Some Birds Here and There

There's been some good birds dotted around Hong Kong but I haven't had the time to visit all of them, this is winter birding for you, always action somewhere! But first, you need to have the time to do so. Here is a post of some of the few birds I have seen around the places lately in my limited time for birding. First up are those that have been near me, including a pair of Mugimaki's Flycatchers, my favourite local wintering species! The male was a bit shy but the female provided some good views last week.

Olive-backed Pipits are back, and they can be seen walking along the forest floor at the jogging trail near home, they will fly up to the nearest tree when disturbed. The Red-flanked Bluetails are also back, quite a few of them around, all females though. A pair of Asian Stubtails had also taken up resident down in the gully, along with numerous wintering Thrushes that were all too quick for photographs! We've also seen an increased in Chinese Bulbul numbers, you often see flocks of them travelling together during winter, likely migrant flocks from further north. No Tristram's Buntings to note as yet...

At Long Valley, numbers of common birds were quite good, they all seems to be less shy during winter as well, allowing some quite good photographs taken. Especially the Common Snipe shown below, I got to around 4 meters without setting the "alarm" off! A small flock of very confiding Cattle Egrets had also taken up resident at Long Valley.

I didn't encounter anything spectacular on my visit, but a Ruddy-breasted Crake was a very welcoming sight. It was a bit shy though, not quite as friendly as the one two years ago. Little Buntings were in very good numbers and seems to have taken over as the only obliging Bunting on show at Long Valley. There were a few Black-faced Buntings as well.

Finally, I only managed a single Citrine Wagtail that day, although a rather handsome one by wintering standards. Strangely I haven't seen any at the patch of watercress field which I usually find one or two, instead they have been flying all around the places, dropping in occasionally. This was probably the reason why John missed this species when we were out birding last week, interestingly enough the second time the Citrine Wagtail had eluded him! Maybe on his next visit then...