National Moth Week & Other Wildlife

We were able to join in one mothing session of the National Moth Week evening organised by Dr. Roger Kendrick in the past week, we were very fortunate to be able to moth around Tai Po Kau Headland, it is such a beautiful area for moths and wildlife. Summer generally is not that great for moths, but we had a surprisingly good session.

Barsine striata

Cleora alienaria

Parotis punctiferalis

Asota heliconia

Psilalcis galsworthyi

Ericeia subcinerea

Laspeyria ruficeps

Casminola johannstumpfi

Chrysocraspeda tristicula

Metaemene atrigutta

Macroglossum divergens

Mabra eryxalis

Hypenagonia angulata

Ecpyrrhorrhoe celatalis

Biston suppressaria

Ramila acciusalis

Ataboruza lauta

Catada vagalis

Artona hainana

Asota caricae

Adrapsa quadrilinealis

Plecoptera recta

Paracrama angulata

Prooedema inscisalis

Edulicodes inoueella

Choris

Sympis rufibasis

Asota plaginota

Erechthias atririvis

Arctornis l-nigrum

Caloptilia leucolitha

Atteva wallengreni

Pexicopia melitolicna

Giaura multipunctata

Isocentris filalis

Euthrix isocyma

Other interesting insects that evening included a very big Formosan Giant Mantis which terrorised the moth trap and successfully got a nice meal out of it. Two interesting looking Ornebius fuscicerci, a species of cricket. And, a rather small female Stag beetle that was Prosopocoilus oweni melli.

Titanodula formosana

Ornebius fuscicerci

Prosopocoilus oweni melli

I have not been out birding much due to the weather, its been either extremely hot or very wet. While out doing surveys I do see a few, including this Yellow Bittern, they are a fairly common sight around fish ponds and wetlands during the summer months.

Yellow Bittern

Waders are some of our earliest autumn migrants, and we are already getting many non-breeding birds returning. Plovers are plentiful, with Greater Sand Plover and Siberian Sand Plovers showig up. The best of the bunch was a single White-faced Plover, which are most likely often overlooked as a species in Hong Kong.

Greater Sand Plover

Siberian Sand Plover

White-faced Plover

Not many exciting herps for me, firstly I haven't really been out that much, secondly I have not really had much luck with snakes other than the more common species. A few Reeve's Tokay Gecko is about the best I could manage in the reptile department. 

Reeve's Tokay Gecko

There are two species of frogs which I always feels are rather special to Hong Kong, that being the Short-legged Toad, or the Peak Spadefoot Toad, this species was first discovered in Hong Kong, although later it was found outside of Hong Kong as well, it is certainly a species best seen here. The other species being the Romer's Tree Frog, the only true endemic frog species in Hong Kong, this tiny species are rather unobtrusive and can be hard to locate on the forest floor, lucky that this one just hopped straight out onto the footpath for me to see!

Short-legged Toad

Romer's Tree Frog

August is just around the corner, meaning the low season for birds is nearing its end! We are all anticipating for the arrival of some proper autumn migrants...

Mid-Summer Birds

Mid summer, Hong Kong birders often will tell you this is the quietest time of the year, with barely anything happening, there are barely any migrants, often no vagrants and weather is just too hot for anyone to be outside for any extended period of time. There are still some breeding birds around, but often nothing too exciting. A Chestnut-winged Cuckoo I got at home last month was probably the best I could manage, it did showed exceptionally well though, considering I didn't even need to leave my front door!

Chestnut-winged Cuckoo

If you care to look, all our resident species are still present. Yellow-bellied Prinias and Plain Prinias both breeds in Hong Kong, if you are lucky you sometimes can find their nests in the tall grass.

Yellow-bellied Prinia

Plain Prinia - nest

Many forest species are still active during the hottest month of the year, although getting to them often takes a lot more effort...So, all my recent sightings have been incidental. I got a pair of lovely Silver-eared Mesia posing nicely for me near Chuen Lung one morning, and a relatively cooperative Speckled Piculet near Sheung Shui.

Silver-eared Mesia

Speckled Piculet

Hainan Blue Flycatchers are one of our most prominent breeders in the forest of Hong Kong, while males are not really vocal anymore, around this time of the year it is not uncommon to see adults with their recently fledged youngs.

Hainan Blue Flycatcher - female

Hainan Blue Flycatcher - male with juvenile

We don't have that many waterbirds or waders breeding in Hong Kong, Little Ringed Plover is one of the few, if you ever get too close to their nesting site, you will see the adult fake an injury, such as this one that was deliberately dropped its wings to act as if it was injured, so to lure me away from the actual nest site. I had no chance finding the actual nest anyway, as the egg was just so well camouflaged!

Little Ringed Plover

I paid a visit to the Black Baza breeding site near Sheung Shui, its been quite the focal point among photographers. I was quite surprised the pair have not abandoned the site given how much of the habitat have been destroyed by the construction right next to it, but they seems very loyal to this site. This is the last remaining breeding pair of Black Baza that I know in Hong Kong, who knows how many more years they will still breed here, my hope is that they will perhaps use other suitable habitats nearby if this patch of forest becomes too disturbed. I only got photo of one of the two birds, the other was seemingly busy hawking for insects in the dense foliage. It will be a shame if we lose this charismatic raptor as a breeding species.

Black Baza - one of our rarest local breeder