, a family of Black-winged Stilts - locally-bred at Mai Po and a fine dragonfly - Golden Flangetail sinicitinogomphus clavatus - just my second ever in HK.

A single Red-rumped Swallow may also have been a local breeder.

Cheers
Mike

 

[MKinHK]

Some waders from Mai Po from Sunday and today's public holiday

Cheers

Mike

 

[MKinHK]

. . . and some more

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Golden Flange-tail as well as Sapphire-winged Flutterer! You really have got it all going on with the dragonflies over there Mike.

Is that Philippine Duck still knocking about at Mai Po, or did it go by the way?

 

[MKinHK]

Hi Larry

It hung around for at least a month, but there has been no sign for a few months.

Cheers
Mike

 

[MKinHK]

not my record , but a fine photo of a Fairy Pitta that flew into someone's house in Hong Kong yesterday can be seen on the HKBWS website here

Cheers
Mike

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Wow! Amazing pic. Every birder's dream.