Southern Lantau Migrants - Birding at Hong Kong's Largest Island

I rarely bird Lantau, mainly because I live on the opposite side of Hong Kong, the other reason being no person without a permit can drive into southern Lantau, which makes getting there more difficult than it should be. Usually, we need to head to Tung Chung and catch a bus to reach just one of the many birding hotspots, therefore it is difficult to travel multiple stops on a single day without getting bogged down by public transport. Therefore, when an opportunity arrises that a friend got a car with a permit to go into southern Lantau, it was worth spending a day there! We met up at Sunny Bay and got into his car and headed towards Shui Hau. Shui Hau been getting more attention of late due to a presence of a Fairy Pitta there a week ago, we knew it was already gone by the time of our visit, but our morning there started fairly well, with a female Yellow-rumped Flycatcher plus a few very confiding Asian Brown Flycatchers.

Yellow-rumped Flycatcher

Asian Brown Flycatcher

With so many Water Buffalos, this naturally attracts a lot of Cattle Egrets, this is a common sight in south Lantau. The grass attracted quite a few Eastern Yellow Wagtails, and I was very pleased to find a Citrine Wagtail there as well, this juvenile got the classic looking C-shaped ear covert. 

Eastern Cattle Egret

Citrine Wagtail

To my complete surprise, a Forest Wagtail jumped out of nowhere and was feeding next to the Citrine Wagtail! It was very strange to see these two species together, as they usually inhabits very different habitats! The Forest Wagtail did not give good views however and disappeared very soon.

Forest Wagtail

After a relatively productive morning at Shui Hau we moved on towards Pui O, on the field we spotted a good numbers of 'Swintail' Snipes, but when two of them took flight their fanned tail revealed themselves to be Swinhoe's Snipes! I wasn't quick enough with my camera, but Ko who already got his camera ready managed to snap a few photos before they landed, confirming them as Swinhoe's Snipes.

Swinhoe's Snipe

Swinhoe's Snipe (photo credit to Ko)

Black Drongos were everywhere, one perched nicely and infront of a nice background for a good photo. Asian Brown Flycatchers were in no short supplies, and we saw a few more of those, one of them was very friendly and allowed close views.

Black Drongo

Asian Brown Flycatcher

But talking about friendly, nothing quite beat this over the top friendly Sanderling, feeding along the beach without a care in the world. it is always a pleasure to see these long distance migrants up close, getting the camera as close to the ground as possible ensures a nice background, we had a nice little photo session with this charming little bird before moving onto other birds at Pui O. We didn't connect with the Black-capped Kingfisher, but I did see a Black-naped Oriole. 

Sanderling - a very confiding individual

The mangroves at Pui O was covered in Fiddler's Crab, we saw two species, the pale but larger Austruca lactea and the smaller but very colourful Paraleptuca splendida.

Austruca lactea

Paraleptuca splendida

It was already mid-day when we got to Shap Long, and bird activity started to slow. We did add a distance Brown Shrike at the reservoir. Closer to the village we were surrounded by over a hundred Large-billed Crow, probably the largest congregation of Large-billed Crows I have seen in Hong Kong, I estimated at least 120 crows together, but actual count maybe even more. The best bird at Shap Long was an Eurasian Wryneck, but it was not cooperative and remained well hidden.

Brown Shrike

Large-billed Crow - one of the largest congregation I've seen in Hong Kong

Finally, we moved on towards Ngong Ping, where we were greeted by a pair of Eurasian Hobbies. But, our main target there was actually a Yellow-browed Bunting that was found earlier the day, luckily for us, the bird stayed and gave excellent views, no doubt one of my best encounter of this species to date!

Eurasian Hobby

Yellow-browed Bunting

On our way back to the car we added a single Dollarbird perched on a dead tree, plus a Dark-sided Flycatcher. And that concluded our rather productive full day birding at southern Lantau, although our species count was not that impressive, we managed some very good species and even some good photos to take home with us! Lantau is certainly a much under birded area in Hong Kong, and with more birders willing to spend time here, I am sure a lot more rarities will be reported here in the near future.

Dollarbird

Dark-sided Flycatcher

I was invited by Canon Hong Kong to co-lead a forest bird photography workshop with James Kwok, we decided to head to Shek Kong Catchment for our outing, and it proved to be a good choice, as it provided plenty of photography opportunities of several forest species, the best being a flock of Asian Emerald Doves! We started with three on the same branch, later we saw at least 6 individuals coming and going, both adults and juveniles were seen.

Common Emerald Dove - adult

Common Emerald Dove - juvenile

Unfortunately we didn't get to experience any large bird waves with the group, but other birds of interest includes a single Plaintive Cuckoo, plus good numbers of Arctic Warblers, which always provide a good challenge for any bird photographer.

Plaintive Cuckoo

Arctic Warbler

Both Dark-sided and Asian Brown Flycatchers were seen, although they weren't particularly close, everyone got good views of them. I also saw a Yellow-rumped Flycatcher near the reservoir, but it was too quick for anyone else to see it.

Dark-sided Flycatcher

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Summer Birding & Herping

Brown-breasted Flycatcher

Finally able to get back on the field for some birding. We have been experiencing a draught throughout spring and some of the reservoirs had already gone dry, the Hong Kong Observatory predicted rain this week, and sure enough we started getting some rain on Monday. I visited Tai Po Kau on Monday morning, hoping to catch up with the Brown-breasted Flycatcher that had been seen there by other birders. Things started extremely quietly, the sound of cicadas drowned out most bird calls and I saw very little on the way up. Surprisingly, a Dollarbird was perched on top of a dead tree, I have never seen one in June before, so this one must be quite late.

Dollarbird - a very late record

Little else showed up, I heard a Lesser Cuckoo calling in the distance, while Great Barbets called constantly. A Pygmy Wren Babbler sang loudly right next to the footpath revealed itself quickly and I had brilliant views for up to five minutes. I crossed the stream on the red walk and saw plenty of Damselflies there, including this beautiful male Indochinese Copperwing.

Pygmy Wren Babbler

Indochinese Copperwing - Mnais mneme 

It wasn't long until i spotted the bird I was looking for, a rather large headed and billed flycatcher with pale legs. Brown-breasted Flycatcher was only first recorded in Hong Kong in 2001, but had since became a regular migrant and in recent years a summer breeder. They are still rather scarce in Hong Kong, so it's always nice to see.

Brown-breasted Flycatcher

The rest of the way remained pretty quiet, two large groups of Rhesus Macaques were spotted foraging.

Rhesus Macaque

Kenneth, Bee and I gave Tai Mo Shan a try in the evening. We were hoping for Coral Snake, and the long awaited rain should help with the wildlife. Things were pretty active, we saw plenty of Hong Kong Warty Newts strolling about, Lesser Spiny Frogs were in good numbers, while there were quite a few Hong Kong Cascade Frogs at the waterfall.

Hong Kong Warty Newt

Lesser Spiny Frog

Hong Kong Cascade Frog

A Nanhaipotamon hongkongense was spotted by the road, a female carrying eggs on her underside. I guess it was trying to find a safe place to put them? This peculiar looking species is endemic to Hong Kong, often found around mountain streams.

Nanhaipotamon hongkongense

Another interesting find was a Lau's Leaf Litter Toad, a small toad species that is only found in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Kenneth so nearly stepped onto it without knowing as it was so well camouflaged! It's a funny looking little toad and you can compare it to Bee's fingertips.

Lau's Leaf Litter Toad

Although we didn't find any Coral Snakes, we found a total of three Anderson's Stream Snake. This is the most widespread Opisthotropis species in Hong Kong, where they can be found in mountain streams with leaf litter. Outside of Hong Kong they are also recorded in Vietnam. They are very docile and gentle, never attempting to bite when handled.

Anderson's Stream Snake

Spring Summary

Dollarbird - nice to get them at home every year

Spring is coming to an end, with temperature up to 31°C on Buddha's Birthday, it surely feels like we are barely clinging onto the tail of spring. There's been very little bird movement at home, no flycatchers to note and lacking any interesting migrants. A pair of Blue Whistling Thrushes had been seen in the gully though, likely will start breeding soon at their previous nest site just across the road. They provided some great views the other day and allowed me to get quite close, this was taken in quite dim light handheld at 1/40.

Blue Whistling Thrush

The best migrants were probably a few Dollarbirds around the valley, they usually perch on the high voltage cables, where they appear like small dots on the wire. I was lucky and managed to snuck up to a few perched on a tall tree down the valley and got a decent view, not particularly close but closer then those on the wire. Dollarbirds are quite common during spring or autumn, but it's during spring that we see mature adults with bright red beaks and purple throats, their colours are also generally sharper.

Dollarbird - a spring and autumn staple in Hong Kong

A day trip to Cheung Chau at the end of April didn't produce much migrants, I got a few distant Grey-streaked Flycatchers, a few Arctic Warblers and a single Brown Shrike. The local Pacific Reef Egrets can always be seen around the beach, where they perch on the top of shark nets to hunt for small fishes below.

Brown Shrike - lucionensis

Pacific Reef Egret - coming in for the landing

I visited Po Toi Island for both the Labour Day holiday and Buddha's Birthday. On the ferry you can see plenty of Terns have returned on one of the offshore island, Bridled being most numerous but also a few Black-naped Terns around.

Bridled Tern - circling the island

Black-naped Tern

Things on the island were generally quiet on the two days, with a minimum amount of flycatchers, only a few Grey-streaked Flycatchers were seen dotted around. A pair of Mugimaki fluttered around the mangroves but not so well for photographs. Arctic Warblers were numerous but none showed very well, I missed the chance for the Large-billed Warbler earlier. A few Pacific Swifts drifted around in the bay, surprisingly this is the first photo I have ever taken of this species, not sure why but sometimes you do "forget" to take photos of the common birds.

Grey-streaked Flycatcher

Pacific Swift

Things got very excited on Monday when fellow birder Leo found himself face to face with an Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher next to the helipad! We all darted there but the bird was nowhere to be seen. We waited around the area for the next eight hours but the bird was not what you call cooperative...It showed only once more that day and I received a brief flyby view of it. An amazing record for Hong Kong, only the second recorded, both in May. Certainly a species we should look out for in near future. Birders who went on the next day (not a public holiday) received much better treatment from the Kingfisher, with many able to get good photographs. I therefore tried again on Buddha's birthday along with Hoiling, but so did over sixty other birders...naturally a bird this rare and beautiful is worth twitching for. Unfortunately, the bird never showed and my guess was that it left the island early morning that day seeing the weather was clear. A bummer for all the birders wanting to catch a glimpse of this little jewel, and one nice holiday wasted!

I have to keep reminding myself that it's OK that I missed the opportunity for any photographs, at least I got this little guy on my HK checklist! It's not like I haven't seen one before either, flashback to my last Fraser's Hill visit, on our last morning we found an ODK trapped inside the hotel's restaurant! I later managed to grab the bird and brought it outside where it perched for a little while for us to enjoy in a more "natural" setting. But I guess seeing one at home still feels slightly different and just a little bit more exciting.

Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher - a shot from Fraser's Hill

Seeing that the Kingfisher was a no-show (although many optimist waited), Hoiling and I joined Captain and his father, a long with John and Jemi Holmes on a short pelagic trip to the southern waters on Captain father's small fishing sampan. They have had a great morning and counted a total of six Short-tailed Shearwaters just south of Po Toi! This was a bird I have yet to tick off my Hong Kong list, so joining in the action seems like a better plan. I've never had much luck with these seabirds, I never seems to be able to connect with them whenever I am out at sea. Good news was that I managed to see a single bird that flew just above the water some distance away, unfortunately it was brief and was gone before I could reach for my camera. Oh well, you got to start somewhere! On our way back to Chai Wan we encountered a few more obliging Red-necked Phalaropes.

Red-necked Phalarope - coming into breeding plumage

So, that kind of sums up my spring adventures. Not terribly exciting but not half bad either, although many birds seems to have eluded me the whole time...Tomorrow I will be off to Cambodia on a little quest for some of the Cambodian specialties, hopefully my luck will be better there then at home! I am kind of counting on that!