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!

Cold Spell - Birding's Magic

Mugimaki Flycatcher

Start of February and we are experiencing some pretty bitter cold, Tai Mo Shan froze over and temperature dropped down to -1.8℃, while temperature around New Territories dropped to just 4℃. Weather like this certainly affects the birds, I experienced this first hand when I saw this dead Common Tailorbird which couldn't make it through the bitter night. Although in general colder weather means that birds in general are easier to observe, with some often shy species changing their behaviour completely, it's a good time to go out and experience the magic...

Common Tailorbird - unfortunate victim of the cold

I visited Shek Kong Airfield before I had work to do, a trio of Common Rosefinch greeted me. They were quite busy feeding and showed beautifully, there were two males and a single female together. Although an annual winter visitor, it's still a real privilege to see them so well.

Common Rosefinch - male & female

At nearby Lam Tsuen, a flock of Hair-crested Drongos were feeding much lower than usual, at one point I observed one bird coming down to the ground to pick off an insect. A Common Kingfisher was also found along the Lam Tsuen River, a regular species along this stretch.

Hair-crested Drongo

Common Kingfisher

I visited Mai Po again with Hoiling on the 1st, our main target was the Oriental Stork which Hoiling had not seen before. While walking there we observed an aerial battle between an Eastern Marsh Harrier and a Collared Crow, later joined in by a Black Kite! It was quite a show with three birds chasing one another, I was quite pleased to be able to capture a photo with all three birds all in one frame!

Fight between Eastern Marsh Harrier, Collared Crow and a Black Kite

We waited at pond 23 for the Stork when we didn't see it at pond 21. It was very cold to stand in the wind, our hot tea kept us happy. We waited for what felt like 30 minutes in the cold with nothing happening, as we were just about to leave a great commotion of egrets caught our attention and we were suddenly seeing the huge stork in flight! It soon landed on pond 23 for some perched views, although it was quite far away for any decent shots. Also present was an adult Peregrine Falcon, the rather dark face mask indicates this as race peregrinator.

Oriental Stork

Peregrine Falcon - spp. peregrinator

The alteration of birds behaviour was especially apparent at a BBQ site in Sai Kung, where a few birds had been seen feeding out in the open. One of such example was a 1st winter male Mugimaki Flycatcher, actively feeding near the ground and occasionally coming to within a few feet.

Mugimaki Flycatcher - feeding on the ground

A 1st winter male Fujian Niltava was also present, although not showing as well as the Mugimaki, but still offered fairly good looks briefly. Fujian Niltavas are rare winter visitors in Hong Kong, their absolutely stunning plumage makes them joyous birds to look at and a thrill to see every time.

Fujian Niltava - 1st winter male

Around the same area, a 1st winter Orange-headed Thrush foraged out in the open. It was still a little skittish, but you kind of feel it's urgency to find more food and would occasionally even venture out to the benches and tables. Although it kept a safe distance away from me the whole time and later went back into the thickets when a large group of tourists arrived.

Orange-headed Thrush - 1st winter

There were a few "less attractive" present, namely a duo of female Daurian Redstarts, they will occasionally chase the Mugimaki Flycatcher around, probably not as much as it would do in warmer weather. A 1st winter male Siberian Rubythroat also made a brief entrance, but mainly stuck within the thickets and out of view as usual!

Daurian Redstart - female

Siberian Rubythroat - 1st winter male

Other than the winter visitors, a few resident species also made an appearance, other than a lot of Common Tailorbirds and Cinerous Tits, a Mountain Tailorbird also dropped in briefly, feeding fairly low down at eye-levels. A large dove flew by and landed in a tree near me, a quick look revealed it to be an immature Emerald Dove; a usually shy species which stayed long enough for me to grab a half decent record shot.

Mountain Tailorbird

Emerald Dove

Despite the long cold spell, nothing out of the ordinary had appeared so far, was kind of hoping for something like Yellow-bellied Tit...but I should remain hopeful as long as the cold persists!