Goldcrest & Other November Rarities

November have been a fairly good month, with good range of rarities that turned up. The best bird is probably the first real twitchable Goldcrest on Po Toi that stayed for at least a week now, this is only the 3rd record in Hong Kong, with one previously at Tai Po Kau and another also on Po Toi. I only stayed for about an hour there, and had great views of the bird. I am of course familiar with Goldcrests, having seen too many to count in the UK, but this is the first of the Asian race I have seen, although I am not entirely sure which race it is, most likely japonensis or yunnanensis, the generally greyish neck probably favours the former.

Goldcrest - 3rd Hong Kong record

Other birds on Po Toi includes a very unseasonal female Narcissus Flycatcher, we have been getting quite a lot of them this autumn, which is unusual as they are more often seen in spring. Also on the same tree were a few more Leaf Warblers, including this Arctic type warbler, this one looks quite yellowish, which tease the idea of a Japanese Leaf Warbler, although it never made any call, so I don't think there is any way to confirm its true identity.

Narcissus Flycatcher - female

'Arctic type' Warbler - very yellow on the throat and underparts, although no call...

Other birds noted on the island during my includes a female Ashy Minivet, and a few confiding Oriental Turtle Doves. Siberian Rubythroats and various wintering species were also heard or seen, overall not bad at all for Po Toi!

Ashy Minivet - female

Oriental Turtle Dove

Long Valley was reopened earlier this month, which attracted a lot of birders and photographers to visit this site 'legally' once again! It feels great to be able to walk inside and see all the birds there, the habitat fortunately still looks great and overall I feel positive about what they did there. One of the most notable rarity there was a Common Reed Bunting, which I just managed to catchup with before it disappeared. This is generally a very scarce species in Hong Kong, with a few wintering in Mai Po every year, although usually out of bounds for normal visitors. This one showed pretty well and occasionally came quite close.

Common Reed Bunting - a local 'rarity'

November is a great time for buntings all around, there were plenty at Long Valley. Yellow-breasted Bunting being the most numerous and easiest to see, this Critically Endangered species is luckily still a regular visitor here in Hong Kong. Little Buntings, Chestnut-eared Buntings and Black-faced Buntings are all regular visitors that you may encounter here. Two rarer Buntings that showed up recently were a small influx of Rustic Buntings for a few days and a Black-headed Bunting.

Yellow-breasted Bunting - female

Little Bunting

Chestnut-eared Bunting

Black-faced Bunting - male

Rustic Bunting - one of four that day!

Black-headed Bunting - juvenile

The large numbers of munias and buntings also attracts predators, here are two different individuals of Besras, if you are lucky you sometimes see them swooshing down to take a munia or two!

Besra - female

Besra - male

Another rarity that turned up at Long Valley is a Tundra Bean Goose! The interesting thing about this bird was that it was completely fearless and was not bothered by people at all, it would walk all the way up to people while feeding.

Tundra Bean Goose - long staying individual

Long Valley is also just generally a great place to visit to photograph some of our more common birds, birds here are often quite used to having people around and will often allow quite close approach, therefore making this a great area to take photos!

Black-winged Stilt

Common Snipe

Little Ringed Plover - female

Amur Stonechat - male

Mai Po's also been getting a few rarities of its own, the most interesting one probably a Glossy Ibis that turned up for a few days, only the 6th record for Hong Kong after a two years gap. Another good bird that turned up was an Oriental Stork, which I found while leading a tour, we saw it flew in from the north and dropped down onto the scrape.

Glossy Ibis

Oriental Stork

Other birds seen around Mai Po lately includes a pair of Eurasian Wrynecks, usually quite vocal but doesn't always show themselves. Black-faced Spoonbills are now returning in good numbers, and with them were a few Eurasian Spoonbills.

Eurasian Wryneck

Black-faced Spoonbill

Eurasian Spoonbill

Chinese Penduline Tits are in good numbers this winter it seems, and have been showing quite well around the reedbeds at Mai Po. On the scrape I have seen yet another Nordmann's Greenshank one day, but it was too far for any photos, Far Eastern Curlew performed much better. Several over wintering raptors have now returned, including Eastern Imperial Eagles and Greater Spotted Eagles, although none have been seen up close, an Eastern Buzzard was the closest raptor I got lately.

Chinese Penduline Tit - female

Far Eastern Curlew - right

Eastern Buzzard

Over at Kam Tin, Grey-headed Lapwings have returned and showing well on most days. There are quite a few starlings around at the moment, Red-billed and White-cheeked both in good numbers, here is a confiding White-cheeked I saw during one of my outings.

White-cheeked Starling

Grey-headed Lapwing

I think wintering forest species have been generally underperforming, we have been getting fewer wintering warblers, and very few regular wintering forest birds such as thrushes and Tristram's Buntings, unfortunately this trend seems to have continued from last year so far, I hope cold front next week will bring some proper wintering species in. At the meantime, a few Asian Stubtails are seen here and there, at least two Verditer Flycatchers were seen along Shek Kong Catchwater, and plenty of Hair-crested Drongos there.

Asian Stubtail

Verditer Flycatcher - male

Hair-crested Drongo