Cooling Down - November Migrants & Winter Visitors

Upon returning from Palawan, the weather in Hong Kong seems to have cooled down somewhat, with temperature finally dropping below 20°C! Even if it was only for a few days. With a sharp drop in temperature and strong northerly winds, some more birds are coming further south. The first tour upon returning to Hong Kong, one of the very first bird we saw that morning was a Eurasian Siskin at Shek Kong Catchwater! Just this single bird feeding on the ground, no doubt just arrived and seemingly quite tired.

Eurasian Siskin

Also present were a few other winter visitors, including the shy Asian Stubtail, a few Asian Brown Flycatchers and Grey-headed Canary-Flycatchers.

Asian Stubtail

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Grey-headed Canary-Flycatcher

The cooler weather also helps make our resident forest species more visible, as they often feed lower down and become much easier to photograph, such as numerous Scarlet Minivets, Fire-breasted Flowerpeckers and Speckled Piculet.

Scarlet Minivet - female

Fire-breasted Flowerpecker - male

Speckled Piculet

The Grey-headed Lapwings are back at their wintering site along Kam Tin River, I counted up to 16 birds there, occasionally giving quite close views.

Grey-headed Lapwing

At Lok Ma Chau Village I had my second Citrine Wagtail this season, found amongst all the other Eastern Yellow Wagtails and Red-throated Pipits.

Citrine Wagtail

The small paddyfields at Ho Sheung Heung attracted a few Buntings, including a pair of Rustic Buntings and a few Little Buntings. I didn't see any Yellow-breasted Buntings on my last visit though.

Rustic Bunting - female

Little Bunting

With clear skies you often see raptors up above, here are a few I've encountered lately, including a Japanese Sparrowhawk that came through briefly, and a friendly Black-winged Kite, both at Tai Sang Wai. Greater Spotted Eagles, Pied Harriers and Eastern Marsh Harriers can often be seen around Mai Po at this time of the year.

Japanese Sparrowhawk

Black-winged Kite

Greater Spotted Eagle

Pied Harrier

Eastern Marsh Harrier

Mai Po's been fairly good lately, with two Pheasant-tailed Jacanas still, the long staying female Baikal Teal had been showing fairly 'well', although usually quite far away. Wintering Black-faced Spoonbills numbers are still increasing steadily over the month, here is 88K with White-Red-White banding on the left leg, which should be an individual tagged in Korea this year.

Pheasant-tailed Jacana

Baikal Teal - female

Black-faced Spoonbill

On 17th of November some birders saw over 50 Oriental Storks overhead, I somehow missed the 50 birds, but ended up with the two Black Storks instead. Not that I am complaining, since Black Storks are actually rarer in Hong Kong, and I had quite a brief but close encounter!

Black Stork