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!
