October Heat - 30°C Autumn

Despite heading into second week of October, weather remained hot and humid for quite a while. Only until today that temperature started to drop somewhat. Still, despite the less than ideal weather, birds continue to move through, with a few good birds found the past week or so. I went out birding with Richard Patient once more before he flew back to the UK, we decided upon a morning walk at Tai Lam as his main targets remains to be any migrant flycatchers. We struck luck on the day, and we chanced upon a Green-backed Flycatcher right at the magic valley! This individual was very yellow underneath that I initially thought it was a Yellow-rumped Flycatcher, upon closer inspection it was clear it was definitely not. This is supposedly the 8th record for Hong Kong if accepted, and one of our rarer migrant flycatchers! This bird was only seen briefly and not seen by any other birders afterwards as far as I know.

Green-backed Flycatcher - one of my better find this Autumn

We got a good range of common forest birds at Tai Lam, as well as numerous warblers including Two-barred, Arctic, Pallas's, Yellow-browed, Eastern Crowned, Pale-legged and Hartert's Leaf Warblers. A nice looking female Verditer Flycatcher as well as another Dark-sided Flycatcher added some excitement to the morning's list.

Verditer Flycatcher - female

Dark-sided Flycatcher

We connected with no less than two Japanese Paradise Flycatchers amongst two separate bird waves, this was one of the top target species of Richard, and we got some phenomenon views of one of them, even stopped and preened its wings for a while at relatively close range!

Japanese Paradise Flycatcher

Other highlights were a few Dollarbirds, as well as a Crested Goshawk perched on an open branch. We ended up with quite a nice list of birds for the morning. While birding at Tai Lam is never easy, it is always an enjoyable walk and quite often pack a few nice surprises.

Dollarbird

Crested Goshawk

I finally gotten around to my local patch at Tai Mei Tuk Catchment one morning. It started relatively slowly, with very few migrants of note. Grey Treepies are always nice to see, and I think this is one of the easier place to see this species well in Hong Kong. A high flying raptor raised my hopes slightly, although turns out only to be a Besra. An Ashy Drongo was a nice addition, as well as a pair of Black-winged Cuckooshrikes that I didn't manage to photograph. White-bellied Erpornis is also a species I quite often find along the catchment.

Grey Treepie

Besra

Ashy Drongo

White-bellied Erpornis

A very distant Black-naped Oriole was one of the better migrant of the morning. There were numerous Two-barred Warblers along the catchment, only this one showed relatively well for a half decent photo.

Black-naped Oriole

Two-barred Warbler

The best bird was found while I was walking back out to the entrance, when I flushed a wagtail from the road. I initially thought it was a Grey Wagtail, a species I find here often, although I immediately knew it wasn't the case when it started calling mid-flight, surely it was a Forest Wagtail instead. I located the bird a little further on, it was slightly skittish to begin with but once it got used to my presence started feeding along the slope on the other side of the catchwater. Despite it not being the closest view I've had of this species, I enjoyed this encounter, after around ten minutes it took flight and was not seen again.

Forest Wagtail

I also gave Fung Lok Wai a try lately, hoping to find a Manchurian Reed Warbler somewhere, I was a little disappointed that I didn't find any, but there were a lot of Black-browed Reed Warblers around, almost one every 15-20 metres apart! Oriental Reed Warblers were also in good numbers.

Black-browed Reed Warbler

Oriental Reed Warbler

Other notable birds was a single Black-winged Kite as well as a very shy Pheasant-tailed Jacana. Both seen at a distant, but were nice birds to see nonetheless.

Black-winged Kite

Pheasant-tailed Jacana

Over at San Tin, some Whiskered Terns were there, despite being a relatively common sight here I do enjoy seeing these elegant terns skimming the water for small shrimps.

Whiskered Tern

Although I didn't find anything super interesting at San Tin, I did find a rather skittish Eurasian Wryneck. I also flushed a Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler along the tall grass, a much more 'naturalistic' and traditional setting to see such skulking birds before Telford Garden. I scanned for some of the roosting swallows but saw nothing out of the ordinary, a few juvenile Barn Swallows did perched nicely for a photo though. There were not that many interesting waders on a drained pond, I only found a single Sharp-tailed Sandpiper thats worth mentioning.

Eurasian Wryneck

Barn Swallow

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

Since Long Valley is still closed off to the public, I've been feeling like a kid locked out of the sweet shop. The only way to 'legally' look at the birds is to stand on the biking path along the north end and scan the fields for any birds. I did see a Yellow-breasted Bunting flying into the paddies, but it was way too far for a photo. A 'Swintail' Snipe gave good views a little closer, although it never fanned its tail out for me to confirm the ID. A pair of Dunlins were feeding on one of the shallow ponds, this one still retaining some dark feathers on its belly.

'Swintail' Snipe

Dunlin