Breeding White-faced Plover, AGAIN!

Having found breeding White-faced Plovers at my survey site two years before, I have always kept my eyes peeled for this rare wader in the area. June to July seems to be a good time to look for this species, and this is the 3rd consecutive year I have found them here during the summer months, and the second time they have been found breeding. They seem to prefer sandy substrate with some pebbles and slightly wet ground, they almost always steer clear of areas that are too well vegetated. This year I found a female with two chicks, although they were quite alert and kept a safe distance from me. 

White-faced Plover - Note the extensive white on inner primaries and the white tail

White-faced Plover - juvenile

White-faced Plover looks very similar to Kentish Plovers, females are not always easy to tell apart, they do seem to have slightly richer colour on the crown and ear covert, a slightly larger bill, and legs are pinkish instead of a darker greenish grey. Having recorded them on 3 consecutive summers, I do wonder if this species is overlooked in other suitable sites around Hong Kong.

White-faced Plover - adult female

Kentish Plover - adult female

Also in the area were a few returning Greater Sand Plovers and lots of Oriental Pratincoles, many of which are juveniles.

Greater Sand Plover - juvenile

Oriental Pratincole - juvenile

I haven't been out at night that much, an evening out with Chester and his family at Tai Po Kau yielded two young Many-banded Kraits, I have found these young kraits to look the most attractive, as this is the life stage when their bandings have the most contrast.

Many-banded Krait - juvenile

A very cooperative adult Mock Viper was also wonderful to see, even though they are a common forest species, I've always been fond of them, each of them have so much character!

A friendly Mock Viper

Other than that, it was just the normal cast of Günther's Frog and Hong Kong Whipping Frogs (known locally as Brown Tree Frogs) to fill in the gaps in between the snakes.

Günther's Frog

Hong Kong Whipping Frog

Mid Summer Observations

Work and numerous things had kept me from birding during the day, the last time I went out for birding was earlier in the month at Tai Tong, I was looking for the Malayan Night Heron that had been reported there on a few occasions previously but couldn't connect. Things were pretty quiet otherwise, the only interesting bird I got was a lone Plain Flowerpecker which gave good views. A male Hainan Blue Flycatcher also showed briefly, while many common forest species were not so cooperative, a few very shy Streak-breasted Scimitar Babblers allowed a photo through the trees.

Plain Flowerpecker

Hainan Blue Flycatcher - male

Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler

Other than birds, I went out several times for night walks, although I couldn't say they were particularly successful. One of the most common and widespread snake is probably the Brahminy Blind Snake, most people will likely dismiss them as worms instead of snake, I chanced upon this individual on the trail at night. I also found four different Mock Vipers in one night at Tai Po Kau, they are diurnal and often curled around trees at night.

Brahminy Blind Snake

Mock Viper

It was the National Moth Week last week, so we 'celebrated' by joining one of the mothing session with Dr. Roger Kendrick with fairly good results, here are some of the moths we saw.

Ambulyx sericeipennis

Saroba pustulifera

Genus Parotis

Notarcha tigrina

Paracymoriza vagalis

Neogurelca hyas

One of the best moth was this yet to be described moth from genus Coenodomus, it's bizarre looking antenna certainly makes it an interesting moth to look at. My personal favourite though was this beautiful looking Euplocia membliaria, a very uncommon moth in Hong Kong with only a handful of previous records.

Genus Coenodomus

Euplocia membliaria

Other insects of interest of the night includes a sleeping Idionyx victor. A water beetle from the genus Cybister which constantly crashed into the lights kept us entertained, I seldomly see them out of water. While the most impressive was probably this male Xylotrupes gideon, or the Brown Rhinoceros Beetle, an impressive creature with sharp claws to help it grip on trees, but can also grip tightly on ones skin...

Idionyx victor

Genus Cybister

Xylotrupes gideon

Finally, I end my post with this impressive Oleander Hawk Moth I found at home, they are always impressive to see no matter how many times I've seen them.

Oleander Hawk Moth

Spring Rhapsody - More Night Adventures

Romer's Tree Frog - True Hong Kong endemic

I haven't had much time during the day lately, a lot of work and things had been very busy in general. My weekends are also now pretty much occupied, leading two art in nature workshops on Saturday for HKBWS. Plus side is that they are held in Long Valley and San Tin respectively, so I do get to see some birds, but not many. Last week at Long Valley things were pretty quiet except for three Oriental Pratincoles and a few fly-by Painted Snipes.

Oriental Pratincole - catching a fly

So, with day time gone, I had to turn to night time! Went up to Tai Po Kau yet again with Hoi Ling, David and Bee Yu for a night walk on Thursday night. Things started off well and we were seeing quite a lot of fireflies, including this juvenile by the road side. Things were pretty good on the insect department, with plenty of beetles to see.

Firefly sp.

Mimela testaceoviridis

Chlaenius bioculatus

Paracalais larvatus

There were also a lot stick-insects, including these Neohirasea stick-insects, I am not very good with their species though...Also an unknown Moth that look quite nice. Plenty of spiders around, including this Heteropoda venatoria.

Neohirasea sp.

Unknown Moth

Heteropoda venatoria

We spotted two species of Geckos, including the Bowring's Gecko which is suppose to be the most common species in Hong Kong (although I disagree and think Chinese Gecko is way more common), and also the Chinese Gecko which can be found in good numbers around the public toilet.

Bowring's Gecko

Chinese Gecko

We did OK on the reptiles department, first Hoi Ling spotted a juvenile Mock Viper sitting on some leafs just beside the footpath. This one was pretty small, it's colours are still quite dark, whereas adults usually have quite washed out colours. Hoi Ling didn't take any chance with this little fella this time....Even further ahead, David found us a beautiful Many-banded Krait! This highly venomous snake are usually quite slow moving and not very aggressive, but being related to the cobras they have one of the deadliest bites in Hong Kong, their neurotoxins can cause death if left untreated...Not a snake you want to cuddle with.

Mock Viper - a juvenile with a lot of character

Many-banded Krait -

 it was very timid and tried to hide

These were all dandily, but our main objective of the night were not snakes nor insects, but a tiny amphibian species known as the Romer's Tree Frog. This is a species of great interest, in that it is our only true Hong Kong endemic amphibian to date! (Hong Kong Newts, Hong Kong Cascade Frogs and the Short-legged Toads are all just near endemics) Spotting these frogs that are just as big as my thumbnails weren't easy on the forest floor, but luckily their breeding season had just begun, and we found them at suitable spawning sites with no trouble at all! 

This species was discovered on Lamma Island back in 1952 near a cave by John D. Romer, but when the cave collapsed in 1953 the only known population at the time disappeared, leading some to fear that the only population might have died out. It wasn't until 1984 that these tiny frogs were rediscovered again on Lamma Island, and later on Lantau and Po Toi Island.

Romer's Tree Frog - diagnostic back patterns

They gained a lot of attention back in 1990 when the new airport at Chek Lap Kok was going to destroy part of a known site for this rare amphibian, actions were taken and the population were reintroduced to various sites thought suitable for them in New Territories. It was extremely fortunate that the reintroduction were successful and these amazing frogs can live on! Here at Tai Po Kau we counted at least 10 frogs in a small area, with more calling males heard around us, we even got the chance to witness a pair spawning in a small pool! An absolutely amazing encounter!

A calling male

Spawning pair, notice how much bigger the female is compare to the male!

We went back down to the car park feeling contented and happy, and what better way to end this with a good old Brown Tree Frog?

Brown Tree Frog