Autumn Migration on Po Toi

Before Ho Man Tin, Po Toi was probably the most well known migrant watching site in Hong Kong, its potential peaked in the mid 2000s, with numerous Hong Kong first recorded on the island. While it receives slightly less attention than it did a decade ago simply because it is not the most easily accessible birding site in Hong Kong, it is still considered one of the prime site for migrants in both spring and autumn. Its been a while since we received any visiting birders, and not often do I get a request to guide a day trip to Po Toi. Richard Patient, a very experienced birder from the UK joined me at Aberdeen Pier at 8am and we boarded the ferry to Po Toi, we were hoping for some migrating flycatchers. Things started off slowly, with birds being difficult and shy. The first better migrant of the day came in form of a pair of Ashy Minivets, while a fairly common migrant in Hong Kong, views of this species is by no means guarantee.

Ashy Minivet - female

Other than a large influx of Arctic Warblers, Asian Brown Flycatchers were in no short supply, we counted up to ten individuals throughout the island, there seemed to be one on every large tree on the island. There was only one single Dark-sided Flycatcher located behind the public toilet.

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Dark-sided Flycatcher - juvenile

We added a few more common migrants including numerous Two-barred Warblers, Yellow-browed Warblers, Dusky Warblers, Black-naped Oriole, Blue Rock Thrush...But most were either too quick or too far for photos. Black Drongos were in good numbers, while we only saw one single Hair-crested Drongo. A single Pale-legged Leaf Warbler type bird was seen, since Sakhalin Leaf Warbler was a target for Richard, we waited for the warbler to call, but it remained silent despite having tried the playback of both species! It is tough, but these two species are simply inseparable without the call.

Hair-crested Drongo

Finally, we had a female Blue-and-White Flycatcher at the helipad, this was one of the target species of Richard, so I am glad we connected with at least one of his targets on the island. It was a shame this was not a male, but the female showed well and perched at eye-levels for a few minutes before flying into the mangroves and not to be seen again!

Blue-and-White Flycatcher - female

Though Po Toi was not absolutely terrible, it wasn't producing anything interesting enough for us to stay, adding to the fact that it was 33°C and very humid (felt more like a spring day), we decided to cut our loses and take the 3pm ferry back to Stanley, from there we headed towards Telford Garden where we hope to get the long staying Styan's Grasshopper Warbler as Richard went the day before on his own but couldn't connect with it. We arrived to the rooftop gardens to a dozen of birders and photographers. The warbler showed immediately and gave several rounds of excellent views! This warbler is a different Styan's from my previous visits, located in the other end of the gardens, the original one was still present but now prefer the upper levels which is out of bounds to visitors. Luckily, this one decided to stay at one of the busiest part of the garden and provide excellent views for everyone. This individual looked less scruffy than the other, and seems to be less shy.

Styan's Grasshopper Warbler - star bird at Telford Garden

Other than the Styan's, we got a few Pallas's Grasshopper Warblers as well as a single Lanceolated Warbler, this was the first Lanceolated Warbler that I have seen at Telford Garden this season! I have somehow missed all the previous ones. Getting three species of Grasshopper Warblers in a matter of an hour is quite simply mind boggling, and I am certain Telford Garden is one of the very few places in the world where you can have such good views of these usually elusive warblers on passage. All in all it was an excellent day and a good sample of migrants that you may find during passage migration in Hong Kong.

Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler

Lanceolated Warbler

Closer to home at Ting Kok, nothing majorly exciting has turned up just yet, along the coast only a single Greater Sand Plover and a Kentish Plover returned, I was hoping for a few more passage waders, but perhaps it is still a little bit early. A Striated Heron along the coast was a nice find locally, I haven't seen a lot of these around. The only other notable migrant were two Black-naped Orioles at a distant.

Greater Sand Plover

Kentish Plover

Striated Heron

Black-naped Oriole

Over at Tai Lam again nothing hugely exciting, but a male Japanese Paradise Flycatcher was definitely a nice find. I usually see juveniles or females during autumn migration, so I don't see males without their long tail that often. Other than the numerous Eastern Crowned Warblers as well as a very shy Siberian Blue Robin that did not allow for any usable photos, a Dark-sided Flycatcher was the only other notable migrant that I managed to photograph. 

Japanese Paradise Flycatcher - male

Dark-sided Flycatcher

Temperature supposedly dropping further north, so hopefully some new birds will arrive with the change of weather very soon!

Telford Garden Magic & Autumn Herping

Telford Garden continue to works it migrant magnet magic, with a steady stream of Grasshopper Warblers, while I kept missing the Lanceolated Warblers which Captain sees and photograph on a regular basis lately, the newest more unusual arrival includes a Styan's Grasshopper Warbler, now also known as the Pleske's Grasshopper Warbler. This usually very shy species is a regular passage migrant in Hong Kong, most usually found along the mangroves in Deep Bay area, this one however found itself in the middle of a shopping mall roof top garden. It still baffles me how these warblers seems to be attracted to this 100% manmade habitat. Nonetheless, it is a great to be able to observe these usually obscured species up close.

Styan's Grasshopper Warbler - Finally in full view!

I can't say for certain what it's been feeding on for the past few days, it looks like some kind of grubs or pupae, but it certainly have no trouble finding them! Its been active in a flowerbed and hedge no bigger than 2m x 3m wide, but does have a tendency to disappear once in a while and reappearing again.

Styan's Grasshopper Warbler - feeding

In the same flowerbed there were up to two different Pallas's Grasshopper Warblers. This leads me to believe that this very flowerbed likely have the highest density of grasshopper warblers in the world! The Styan's certainly want to keep this spot all to itself, but those two little warblers just kept coming back, plus an Oriental Magpie Robin also claiming this flowerbed to be its territory, so it was constant chasing and fighting from these few birds.

Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler

Things were much more peaceful in other flowerbeds, with this very friendly Pallas's occupying this one all by itself. This is one of the tamest I have seen and will readily walk all the way to the edge of the flowerbed at arm's length! So, naturally this one attracted the most attention by photographers.

Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler - the friendliest of the bunch

Another one occupied the rockscape near the pool, occasionally jumping out to the open before flying back into the covers of thick vegetation. There were likely two more elsewhere and apparently a Lanceolated Warbler according to Captain, but I didn't spend too much time looking for those. All in all a great season for these warblers! I am still hoping for something much rarer like Gray's or Brown Bush Warbler to turn up, fingers crossed!

Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler

My luck for snakes seems to have improved a bit of late, first with a young Common Rat Snake that was found during a night tour! This very cute and gentle snake was a huge hit for the kids, and everyone got to see this beautiful snake up close. This species is diurnal, so we don't usually see them at night, just so happened that this one was sleeping on the side of the road. We moved it off to somewhere safer afterwards. We also found a Bamboo Pit Viper plus a young Red-necked Keelback that evening, but those I didn't bother with photos.

Common Rat Snake

I found yet another Futsing Wolf Snake while out one evening, this one was still pretty small, but certainly a feisty little snake! It gave me a good nibble twice, although no blood drawn as its teeth were still too small. It was also not a great model and constantly moved around, having photographed this species quite a few times already, I took a few record shots and let it go back about its business.

Futsing Wolf Snake

The best snake of late being a Chinese Mountain Snake, found by James while we were out birding! We had a lengthy photo session with this cute little snake, as I've yet to get any proper photos of this species. While this species is actually quite widespread, it is rarely seen during herping sessions at night, as they are diurnal and usually burrow itself under leaf litter at night, making them a tricky snake to locate. I have seen them a few times already while out birding, walking along forest tracks during the day seems to be the best way in finding these docile snakes.

Chinese Mountain Snake

Another interesting find during night walk is a Reeve's Terrapin! This is one of the native species in Hong Kong, and like all native turtles they have been heavily poached and getting rarer and rarer by the day. Reeve's Terrapin is likely the most common native species left, but due to competition with released exotic species such as Red-eared Sliders, these turtles are much rarer than they were used to. I myself have not seen one in the wild for quite sometime! It is important that if you ever find a local turtle species to keep the location TO YOURSELF! Do not share or reveal location with anyone. 

Reeve's Terrapin

Brown Booby - A Distinguished Guest

 A Brown Booby stayed on a buoy near Cheung Chau for a few days last week, what made this bird interesting is that it was an adult! Which is not a common sight at all in Hong Kong. Hoiling and I made the effort to go see this distinguished guest, we contacted the sanpan owner which saw us on the 9am ferry to Cheung Chau, where we met the owner at 10am. The trip from Cheung Chau to the buoy of interest took another 30 minutes. We saw the bird sitting on the buoy way before we even got there. 

The bird was not particularly active, it was very alert and was aware of our presence, although it did not mind us getting close to the buoy in true Booby fashion. We enjoyed fantastic views of this large goofy looking seabird, although knowing that it probably won't change pose for us we decided to leave it in peace. The bird was reported for another day after our outing and disappeared the day after, hopefully gained enough strength to continue on its journey. Though not a lifer, this was a Hong Kong tick for me, and I am glad to get this on my Hong Kong list at long last.

Locustella season has begun at Telford Gardens, this little gem on the rooftop garden of a shopping mall in Kowloon have become one of the best places in Hong Kong if not the world to see Grasshopper Warblers. While my friends found a Baikal Bush Warbler that showed for only a day, numerous Pallas's Grasshopper Warblers been coming and going in the flowerbeds. I saw this at least two birds on my last visit, one of which was relatively showy, although not easy at all the photograph.

Still not much luck with any snakes, but got a lifer in form of the Hong Kong Slender Gecko. This species was only recently described and is the only endemic gecko in Hong Kong. It does look a bit like a Chinese Gecko, but the patterns on its back is different, plus they are much smaller, only the size of a juvenile Chinese Gecko. 

Shan Liu Village is one of the butterfly watching hotspot, though I myself is not a huge butterfly person, I do feel quite fortunate to be able to live in close proximity to so many beautiful butterflies. Here are some interesting ones I found along the stream of late.

Common Gull - Cepora nerissa

Tawny Rajah - Charaxes bernardus 

Spangle - Papilio protenor

Chinese Peacock - Papilio bianor

Common Grass Yellow - Eurema hecabe

Other than common species, I few rarer species also turned up, including the Green Skirt Baron, it looks similar to the male Common Archduke but much smaller and have a dark trail edge to the hind wings. The Five-bar Swordtail is not rare but still one that I enjoy seeing everytime, especially when it is drinking water.

Green Skirt Baron - Tanaecia whiteheadi

Five-bar Swordtail - Graphium antiphates

One of our local specialty is the Spotted Sawtooth, a rare species in Hong Kong but regularly sighted at Shan Liu. I have seen them even at my doorstep, although seeing it drinking by the stream resulted in some good photos. A Forget-me-not is perhaps one of the less impressive looking species, although also quite uncommon in Hong Kong.

Spotted Sawtooth - Prioneris thestylis

Forget-me-not - Catochrysops strabo