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.
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| Common Gull - Cepora nerissa |
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| Tawny Rajah - Charaxes bernardus |
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| Spangle - Papilio protenor |
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| Chinese Peacock - Papilio bianor |
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| 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.
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| Green Skirt Baron - Tanaecia whiteheadi |
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| 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.
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| Spotted Sawtooth - Prioneris thestylis |
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| Forget-me-not - Catochrysops strabo |
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