Tuesday 22 September 2015

Back to Nature

It's been way too busy for me to do any proper birding, finally a day off for me to get back to nature. I certainly have been in the city life mode for a bit too long and felt slightly rusty coming back to the country side, but it felt good and energising!

I have missed quite a lot of the autumn migration this year, and I haven't been to Po Toi Island even once. This afternoon I took my chance at Long Valley, weather was not optimal, with very heavy rain in the morning and a little drizzle when I arrived. Long Valley was overall very quiet, with little bird activities. No Buntings of any sort as yet, but I got my first Zitting Cisticola of the season.

Zitting Cisticola

Other birds I managed to take photographs of were Common Myna at the car park, a Plain Prinia and one of the many Scaly-breasted Munias. I did saw a single Painted Snipe which only flew by, a Brown Shrike was chased away by a Long-tailed Shrike before I could pick up my camera.

Common Myna

Plain Prinia

Scaly-breasted Munia

I gave Mai Po a try after the not so successful hour at Long Valley. It started off slow, I kept seeing Koels and Masked Laughingthrushes...a lot of Intermediate Egrets at Bird Hide 1, they kept fighting each other so I managed to take a few action shots, this is one of the better ones.


Intermediate Egret

Just outside the bird hide an accipiter flew ahead, it had a bird in it's claws. I could not locate it however, I presume it was a Besra considered the smaller size. Going towards the "flycatcher area" I found only an Asian Brown Flycatcher, I was hoping for a Paradise Flycatcher of some sort but this is better then none.

Asian Brown Flycatcher

I later ventured into a less walked part of Mai Po, not much were there, a Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike foraged with the bulbuls, there were more Koels, Black Drongos and Masked Laughingthrushes....A pair of distant Collard Crow and an even more distant Pied Kingfisher were around. The only interesting bird to note were three Oriental Reed Warbler. These huge warblers (nearly same size as Chinese Bulbuls!) are not uncommon at this time of the year, commonly seen around suitable habitats. One gave fairly decent views, though slightly on the far side.

Collard Crow

Pied Kingfisher

Oriental Reed Warbler

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