Those who say global warming doesn't exist should visit Hong Kong, where we are now well into mid-autumn but temperature is still soaring well above 33°C on a daily basis, it gets even hotter around northern New Territories, where it is closer to 35-36°C around midday! Birding out in this kind of weather is not the most comfortable to say the least, and challenging at times. That being said, plenty of birds are arriving, including a few wintering birds and some autumn migrants. The best of the rest lately is Hong Kong's 6th Mongolian Short-toed Lark at Long Valley, incredibly the third one for me this year! What an incredible year for this species! This is my third set of guests to have seen one with me, I seem to have become quite the Short-toed Lark magnet for some reason, having seen all three latest Hong Kong records.
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| Mongolian Short-toed Lark - 3rd one this year! |
Flocks of Eastern Cattle Egrets are now on the move, a clear signs of migration at Long Valley as I counted a flock over 50 migrating Eastern Cattle Egrets flying by, with many stopping around the fields. The many munias in the area have attracted a Japanese Sparrowhawk to hunt around the paddies, although I never managed to get a good photo despite it swooping right past me.
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| Eastern Cattle Egret |
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| Japanese Sparrowhawk |
A Eurasian Wryneck caused quite a bit of excitement among the photographers, I managed to see it one morning away from its usual haunt, had quite a brilliant view of this bizzare looking woodpecker. I counted at least 5 Yellow-breasted Buntings at one point, there's been a Black-headed Bunting reported as well but I have yet to bump into it. One of my guest managed to flush a Lanceolated Warbler, we got good views in the end, and she even managed a photo! Credit to her as I wasn't quick enough to get any photos.
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| Eurasian Wryneck |
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Yellow-breasted Bunting
Lanceolated Warbler - photo credit Virginia Fairchild |
Snipes are still coming through in good numbers, with more and more Common Snipes now joining in. Perched snipes can be a bit of a challenge at a glance, ideally a preening snipe that is spreading its tail will be more than enough to nail its ID. Structurally, Common Snipe also have longer bill, with slightly longer proportions of body and tail. Here I also have a perched Swinhoe's Snipe that I managed to confirmed the ID by when it was flying with tail spread, as you can see the bill often feels thicker and shorter, with bigger head and eyes held higher up on the head.
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| Common Snipe |
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| Swinhoe's Snipe |
When in flight, Swinhoe's and Pin-tailed is notoriously difficult to separate, this particularly individual gave quite good flight views, but when you can't get a claer view of the spread tail, it is highly unlikely that you will get a possible ID.
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| Swinhoe's Snipe - in flight |
For these two photos, because the bird spread its tail mid-flight and as it comes into landing, you can clearly see the outer tail feathers shape are not pin-like, if possible you can also count the number of tail feathers, Pin-tailed Snipe will have 24-28 tail feathers, while Swinhoe's will have 20-22, although that is quite difficult to make out sometimes when feathers overlaps. Behaviour wise, Swinhoe's is said to be more silent when flush and doesn't fly a long way, which seemed to be true for this particular individual, but I don't think you can completely rely on this behaviour to confirm the ID.
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| Swinhoe's Snipe - tail spread |
Mai Po is still generally quiet, with very few good birds around. A drained pond at San Tin was far more interesting with plenty of Temminck's Stints, two Red-necked Stint plus a juvenile Long-toed Stint, the muddy legs had me confused for a little bit, but overall structure and patterns fits that of Long-toed well. A Pacific Golden Plover was also on the same pond.
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| Red-necked Stint (left), Long-toed Stint (second right) and Temminck's Stint |
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| Pacific Golden Plover |
I had my first Taiga Flycatcher of the season at Ho Man Tin, although I fail to connect with anything particularly good there. Asian Brown Flycatcher is a common migrant at this time of the year, and Eastern Crowned Warbler seems to be in good numbers.
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| Taiga Flycatcher |
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| Asian Brown Flycatcher |
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| Eastern Crowned Warbler |
At Tai Po Kau, a few migrants are around, including Amur and Black Paradise Flycatcher, but I couldn't get any photos of either. The best of the bunch was probably a Brown-rumped Minivet that was found mixed in with the Grey-chinned Minivets. Dark-sided Flycatchers are also arriving, I had two at Tai Po Kau, although they didn't stay very long. A few Pale-legged Leaf Warblers were also seen, although they were again very difficult to get any good photos of.
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| Brown-rumped Minivet |
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| Dark-sided Flycatcher |
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| Pale-legged Leaf Warbler |
Ashy Drongo have just arrived and have taken up residence around the park. Black-winged Cuckooshrikes have also returned and can now often be seen in the mixed flock.
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| Ashy Drongo - race leucogensis |
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| Black-winged Cuckooshrike |
And of course Tai Po Kau provides plenty of chance to see many of our resident forest species, here are a selection of our 'common' birds, although I can hardly get bored of them.
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| Grey-chinned Minivet - male |
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| Grey-chinned Minivet - female |
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| Black Bulbul |
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| Yellow-cheeked Tit - male |
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| Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker - male |
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| Great Barbet |
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| Rufous-capped Babbler |
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| Blue-winged Minla |
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| Huet's Fulvetta |
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| Silver-eared Mesia |
Speckled Piculet is still not a bird we manage to see everytime, but when we do get good views they are usually quite photogenic. I got lucky with a pair of Bay Woodpeckers as they came in very close and perched for a little while for me to get a few good photos, this species can be more elusive and much more skittish than the Piculet despite having established in Hong Kong much longer.
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| Speckled Piculet |
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| Bay Woodpecker - male |
Pygmy Cupwing is always a target of ours when visiting Tai Po Kau, while we often do see or hear them, good views are still by no means guarantee, so I am always happy to get a good photo of one. White-rumped Shama is still a relatively uncommon bird at Tai Po Kau, but given how they are quite common around Sai Kung and Ma On Shan, it seems only time before we see them more frequently. Plain Flowerpeckers are usually seen during spring when they are most vocal, but occasionally we may still find them outside of the breeding season, often mixed with Fire-breasted Flowerpecker such as this one.
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| Pygmy Cupwing |
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| White-rumped Shama - female |
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| Plain Flowerpecker |
Hopefully weather will be cooler soon and that will bring in a few things.
