MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
Pre-dawn rain and a fresh northeasterly had scrubbed the air clean so that dawn broke yesterday with perfect visibility under overcast skies - and a silent promise of migrants. Even before I was out of bed a Daurian Redstart was plinking away on the veggie patch and a Grey-headed Flycatcher enlivened breakfast with it's distinctive "Sil-ly Bil-lee, Sil-ly Bil-lee" call.
As I arrived at Kau Liu Ha the impression was confirmed as a couple of thin "seep" calls presaged the arrival of a couple of thrushes, which zipped overhead and disappeared into the woodland above the drainage channel. The lack of colour suggested they were Japanese, which are now moving through, but I really didn't get enough to nail them.
This morning I had a target in the drainage channel - during the week I'd sent pix of a White Wagtail that had been present for a few weeks to a friend who sits on the records committee. He thought it looked good for baicalensis (138), which is poorly known outside its breeding plumage. An initial scan initially produced no wagtails, but my attention was caught by a Dusky Warbler flipping across the channel. As it landed it nudged another bird that itself flipped back to some weeds on the other side, showing an inverted dark T on a red tail.
For a split second I thought I had a female Blue-fronted Redstart (a potential first for HK), but it perched and turned, displaying a deep necklace of red and blue bands on the chest, and revealing itself instead as a Bluethroat (139). This was more than reward enough as I have been searching for years for one of these on the patch, and I enjoyed good views for a minute or so before it flipped up out of the channel and into the weedy patch by the yellow containers.
With impeccable timing three White Wagtails puttered out from behind various bits of weed, and one of them was my putative Baikal Wagtail, which if accepted would be the first for the patch and on of less then ten records in Hong Kong. As currently understood the key features are a white face and forecrown, a larger black chest patch than leucopsis, an all-grey back and mantle, broad white edges to the wing coverts, bright white underparts and a longer tail. I also noticed a light peppering of black on the ear coverts which have never seen on leucopsis. Any comments on these features and the pix below would be most welcome.
The weedy patch held four Black-faced Buntings and a couple of Dusky Warblers, and an early-rising photographer showed me some fine pix of a Radde's Warbler. I thought I'd heard one call from the drainage channel, but I won't be claiming it on the basis of his pic and one squelchy "tack".
Overhead action included a drop-in Black-winged Cuckooshrike, five Grey-chinned Minivets, a Crested Serpent Eagle on its familiar early morning spot on a telegraph pole, and seven more rather high and distant turdus thrushes - one of which revealed the pearl-grey back of a male Grey-backed Thrush as it dropped below the ridgeline and into cover. Better still was flock of 35 Chinese Blackbirds and a second Grey-headed Flycatcher calling from the depths of the woods.
There were still three Black-browed Reed Warblers at the top end of the grass-filled drainage channel and a couple of Little Buntings showed well on a nearby field. As the morning warmed up I knocked my second Japanese Quail of the autumn, three or four Richard's Pipits and Zitting Cisticolas out of the grassland, dug another Daurian Redstart and an Asian Brown Flycatcher out of the tree nursery and confirmed that the ocularis White Wagtail was still on the fields below Dylan's place.
A look out the window as I got home confirmed the female Grey Bushchat first seen on 18th October has now been on the veggie patch for a bit more than a month.
Cheers
Mike
As I arrived at Kau Liu Ha the impression was confirmed as a couple of thin "seep" calls presaged the arrival of a couple of thrushes, which zipped overhead and disappeared into the woodland above the drainage channel. The lack of colour suggested they were Japanese, which are now moving through, but I really didn't get enough to nail them.
This morning I had a target in the drainage channel - during the week I'd sent pix of a White Wagtail that had been present for a few weeks to a friend who sits on the records committee. He thought it looked good for baicalensis (138), which is poorly known outside its breeding plumage. An initial scan initially produced no wagtails, but my attention was caught by a Dusky Warbler flipping across the channel. As it landed it nudged another bird that itself flipped back to some weeds on the other side, showing an inverted dark T on a red tail.
For a split second I thought I had a female Blue-fronted Redstart (a potential first for HK), but it perched and turned, displaying a deep necklace of red and blue bands on the chest, and revealing itself instead as a Bluethroat (139). This was more than reward enough as I have been searching for years for one of these on the patch, and I enjoyed good views for a minute or so before it flipped up out of the channel and into the weedy patch by the yellow containers.
With impeccable timing three White Wagtails puttered out from behind various bits of weed, and one of them was my putative Baikal Wagtail, which if accepted would be the first for the patch and on of less then ten records in Hong Kong. As currently understood the key features are a white face and forecrown, a larger black chest patch than leucopsis, an all-grey back and mantle, broad white edges to the wing coverts, bright white underparts and a longer tail. I also noticed a light peppering of black on the ear coverts which have never seen on leucopsis. Any comments on these features and the pix below would be most welcome.
The weedy patch held four Black-faced Buntings and a couple of Dusky Warblers, and an early-rising photographer showed me some fine pix of a Radde's Warbler. I thought I'd heard one call from the drainage channel, but I won't be claiming it on the basis of his pic and one squelchy "tack".
Overhead action included a drop-in Black-winged Cuckooshrike, five Grey-chinned Minivets, a Crested Serpent Eagle on its familiar early morning spot on a telegraph pole, and seven more rather high and distant turdus thrushes - one of which revealed the pearl-grey back of a male Grey-backed Thrush as it dropped below the ridgeline and into cover. Better still was flock of 35 Chinese Blackbirds and a second Grey-headed Flycatcher calling from the depths of the woods.
There were still three Black-browed Reed Warblers at the top end of the grass-filled drainage channel and a couple of Little Buntings showed well on a nearby field. As the morning warmed up I knocked my second Japanese Quail of the autumn, three or four Richard's Pipits and Zitting Cisticolas out of the grassland, dug another Daurian Redstart and an Asian Brown Flycatcher out of the tree nursery and confirmed that the ocularis White Wagtail was still on the fields below Dylan's place.
A look out the window as I got home confirmed the female Grey Bushchat first seen on 18th October has now been on the veggie patch for a bit more than a month.
Cheers
Mike
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