Two Full Days Birding Tour - Quality End of the Year Birds

Since I started this blog, I've always been passionate about showing people the natural side of Hong Kong, and birding tour is just one way to show people our surprising diversity of birds. Just had two full days birding tour with two different guests, both days with some success in finding our targets plus a few surprises along the way. 

For the first day we started at Tai Po Kau, our prime forest birding site rarely disappoints. We hit our first large bird wave at picnic area 1, with a few Hartert's Leaf Warblers and Sulphur-breasted Warblers. Common species like Huet's Fulvettas showed well, I especially like this photo with the bird facing straight towards me. Further on we had a very confiding Blue Whistling Thrush.

Hartert's Leaf Warbler

Sulphur-breasted Warbler

Huet's Fulvetta

Blue Whistling Thrush

The Japanese Robin showed well, although not as easy to photograph as before, but with a bit of patience we got good views of several individuals throughout the walk. I still can't quite believe what an extraordinary year this had been for this species, there seems to be more of them compared to the usually common Rufous-tailed Robins! Of which we only saw two shy individuals!

Japanese Robin - male

An Asian Stubtail feeding by the side of the footpath provided excellent views, we followed it for a few minutes, this skulking species is never easy to photograph, so I was pleased we connected with this relatively 'showy' individual.

Asian Stubtail

Best bird at Tai Po Kau came in form of TWO White-spectacled Warblers in one large bird wave, we know clearly there are two because I photographed one with greyish crown and the other with greenish crown! This species been tricky to locate at Tai Po Kau, as the location of the bird waves seems to shift on each of my visits, but I am glad to catchup with these beautiful warblers in the end. We looked for the Rufous-faced Warblers but they were nowhere to be seen.

White-spectacled Warbler - greyish crown

White-spectacled Warbler - greenish crown

After Tai Po Kau we headed to Lions Nature Education Centre, where numerous thrushes been seen lately. There we added a nice looking male Red-flanked Bluetail, a female White-rumped Shama and a Taiga Flycatcher. 

Red-flanked Bluetail - male

White-rumped Shama - female

Taiga Flycatcher

The large numbers of thrushes can clearly be felt here, there were quite a lot of thrushes everywhere, many hiding in various corners within the centre, some photographers also tried putting out fruits to lure the thrushes into view just behind the car park. Most numerous being Grey-backed Thrush, where I counted no less than at least 5 to 6 individuals dotted around the place, with at least a pair going to the 'photo booth'. 

Grey-backed Thrush - male

Grey-backed Thrush - female

A female Japanese Thrush also lured to the 'photo booth' by the fruits, at first glance they look quite similar to female Grey-backed Thrushes, but often darker backed, the most obvious difference are the heavily marked flank.

Japanese Thrush - female

The main attraction being a very friendly White's Thrush, walking around the lawn oblivious to the people around it. Other than the fruits offered by the photographers, I also observed it feeding on the fruits of a Turn-in-the-wind (Mallotus paniculatus) nearby.

White's Thrush

A shrike had been frequenting the farmland in the middle of the centre, of which I believe is a 1st winter Grey-backed Shrike. It is not dissimilar to the one that turned up at my local patch last year, with brownish ear coverts, buffish underparts with extensive barring on breast, belly and rump, as well as the lack of barring on the wing coverts all seems to be good indicators that this is most likely a Grey-backed and not a Brown Shrike. Separation of 1st winters of the two species remains extremely tricky and hopefully more sightings will result in us being better at identifying them.

Grey-backed Shrike - 1st winter

We gave Yan Yee Road a try in the afternoon, while it was mostly quiet we did find a pair of Rufous-faced Warblers! A complete surprise for us all, I am glad we found this pair after missing those at Tai Po Kau. The pair foraged mostly in silent on their own, we watched them for a good ten minutes before they disappeared. Before we left we found a very confiding 1st winter male Japanese Thrush feeding by the side of the road.

Rufous-faced Warbler

Japanese Thrush - 1st winter male

Since the guest for the second full day tour was staying near Sai Kung, I thought we should start at Yan Yee Road again, where I hope to find the Rufous-faced Warblers again. Unfortunately, we didn't see the two warblers again, but we got a good cast of common forest dwelling species, including a good look at a Speckled Piculet near the end of the walk.

Speckled Piculet

Our next stop was Mai Po, where we were greeted by a Taiga Flycatcher near the entrance. It didn't take long for us to find our first of many Chinese Penduline Tit. I managed to find a Vinous-throated Parrotbill, which gave brief views, this was the first time I ever seen a Vinous-throated Parrotbill in Mai Po. Other than the regular Black-faced Buntings, a single Little Bunting decided to drop in right in front of us for a good long look before it took off again.

Taiga Flycatcher - light made it look like a Red-breasted...

Chinese Penduline Tit

Little Bunting

Since the tide was very low, we decided against going out to Deep Bay, we scanned the various ponds and added more waterbirds to our day's list. We saw plenty of Black-faced Spoonbills, along with Eurasian Spoonbills. There were plenty of ducks around, although most of them were common species that is not particularly exciting for a birder from the UK, we did see some Eastern Spot-billed Ducks which added to the variety.

Eurasian and Black-faced Spoonbill

Eastern Spot-billed Duck

It took a while but I finally found three Yellow-billed Grosbeaks, they were relatively confiding and allowed us to get quite close, we enjoyed excellent views for over five minutes before they took off.

Yellow-billed Grosbeak - female

Yellow-billed Grosbeak - male

We decided that we probably got most of the birds we could in the reserve, as we were about to head back out to the park entrance, I noticed two large birds gliding high above, the first being an Imperial Eagle, the second bird was about the same size as the eagle but had a long neck. "Black Stork!" I shouted, and we watched the two glided together to the east and soon out of sight! Theres been at least two Black Storks reported in recent weeks, but none of them decided to stop over at Mai Po, so it was pure luck that we chanced upon this individual gliding past! And what a fine addition to my year list before the end of the year.

Black Stork & Imperial Eagle

Since we still had some time, I decided a short trip to Tai Sang Wai would probably allow us to add a few more species to our day's list. We first added a very showy male Bluethroat, later we added three more female Bluethroats, while a Siberian Rubythroat only gave us a very brief look. We ended our day at Tai Sang Wai with a Golden-headed Cisticola, which was first heard, and finally seen well after some effort.

Bluethroat - male

Golden-headed Cisticola

145 species in total recorded in two days, with 118 species on the second day alone, which is not bad for a relatively relaxed itinerary. And what a great way to end the year with two really high quality birding days.

Productive January - Month of Warblers!

 Lately its been all about warblers, warblers of all sorts! I went on a hike from Wu Kau Tang to Sam A Tsuen with Hoiling last week, it is an area we rarely venture, and how very glad we went! Along the way I heard the distinctive call of an Alstrom's Warbler, and very soon we were looking at a very confiding individual, happily feeding just a few feet away from us. This was no doubt my best encounter with this species to date, even with just my 100-400mm lens delivered quite good results.

Alstrom's Warbler - very friendly individual

Also in the same area was a fruiting tree, and that attracted some thrushes, the most note worthy was a single Brown-headed Thrush, a species I never been able to photographed before! While this is no more than a record shot, still very pleased to have seen it, as this species is not at all common nowadays in Hong Kong.

Brown-headed Thrush - record shot

Over at Fung Lok Wai, a Booted Warbler was reported again lately, I believe this maybe the same individual seen late last year, but now moulted into much fresher plumage. It showed exceptionally well for me, as I was the only one there that morning I was able to enjoy prolonged views undisturbed, it was even singing, which I never quite imagined I would hear in Hong Kong!

Booted Warbler

Fung Lok Wai seems to be reed warbler heaven, with numerous Black-browed Reed Warblers wintering, I also saw an Oriental Reed Warbler amongst them. At least two Manchurian Reed Warblers were also seen, this species rarely winters in Hong Kong, but given the amount of reed warblers around the area I can't say I am at all surprised. This particular one was ringed from somewhere.

Manchurian Reed Warbler

The area also host a good selection of common species, including many singing Yellow-bellied Prinia, where this unusually warm January seems to have triggered them into song already. Dusky Warblers were in no short supplies, you very well may see one every ten metres along the fish ponds here.

Yellow-bellied Prinia

Dusky Warbler

Its always worth scanning for other warblers when you have a good number of one species, and you may just find something good amongst them. This was the case here at Fung Lok Wai, as it seems at least two Chiffchaffs have taken up residence here with the Dusky Warblers. They were not particularly easy to track down, but once you see it you can tell immediately that it is not a Dusky Warbler, simply by its more delicate looking dark bill, along with the black legs. The default Chiffchaffs we get in Hong Kong are Siberian Chiffchaffs, although potentially we may get Mountain Chiffchaffs as well, that is currently not on the Hong Kong list. While the best way to differentiate them should be by call, unfortunately the one I saw did not vocalise.

Chiffchaff - a rarity in Hong Kong

Other notable birds at Fung Lok Wai includes two Purple Herons, numerous Black-faced Buntings and a single Pacific Swift flying amongst the House Swifts.

Purple Heron

Black-faced Bunting

Pacific Swift

Over at Kadorie Farm, a male Thick-billed Green Pigeon was reported by KFBG staff. It was feeding on a Big-leaved Fig, it supposedly showed extremely well on Sunday. I went on Monday and fortunately caught up with it for a few minutes before it flew off and disappeared for the rest of the day! It seems that it finished all the nice figs and maybe moving onto other trees, while there were plenty of Superb Figs still in the area, it didn't seem to like them very much.

Thick-billed Green Pigeon - male

Closer to home at Tai Mei Tuk Catchment, the single male Bay Woodpecker stayed on in the area, this time I finally got some record shots of it. Despite not being very rare now, Bay Woodpeckers are super tricky to get photos of.

Bay Woodpecker - male

Another bird that stayed through this winter was the juvenile Grey-backed Shrike, and now its starting to moult into sub-adult plumage, it is much more apparent what it really is. This leads me to believe that many more juvenile Grey-backed Shrikes may have been overlooked in the past as Brown Shrikes. Hopefully with more being more confident in identifying juvenile Grey-backed Shrikes, we can really understand whether they are truly being under reported.

Grey-backed Shrike - assuming sub-adult plumage

I was hoping for Greenish or Hume's Warblers along the catchment, but only managed a few Two-barred Warblers along with the common Yellow-browed and Pallas's Warblers.

Two-barred Warbler

Finally, I managed to connect with the long staying Cinnamon Bittern at Tai Mei Tuk! Although I live very close-by, and I do check that particular pond regularly, I have not seen this individual throughout this winter despite several birders reported it. Turns out I was just very unlucky before, as this very confiding individual was out in the open as soon as I checked this pond after my morning walk at the catchment. I don't see adult like this right out in the open very often, so I was very glad to finally see it and get some nice photos to remember it by.

Cinnamon Bittern