Wildlife During Busy Times

Since Hoiling and I have been very busy with our exhibition at TKO Plaza, I've barely had anytime out birding or even just looking for animals for that matter. The only time we visited Lung Fu Shan was for work, the usual amphibians lineup were present, including very vocal Short-legged Horned Toads, lots of singing male Green Cascade Frogs, and a few Lesser Spiny Frogs.

Short-legged Horned Toad

Green Cascade Frog

Lesser Spiny Frog

If you ever visit Lung Fu Shan, it is almost impossible not to see Asian Common Toads as well as the invasive Greenhouse Frogs, both readily seen away from the streams.

Asian Common Toad

Greenhouse Frog

We had two encounter with what I believe to be the same Porcupine on the same night, it simply walked along the path in front of us, seemingly guiding us along the footpath, it will occasionally turn around as if to check if we are still following. A pair of Wild Boars made themselves very comfortable in the sandpit that is suppose to be a toilet for dogs.

East Asian Porcupine

Wild Boar

Closer to home, we explored a cave that we never been into. Turns out it is one of the larger bat colony in the area, we saw a couple of species inside and couple of hundreds of bats. One of the most numerous being Great Roundleaf Bats, they are the largest insectivore bats in Hong Kong.

Great Roundleaf Bat

The most numerous bat species in the cave though was the Leschenault's Rousette, this fruit bat species is the largest bat in Hong Kong, with wingspan over 40cm. They are one of our main seed disperser of various Ficus species. 

Leschenault's Rousette

Other smaller species of bats includes the Pomona or Anderson's Leaf-nosed Bat, depending on which taxonomy you follow. I find them to be the cutest of the Leaf-nosed Bats, with their disproportionately large ears.

Anderson's Leaf-nosed Bat

There were also some Rhinolophus species, after consulting others it seems we saw at least two species, these were Intermediate Horseshoe Bats and Least Horseshoe Bats. 

Intermediate Horseshoe Bat

Least Horseshoe Bat

Other wildlife of interest near home seen recently includes a lovely male Prosopocoilus biplagiatus and a female Xylotrupes socrates. Both impressive looking in their own rights.

Prosopocoilus biplagiatus

Xylotrupes socrates

As for birds, other birders are now starting to see some early autumn migrants coming through, such as Sanderlings, Red-necked Stints, Yellow-rumped Flycatchers and Amur Paradise Flycatchers etc. I haven't had the time to do any proper birding, but a short stroll along Ting Kok beach yielded a distant Greater Sand Plover which I did not bother photographing, a Whimbrel was a nice surprise, this is a first for me here, although I have seen Curlews here in the past. Our local Collared Crows were of course present and foraging a long the beach as usual.

Whimbrel

Collared Crow