A Tiny Bit Cooler...

A late typhoon in the season brought in lots of rain, which cooled the temperature down somewhat, although only very slightly. Evenings are now much more comfortable, although it can still get quite warm during the day. That being said, some of our winter visitors are now arriving, including this Black-winged Cuckooshrike I saw on my rooftop, which posed for a photo before it flew off.

Black-winged Cuckooshrike

Migrants are of course still coming through, at a small little park near the airport I had two Grey-streaked Flycatchers, these long winged Muscicapa Flycatchers are fairly common in Hong Kong during autumn migration.

Grey-streaked Flycatcher

Within the same park there were two more species of flycatchers, including a Dark-sided Flycatcher and an Asian Brown Flycatcher. Dark-sided is probably the least common of the three, with Asian Brown being the most common, of which we sometimes get them even throughout the winter months.

Dark-sided Flycatcher

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Arctic Warblers and Yellow-browed Warblers are now both in good numbers, most of the Yellow-browed will likely stay on for winter, whereas Arctic Warblers will continue their journey towards South East Asia.

Arctic Warbler

Yellow-browed Warbler

Some more waders I saw lately includes a few Dunlins, plus a single Spotted Redshank at San Tin, the numbers of Spotted Redshank has decreased exponentially in Hong Kong, which is a huge shame as they really are a great looking species.

Dunlin

Spotted Redshank

Other usual fish pond birds includes Red-collared Doves, as well as good numbers of Whiskered Terns still. I also saw plenty of Oriental Reed Warblers, although none of them wanted to pose for a photo. Eastern Marsh Harriers now returning and patrolling the fish ponds of San Tin once again.

Red-collared Dove - male

Whiskered Tern

Eastern Marsh Harrier

Some more interesting sightings at San Tin includes a flock of 6 Greater White-fronted Geese, these were probably part of the 7 Geese seen at Mai Po recently, although one seems to have stayed on at Mai Po while 6 of them are now residing at Lok Ma Chau area. Back a few years we may have twitched for geese, but now they seem to be a fairly regular occurrence in Hong Kong.

Greater White-fronted Geese

A flock of 15 Blue-tailed Bee-eaters were also observed, although they were too far away for any good photo. They were feeding and drinking from the fish ponds, before a Black Kite spooked them and they all took to the air, soon out of sight. Another good migrant came in form of a Eurasian Wryneck, these cryptic woodpeckers are fairly regular passage migrant and sometimes winter visitors to Hong Kong, and San Tin is certainly a good place to find them.

Blue-tailed Bee-eater

Eurasian Wryneck

We also ventured out for some night birds, hoping for Oriental Scops Owls as always, and as expected ended with none. A few Collared Scops Owls were seen, plus a single Savannah Nightjar. Having recently bought the Xinfrared T2 thermal imager, it certainly helped with finding some of these nocturnal creatures, it even picked up a roosting Slaty-legged Crake on a tree! It also helped us locate a Masked Palm Civet climbing around above, this was an interesting individual with the palest face I've seen in Hong Kong.

Collared Scops Owl

Savannah Nightjar

Slaty-legged Crake

Masked Palm Civet