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Ng Tung Chai, Hong Kong (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter MKinHK
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MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
First walk int th forest for a while this morning and while there were no fireworks it was still a pleasure to get in there on a beautiful sunny morning. The highlight was two Black-winged Cuckooshrikes in the same tree which came in for a look when I pished, and nearby my first Rufous-tailed Robin for several months.
There was a Besra overthe house both yesterday and today and a Common Buzzard in the tree in front of the house as I came down from the forest this morning.
Other winter birds that will soon be gone include Chinese Blackbird, Ashy Drongo (heard only), and a couple of Asian Stubtails (also heard only). A Rubythroat called, but did not show.
The big news however was off-patch. An American Wigeon at Mai Po appears to be untainted by hybridization (we have had numerous hybrids before) and would therefore be the first for Hong Kong. I saw it yesterday on the high tide along with a female Baikal Teal, three Nordmann's Greenshanks, a Long-billed Dowitcher, lots of Saunders' Gulls and a Bonelli's Eagle stooping at and missing a Little Egret.
Cheers
Mike
There was a Besra overthe house both yesterday and today and a Common Buzzard in the tree in front of the house as I came down from the forest this morning.
Other winter birds that will soon be gone include Chinese Blackbird, Ashy Drongo (heard only), and a couple of Asian Stubtails (also heard only). A Rubythroat called, but did not show.
The big news however was off-patch. An American Wigeon at Mai Po appears to be untainted by hybridization (we have had numerous hybrids before) and would therefore be the first for Hong Kong. I saw it yesterday on the high tide along with a female Baikal Teal, three Nordmann's Greenshanks, a Long-billed Dowitcher, lots of Saunders' Gulls and a Bonelli's Eagle stooping at and missing a Little Egret.
Cheers
Mike
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MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
They say that virtue is its own reward . . . in this case the intent to be virtuous was rewarded yesterday morning - with only my second ever Asian House Martin in Lam Tsuen when I went up on the roof to for a session with the hula hop from hell.
Thankfully seeing the bird well took up so much time that I only had a minute with the hh from h.
This morning I did not even need to go on the roof for a good bird - a Black-winged Cuckooshrike had come into the veggie garden from a quick shuftie and gave great views as it sat on the fence.
Cheers
Mike
Thankfully seeing the bird well took up so much time that I only had a minute with the hh from h.
This morning I did not even need to go on the roof for a good bird - a Black-winged Cuckooshrike had come into the veggie garden from a quick shuftie and gave great views as it sat on the fence.
Cheers
Mike
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
Another cuckoo starting up . . . Lesser Coucal has been going the last three days. Haven't seen one yet, probably because the burned grass has reduced available cover near the house.
Hair-crested Drongo was in the banana trees on the edge of the veggie patch yesterday morning.
Cheers
Mike
Hair-crested Drongo was in the banana trees on the edge of the veggie patch yesterday morning.
Cheers
Mike
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
With Large Hawk Cuckoo, Lesser Coucal, Plaintive Cuckoo and Koel now calling every day and the House Swallows floating round the village spring is certainly here.
An interesting morning in the mist between Ping Long, Tin Liu Ha and the trashed land near She Shan. Best bird was a flyover Common Rosefinch, which had the good manners to perch in a ridge-top tree and allow me to confirm the identification over an hour later. Just my second ever in the valley in seven years.
Other good birds included two Grey Treepie, 22 Oriental Turtle Doves, a Black-winged Cuckooshrike, calling White-browed laughingthrush, a pair and several other individual Plaintive Cuckoos, a singing Lesser Coucal, three Richard's Pipits, ten OBPs, and a pair of Little Ringed Plovers on on the trashed land, and about 15 Little Buntings. Just after I got home a Chinese Blackbird with with a broad white patch on the upper breast was not a Ring Ouzel, but let me dream abut how amazing that would be! I also had a Fantail Snipe and another snipe - a new high count! There were still a couple of Dusky Warblers tacking away.
I thought I heard a large owl around 6am, but did not hear it after getting out of bed, although I did get a Barred Owlet just before dawn while waiting for it to call again.
Cheers
Mike K
An interesting morning in the mist between Ping Long, Tin Liu Ha and the trashed land near She Shan. Best bird was a flyover Common Rosefinch, which had the good manners to perch in a ridge-top tree and allow me to confirm the identification over an hour later. Just my second ever in the valley in seven years.
Other good birds included two Grey Treepie, 22 Oriental Turtle Doves, a Black-winged Cuckooshrike, calling White-browed laughingthrush, a pair and several other individual Plaintive Cuckoos, a singing Lesser Coucal, three Richard's Pipits, ten OBPs, and a pair of Little Ringed Plovers on on the trashed land, and about 15 Little Buntings. Just after I got home a Chinese Blackbird with with a broad white patch on the upper breast was not a Ring Ouzel, but let me dream abut how amazing that would be! I also had a Fantail Snipe and another snipe - a new high count! There were still a couple of Dusky Warblers tacking away.
I thought I heard a large owl around 6am, but did not hear it after getting out of bed, although I did get a Barred Owlet just before dawn while waiting for it to call again.
Cheers
Mike K
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
A fog-free morning . . . and a couple of hours in the forest walking up to Tai Om Shan and back between 7:20 and 9:40 started out rather quiet, although a pair of Grey-chinned Minivets were playing in the big trees above the Tai Om playground and there were 20+ Chestnut Bulbuls in the trees above the graves just above the village.
Juts above the gravesite I had a whistling duet with a Black-throated Laughingthrush of the dark-cheeked colour-morph and a male fork-tailed Sunbird showed briefly in full breeding plumage, down to two intact forks on the tail. Not much else showed on the way up to or around the ruined village. However, as I turned to go back down the hill a reddish, square-ended tail flashed away from the ground, initially making me think of rosefinches again, until a pristine male Tristram's Bunting sat up to be seen on a bare branch - something these forest buntings do with happy regularity.
As I came through a normally rather quiet stretch of grassland I first had a fly-by from the Ashy Drongo, and then a wonderful male Orange-bellied Leafbird caught my eye as it flipped into the top of a tree across the field and gave unusually good views at it preened and then made a brief sally for an insect was too far away to see. Leafbirds are pretty rare in Lam Tsuen, and this is my first since moving down to Ping Long from Ng Tung Chai and my first in the valley since April 2007.
Saving the best til last the next stretch of woodland I entered held a cracking male Narcissus Flycatcher, complete with a glowing orange throat, yellow supercilium and rich black upperparts plus white wingbar. We birders have been conditioned to refer to such birds as "jewels", but what rock, however shiny could ever compare with such a stunning living moving creature. Better still, it sat in full view on a couple of bare perches, allowing ample time to drink it in. A fantastic moment!
From checking the Avifauna of HK this is also the earliest record, beating by a day one seen a kilometre down the valley at She Shan on 23 March 1960 - a 49 year-old record!
All round a great weekend for Lam Tsuen patch birding!
Cheers
Mike
Juts above the gravesite I had a whistling duet with a Black-throated Laughingthrush of the dark-cheeked colour-morph and a male fork-tailed Sunbird showed briefly in full breeding plumage, down to two intact forks on the tail. Not much else showed on the way up to or around the ruined village. However, as I turned to go back down the hill a reddish, square-ended tail flashed away from the ground, initially making me think of rosefinches again, until a pristine male Tristram's Bunting sat up to be seen on a bare branch - something these forest buntings do with happy regularity.
As I came through a normally rather quiet stretch of grassland I first had a fly-by from the Ashy Drongo, and then a wonderful male Orange-bellied Leafbird caught my eye as it flipped into the top of a tree across the field and gave unusually good views at it preened and then made a brief sally for an insect was too far away to see. Leafbirds are pretty rare in Lam Tsuen, and this is my first since moving down to Ping Long from Ng Tung Chai and my first in the valley since April 2007.
Saving the best til last the next stretch of woodland I entered held a cracking male Narcissus Flycatcher, complete with a glowing orange throat, yellow supercilium and rich black upperparts plus white wingbar. We birders have been conditioned to refer to such birds as "jewels", but what rock, however shiny could ever compare with such a stunning living moving creature. Better still, it sat in full view on a couple of bare perches, allowing ample time to drink it in. A fantastic moment!
From checking the Avifauna of HK this is also the earliest record, beating by a day one seen a kilometre down the valley at She Shan on 23 March 1960 - a 49 year-old record!
All round a great weekend for Lam Tsuen patch birding!
Cheers
Mike
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
good birds with the spring rain
Overnight rain kept me in bed til 9 am this morning, but when I did get up a flock of at last 25 Chinese (aka White-shouldered) Starlings flew past the window, looped round and landed on the big fig tree at the back of the house. Pic 2 shows a male bird with orange stains around the face and elsewhere on the body. I'm guessing this comes from the pollen on the long-an trees the flock dived into to feed.
These birds are obvious migrants and were gone by the time I came back in the afternoon. However, I'm guessing the female Daurian Redstart was the same bird that obviously just visits me from other parts of the village, and today I saw why - she was chased off by a male Siberian Stonechat.
Two days earlier I heard a flyover Chestnut-winged Cuckoo call while I was walking the dog - the first of the year.
However, the best news was from off-patch - Hong Kong's first Steppe Eagle - a classic 1st winter was photographed twice before Christmas last year, but not identified until last weekend. It had not been seen since, but I was fortunate enough to have it fly in front of me and then stop for couple of turns as I ambled into the reserve around 10am yesterday morning!
The key feature was the large white bar on the underwing, plus tawny upperparts, with a pale trailing edge to the secondaries and pale tips to the upperwing coverts. At the time I thought I had seen a "fulvescens" Greater Spotted Eagle, and it was not til I confirmed that the underwing bar was diagnostic, that I realised what I had seen.
Other good birds at Mai Po included Nordmann's Greenshank, Asiatic & Long-billed Dowitcher, Slaty-backed and Black-tailed Gulls (plus a Pallas' Gull I missed by being slow for the rising tide), plus several thousand commoner waders including my first Sharp-tailed Sandpiper of the year.
Cheers
Mike
Overnight rain kept me in bed til 9 am this morning, but when I did get up a flock of at last 25 Chinese (aka White-shouldered) Starlings flew past the window, looped round and landed on the big fig tree at the back of the house. Pic 2 shows a male bird with orange stains around the face and elsewhere on the body. I'm guessing this comes from the pollen on the long-an trees the flock dived into to feed.
These birds are obvious migrants and were gone by the time I came back in the afternoon. However, I'm guessing the female Daurian Redstart was the same bird that obviously just visits me from other parts of the village, and today I saw why - she was chased off by a male Siberian Stonechat.
Two days earlier I heard a flyover Chestnut-winged Cuckoo call while I was walking the dog - the first of the year.
However, the best news was from off-patch - Hong Kong's first Steppe Eagle - a classic 1st winter was photographed twice before Christmas last year, but not identified until last weekend. It had not been seen since, but I was fortunate enough to have it fly in front of me and then stop for couple of turns as I ambled into the reserve around 10am yesterday morning!
The key feature was the large white bar on the underwing, plus tawny upperparts, with a pale trailing edge to the secondaries and pale tips to the upperwing coverts. At the time I thought I had seen a "fulvescens" Greater Spotted Eagle, and it was not til I confirmed that the underwing bar was diagnostic, that I realised what I had seen.
Other good birds at Mai Po included Nordmann's Greenshank, Asiatic & Long-billed Dowitcher, Slaty-backed and Black-tailed Gulls (plus a Pallas' Gull I missed by being slow for the rising tide), plus several thousand commoner waders including my first Sharp-tailed Sandpiper of the year.
Cheers
Mike
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Nice to see the eagle! It's also reassuring to know that even for good birders sometimes it takes time to digest what you've seen.
Thanks for the picture of the pollen dusted starling - it's helpful to see how birds can change color when hanging out with the flowers.
Gretchen
Thanks for the picture of the pollen dusted starling - it's helpful to see how birds can change color when hanging out with the flowers.
Gretchen
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
Hi Gretchen
The shame about being slow to the ID the Steppe Eagle was that others on the reserve would have had a chance to see it too. its now been looked for for two days with no success.
STOP PRESS: the bird was found and seen extremely well this morning by other birders - so well that the diagnostic nostril shape could be seen! I was stuck in the office, but at least I had seen it already! These are the original pix that led to the ID
I was very pleased with the Chinese Starlings - the males are really wonderful birds, with or without the war paint!
Btw what a great opportunity for birding to live in Qinhuangdao. I went a couple of times to Beidaihe when I was studying in Beijing (back in 1990/1). You may be interested to know that it was one of the best covered birding sites in China in the early years of the 20th Century - an Englishman called La Touche and (I guess) a German called Hemmingsen both recorded migration there, and it was the discovery of their work by birders from Cambridge University in the 1980s that launched Beidaihe as a modern migration hotspot.
Cheers
Mike
The shame about being slow to the ID the Steppe Eagle was that others on the reserve would have had a chance to see it too. its now been looked for for two days with no success.
STOP PRESS: the bird was found and seen extremely well this morning by other birders - so well that the diagnostic nostril shape could be seen! I was stuck in the office, but at least I had seen it already! These are the original pix that led to the ID
I was very pleased with the Chinese Starlings - the males are really wonderful birds, with or without the war paint!
Btw what a great opportunity for birding to live in Qinhuangdao. I went a couple of times to Beidaihe when I was studying in Beijing (back in 1990/1). You may be interested to know that it was one of the best covered birding sites in China in the early years of the 20th Century - an Englishman called La Touche and (I guess) a German called Hemmingsen both recorded migration there, and it was the discovery of their work by birders from Cambridge University in the 1980s that launched Beidaihe as a modern migration hotspot.
Cheers
Mike
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Hi Mike,
Good to see the update there - the eagle is becoming well verified. And nice pics of him - impressive bird.
Living in Qinhuangdao is a great opportunity, but now my life is such that getting out to bird much is pretty hard right now (pushing towards the end of a degree now). I will try to get out once a week, but not sure if I can even do that (and still have any social life too). I'll keep my eye open here on campus too - you never know. It's a little frustrating, but that's how it is for now.
I didn't realize that birding in Beidaihe had such a long history for birdwatching - that is quite interesting!
Gretchen
Good to see the update there - the eagle is becoming well verified. And nice pics of him - impressive bird.
Living in Qinhuangdao is a great opportunity, but now my life is such that getting out to bird much is pretty hard right now (pushing towards the end of a degree now). I will try to get out once a week, but not sure if I can even do that (and still have any social life too). I'll keep my eye open here on campus too - you never know. It's a little frustrating, but that's how it is for now.
I didn't realize that birding in Beidaihe had such a long history for birdwatching - that is quite interesting!
Gretchen
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
Off-patch again today, birding with my mate Richard and Martin Gostling from the UK. Last time he was here, 5 October 2007 I had one of my best ever autumn days at Ng Tung Chai, and Fung Lok Wai especially . . . and today was another terrific day!
We started on Po Toi, where the main attraction for me was an unusually long-staying Elisa's Flycatcher. It was found about a week ago on the day after I'd had the Steppe Eagle at Mai Po. They normally stay only a day - so it was amazing it was still there to go for almost a week later.
This is Ching Ming weekend on Po Toi - the busiest of the year when hundreds of people come to sweep their ancestors graves. The key to doing well is finding quiet corners where the birds can rest and feed out of the way of the cheerfully noisy day-trippers. Grave-sweeping is more of a family picnic than in western cultures - with lots of burning of joss sticks and paper money, offerings of roasted piglets fruit and flowers. The most striking part of the festival is that the ancestors skulls and femurs are kept in pots at the grave and removed for polishing!
As we headed for the site where the flycatcher had been seen six Ashy Minivets flew past us - giving an immediate impression of the island being birdy. We gave them a brief initial look, but saw them well several times throughout the morning.
The Elisa's Flycatcher - a female - had been loyal to a fruiting tree next to the helicopter pad. I saw it briefly as soon as I arrived but it did not show for everyone for 20 anxious minutes, during which time a male Blue-and-white Flycatcher provided a colourful distraction. Eventually the lady showed - and very well - giving me my sixth tick of a year that has started superbly well! Close by Martin & I found a Blue Whistling Thrush a lovely male Narcissus Flycatcher and had poor views of a male Chinese Blackbird, while a female Daurian Redstart popped up in the Elisa's Flycatcher tree as we came past.
We then tried the area around the pier for a Ferruginous Flycatcher, but a fresh arrival of bone polishers had driven off all but three Black-faced Buntings , which gave good close views. In our last hope for a quiet corner a male Grey-backed Thrush gave wonderfully confiding views as it fed in the leaf litter behind the toilets. 15 metres above it, a flicker in the canopy revealed itself as a pristine Ferruginous Flycatcher, which gave prolonged scope views and even posed for photos. As a last hurrah before jumping on the ferry we enjoyed shoelace views of a Rufous-tailed Robin in the same spot. Three Little Terns, a Peregrine and a perched White-bellied Sea Eagle livened up the boat ride.
Richard then very kindly whizzed us up to Mai Po, and we arrived as the tide was about 60 metres from the old Boardwalk hide - perfect!
We wer treated to a wonderful close-up array of waders, headlined by 17 Nordmann's Greenshank,17 Eastern Curlews, 75 Black-faced Spoonbills, many in full-crested summer plumage, 3 Asiatic Dowitchers and 5 Saunder's Gulls.
Other quality included 320 Great Knot, Red-necked and Long-toed Stints, 3 Red Knot, a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, a Ruff and four Red-necked Phalaropes, which came almost to the foot of the hide. The bulk of the numbers were provided by around 1000 Marsh Sandpipers, with perhaps 150 Curlew Sandpiper and 80 Redshank amongst them. We had 28 species of wader in all, plus Caspian, Gull-billed and 17 Little Terns (a personal high count for me in HK - as were the other 17ers above).
Extra interest came from an Eastern Marsh Harrier and a small, dark male Peregrine that zipped through the flock with murderous intent, but the real pleasure was having most of the waterbirds within 60 metres for an extended 3-hour stretch as the tide came up to cover the mud without pushing the waders off, and then very slowly receded as the lowering sun created some wonderfully warm late-evening light.
I have told Martin he should come more often!
Cheers
Mike
We started on Po Toi, where the main attraction for me was an unusually long-staying Elisa's Flycatcher. It was found about a week ago on the day after I'd had the Steppe Eagle at Mai Po. They normally stay only a day - so it was amazing it was still there to go for almost a week later.
This is Ching Ming weekend on Po Toi - the busiest of the year when hundreds of people come to sweep their ancestors graves. The key to doing well is finding quiet corners where the birds can rest and feed out of the way of the cheerfully noisy day-trippers. Grave-sweeping is more of a family picnic than in western cultures - with lots of burning of joss sticks and paper money, offerings of roasted piglets fruit and flowers. The most striking part of the festival is that the ancestors skulls and femurs are kept in pots at the grave and removed for polishing!
As we headed for the site where the flycatcher had been seen six Ashy Minivets flew past us - giving an immediate impression of the island being birdy. We gave them a brief initial look, but saw them well several times throughout the morning.
The Elisa's Flycatcher - a female - had been loyal to a fruiting tree next to the helicopter pad. I saw it briefly as soon as I arrived but it did not show for everyone for 20 anxious minutes, during which time a male Blue-and-white Flycatcher provided a colourful distraction. Eventually the lady showed - and very well - giving me my sixth tick of a year that has started superbly well! Close by Martin & I found a Blue Whistling Thrush a lovely male Narcissus Flycatcher and had poor views of a male Chinese Blackbird, while a female Daurian Redstart popped up in the Elisa's Flycatcher tree as we came past.
We then tried the area around the pier for a Ferruginous Flycatcher, but a fresh arrival of bone polishers had driven off all but three Black-faced Buntings , which gave good close views. In our last hope for a quiet corner a male Grey-backed Thrush gave wonderfully confiding views as it fed in the leaf litter behind the toilets. 15 metres above it, a flicker in the canopy revealed itself as a pristine Ferruginous Flycatcher, which gave prolonged scope views and even posed for photos. As a last hurrah before jumping on the ferry we enjoyed shoelace views of a Rufous-tailed Robin in the same spot. Three Little Terns, a Peregrine and a perched White-bellied Sea Eagle livened up the boat ride.
Richard then very kindly whizzed us up to Mai Po, and we arrived as the tide was about 60 metres from the old Boardwalk hide - perfect!
We wer treated to a wonderful close-up array of waders, headlined by 17 Nordmann's Greenshank,17 Eastern Curlews, 75 Black-faced Spoonbills, many in full-crested summer plumage, 3 Asiatic Dowitchers and 5 Saunder's Gulls.
Other quality included 320 Great Knot, Red-necked and Long-toed Stints, 3 Red Knot, a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, a Ruff and four Red-necked Phalaropes, which came almost to the foot of the hide. The bulk of the numbers were provided by around 1000 Marsh Sandpipers, with perhaps 150 Curlew Sandpiper and 80 Redshank amongst them. We had 28 species of wader in all, plus Caspian, Gull-billed and 17 Little Terns (a personal high count for me in HK - as were the other 17ers above).
Extra interest came from an Eastern Marsh Harrier and a small, dark male Peregrine that zipped through the flock with murderous intent, but the real pleasure was having most of the waterbirds within 60 metres for an extended 3-hour stretch as the tide came up to cover the mud without pushing the waders off, and then very slowly receded as the lowering sun created some wonderfully warm late-evening light.
I have told Martin he should come more often!
Cheers
Mike
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
Went lookingfor the Brown Wood Owl today and had no luck.
I did have a male and a female Hainan Blue Flycatcher in Tai Om and Tai Om Shan respectively - the male and I whistled at each other and we both gave good views for about 10 minutes, before I headed back downhill, stopping only for an Ashy Drongo, which will be leaving any day now.
Cheers
Mike
I did have a male and a female Hainan Blue Flycatcher in Tai Om and Tai Om Shan respectively - the male and I whistled at each other and we both gave good views for about 10 minutes, before I headed back downhill, stopping only for an Ashy Drongo, which will be leaving any day now.
Cheers
Mike
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
A late morning meeting out of the office gave me the opportunity for an hour's birding around the house. Best was a Japanese Sparrowhawk,which sent the local Oriental Turtle Dove roost zooming out of their roosting tree, a pair of Scarlet-backed Flowerpeckers (including a male that gave a great flyby and then fed very close in some small orange flowers on a vine in the branches of a large tree). 13 Hair crested Drongos was the most I'd seen for a while.
We're down to countdown time for Stonechats (one) and Olive-backed Pipits (two), so I'll be recording them until they disappear.
A nice surprise this evening was hearing a Savannah Nightjar calling (Chreeek!) as I walked the dog.
Also of interest from Sunday morning was watching a Magpie searching for grubs on the undersides of banana tree leaves. It lifted up the leaf where it had torn from the edge right up to the spine, and searched underneath. I watched one grab a dark-headed, white grub almost twice the length of its bill, which it swallowed in a couple of gulps. They are more in evidence than ever right now.
Cheers
Mike
We're down to countdown time for Stonechats (one) and Olive-backed Pipits (two), so I'll be recording them until they disappear.
A nice surprise this evening was hearing a Savannah Nightjar calling (Chreeek!) as I walked the dog.
Also of interest from Sunday morning was watching a Magpie searching for grubs on the undersides of banana tree leaves. It lifted up the leaf where it had torn from the edge right up to the spine, and searched underneath. I watched one grab a dark-headed, white grub almost twice the length of its bill, which it swallowed in a couple of gulps. They are more in evidence than ever right now.
Cheers
Mike
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
A pristine male Stonechat, a dozen Hair-crested Drongos and a White-browed Laughingthrush showing well were of interest on the patch this evening, and the Chinese Pond Herons have started nesting again - I Heard their "w-orkle" call from the bamboo grove they bred in last year earlier in the week and had an adult flying in with a twig this morning.
These birds often move from year to year, so its good to have them back for a second season.
This being early April I've had some typically good peak migration season birding off-patch, with Po Toi and Mai Po both delivering again.
Yesterday at Mai Po the Scrape was a delight - 2-3,000 waders of over 30 species included my first Grey-tailed Tattler of the year, Long-billed and Asiatic Dowitchers, 200+ Great Knot, 19 Nordmann's Greenshanks, 15 Eastern Curlew and a HK high count of 104 Bar-tailed Godwit were present for a good two hours.
One of the Great Knot was festooned with colour-rings and leg-flags and had come from Broome in N Australia and been controlled in Hong Kong.
Adding to the diversity were 30-odd Black-faced Spoonbills, a dozen Caspian Terns, 50+ Gull-billed Terns and four superb Whiskered Terns. There had also been two Oystercatchers of the rare eastern raceosculans.
Today I was on Po Toi (plus some inshore seabirding) instead and although it was not totally buzzing a pretty good list can be found at the bottom of this thread on the HKBWS website. My personal highlights were the full-tailed Japanese Paradise Flycatcher and three different male Narcissus Flycatchers, the Streaked Shearwater, and the always fabulous Crested Terns.
Pix of some of these, plus stunning pix of the Oystercatchers can also be seen on the same BBS.
Cheers
Mike
These birds often move from year to year, so its good to have them back for a second season.
This being early April I've had some typically good peak migration season birding off-patch, with Po Toi and Mai Po both delivering again.
Yesterday at Mai Po the Scrape was a delight - 2-3,000 waders of over 30 species included my first Grey-tailed Tattler of the year, Long-billed and Asiatic Dowitchers, 200+ Great Knot, 19 Nordmann's Greenshanks, 15 Eastern Curlew and a HK high count of 104 Bar-tailed Godwit were present for a good two hours.
One of the Great Knot was festooned with colour-rings and leg-flags and had come from Broome in N Australia and been controlled in Hong Kong.
Adding to the diversity were 30-odd Black-faced Spoonbills, a dozen Caspian Terns, 50+ Gull-billed Terns and four superb Whiskered Terns. There had also been two Oystercatchers of the rare eastern raceosculans.
Today I was on Po Toi (plus some inshore seabirding) instead and although it was not totally buzzing a pretty good list can be found at the bottom of this thread on the HKBWS website. My personal highlights were the full-tailed Japanese Paradise Flycatcher and three different male Narcissus Flycatchers, the Streaked Shearwater, and the always fabulous Crested Terns.
Pix of some of these, plus stunning pix of the Oystercatchers can also be seen on the same BBS.
Cheers
Mike
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
A trip up to Ng Tung Chai proper this morning was rather quite, but that was not really surprising given a couple of days of clear weather.
Top birds were a female Blue-and-white Flycatcher and my first Hodgson's Hawk Cuckoo of the year, and as usual shrieking its head off in a very vulgar fashion. I also saw a perched Large Hawk Cuckoo - something I manage about once every five years.
I also had brief naked eye views of a Lesser Shortwing, one of three males holding territory along the trail above the temple.
On the way down a pair of Striated Yuhina looked like they were paired up, a Common Tailorbird was carrying nesting material, and Mountain Tailorbirds seemed to be everywhere.
Back home a pair of Besra were displaying over the woods on the hills opposite. The male performs dramatic stoops while the female flies placidly along as if nothing was happening. . .
Cheers
Mike
Top birds were a female Blue-and-white Flycatcher and my first Hodgson's Hawk Cuckoo of the year, and as usual shrieking its head off in a very vulgar fashion. I also saw a perched Large Hawk Cuckoo - something I manage about once every five years.
I also had brief naked eye views of a Lesser Shortwing, one of three males holding territory along the trail above the temple.
On the way down a pair of Striated Yuhina looked like they were paired up, a Common Tailorbird was carrying nesting material, and Mountain Tailorbirds seemed to be everywhere.
Back home a pair of Besra were displaying over the woods on the hills opposite. The male performs dramatic stoops while the female flies placidly along as if nothing was happening. . .
Cheers
Mike
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
A few birds through the patch in the last few days.
Topping the bill were 6 Dollarbirds high on the power lines on Tuesday morning, while 17 Black Drongos on Sunday morning were obviously birds knowcked down by the big easterlies and the accompanying rain.
One for the hardcore patch watchers was the leap in Common Magpie numbers from 6 to . . .7!
Off patch some good but not mind-blowing birding from a Po Toi/boat trip, with 25 Aleutian Terns, several of which were in pristine breeding plumage and 5 Streaked Shearwaters being the highlight, while Sunday evening at Mai Po I shattered the HK record for Gull-billed Terns, which reached 415 and then 450 during the week, before I enjoyed a whopping 731 birds as the light began to fade.
My guess is that these were migrant birds waiting for the wind and the rain to drop before heading on north. Having counted to 690-odd birds on the deck I realised that more and more birds kept apearing from out to sea, and were making first landfall at Mai Po. Wonderful!
Cheers
Mike
Topping the bill were 6 Dollarbirds high on the power lines on Tuesday morning, while 17 Black Drongos on Sunday morning were obviously birds knowcked down by the big easterlies and the accompanying rain.
One for the hardcore patch watchers was the leap in Common Magpie numbers from 6 to . . .7!
Off patch some good but not mind-blowing birding from a Po Toi/boat trip, with 25 Aleutian Terns, several of which were in pristine breeding plumage and 5 Streaked Shearwaters being the highlight, while Sunday evening at Mai Po I shattered the HK record for Gull-billed Terns, which reached 415 and then 450 during the week, before I enjoyed a whopping 731 birds as the light began to fade.
My guess is that these were migrant birds waiting for the wind and the rain to drop before heading on north. Having counted to 690-odd birds on the deck I realised that more and more birds kept apearing from out to sea, and were making first landfall at Mai Po. Wonderful!
Cheers
Mike
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
A good day today - despite being trapped at home needing to finish off some work before disappearing off to Taiwan next week. The bad news was I missed what might turn out to be HK's first Sooty Shearwater.
But there was lots of compensation from spending a day at "Lam Tsuen Bird Observatory"
The best were 2 Oriental Cuckoos.This is a patch tick, but perversely not tickable, as Oriental Cuckoo has recently been split into Horsfield's and Himalayan Cuckoos, which are basically identical unless they sing, which neither bird did.
Much less controversial was a Dollarbird perched in a tree 100 yards from the house, that went flying and found a friend. Both gave distant flight views and then posed nicely for me to get the scope on them. Later I picked up 10 together in a different tree!
Other migrants included 3 Cattle Egrets which seemed very happy on the flooded fields until chased away by a Black Kite, a rather late Silky Starling , a Black Drongo, a Common Kingfisher, and a Pacific Swift, which made one pass, looped round flashing long pointed tail and wings, and disappeared.
Interesting resident birds included a pair of White-throated Kingfishers, and a terrific Crested Goshawk which flushed one of the Oriental Cuckoos, but then very politely perched on a telegraph pole less than 30 metres from the house, giving a digiscoping opportunity even I could make use of.
Cheers
Mike
But there was lots of compensation from spending a day at "Lam Tsuen Bird Observatory"
The best were 2 Oriental Cuckoos.This is a patch tick, but perversely not tickable, as Oriental Cuckoo has recently been split into Horsfield's and Himalayan Cuckoos, which are basically identical unless they sing, which neither bird did.
Much less controversial was a Dollarbird perched in a tree 100 yards from the house, that went flying and found a friend. Both gave distant flight views and then posed nicely for me to get the scope on them. Later I picked up 10 together in a different tree!
Other migrants included 3 Cattle Egrets which seemed very happy on the flooded fields until chased away by a Black Kite, a rather late Silky Starling , a Black Drongo, a Common Kingfisher, and a Pacific Swift, which made one pass, looped round flashing long pointed tail and wings, and disappeared.
Interesting resident birds included a pair of White-throated Kingfishers, and a terrific Crested Goshawk which flushed one of the Oriental Cuckoos, but then very politely perched on a telegraph pole less than 30 metres from the house, giving a digiscoping opportunity even I could make use of.
Cheers
Mike
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MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
After a great week in Taiwan the first bird to greet me on Tuesday morning was a Red-billed Blue Magpie - a rare visitor to Ping Long, but as you can see from my signature, the major excitement has been off-patch.
I'll post in more detail on Taiwan on the vacation page, but thirteen ticks, plus a stunning pair of Fairy Pitta on the penultimate day (along with a pair of the endemic Black necklaced Scimitar Babbler the same day)was a great haul for a not-strictly-birding trip.
Back in HK I was sat in an all-day seminar on my my first day back to work when an SMS told me HK's first twitchable Band-bellied Crake had just been confirmed on HK Island. I was forced to listen to the world's longest ever thank you session before jumping into a taxi and zipping up to HK University in the hope of getting there before dusk. Thankfully my mate Richard was there, and having seen it already lent me his bins for the agonising 15 minutes before the bird emerged out of the shrubs it had been hiding in for a few brief seconds - fantastic!
I also heard that day of a Blue-winged Pitta that had been found just across the border in Shenzhen, so next morning I met the another birder called Mike and his colleague Shirley at 0630, crossed the Shenzhen River at the Lok Ma Chau Boundary Crossing, took a 15 minute taxi ride, found the bank of photographers in the very nice waterside park and ten minutes later had my first glimpse of an absolutely huge China tick and lifer. About five minutes later It emerged to give distant views, and five minutes after that gave absolutely crippling views down to 15 metres out on the lawn - absolutely cosmic!
So in summary:
Cheers
Mike
I'll post in more detail on Taiwan on the vacation page, but thirteen ticks, plus a stunning pair of Fairy Pitta on the penultimate day (along with a pair of the endemic Black necklaced Scimitar Babbler the same day)was a great haul for a not-strictly-birding trip.
Back in HK I was sat in an all-day seminar on my my first day back to work when an SMS told me HK's first twitchable Band-bellied Crake had just been confirmed on HK Island. I was forced to listen to the world's longest ever thank you session before jumping into a taxi and zipping up to HK University in the hope of getting there before dusk. Thankfully my mate Richard was there, and having seen it already lent me his bins for the agonising 15 minutes before the bird emerged out of the shrubs it had been hiding in for a few brief seconds - fantastic!
I also heard that day of a Blue-winged Pitta that had been found just across the border in Shenzhen, so next morning I met the another birder called Mike and his colleague Shirley at 0630, crossed the Shenzhen River at the Lok Ma Chau Boundary Crossing, took a 15 minute taxi ride, found the bank of photographers in the very nice waterside park and ten minutes later had my first glimpse of an absolutely huge China tick and lifer. About five minutes later It emerged to give distant views, and five minutes after that gave absolutely crippling views down to 15 metres out on the lawn - absolutely cosmic!
So in summary:
- One China
- Two pittas
- Three systems
- Four days
- Four life ticks
Cheers
Mike
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