Spoon-billed Sandpiper - Late Spring, Early Summer

Spring migration is slowly trailing off after the first week of May, although all eyes were on the scrape at Mai Po as a critically endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper made an appearance, this species although still regularly recorded in Hong Kong annually, is becoming a rare sight these days. Upon hearing the news of this one found on the scrape, I hurried over to Mai Po, and was delighted to find it feeding amongst Red-necked Stints. The Spoon-billed Sandpiper wasn't particularly close to the hide, but just seeing this globally rare bird is a treat on any given day. This individual was apparently tagged last year in Russia, hopefully it will make its way safely back to the breeding grounds.

Spoon-billed Sandpiper amongst Red-necked Stints

Spoon-billed Sandpiper

Other waders on the scrape includes numerous Sharp-tailed Sandpipers and a few other common species, two Pacific Golden Plovers assuming breeding plumage were quite eye-catching. A female Greater Painted Snipe also made an appearance into the open, Mai Po is easily the second best place to look for this species outside of Long Valley.

Pacific Golden Plover - assuming breeding plumage

Greater Painted Snipe - female

The Black-winged Stilts started breeding on the scrape again, they were especially aggressive towards any possible intruders or threat near their nests, a young Black-winged Kite came through and got chased off by them. It made a few rounds around the scrape and gave great views, provided plenty of photo opportunities.

Black-winged Stilt mobbing the Black-winged Kite

Black-winged Kite - juvenile

Tai Po Kau is home to increasing numbers of resident species, with Collared Owlet and Chinese Barbet now regularly seen or heard. Chinese Barbet has gotten much easier to see in the last two years, views are often rewarded if you are persistent enough to locate the bird through its distinctive call.

Chinese Barbet

Lesser Shortwing used to be quite rare to uncommon in Hong Kong, but now a widespread resident. However, it doesn't make them any easier to see or photograph. Was lucky to find this very vocal individual singing in the undergrowth, where I was able to get a few photos through gaps between the branches.

Lesser Shortwing

Brown-breasted Flycatcher is another species that was once a rarity, but now a regular summer visitor in Hong Kong, although I still consider them to be a scarce breeding species in the forests of Hong Kong. I successfully located this one along the forest stream at Tai Po Kau, the preferred habitat of this species.

Brown-breasted Flycatcher

Now is also the time to start our night walks again, we were very lucky to find a pair of Masked Palm Civets engaging in copulation at Lung Fu Shan, they were not at all bothered by our presence and we were able to observe this interesting behaviour for at least 10 minutes! We decided to let them get on with it and moved on, copulation of Masked Palm Civet is known to be able to last as long as thirty minutes.

Masked Palm Civet

A Warm January

January is usually the coldest month of the year, but this year it had been relatively warm, temperature rarely dropped below 10°C. Due to health reasons my birding activities had been kept to a minimal, as I could not venture too far, I've been itching to get up to Tai Po Kau with extremely good birds reported up there on a regular basis, but unfortunately it is out of the question for the time being...There are a few birds around which requires minimal walking distance to get to, one of them being a White-tailed Robin on 'show' at Lung Fu Shan, it was spotted by birders late December, but had since been fed meal worms by photographers. Most of the photographers had already been and gone by the time I went to investigate. The young bird was perched on the designated perch created by the photographers when I arrived, these types of setups make it so easy to get 'good' photographs, but certainly take the fun out of it...I was only there for 5 minutes before I got completely bored and left. This species is still a fairly rare winter visitor in Hong Kong, so by all means it's worth a look.

White-tailed Robin - a very obliging subject...

Red-flanked Bluetails and Daurian Redstarts are fairly common in winter, although Red-flanked Bluetail numbers certainly had seen a major decrease in recent winters, I am not sure why that is but perhaps milder winter is changing their migratory patterns.

Red-flanked Bluetail - female

Daurian Redstart - female

The Tristram's Buntings at Wonderland Villas had returned yet again, this time there were only two, but they're still absolute joy to see especially at your local patch. They are not shy either, often allowing quite close views.

Tristram's Bunting - a great bird to see as always

A naturalist never let anything stop them from going outside...Although I could not walk long distance for the time being, I still regularly venture outside to look for birds and other critters, spiders being one of my new favourites. There are always some spiders around us if you look closely, and you will be surprise at the variety you get in a small area.

Carrhotus sp.

Chrysilla acerosa - female

Cyclosa confusa

Parasteatoda songi

Lycosidae sp.

Castianeira hongkong

Thanatus hongkong

Finally, the best bird of the month for me so far, an Ashy Minivet at Mt. Davis. I was there to look for the Yellow-streaked Warbler with my dad, as he haven't seen it. We somehow dipped on that, but got a very surprising Ashy Minivet mixed in with a few Scarlet Minivets. Although this is a fairly common spring migrant, there are very few winter records of this species as far as I know.

Ashy Minivet - a fairly decent surprise

Hopefully I will recover by next month for more birding, not exactly the best start of 2019...

Hok Tau - Brown-breasted Flycatcher and More

Brown-breasted Flycatcher - a pleasant surprise

It's actually been quite a good summer in the birding department, with a few interesting birds to see here and there, I haven't even have time to visit the breeding terns yet! But hot weather doesn't usually help with outdoor excursions, you can only be outside for so long before feeling exhausted and just want to sit at home with fan pointing straight at you. So, I can only stick to early morning to escape the intense mid-day heat.

I gave Hok Tau another go this week, hoping to find a Piculet or two which had been elusive for me but showed for a few other birders. Things started off rather slow, a large flock of Scarlet Minivets were noted, lower down were Streak-breasted Scimitar Babblers and Rufous-capped Babblers, of which I only managed a shot of the latter. I noticed two flycatchers, which turned out to be juvenile Hainan Blue Flycatchers.

Rufous-capped Babbler

Hainan Blue Flycatcher - juvenile

I walked around the camp site with little success, but things improved immensely when I walked down to the stream, where I was greeted by the beautiful song of a Lesser Shortwing across the stream, as I went and investigate, I noticed a bird perched silently on a low branch, a flycatcher for sure, I first thought it was another Hainan Blue Flycatcher. On closer inspection however, it was clear that it was in fact a Brown-breasted Flycatcher! A bit scruffy looking, but a very nice bird to see! It was quite approachable and allowed fairly close views. This is the second bird I encountered in Hong Kong this summer, and the first time I've seen one at Hok Tau, so it's clearly a good sign.

Brown-breasted Flycatcher

I returned to the car park and heard the now familiar whistles of the Indochinese Green Magpie, this is now somewhat of a specialty at Pat Sin Leng Country Park, not exactly common but certainly becoming more widespread. I walked up the stairs and the calls got louder, there were quite a lot of movements, it was clear that it was a flock with more than just Magpies. A few Greater-necklaced Laughingthrushes were present, as well as Grey Treepies, but curiously I saw what I believe to be a Koel following the Laughingthrushes, as far as I know they are not known to parasitise Laughingthrushes, especially such a forested species such as Greater-necklaced!

I soon got glimpses of a few birds with Chestnut wings, the whistles got even louder. I stood there and wait, surely enough a brilliantly green bird with bright red bill hopped up right in front of me! I just managed a few photos through a gap between the branches. The Indochinese Green Magpies moved on soon after. Whether this species will impact the natural avifauna in Hong Kong is unclear, but it does seems that they have found a niche in the ecosystem and is here to stay. One thing is clear though, they are great looking birds!

Indochinese Green Magpie

During summer I probably spend more time outdoors at night than I do by day, and for good reasons...It's certainly not as hot, plus it's a good time to observe other creatures. I was at Lung Fu Shan with Hoiling earlier in the month, and we were fortunate enough to come across a Masked Palm Civet feeding on a Ficus variegata. Wild Boars were also very common around Lung Fu Shan, we saw plenty that night. Last but not least, a very confiding Short-legged Toad, a near endemic species that is quite common around the hill sides of Hong Kong Island, they are quite charismatic!

Masked Palm Civet

Wild Boar

Short-legged Toad

I will be off to West Java tomorrow for a few days of birding at Gunung Gede, hopefully the good weather we are having will be carried over to Indonesia.