By mid May spring migration is tapering off, where you are mainly left with some late spring migrants like Brown Shrikes and Grey-streaked Flycatchers. Out at sea, there seems to be still a lot happening, as we had quite a good haul of birds on the pelagic bird workshop by HKBWS. Red-necked Phalaropes never disappoints when they show up in good numbers, these interesting sea dwelling waders are stunning in their breeding plumage, it is hard to imagine in a couple of weeks time it will be breeding up within the arctic circle.
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| Red-necked Phalarope |
Migrating terns are of course a major part of our pelagic birds, although these are often considered less exciting, I enjoy seeing those truly pelagic species such as Great Crested Terns, we had one sitting on a piece of styrofoam, seemingly taking a break from the long flight.
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| Great Crested Tern |
Bridled Terns are returning to the breeding colony, and we saw quite a few of them out at sea. Common Terns are regular migrants, and we saw plenty of them around, although none came close to our boat for photos. A pair of migrating Little Terns gave good views as they rested on a buoy, they allowed close views and photos for everyone.
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| Bridled Tern |
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| Common Tern |
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| Little Tern |
May is probably the best time to look for Short-tailed Shearwaters in Hong Kong, we were not disappointed, as we connected with four individuals, three of them glided past quite far away from our boat, one came closer and gave great views for everyone, certainly a highlight of the day!
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| Short-tailed Shearwater |
Although the bird of the day was no doubt an adult Long-tailed Skua that Kenneth spotted first, it flew straight towards us when everyone was taking photos of the Little Terns! Good thing he was looking up, otherwise we might have missed this bird! I have not seen a Long-tailed Skua for quite some time, so it was nice to connect with an adult.
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| Long-tailed Skua |
Pelagic trips are not completed without visiting our local White-bellied Sea Eagles, the pair showed well and allowed quite close views. It's good to see these majestic raptors doing well in Hong Kong.
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| White-bellied Sea Eagle |
Marsh terns such as Whiskered Terns and White-winged Terns are very regular passage migrant in Hong Kong, and there seems to be an influx of them lately, with many Whiskered Terns and even more White-winged Terns all around Hong Kong! We usually get more Whiskered Terns than we do White-winged Terns, so its nice to have things the other way round for once! There were well over 200 White-winged Terns just on a single pond at Tai Sang Wai, I estimated around 600-700 individuals all around Deep Bay on one single day!
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| Whiskered Tern |
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| White-winged Tern |
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| White-winged Tern - biggest flock I have seen! |
It was also nice to have a few Sand Martins feeding around the fish ponds, they were flying low over the pond hawking for insects, allowing quite close views and relatively good photo opportunity.
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| Sand Martin |
The long staying ex-captive Daurian Jackdaw is still around, and seems to be moulting into adult plumage slowly, I am waiting for it to fully moult into an adult, hopefully it will still be around then.
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| Daurian Jackdaw - long staying escapee |
There are still plenty of waders at Mai Po, there were still six Nordmann's Greenshanks around, plus other goodies like Asian Dowitchers, Chinese Egret and other regular waders. No Spoon-billed Sandpiper yet though, I do wonder if this will be another year without any reported...If so this may well become the norm.
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| Nordmann's Greenshank - amongst Asian Dowitchers, Common Greenshanks and Black-tailed Godwits. |
Hainan Blue Flycatcher is a regular summer visitor to Hong Kong, unlike many species they actually come here to breed. I finally connected with a few photogenic ones near Tai Mo Shan lately, a male showed brilliantly and allowed quite close views.
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| Hainan Blue Flycatcher - male |
I went up to Tai Mo Shan with Chester Yip on the 11th, having heard that he have yet to see a Chinese Grassbird, I thought we should change that! Initially it was quite misty, we heard several Chinese Francolins up there, and saw two successfully, although as always there were very difficult to approach.
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| Chinese Francolin |
It didn't take us too long to connect with a Chinese Grassbird, one showed really well and gave great views in the mist. We later connected with it again, this time further up the slope and just as the mist lifted!
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| Chinese Grassbird |
Near home, we found a trio of recently fledged Collared Scops Owl, these adorable fur balls seems to be in good hands, as soon after we found them, we heard a contact call made by one of their parents, and soon after they were gone. At Tai Mei Tuk Catchwater, a few Fujian Large-headed Frogs were seen, I've never seen them at this site, so it was quite a nice surprise for me. We saw a White-spotted Slug Snake down in the catchwater, we picked it up and relocated back on the forest floor, hopefully it won't get trapped agian.
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| Collared Scops Owl - three recently fledged individuals |
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| Fujian Large-headed Frog |
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| White-spotted Slug Snake |
Not had too much luck with many snakes, a Mock Viper was about the best one I could manage lately. This one was taken in-situ, while they are fairly common I always like seeing Mock Vipers, as they have such a grumpy look with so much character.
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| Mock Viper |
