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Ng Tung Chai, Hong Kong (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter MKinHK
- Start date
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
A new an totally unexpected patch tick today as I left the hose to go to work - a Yellow-fronted Canary!
This is a common cagebird in HK and it is reported flying free every year.
It was in pretty good nick and flashed a bright yellow rump at me before perching on a bean pole to display its yellow front.
It is much more interesting for allowing me to mention my other escapes on the patch - A Red Lory and best of all Streaked Spiderhunter, which perched on a banana tree and shouted at the valley!
Three days ago there was also a Green Sandpiper on a newly-flooded pond near the bus stop - first migrant in the valley! I 'll keep checking this pond - Wood Sand would be a patch tick worth grabbing.
Cheers
Mike
This is a common cagebird in HK and it is reported flying free every year.
It was in pretty good nick and flashed a bright yellow rump at me before perching on a bean pole to display its yellow front.
It is much more interesting for allowing me to mention my other escapes on the patch - A Red Lory and best of all Streaked Spiderhunter, which perched on a banana tree and shouted at the valley!
Three days ago there was also a Green Sandpiper on a newly-flooded pond near the bus stop - first migrant in the valley! I 'll keep checking this pond - Wood Sand would be a patch tick worth grabbing.
Cheers
Mike
Thanks - indeed inspiring!
:-O yeah if I'm fit - maybe next year
but then again it may take that long to find the local ones too ... ah well, all in good time.PS - love seeing the Takin and the Keelback too
That snake looks impressive.
Last edited:
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
Hi Gretchen
Yes Hong Kong has lots of cagebirds - at least 250,000 per year are traded through the bird market plus a few hundred thousand more that are trans-shipped through HK.
Sadly Iwas working all weekend so no opportunity to go birding - although this weekend I will definitely go out, and Monday I am guiding for some overseas birders - whch I am very much looking forward to.
Kingfishers are always good to see . . .
Cheers
Mike
Yes Hong Kong has lots of cagebirds - at least 250,000 per year are traded through the bird market plus a few hundred thousand more that are trans-shipped through HK.
Sadly Iwas working all weekend so no opportunity to go birding - although this weekend I will definitely go out, and Monday I am guiding for some overseas birders - whch I am very much looking forward to.
Kingfishers are always good to see . . .
Cheers
Mike
rockfowl
Mark Andrews
Mike,
The big river you mention at Shanhaiguan' is now trashed, more of a polluted trickle which has been concreted over in some areas!
Gretchen,
You can see Crested Kingfisher around Beidaihe in the late Autumn/Winter, try the reservoir/fishponds area and the bay at Lighthouse Point. They often hang around the ornamental bit below Eagle Rock at the end of the sandflats, where the 'Windmill' stands.
The big river you mention at Shanhaiguan' is now trashed, more of a polluted trickle which has been concreted over in some areas!
Gretchen,
You can see Crested Kingfisher around Beidaihe in the late Autumn/Winter, try the reservoir/fishponds area and the bay at Lighthouse Point. They often hang around the ornamental bit below Eagle Rock at the end of the sandflats, where the 'Windmill' stands.
Yeah, always change... though some places are starting to look a bit better, the water components are usually the worst parts.
Cheers Mark! I would not have thought of looking over on the ocean side for them - of course they don't care if the fish live in salt or "fresh" I guess :-O Thanks for another idea.
Gretchen
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
With visiting birders coming into town on Monday today was my first return to the forest since May. Again it was pretty hot - the hottest August since 18-something apparently, but once I got into the forest it turned out to be pretty pleasant.
That's not to say the birding was spectacular - I didn't get a single migrant in the forest - but since it was my first visit in three months It was pretty good to get decent views of Black-throated and Greater Necklaced Laughingthrushes, plus the first two of five Hainan Blue Flycatchers within the first five minutes. They all seemed interested in my Chestnut-winged Cuckoo impression, while the ever-friendly Rufous-capped Babblers just came straight in to my pishing!
Other birds included Blue-winged Minlas and Silver-eared Mesias aplenty, a family party of Velvet-fronted Nuthatches (all plastics) , a Red-billed Leiothrix, a female Fork-tailed Sunbird, Chestnut Bulbul and calling Blue Whistling Thrush, Pygmy Wren Babbler and Lesser Shortwing, the last of which also responded to my pishing by giving a call I'd never heard before - a high-pitched rising whine - before hopping briefly into view in the undergrowth.
Also of interest were a small forest Rat that appeared briefly at the edge of the path, the local macaque flock causing their usual ruckus, but far enough away not to be troublesome, although a rock bouncing downhill through the forest would have been scary if it had been any closer.
While it was nice to enjoy a genuinely birdy session - especially as Ididn't ge into the forest until a very tardy 0945, the swim in the pool beneath the first waterfall was till the highlight - blissfully cool without being cold, despite the 20-odd photographers perched on the rocks around the edge waiting for me to get ut of the way of their Kodak moment.
I did add one more migrant, however - a Grey Wagtail was on the Green Sandpiper pool near the bus stop (the GS was till there with 3 Chinese Pond Herons and a Little Egret), where I'm still betting on getting Wood Sand for the patch list in the next week or two.
Back at home I also had my first Besra for a while, and a family party of Spotted Munias in the veggie patch.
Cheers
Mike
That's not to say the birding was spectacular - I didn't get a single migrant in the forest - but since it was my first visit in three months It was pretty good to get decent views of Black-throated and Greater Necklaced Laughingthrushes, plus the first two of five Hainan Blue Flycatchers within the first five minutes. They all seemed interested in my Chestnut-winged Cuckoo impression, while the ever-friendly Rufous-capped Babblers just came straight in to my pishing!
Other birds included Blue-winged Minlas and Silver-eared Mesias aplenty, a family party of Velvet-fronted Nuthatches (all plastics) , a Red-billed Leiothrix, a female Fork-tailed Sunbird, Chestnut Bulbul and calling Blue Whistling Thrush, Pygmy Wren Babbler and Lesser Shortwing, the last of which also responded to my pishing by giving a call I'd never heard before - a high-pitched rising whine - before hopping briefly into view in the undergrowth.
Also of interest were a small forest Rat that appeared briefly at the edge of the path, the local macaque flock causing their usual ruckus, but far enough away not to be troublesome, although a rock bouncing downhill through the forest would have been scary if it had been any closer.
While it was nice to enjoy a genuinely birdy session - especially as Ididn't ge into the forest until a very tardy 0945, the swim in the pool beneath the first waterfall was till the highlight - blissfully cool without being cold, despite the 20-odd photographers perched on the rocks around the edge waiting for me to get ut of the way of their Kodak moment.
I did add one more migrant, however - a Grey Wagtail was on the Green Sandpiper pool near the bus stop (the GS was till there with 3 Chinese Pond Herons and a Little Egret), where I'm still betting on getting Wood Sand for the patch list in the next week or two.
Back at home I also had my first Besra for a while, and a family party of Spotted Munias in the veggie patch.
Cheers
Mike
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
A rather quiet week on the patch, with the highlights being an Asian Barred Owlet perched on a pole in the middle of the veggie patch at 6am on Monday last week.
Yesterday afternoon I tried to go to Long Valley, but I abandoned that when confronted with a traffic jam and walked through the valley in the (vain) hope of a Blue-throated Bee-eater. Once again there was no sign of any migrants.
There was one moment of interest, however. I noticed a new house being built behind one of the rows of abandoned houses, and saw what I thought looked like a tail sticking out from the top of one of the upright scaffolding struts. Initially it looked like a piece of blue masking tape, but when I looked again I saw a red tip on the lowest corner, and then a little black band above the red tip, and I realized it was a bird.
But what bird?
Cheers
Mike
Yesterday afternoon I tried to go to Long Valley, but I abandoned that when confronted with a traffic jam and walked through the valley in the (vain) hope of a Blue-throated Bee-eater. Once again there was no sign of any migrants.
There was one moment of interest, however. I noticed a new house being built behind one of the rows of abandoned houses, and saw what I thought looked like a tail sticking out from the top of one of the upright scaffolding struts. Initially it looked like a piece of blue masking tape, but when I looked again I saw a red tip on the lowest corner, and then a little black band above the red tip, and I realized it was a bird.
But what bird?
Cheers
Mike
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MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
If the bird is in the photo its too small to see. There is enough in the description to identify the bird. It's one I've mentioned a few times on this thread.
The patch of grass survives because not much land is actively farmed - the villagers want to build more houses like the one in the picture, and until they get permission . . . then the marsh remains.
Cheers
Mike
The patch of grass survives because not much land is actively farmed - the villagers want to build more houses like the one in the picture, and until they get permission . . . then the marsh remains.
Cheers
Mike
Nice!
Hmm... so the red tip was the tail, or the bill? I'm sure I'm lost if it was the tail.
Well, I haveBlack-capped Kingfishers on my mind these days... but the other bird that I thought of quickly was the Red-billed Blue Magpie. At first I couldn't remember if you had those, but looking back, I see you have reported one. I guess that it might have the longer tail looking like something blowing around?
china guy
A taff living in Sichuan
Im also mystified - just like Gretchen first thought of Red-billed Blue Mag - another red -billed bird is Red-billed Leothrix - but I'm sure it ain't that. So I'm going for an escapee that maybe around in the HK area - and could find scaffolding a handy habitat - Java Sparrow.
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