News of a Velvet Scoter came on Sunday, Tom Li got news out that he found it during water bird count at Tsim Bei Tsui, this was exciting news as there's not been a 'Velvet' type Scoter in Hong Kong since the species was split into three! Therefore any Scoter would have been exciting. The most logical species to occur in Hong Kong is Stejneger's Scoter, which winter along the coast of China. Photos soon surfaced and it was surely a proper Velvet! With its concave nose and yellowish orange upper mandible pattern that fits Velvet perfectly. Since I was busy working on Sunday, I was only able to go look for the bird on Monday, and luckily the bird stayed long enough for us, it was found swimming with seven Tufted Ducks, views were extremely far, my 500mm lens with 2x extender were registering the bird simply as a small dot in the distance, however through the scope I was able to pick-out all the diagnostic features, making this a Hong Kong tick plus a lifer for me! And the first truly mega rarity this spring! Below is my photo and a photo taken by Kenneth the day before, the bird was seen at a much closer range and you can see all the key features.
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| Velvet Scoter (second left) with Tufted Ducks |
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| Velvet Scoter - photo by Kenneth Lam |
More waders are now coming through Deep Bay, most note worthy addition to previously seen migrant were at least two Asian Dowitchers. I scanned through the Common Greenshanks on the scrape and only found one Nordmann's Greenshank. There were still plenty of Black-faced Spoonbills around, I can never get bored of seeing them in their glorious breeding plumage. A single female Oriental Plover was all that remained, this one was seen resting on the buffalo field.
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| Asian Dowitcher |
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| Nordmann's Greenshank - single one in the back row |
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| Black-faced Spoonbill |
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| Oriental Plover - female |
Two of the more interesting sighting at Mai Po was perhaps a Speckled Piculet near the visitor centre, a first for me here, although evidently some other birders have heard or seen them in the mangroves, not exactly the habitat we expect to find them in, however it does show how adaptable these small woodpeckers are. Two Japanese Yellow Buntings have been seen along the access footpath, almost exactly the same spot that I saw a few there couple of years back. I connected with one briefly, although it was quite shy and stayed high up in the tree the whole time.
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| Speckled Piculet |
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| Japanese Yellow Bunting |
At San Tin, I found a pair of Greater Painted Snipe frequenting one of the gully recently, a species I always enjoy seeing no matter how many times I've seen them.
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| Greater Painted Snipe |
The drained pond at San Tin provided plenty of good habitats for waders, especially migrants such as Red-necked Stints, many of them already moulted into their breeding plumage.
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| Red-necked Stint |
Numerous Long-toed Stints were also feeding on this pond, these small waders are perhaps one of the most brightly coloured and pretty species. Their bigger 'cousin', the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper was also present, with three of them feeding alongside the stints.
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| Long-toed Stint |
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| Sharp-tailed Sandpiper |
The best of the bunch was a single Little Stint found mixed in with the Red-necked Stints, other than the smaller size, the slightly longer tibia, the bright edged tertiaries and paler throat were all good field marks to nail this one.
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| Little Stint |
As temperature rises, insects are becoming more active, several good butterfly species I encountered lately, including my local Spotted Sawtooth, of which I had three together one day after the rain, this species is rare and local in Hong Kong, I am very fortunate to live in an area that get them on a regular basis.
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| Spotted Sawtooth |
Elsewhere, while out birding with Kenneth and James we had an Angled Sunbeam, a species I have not seen in a while, and never had a photo of it with its wings opened. Although it was outshone by a single Lesser Gull, a rare species in Hong Kong, only first recorded in 2021, a species that is likely spreading.
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| Angled Sunbeam |
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| Lesser Gull |
