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...

Wildlife During Busy Times

Since Hoiling and I have been very busy with our exhibition at TKO Plaza, I've barely had anytime out birding or even just looking for animals for that matter. The only time we visited Lung Fu Shan was for work, the usual amphibians lineup were present, including very vocal Short-legged Horned Toads, lots of singing male Green Cascade Frogs, and a few Lesser Spiny Frogs.

Short-legged Horned Toad

Green Cascade Frog

Lesser Spiny Frog

If you ever visit Lung Fu Shan, it is almost impossible not to see Asian Common Toads as well as the invasive Greenhouse Frogs, both readily seen away from the streams.

Asian Common Toad

Greenhouse Frog

We had two encounter with what I believe to be the same Porcupine on the same night, it simply walked along the path in front of us, seemingly guiding us along the footpath, it will occasionally turn around as if to check if we are still following. A pair of Wild Boars made themselves very comfortable in the sandpit that is suppose to be a toilet for dogs.

East Asian Porcupine

Wild Boar

Closer to home, we explored a cave that we never been into. Turns out it is one of the larger bat colony in the area, we saw a couple of species inside and couple of hundreds of bats. One of the most numerous being Great Roundleaf Bats, they are the largest insectivore bats in Hong Kong.

Great Roundleaf Bat

The most numerous bat species in the cave though was the Leschenault's Rousette, this fruit bat species is the largest bat in Hong Kong, with wingspan over 40cm. They are one of our main seed disperser of various Ficus species. 

Leschenault's Rousette

Other smaller species of bats includes the Pomona or Anderson's Leaf-nosed Bat, depending on which taxonomy you follow. I find them to be the cutest of the Leaf-nosed Bats, with their disproportionately large ears.

Anderson's Leaf-nosed Bat

There were also some Rhinolophus species, after consulting others it seems we saw at least two species, these were Intermediate Horseshoe Bats and Least Horseshoe Bats. 

Intermediate Horseshoe Bat

Least Horseshoe Bat

Other wildlife of interest near home seen recently includes a lovely male Prosopocoilus biplagiatus and a female Xylotrupes socrates. Both impressive looking in their own rights.

Prosopocoilus biplagiatus

Xylotrupes socrates

As for birds, other birders are now starting to see some early autumn migrants coming through, such as Sanderlings, Red-necked Stints, Yellow-rumped Flycatchers and Amur Paradise Flycatchers etc. I haven't had the time to do any proper birding, but a short stroll along Ting Kok beach yielded a distant Greater Sand Plover which I did not bother photographing, a Whimbrel was a nice surprise, this is a first for me here, although I have seen Curlews here in the past. Our local Collared Crows were of course present and foraging a long the beach as usual.

Whimbrel

Collared Crow