Tai Mo Shan - an afternoon stroll in mid July

Chinese Francolin

A few weeks ago, I got an email from UK birder Dave Bickerton who was passing through the city for a business trip, I saw that I had the Sunday afternoon free so I offered to take him around for a short bit of birding. With the heat we have been experiencing of late (38 °C) last week caused by the nearby Typhoon in Taiwan, weather's been quite unstable. I was up one night photographing lightning bolts from our living room window, quite a sight to behold...I naturally wanted to find the coolest place in our city to bird in the afternoon, therefore suggesting an outing at Tai Mo Shan.

A huge bolt from our window, one of the many that night!

My father and I met up Dave on Sunday afternoon at his hotel. I was a little doubtful in the beginning about the conditions near the summit, as I saw that the summit was clouded over. My father however insisted that we should go up and just take a look first (we later credited him for his perseverance!). So, up we went all the way to the car park. Turned out the cloud wasn't as low as I have expected, so we decided to pushed on. We were certainly made more willing to walk by the considerably cooler temperatures.

Things began okay, with a pair of Streak-breasted Scimitar Babblers that showed briefly (not the best views), a Black-throated Laughingthrush sang it's melodic and beautiful song from the thickets nearby but never showed, we also heard Mountain Tailorbirds, Brown-flanked Bush Warblers and Lesser Shortwings but none of them wanted to show. The rest of the way up was pretty much the same, with birds teasing us constantly with their calls!

We got to our usual birding spot and very soon heard a series of harsh calls from below the ridge, the call of the Chinese Grassbird for sure! We quickly got up to the ridge and played a burst of playback, but by that time a bit of mist came in and we heard the bird moving further down the slope away from us, we waited for a few more minutes but heard nothing more. Moving on, we walked towards the southern slope and soon heard a Chinese Francolin calling not far off, we got the bird on our binoculars soon after scanning the rocks! The bird was calling away and didn't really move as we snuck even closer, we were taking advantage of the mist that came through, hiding us from the bird! This was by far the closest encounter I have had with this species, we were so close that we could even hear it usually inaudible clucking noises!

Chinese Francolin - what a bird!

After enjoying this prolonged and excellent views of the Francolin, we moved further down hoping to get another Grassbiird. It wasn't an easy walk as the bamboos had really started to grow over the footpath and moss were growing on the rocks, making the path very slippery! We managed to get to the open grassland where I played the recording of the Grassbird once again, but nothing replied. We waited for a little bit and decided to walk back up and see what else we could find.

Me and Dave at the Grassbird spot, me scratching my head wondering where all the birds are...

Up to the bit where I usually find a dozen of Parrotbills, but they were not there today. Dave however picked out a small bird hopping about in a bush. We all managed to get our bins on the bird and confirms it to be a juvenile Russet Bush Warbler! What a find! It's the first time I have seen a juvenile and the first time for my father to actually see the bird! (He only heard it before) It showed quite well for a few minutes (by bush warblers standard) and hopped out of sight into the bamboo thickets.

The rest of the way wasn't that exciting, a single Long-tailed Shrike made an appearance, not the most regular visitor up to this elevation. A few Mountain Tailorbirds continued to taunt us in the thickets and a Blue-winged Minla passed through briefly for Dave to have a better look.

Russet Bush Warbler - juvenile, a tick for David and my Father!

Long-tailed Shrike - the unusual visitor to the area I suppose?

We were going to head down to Shek Kong Catchment for a brief visit, but the road was blocked by what looked to be an accident, so we drove Dave straight to the airport afterwards. All in all, a very pleasant and enjoyable afternoon stroll with a few great birds! Most importantly making a new friend on the way!

Cuckoo Frenzy on Tai Mo Shan!

I have been hooked to Tai Mo Shan this summer, partly because it's really not that far away from where I live, also the fact that it's a few degrees cooler then the rest of the city which makes this place a perfect summer getaway. Breeding birds here are also very interesting, you see a lot of juveniles of various species at this time of the year, most of all I find the place full of surprises. Dragon Boat Festival saw me up at 6am, I looked out the window and saw clear sky. I got to Tai Mo Shan car park by 6:40am, and the car park was already full! In fact, people were on their way down as I went up, they must've hiked to the summit last night for the sunrise.

First birds were a pair of Chestnut-winged Cuckoo, surprisingly these were the first I have seen this year! I haven't had much luck with them this year and was glad to have caught up with this pair. Although it was a classic "hide and seek" with them, as always they are very responsive to my imitation, but they will never perch without something blocking in front! These two obscured shots were the best I could get out of the pair. They are impressive looking bird when seen up close, very large and very noisy.

Chestnut-winged Cuckoo - always behind branches...

The walk up the tarmac road was pretty uneventful, although I heard a Lesser Cuckoo calling near the car park, it didn't show. A Crested Serpent Eagle circled at a distance in the morning sun. Once I got to the "usual" spot, a pair of Chinese Francolins were calling and a quick scan on the horizon revealed it's perch, it wasn't particularly close but I was glad to have gotten some better shots then last time. Another Francolin was calling further down the slope, I located the bird but it was much further away.

Crested Serpent Eagle

Chinese Francolin - their white dots do resembles Guineafowls

I listened out for Chinese Grassbird and the Parrotbill but none called. I was surprise that no Parrotbills were present, considering how common they were the last two times I visited. As always, there are no guarantee in birding. Although very quiet, the area was occupied by a family of Mountain Tailorbirds, two adults were attending to a juvenile, they kept foraging on a single tree so I took some time observing, and resulted in some decent photographs of this species. The juvenile look similar to the adult but lack the "golden cap" and grey neck, although they both have bright yellow underparts.

Mountain Tailorbird - adult and juvenile

Seeing that not that many birds were around, I continued upwards through the winding road. This stretch of road is arguably one of the most scenic in Hong Kong, hence it is popular with cyclists and hikers, as you walk around the summit you will get a near panorama view of the city below, on a fine and clear day like this views can be breathtaking. Past the radar station a few Brown-flanked Bush Warblers showed well, singing out in the open!

Spectacular views up winding roads

Brown-flanked Bush Warbler

Also past the radar station just at the fence above the abandoned barracks, three Russet Bush Warblers were heard calling, with a little bit of patience, they do pop out from their cover to sing on an open perch. The views today were much better then those I had last time, at close range you can just make out the delicate streaks on the breast. It seems to be the right time to look for this highly secretive species, the three warblers present were calling constantly to each other and kept coming in and out of their cover. Their latin name of it's genus Locustella pretty much sums up the impression of this species, it acts and sounds much like a locust or insect.

Russet Bush Warbler - good time to visit this skulking species

As I headed back down, heavy mist and light rain started to set in. There wasn't much to see on the way, only a pair of Streak-breasted Scimitar Babblers made an appearance. Lesser Cuckoos were again calling from various locations but I simply could not locate them!

Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler - this one lacking a tail

When I got back to the carpark, I heard another Lesser Cuckoo calling from the valley next to the carpark, I scanned the hills and listened out to the calls to try and figure out it's location when suddenly I saw a small grey dot on a tree at the opposite side of the valley. I took a photograph and confirms the dot as a Lesser Cuckoo! Although it was very far away, I was still glad to get this species onto my Hong Kong list finally. Lesser Cuckoos are still considered quite rare in Hong Kong, but we have been getting regular summer records in recent years. The successful colonisation of Brown-flanked Bush Warblers may have aided this increase in records, as they are a known host for the Lesser Cuckoo. I heard a total of three birds and saw one today, not a bad result and a perfect way to end a day that started also with a cuckoo.

Lesser Cuckoo - a distant view of this small cuckoo

Birding in the Clouds

Took a day off to bird with David and Tom at Tai Mo Shan this morning. Weather wasn't too bad by the looks of it but clouds were quite low, which meant the summit area would be clouded over. We decided to go ahead anyway, so I picked up the guys at Tsuen Wan and drove straight up there. It was just before 7:30am when we arrived, as we started to walk up and into the white mist. Tai Mo Shan become a dreamy landscape in such conditions, and you start to see things that simply aren't there (spooky~), well mostly just shapes on rocks or trees that resembles birds...

We arrived at the usual birding spot and had a pair of Chinese Francolins calling, after a few tries by everyone on possible silhouette on various rocks, David picked out the bird properly calling from an exposed rock. It was calling continuously and we couldn't see it's markings clearly, only feature you can pick out slightly is the white white cheek and throat and the spotted markings on it's body. It's my first photographic record of this species, but it's not what you call a great photograph exactly. Still, better then nothing!

Chinese Francolin - "Come to the Peak, Haha!"

The guys walking up into the misty summit

Brown-flanked Bush Warblers were again very vocal and we picked one up on the way, this one was close enough that the mist did not really affect the photo. The Russet Bush Warbler; another breeding warbler species on Tai Mo Shan was heard calling, but remained distant.

Brown-flanked Bush Warbler

I walked with the guys back to the area where I saw the Grassbird a few days ago, but with no luck. The area was in general very quiet, not even a Parrotbill in sight. So, we walked further up to the summit area. We decided to walk to the northern side of Tai Mo Shan, past the radar station on the summit and down the stretch of Maclehose Trail section 8 towards Leadmine Pass. That's an area we have rarely explored so we thought it maybe a good place to look for Upland Pipits.

We past a disused barrack which was built back in the colonial era, by the looks of it the building must have been abandoned for over two decades. The mist added a hint of spookiness to the place. It's around the fence of this area that we found a few Vinous-throated Parrotbills, again they were difficult to photograph and I only managed a record shot of one.

Disused Tai Mo Shan Barracks

Vinous-throated Parrotbill - record shot

We walked further and soon were looking at the northern slopes towards Lam Kam Road. The mist did not show signs of clearing, and strong winds were blowing constantly, making listening out for birds that much harder.

View towards Lam Kam Road, the northern slopes of Tai Mo Shan

We got to the end of the concrete road and onto footpaths, here we follow a ridge heading eastwards. The habitat looks promising with good stretches of open grassland and short bamboos, however bird activities were slow. A few Richard's Pipit stood on the rocks which gave false hopes for Upland Pipits, but our target bird never showed, not even a single call was heard. The rapid decline of this species is truly alarming, and the fact that no one really knows the reason behind the decline is even more worrying. We encountered nothing much except for a good size herd of grazing cattle. I played recordings of several different species a long the way but nothing responded. Only a very distant Chinese Grassbird was heard.

Disappointingly, good habitat for Upland Pipit...

Grazing cattle

Just as we got to a point where we thought we wouldn't see anything interesting and wanted to turn around, we heard the call of a Chinese Grassbird nearby and soon located the bird calling from some tall grass and bamboos. This one showed for a few minutes, hopping in and out of the bamboos. At one point it got close enough for a better photo. This individual had some kind of lump growing at the base of it's lower mendible, it look healthy enough but I hope it's not something serious. Feeling that our walk had not been wasted, we turned around back towards the radar station.

Chinese Grassbird - a hard earned bird!

The mist did not lift, in fact the weather got even worst when rain started to fall. Although I did not bring an umbrella, it was fortunate that I at least have a rain cover for my camera which came in handy. The walk back up the slope took a bit more effort, but we were rewarded when we reached the radar station. A Russet Bush Warbler called close by, it's "zee-bit, zee-bit" call was diagnostic. I played a burst of playback and sure enough it responded! Giving us some fairly good views (in the mist), it's in fact the first time I have seen this species so clearly. The photograph did not show up too well originally, but thanks to a bit of post-production I was able to bring back some contrast to the image. Proper summer will be assuming in a few days, here comes the quiet season!

Misty and raining...

Russet Bush Warbler - a usually secretive species, I wonder if the mist made it feel safe