Summer Is Here

Hot and humid are two perfect words to describe summer in Hong Kong, it is not for the faint hearted, as the heat can be intense at times. It is also not a great season for birds, as most migrants have gone north to their breeding grounds, very few birds stay behind to breed. One of the more exciting breeding species in Hong Kong is the Chestnut-winged Cuckoo, they are pretty widespread throughout Hong Kong, found in a wide range of habitats, but they are almost never easy to see or photograph. A few individuals near Nam Chung have been pretty showy of late, I decided to try for it early morning, sure enough I saw a pair almost immediately after I arrived. They are impressive looking birds, being quite large and colourful, even got a crazy looking crest to go with that ever repeating call that sounds almost exactly like a reversing truck.

Chestnut-winged Cuckoo

Another local species with chestnut wings is the Greater Coucal, which is very common throughout, they are usually shy but occasionally can give good views, like this individual at Tai Mei Tuk Catchment, which was evidently looking for something to eat along the dried up catchment, my thought was that it was trying to pick up some tadpoles in the gutter.

Greater Coucal

Tai Mei Tuk Catchment is a great place for raptors, I saw a juvenile Crested Goshawk the other day, it was probably hunting for a Spotted Dove but obviously not quite quick enough...it perched there for a few minutes after losing the meal and flew off into the forest.

Crested Goshawk

Tai Po Kau is also fairly quiet, the only interesting birds I recorded were Lesser Cuckoo calling in the distance, I also caught a glimpse of a Bay Woodpecker but some hikers came through and likely scared it off. The only photogenic bird there was a Crested Serpent Eagle, back on its favrourite tree. It is a species I always enjoy seeing up close, and always ends up with me taking tons of photos...It perched there for over 10 minutes, where I left it to look for snakes in peace.

Crested Serpent Eagle

It is no surprise that the Crested Serpent Eagle is out and about, as a night walk at Lung Fu Shan yielded three snakes, including two Taiwan Kukri Snakes, a very pretty species that specialize in eating eggs, they are non-venomous and usually pretty docile. The other snake being a Bamboo Pit Viper. Near Wu Kau Tang while out for night birds survey, we encountered my first ever Banded Krait! Like its cousin the Many-banded Krait they are highly venomous, although the Banded Krait is usually docile. This individual was pretty gentle and only wanted to escape when we got closer, protecting its head under leaf litter or its body.

Taiwan Kukri Snake

Bamboo Pit Viper

Banded Krait

Its been too dry for most frogs, the forecast of rain throughout the week maybe good news for our local amphibians! We often find Spotted Narrow-mouthed Frogs out and about at this time of the year, they are surely one of Hong Kong's cutest frog species. The Hong Kong Whipping Frog which is also known as the Brown Tree Frog is also a very common species throughout.

Spotted Narrow-mouthed Frog

Hong Kong Whipping Frog

It is also a good time of the year to see the Nanhaipotamon hongkongense, also known as the Hong Kong Stream Crab, they can be easily found along mountain streams, being bright red they are hard to miss. This is an endemic species to Hong kong, and recently they discovered yet another species of this genus on Lamma Island, which is also endemic.

Nanhaipotamon hongkongense

It is also a great time of the year to look for butterflies, I am not a particularly active butterfly person, but given the chance I do look at the odd one. Like this Glassy Bluebottle which stopped briefly for a drink, this is an uncommon species in Hong Kong, and I rarely get to see one so well. Another uncommon butterfly is the Indian Awlking, one of the prettier member of the Skippers.

Glassy Bluebottle

Indian Awlking

We've also had some success in rearing a few larvae, including two Tailed Jays which we collected from the Magnolia figo on our rooftop. We also reared two Cephonodes hylas larvae, both of them successfully emerged, it is a beautiful species of hawk moth, they actually have a few scales on their wings when they first emerge, but seems to wear off pretty quickly.

Tailed Jay

Cephonodes hylas

Late Winter Cyornis - Hill Blue Flycatcher

Despite the presence of both Bianchi's and White-spectacled Warblers at Tai Po Kau, I haven't had much luck with them (as usual). However, a reported male Hill Blue Flycatcher caught my attention, and I successfully connected with this rarity. We get the odd Hill Blue Flycatcher during winter every so often, my last encounter was the tamed one at King's Park in 2016, this one was very much 'wild', as it flew around actively and was quite shy. It often announce its presence with the 'tack-tack' call and a short song phrase. I managed a decent record in the end after trying the whole morning.

Hill Blue Flycatcher - male

The continued presence of the numerous Mrs. Gould's Sunbirds at Tai Po Kau is such a welcoming sight, the single adult male is the main attraction here as always, where it continues to attract dozens of photographers on a daily basis. Along with the females and juvenile males I counted no less than six birds on my last visit.

Mrs. Gould's Sunbird - male

Mrs. Gould's Sunbird - female

It is also nice to catchup with some common resident species at Tai Po Kau, including Scarlet Minivets and Grey-chinned Minivets, which came very close in a bird wave on my visit.

Scarlet Minivet - male

Grey-chinned Minivet - female

A pair of Crested Serpent Eagle drifted past as I made my way back to the car park, it was an adult closely followed by a young bird, breeding habits of Crested Serpent Eagles are surprisingly not well known in Hong Kong despite their abundance, nests are rarely found. In a Taiwan study, nesting usually starts around late winter, where juveniles can stay in nest for up to two months. This young bird is likely to be of last year's brood.

Crested Serpent Eagle - adult

Crested Serpent Eagle - juvenile

I also visited Long Valley recently, as a Red-headed Bunting was reported. I saw a probable female earlier in the month along with a male Black-headed Bunting, and this female somehow confirmed my suspicion, it was nice to get a good look at this confirmed bird. There was also a female Rustic Bunting present, either a wintering individual or a very early migrant.

Red-headed Bunting - female

Rustic Bunting - female

Warming Up

White's Thrush - a classic winter species in Hong Kong

Chinese New Year is just around the corner and the weather had been gradually warming up again. It's quite a stark difference when you compare to the coldest days, where you won't see so much as a single insect, now bees are buzzing around the flowering trees and even the odd butterfly had emerged. I even encountered a singing Rufous-tailed Robin, certainly triggered by the warmer weather, getting itself ready for breeding.

Rufous-tailed Robin

Reptiles are making use of this warmer weather to bask in the sun, however making them easy prey for Crested Serpent Eagle, I saw this one at Lok Ma Chau, chowing down what looks like a Checkered Keelback. I do sometimes wonder whether the Crested Serpent Eagles goes hungry during winter months, when the snakes are not so active? Do they resolve to hunting other prey items? I don't have the answer to that but this one certainly seemed to enjoyed it's big lunch before it took to the air again.

Crested Serpent Eagle - looks like it had a decent meal!

At Mai Po, Black-faced Spoonbills numbers are still good, you will easily encounter flocks dotted around the reserve. Great Cormorants are still abundant, although we will start to see a drop in their numbers from March to April onwards. Northern Shovelers seems to be the most abundant dabbling duck species in Mai Po, here's one taking a bath.

Black-faced Spoonbill

Great Cormorant

Northern Shoveler

I finally managed to caught up with the long staying Smew, this female had been showing well around pond 6, although on the day I visited it was with a flock of Tufted Ducks at pond 3. It swam quite close to the bird hide for a good look, the best views I've had of a Smew in Hong Kong! Although a vagrant, Smew seems to have became much more regular at Mai Po in recent years.

Smew - female

At Tai Tong, I caught up with a few wintering Thrushes, these were much more photogenic and regularly fed on the ground, with a few even allowing fairly close views. The most dominant species were Grey-backed Thrush, I counted at least five or six individuals, here a photo of the male and female.

Grey-backed Thrush - male & female

A single Pale Thrush was also present, although much shyer than the Grey-backs, this male still showed fairly well and I managed a half decent photo of this handsome Thrush. A fairly photogenic Eyebrowed Thrush also made an appearance, for a species that is usually very shy this bird was the most obliging I have seen.

Pale Thrush - male

Eyebrowed Thrush - 1st winter

A pair of White's Thrush was probably the star bird there, the first individual had a weird looking face and had no eye-rings of any sort, just looking overall very scruffy. The second bird was much brighter and overall cleaner. The taxon of the Scaly Thrush (Z. dauma) complex had been in flux for years, although White's Thrush (Z. aurea) is now considered a full species on it's own, the actual differences between Z. dauma and Z. aurea is still unclear and identification in the field is near impossible.

White's Thrush - Z. aurea

I got news that an immature Mrs. Gould's Sunbird had been seen at Shing Mun Valley lately, there were already a small crowed congregating below a few flowering Hong Kong Orchid Tree, there were a few Fork-tailed Sunbirds and Japanese White-eyes feeding nearby. It took a while for me to locate the Mrs. Gould's amongst the smaller birds, but once you locked on, it's red breast and wings are quite easy to pick out. It was feeding quite high up but gave fairly good views. Having missed the adult at Kadorie Farm a few years ago this immature male will have to do for now.

Japanese White-eye

Mrs. Gould's Sunbird - immature male

Someone spotted a Crested Goshawk nearby, this one actually caught something and was plucking what I believe to be a Spotted Dove. A flock of Red-billed Blue Magpies were not happy with it's presence and later chased it away.

Crested Goshawk - with prey

Finally, on Valentine's day I got a message from Kenneth that he got up to 30 Eurasian Siskins at Shek Kong Catchment! I looked at my watch and saw that I had an hour to spare before I had other things to attend to, so I quickly rushed there and luckily a dozen were still feeding on a Chinese Sweet Gum. Siskins are pretty rare in Hong Kong, and a fairly eruptive species, where one year we may get none and other year we get a decent size flock like this one! These had likely been pushed southwards by the strong northerly winds a week ago.

Eurasian Siskin - female

Eurasian Siskin - male

Hoiling heard a Koel calling near her home, spring is no doubt just around the corner now!