-
Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.
Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Hong Kong birding (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter MKinHK
- Start date
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
With spring migration in full swing I headed to Po Toi on Sunday following news of an extraordinary fall of 13 Ferruginous Flycatchers plus a few other migrants the day before. Despite the fact that the weather had changed from cold and cloudy the day before to bright sunshine as the boat left Aberdeen there were still plenty of migrants about. Even the ferry ride offered a group of waders - a Common Redshank and I think Pacific Golden Plovers heading northeast - and 9 Heuglin's Gulls and an unidentified tern sp. on the return trip.
As the ferry docked two Pacific Reef Egrets watched from the rocks, a Rufous-Tailed Robin stage from cover, an Ashy Minivet flipped over, giving its characteristic trill and within 50 metres I'd flushed a Swintail Snipe - not a bad start! A female Hainan Blue Flycatcher and a couple of unseen thrushes kept my interest high, but the rare were few other birds on the path up to the reservoir and as I headed towards the southern side of the village the fist of at least seven Ferruginous Flycatchers showed within 20 metres of where the Swintail Snipe had been.
The area around the helipad provided a wonderful cameo - delivering four more Ferruginous Flycatchers - a simply stunning male Blue-and-white Flycatcher a friendly trio of Ashy Minivets, including one that had lost its tail and very brief views of female Japanese and Eye-browed Thrushes that were foreign in the leaf litter above the stream.
Cheers
Mike
As the ferry docked two Pacific Reef Egrets watched from the rocks, a Rufous-Tailed Robin stage from cover, an Ashy Minivet flipped over, giving its characteristic trill and within 50 metres I'd flushed a Swintail Snipe - not a bad start! A female Hainan Blue Flycatcher and a couple of unseen thrushes kept my interest high, but the rare were few other birds on the path up to the reservoir and as I headed towards the southern side of the village the fist of at least seven Ferruginous Flycatchers showed within 20 metres of where the Swintail Snipe had been.
The area around the helipad provided a wonderful cameo - delivering four more Ferruginous Flycatchers - a simply stunning male Blue-and-white Flycatcher a friendly trio of Ashy Minivets, including one that had lost its tail and very brief views of female Japanese and Eye-browed Thrushes that were foreign in the leaf litter above the stream.
Half an hour before the ferry was due to leave I was delighted to peer over a photographer's shoulder just as the cracking male Brambling he'd been watching poked its head from behind a tree and fed within five metres of us for twenty or so minutes. Bramblings are a scarce winterer and passage migrant, and the spring males are just magical!
Cheers
Mike
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
Last Saturday I joined my 27th Hong Kong Big Bird Race with my team the Jebsen Eagles - Captain Richard Lewthwaite, Ruy and Karen Barretto , and our excellent driver-caterer Mo-yung Yuk Lin. I won't name every bird but will instead outline the key birds, dips and other significant moments of the day. This was the first ever 13 hour race - with the start brought forward to 5:00AM to allow 30-odd minutes of darkness to give the teams the chance to record calling night birds. My day started at 3:00AM as I had to travel 45 minutes from Discovery Bay to be in position for the start of the race in the northeast corner of the New Territories.
Despite finding Brown Fish Owl, Malayan Night Heron, Hodgson's Hawk Cuckoo and Slaty-legged Crake at Ho Pui Reservoir during a recce on Tuesday evening we started, having charged up with the egg and bacon traditional breakfast muffin, as usual at nightbird hotspot Wu Kau Tang. This turned out to be a good decision as we later learned from Ho Pui patcher John Clough that the first two - top birds to get on any bird race - never call in the morning, and we comfortably secured the latter two, along with Collared Scops Owl, Barred Owlet, a distantly "wuk-wuk-wuk"-ing Grey Nightjars and Large Hawk Cuckoos from our kick-off point within a few minutes.
As dawn broke we covered a few spots around Wu Kau Tang Village, Bride's Pool and the northern edge of Plover Cove Reservoir, where more Black-throated Laughingthrushes than I've ever heard in my life serenaded us wonderfully, Emerald Dove crooned, Blue Whistling Thrushes and Hainan Blue Flycatchers sang, and Ruy pulled off an absolute blinder in picking out a singing Orange-headed Thrush from the dawn chorus. This win was down to Ruy hearing four at Kap Lung - a site we did not visit - on a recce the day before. The staked-out Grey Treepies eventually gargled distantly and we also picked up Red-billed Blue Magpie and an uncountable Indochinese Green Magpie. Rufous-necked Scimitar Babbler in some streamside bamboos was our first seen bird. Despite dipping the nailed-on White-bellied Sea Eagles that nest in the bay opposite Richard's home this felt like a better-than-solid start.
Our next port of call was Tai Po Kau. We have a secret entrance that saves us a punishing walk uphill to enter the reserve, and allows us to cover parts we wouldn't otherwise reach. We were pleased to add Great and Chinese Barbets, Black and Mountain Bulbuls, along with a host of commoner woodland species that included Lesser Shortwing, Plain and Buff-bellied Flowerpeckers, Velvet-fronted Nuthatch, Silver-eared Mesia, Blue-winged Minla, Rufous-capped Babbler, Common and Mountain Tailorbirds, Brown-flanked Bush Warbler, Chestnut Bulbul and Scarlet Minivet. With the race rather late this year the wintering passerines were all gone and indeed we dipped both Olive-backed Pipit and Yellow-browed Warbler for the first time ever. As we were coming out a couple of non-racing birders showed us a Crested Serpent Eagle almost directly above our heads while we were watching first a Crested Goshawk and then a couple of Besras displaying above the ridgeline. While waiting in the car park for Mo-Yung to arrive Richard nailed a Grey-streaked Flycatcher at the top of a distant tree.
Recharging with Mo Yung's epic fruit salad and soft roll sandwiches we headed next for Mai Po, hoping to get there relatively early and steal a march on the other teams. No such luck! We added a few species on the way through the reserve to the Boardwalk including a pair of Yellow Bitterns that had the grace to linger long enough at the edge of the reedbed they'd just dived into for everyone to see them. With the best hide full already we went for the southernmost hide, which was more distant but with good light we were still able to see plenty of birds. These included always distant Black-headed, Saunders', Heuglin's and Black-tailed Gulls, Caspian, Little, Gull-billed and Whiskered Terns, some very distant Shovelers and Black-faced Spoonbills, and foraging amongst the Little Egrets my first Chinese Egret - handsome in its yellow-billed and blue faced breeding plumage - for many years. The best waders out here included single Bar-tailed Godwit and Nordmann's Greenshank.
As the tide rose more and more birds lifted off to sit out the high tide on the Scrape, which for the first time in a long time was absolutely magnificent! The water levels were the perfect height to concentrate the birds on the islands, and with so many in pristine breeding plumage it was an absolute joy to scan through them and pick out all-black Spotted Redshanks, a demure Grey-tailed Tattler, a couple of pure cinnamon Eastern Curlews from their much more numerous white-rumped Eurasian Curlew cousins. Also wading in the shallows were a couple of hundred Black-tailed Godwits and a few Asiatic Dowitchers, Whimbrels, Common Redshanks, Marsh Sandpipers, Common Greenshanks, Avocets and Black-winged Stilts, while the dry ground was carpeted with the shorter-legged Great and Red Knots, Sharp-tailed, Terek, Broad-billed and Curlew Sandpipers, Greater and Lesser Sandplovers, Kentish and Pacific Golden Plovers, just three Grey Plovers and a swarm of Red-necked Stints.
Other good birds at Mai Po included solitary Purple Heron and Intermediate Egret, three different Striated Herons an unusual female Pied Harrier with three broad, even streaks on the flanks, a high-speed flyby from a tiny male Japanese Sparrowhawk, a Grey Wagtail that zipped over the casuarinas, a singing Indian Cuckoo, two Sooty-heaaded Bulbuls (our sixth bulbul of the day!) and nest building Azure-winged Magpies by the old police post at Tam Kon Chau. This sounds all very smooth but in fact the day had got hot. Marching round Mai Po's concrete paths is hard work, and more than one member of the team conquered cramps of various body parts and degrees of malignity to stagger out more dead than alive for a re-stock with more soft rolls, fruit salad, coconut water and M&S shortbread biccies that disappeared in seconds flat!
The remaining three hours of our day consisted of short stops at San Tin and Long Valley for a few more wetland species - with Common Sandpiper, Common Snipe, and Long-toed Stint at San Tin, (plus Common Myna, Red Turtle Dove, Scaly-breasted Munia and Richard's Pipit), and Swintail Snipe, Greater Painted-snipe and Green Sandpiper at Long Valley (plus Little Bunting, Stejneger's Stonechat, a staked out Brown Shrike and a very surprising Amur Falcon) - and wrapping up the day in the lower Lam Tsuen Valley, which was beautiful but unproductive, before counting down the last hour at Shek Kong Catchment, where we finally persuaded our ever cautious captain that the Plaintive Cuckoo in the valley below was not another impression from the seemingly endless repertoire of the Black-throated Laughingthrushes. A Crested Goshawk that allowed amazing close views turned out to be our bird of the day. Given the lateness of the race this year missing Olive-backed Pipit and Yellow-browed Warbler was certainly surprising but there really is no excuse for not connecting with White-throated Kingfisher, which could have shown at just about every site!
We finished with a decent total of 146 species, putting us in second place behind last years' winners the All Stars, whose infusion of fresh blood (Roman and Akki) with the excellent patch knowledge of John Clough and the combined 50-plus years' experience of Tim Woodward and Chris Campion proved an unbeatable combination. They amassed 149 species, so we were well beaten, although we did pick up the all-important "most funds raised" as well as the "most wetland species seen" awards, which justified the time we put into Mai Po Long Valley and San Tin.
With this being the last Hong Kong Bird Race for which I will be resident in Hong Kong it's tempting to take a walk down memory lane and bring together some thoughts on how the race and birding has changed here, but I'll leave that for another post and close instead with thanks to Ruy, Karen, Richard and Mo-yung for yet another enjoyable race.
Should you wish to sponsor our team - the funding goes towards habitat management for waterbirds at Mai Po - you can still do so by clicking on the link here. Many thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
https://apps.wwf.org.hk/bbrfundraising/page/profile/28
Cheers
Mike
Despite finding Brown Fish Owl, Malayan Night Heron, Hodgson's Hawk Cuckoo and Slaty-legged Crake at Ho Pui Reservoir during a recce on Tuesday evening we started, having charged up with the egg and bacon traditional breakfast muffin, as usual at nightbird hotspot Wu Kau Tang. This turned out to be a good decision as we later learned from Ho Pui patcher John Clough that the first two - top birds to get on any bird race - never call in the morning, and we comfortably secured the latter two, along with Collared Scops Owl, Barred Owlet, a distantly "wuk-wuk-wuk"-ing Grey Nightjars and Large Hawk Cuckoos from our kick-off point within a few minutes.
As dawn broke we covered a few spots around Wu Kau Tang Village, Bride's Pool and the northern edge of Plover Cove Reservoir, where more Black-throated Laughingthrushes than I've ever heard in my life serenaded us wonderfully, Emerald Dove crooned, Blue Whistling Thrushes and Hainan Blue Flycatchers sang, and Ruy pulled off an absolute blinder in picking out a singing Orange-headed Thrush from the dawn chorus. This win was down to Ruy hearing four at Kap Lung - a site we did not visit - on a recce the day before. The staked-out Grey Treepies eventually gargled distantly and we also picked up Red-billed Blue Magpie and an uncountable Indochinese Green Magpie. Rufous-necked Scimitar Babbler in some streamside bamboos was our first seen bird. Despite dipping the nailed-on White-bellied Sea Eagles that nest in the bay opposite Richard's home this felt like a better-than-solid start.
Our next port of call was Tai Po Kau. We have a secret entrance that saves us a punishing walk uphill to enter the reserve, and allows us to cover parts we wouldn't otherwise reach. We were pleased to add Great and Chinese Barbets, Black and Mountain Bulbuls, along with a host of commoner woodland species that included Lesser Shortwing, Plain and Buff-bellied Flowerpeckers, Velvet-fronted Nuthatch, Silver-eared Mesia, Blue-winged Minla, Rufous-capped Babbler, Common and Mountain Tailorbirds, Brown-flanked Bush Warbler, Chestnut Bulbul and Scarlet Minivet. With the race rather late this year the wintering passerines were all gone and indeed we dipped both Olive-backed Pipit and Yellow-browed Warbler for the first time ever. As we were coming out a couple of non-racing birders showed us a Crested Serpent Eagle almost directly above our heads while we were watching first a Crested Goshawk and then a couple of Besras displaying above the ridgeline. While waiting in the car park for Mo-Yung to arrive Richard nailed a Grey-streaked Flycatcher at the top of a distant tree.
Recharging with Mo Yung's epic fruit salad and soft roll sandwiches we headed next for Mai Po, hoping to get there relatively early and steal a march on the other teams. No such luck! We added a few species on the way through the reserve to the Boardwalk including a pair of Yellow Bitterns that had the grace to linger long enough at the edge of the reedbed they'd just dived into for everyone to see them. With the best hide full already we went for the southernmost hide, which was more distant but with good light we were still able to see plenty of birds. These included always distant Black-headed, Saunders', Heuglin's and Black-tailed Gulls, Caspian, Little, Gull-billed and Whiskered Terns, some very distant Shovelers and Black-faced Spoonbills, and foraging amongst the Little Egrets my first Chinese Egret - handsome in its yellow-billed and blue faced breeding plumage - for many years. The best waders out here included single Bar-tailed Godwit and Nordmann's Greenshank.
As the tide rose more and more birds lifted off to sit out the high tide on the Scrape, which for the first time in a long time was absolutely magnificent! The water levels were the perfect height to concentrate the birds on the islands, and with so many in pristine breeding plumage it was an absolute joy to scan through them and pick out all-black Spotted Redshanks, a demure Grey-tailed Tattler, a couple of pure cinnamon Eastern Curlews from their much more numerous white-rumped Eurasian Curlew cousins. Also wading in the shallows were a couple of hundred Black-tailed Godwits and a few Asiatic Dowitchers, Whimbrels, Common Redshanks, Marsh Sandpipers, Common Greenshanks, Avocets and Black-winged Stilts, while the dry ground was carpeted with the shorter-legged Great and Red Knots, Sharp-tailed, Terek, Broad-billed and Curlew Sandpipers, Greater and Lesser Sandplovers, Kentish and Pacific Golden Plovers, just three Grey Plovers and a swarm of Red-necked Stints.
Other good birds at Mai Po included solitary Purple Heron and Intermediate Egret, three different Striated Herons an unusual female Pied Harrier with three broad, even streaks on the flanks, a high-speed flyby from a tiny male Japanese Sparrowhawk, a Grey Wagtail that zipped over the casuarinas, a singing Indian Cuckoo, two Sooty-heaaded Bulbuls (our sixth bulbul of the day!) and nest building Azure-winged Magpies by the old police post at Tam Kon Chau. This sounds all very smooth but in fact the day had got hot. Marching round Mai Po's concrete paths is hard work, and more than one member of the team conquered cramps of various body parts and degrees of malignity to stagger out more dead than alive for a re-stock with more soft rolls, fruit salad, coconut water and M&S shortbread biccies that disappeared in seconds flat!
The remaining three hours of our day consisted of short stops at San Tin and Long Valley for a few more wetland species - with Common Sandpiper, Common Snipe, and Long-toed Stint at San Tin, (plus Common Myna, Red Turtle Dove, Scaly-breasted Munia and Richard's Pipit), and Swintail Snipe, Greater Painted-snipe and Green Sandpiper at Long Valley (plus Little Bunting, Stejneger's Stonechat, a staked out Brown Shrike and a very surprising Amur Falcon) - and wrapping up the day in the lower Lam Tsuen Valley, which was beautiful but unproductive, before counting down the last hour at Shek Kong Catchment, where we finally persuaded our ever cautious captain that the Plaintive Cuckoo in the valley below was not another impression from the seemingly endless repertoire of the Black-throated Laughingthrushes. A Crested Goshawk that allowed amazing close views turned out to be our bird of the day. Given the lateness of the race this year missing Olive-backed Pipit and Yellow-browed Warbler was certainly surprising but there really is no excuse for not connecting with White-throated Kingfisher, which could have shown at just about every site!
We finished with a decent total of 146 species, putting us in second place behind last years' winners the All Stars, whose infusion of fresh blood (Roman and Akki) with the excellent patch knowledge of John Clough and the combined 50-plus years' experience of Tim Woodward and Chris Campion proved an unbeatable combination. They amassed 149 species, so we were well beaten, although we did pick up the all-important "most funds raised" as well as the "most wetland species seen" awards, which justified the time we put into Mai Po Long Valley and San Tin.
With this being the last Hong Kong Bird Race for which I will be resident in Hong Kong it's tempting to take a walk down memory lane and bring together some thoughts on how the race and birding has changed here, but I'll leave that for another post and close instead with thanks to Ruy, Karen, Richard and Mo-yung for yet another enjoyable race.
Should you wish to sponsor our team - the funding goes towards habitat management for waterbirds at Mai Po - you can still do so by clicking on the link here. Many thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
https://apps.wwf.org.hk/bbrfundraising/page/profile/28
Cheers
Mike
Last edited:
Some very nice photographs in here, what camera/lens are you using these days?
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
Thanks Jos.
Up until November last year (the Lapland Bunting) I was using the Sony RX10iii I'd had for five years. After dropping that (and myself) in a pond I finally upgraded to the Sony RX10iv. While I continually fantasise about moving into mirrorless the combination of the relatively light weight (1 kilo) with the excellent 24-600mm Zeiss zoom, the amazing autofocus and relative affordability are so far compensating for the larger sensor of the detachable lens cameras and I'm getting result beyond my expectations.
Cheers,
Mike
Up until November last year (the Lapland Bunting) I was using the Sony RX10iii I'd had for five years. After dropping that (and myself) in a pond I finally upgraded to the Sony RX10iv. While I continually fantasise about moving into mirrorless the combination of the relatively light weight (1 kilo) with the excellent 24-600mm Zeiss zoom, the amazing autofocus and relative affordability are so far compensating for the larger sensor of the detachable lens cameras and I'm getting result beyond my expectations.
Cheers,
Mike
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
I've made a couple more trips to Po Too either side of the Bird Race weekend. The week after the Ferruginous Flycatcher influx I went back on and in a rather quiet day connected with just my third ever Brown-breasted Flycatcher in Hong Kong. This washed-out version of a Ferruginous Flycatcher breeds in Hong Kong in very small numbers - (maybe one or two pairs in Tai Po Kau and Kap Lung) and is an enjoyably subtle bird. My pix are not great as it mostly lurked deep in cover, but they do allow a nice comparison with the Ferruginous Flycatchers that performed so nicely the week before (see two posts above).
On the ferry over I was pleased to see a couple of Far Eastern Curlews migrating low over the sea and an elegant Common Tern drifted easily by. As I watched them a couple of Greater Crested Terns flew past the the stern of the boat; one plunge-diving to catch a fish hinting at the increased food availability in HK waters after the trawler ban kicked in a few years ago. On what was probably my most productive ever ferry trip I also picked up a dozen Grey-faced Buzzards heading north. these were presumably birds that had touched down on the Dangan Islands overnight and were taking the most direct route to make landfall. Two Red-necked Phalaropes zipped by just before we entered the harbour.
The island itself was otherwise pretty quiet. A couple of Chinese Goshawks hunted near the helicopter pad and I was disappointed not to connect with a Fairy Pitta found by Peter Wong, but the flock of 28 Whimbrel heading steadily East was a nice bonus from the ferry home.
Cheers
Mike
On the ferry over I was pleased to see a couple of Far Eastern Curlews migrating low over the sea and an elegant Common Tern drifted easily by. As I watched them a couple of Greater Crested Terns flew past the the stern of the boat; one plunge-diving to catch a fish hinting at the increased food availability in HK waters after the trawler ban kicked in a few years ago. On what was probably my most productive ever ferry trip I also picked up a dozen Grey-faced Buzzards heading north. these were presumably birds that had touched down on the Dangan Islands overnight and were taking the most direct route to make landfall. Two Red-necked Phalaropes zipped by just before we entered the harbour.
The island itself was otherwise pretty quiet. A couple of Chinese Goshawks hunted near the helicopter pad and I was disappointed not to connect with a Fairy Pitta found by Peter Wong, but the flock of 28 Whimbrel heading steadily East was a nice bonus from the ferry home.
Cheers
Mike
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
Easter Weekend delivered amazingly low temperatures (down to 16 centigrade) for May as the northeast monsoon delivered what is almost certainly its last cold front of the year. The rain on Easter Sunday provoked a big fall of Brown Shrikes as well as Chinese Goshawks and a host of other migrants so I headed over on Monday to see what was still left. The 10am ferry from Stanley delivered some 15 foraging Bridled Terns.These are presumably local breeders drifting down from Mirs Bay. The Black-naped Terns perched on a buoy in the harbour also breed locally. Arriving on the island there were brown shrikes everywhere, and Tim Woodward and I must have seen 50+ on the day. We also had a dozen Chinese Goshawks heading north over the top of the island and a couple more around the helipad, along with several Cattle Egrets, two Pacific Swifts amongst a half a dozen House Swifts and a couple of Arctic Warblers that 'dzzikk'-ed cheerfully from cover but never deigned to show themselves.
As we headed back towards the ferry pier an egret flying into the bay caught our attention - first by it's yellow bill and second by its yellow toes beneath black legs, which together can only belong to a Swinhoe's Egret! After failing to find a place to land on the beach or rocks, and giving me the stink-eye as it flew overhead (pic 2 of the set below) it settled on the fish pen with a couple of Little Egrets, a Reef Egret and a Black-crowned Night Heron about 50M offshore from the pier and were zipped round to get some pix of it decoratively floofing its breeding plumage in the wind. Without question my bird of the day, and one of the best migrants of the spring!
Tearing ourselves away and making our way past many more Brown Shrikes and a Grey-streaked Flycatcher we headed towards the southeastern peninsula in the hope of catching up with Hong Kong's top (and only) sea watcher Bart Baffries, who has dramatically transformed our perceptions of what is possible in Hong Kong in the last few months. We didn't see much except for a couple of waders too distant to identify and a couple of groups of Cattle Egrets coming in-off, but Bart (who we didn't see) - equipped with the monster Swarovski 105mm scope has shown there is a significant passage of Streaked Shearwaters, record numbers of Common Terns, almost daily Brown Boobies as well as adding top rarities Flesh-footed Shearwater (HK's first), several Swinhoe's Petrels, a Bulwer's Petrel, several Red-footed Boobies and yesterday HK's second Masked Booby plus a host of skuas, terns waders and Ancient Auks.
But the day really belonged to the Brown Shrikes - they were everywhere! Many of them were pretty tame and allowed some great photo opportunities. One bird in particular was fully aware of its gorgeousness and posed like an absolute champion on the path close to the restaurants.
We did add a couple more groups of egrets from the ferry back to Stanley. The largest flock held 30-odd Cattle Egrets and a solitary Intermediate Egret and a White-bellied Sea Eagle drifted overhead just as I was getting on the bus back to Central. The ferry from Central added more joy in the form of a dozen Whiskered Terns and two more Black-naped Terns on the rocks near Disney, and a couple of Great Egrets on buoys by the ferry pier allowed me to complete the set of all Hong Kong's egrets in a single day.
Cheers
Mike
As we headed back towards the ferry pier an egret flying into the bay caught our attention - first by it's yellow bill and second by its yellow toes beneath black legs, which together can only belong to a Swinhoe's Egret! After failing to find a place to land on the beach or rocks, and giving me the stink-eye as it flew overhead (pic 2 of the set below) it settled on the fish pen with a couple of Little Egrets, a Reef Egret and a Black-crowned Night Heron about 50M offshore from the pier and were zipped round to get some pix of it decoratively floofing its breeding plumage in the wind. Without question my bird of the day, and one of the best migrants of the spring!
Tearing ourselves away and making our way past many more Brown Shrikes and a Grey-streaked Flycatcher we headed towards the southeastern peninsula in the hope of catching up with Hong Kong's top (and only) sea watcher Bart Baffries, who has dramatically transformed our perceptions of what is possible in Hong Kong in the last few months. We didn't see much except for a couple of waders too distant to identify and a couple of groups of Cattle Egrets coming in-off, but Bart (who we didn't see) - equipped with the monster Swarovski 105mm scope has shown there is a significant passage of Streaked Shearwaters, record numbers of Common Terns, almost daily Brown Boobies as well as adding top rarities Flesh-footed Shearwater (HK's first), several Swinhoe's Petrels, a Bulwer's Petrel, several Red-footed Boobies and yesterday HK's second Masked Booby plus a host of skuas, terns waders and Ancient Auks.
But the day really belonged to the Brown Shrikes - they were everywhere! Many of them were pretty tame and allowed some great photo opportunities. One bird in particular was fully aware of its gorgeousness and posed like an absolute champion on the path close to the restaurants.
We did add a couple more groups of egrets from the ferry back to Stanley. The largest flock held 30-odd Cattle Egrets and a solitary Intermediate Egret and a White-bellied Sea Eagle drifted overhead just as I was getting on the bus back to Central. The ferry from Central added more joy in the form of a dozen Whiskered Terns and two more Black-naped Terns on the rocks near Disney, and a couple of Great Egrets on buoys by the ferry pier allowed me to complete the set of all Hong Kong's egrets in a single day.
Cheers
Mike
Great stuff Mike!
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
Hi Gretchen.
I moved to Sydney at the end of May and have correspondingly created a new thread for my birding there:
Exploring Sydney - and further afield.
I loved birding Hong Kong and it was a major reason I was sad to leave, but the leap of faith that has taken us to Sydney has started wonderfully. I very much enjoyed your posts from Kurdistan and would love to read more about your birding there.
Cheers
Mike
I moved to Sydney at the end of May and have correspondingly created a new thread for my birding there:
Exploring Sydney - and further afield.
I loved birding Hong Kong and it was a major reason I was sad to leave, but the leap of faith that has taken us to Sydney has started wonderfully. I very much enjoyed your posts from Kurdistan and would love to read more about your birding there.
Cheers
Mike
Bino Steve
Well-known member
I miss Hong Kong. Last visited in 1992. Is it unsafe to travel there now?
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
Not at all Steve. HK remains one of the safest cities on Earth, but also - astonishingly - still has a 7-day COVID quarantine requirement for all arrivals!
Cheers
Mike
Bino Steve
Well-known member
Thanks for the report Mike. I always wondered how it changed after Brtitish rule and especially now after recent clashes with China.
jogresh
Bimble and patch
jogresh
Bimble and patch
Ok ta. Would quite fancy staying there for a week or so of observatory birding. 👍
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
If you want to stay Jogresh, one or two people have rented a room in a village house over the years. It's pretty basic - no aircon, rain flowing across the floor, mosquitoes, rats, cockroaches etc all possible roommates, but it does mean you can bird it before the first ferry arrives around 845 or 945 depending on the day.
if you are still interested I'd be happy to connect you with someone who knows how it works from direct experience.
Cheers,
Mike
if you are still interested I'd be happy to connect you with someone who knows how it works from direct experience.
Cheers,
Mike
