It's Amour! - Amur Falcons and a bit more

"What did you saw today?" My Father casually asked me while he was taking off his shoes as he arrived home. I didn't say a word, but grinned from ear to ear. I think at the moment he knew what I saw.

Amur Falcon - adult male

My day started early at Tai Sang Wai, it was quite a chilly day and I was hoping to catch a few Amur Falcons waking up. The road into the fish ponds were forever bumpy, I stopped at a fish pond with a lot of hawking hirundines. A falcon caught my eye, and I thought that was it! And looking through my bins had me cursing loudly...yet another Kestrel! I later saw the same bird on the way out and it raised my hopes up again...fooled me once shame on you, fooled me twice shame on me...

Eurasian Kestrel - male

It was too early to work my heavy lens to take any flying shots of the many hirundines present, but I found a rope where they were roosting so I settled with that instead. Barn Swallows were obviously the most common one. Red-rumped Swallows were in good numbers as well. A few Pale Martins also joined in, but only a few out of over a hundred birds perched with the other swallows. I failed to locate any Northern House Martins that John Holmes reported the day before, but there were quite a few Asian House Martins present.

Barn Swallow

Red-rumped Swallow

Pale Martin & Barn Swallows

Commoner birds such as White-breasted Waterhen were actively doing their favourite activity; road crossing. A confiding Richard's Pipit posed well for a decent photo.

White-breasted Waterhen

Richard's Pipit

Tai Sang Wai was not producing anything new, so I decided to move on and headed to Lok Ma Chau. The lily pond where I saw the Pheasant-tailed Jacana had been dug up. Bad news for the Jacanas and Watercocks but good news for the Egrets, a few dozens congregated there. All of our common egrets were there, which yielded a shot with Little, Intermediate and Great Egret standing together. With this many egrets congregating there were bound to be some arguments, two Intermediate Egrets got into a proper fight, the loser was easy enough to identify. To my surprise, three Black-faced Spoonbills landed and roosted with the egrets, one of them was clearly a young bird, probably a first year?

One shot with three egret species - Intermediate, Little and Great

Intermediate Egret - fights can get quite messy...

A young Black-faced Spoonbill amongst Little Egrets

There wasn't a lot of birds at Lok Ma Chau, I saw a single Lesser Coucal as well as a few Blue Magpies but none of them stayed long enough for a photo. A large bird perched on a telephone pole caught my attention, a quick look revealed it to be a Crested Serpent Eagle! Although not rare, to see one perched at close range is still not an everyday thing! I enjoyed excellent view for the next 10 minutes or so, really appreciating it's majestic stance. On my way out I saw another juvenile circling above, which didn't look like the same bird.

Crested Serpent Eagle - majestically perched

Crested Serpent Eagle - juvenile in flight

Long Valley was up next. Teals were in good numbers, all the males are in eclipse at the moment. There were quite a lot of Yellow-breasted Buntings, but again they were quite shy. The mythical Black-headed Buntings were again a no show for me. Tree Sparrows were in good numbers as well, but I couldn't locate any other sparrows amongst the flocks. I spotted a single Eurasian Skylark which fed quietly and nearly avoided any kind of attention.

Eurasian Teal

Tree Sparrow

Eurasian Skylark

Right at where I was watching the skylark, I spotted four falcons circling high above. They were surely Amur Falcons, they were miles off but still managed to pick up the diagnostic features of pale underwings and darker trailing tertiaries. I was happy to have spotted them but was feeling kind of unsatisfied with such distant views.

Amur Falcons - passing through high up

The other bird that I couldn't get any satisfied views or photos of were the many Black-browed Reed Warblers that skulked the tall grass. I knew how many were in there by their calls, you see glimpses of fleeting views of a part of the bird every so often, but you can never see the whole bird. After at least thirty minutes of trying I at least managed a record shot of one. I bumped into Yuen at Long Valley and chatted with him shortly, congratulating him of his amazing juvenile Amur Falcon shots the day before, those made me real envious! A single Red-rumped Swallow perched on the wire saw me off. While I was having lunch I also bumped into David Chan while eating lunch at the Tofu factory, whom also managed to catch up with the high flying Amurs.

Black-browed Reed Warbler

Red-rumped Swallow

For the afternoon, I spent a good few hours guiding a large group from two primary schools to Shek Kong Airfield Road. Unfortunately there wasn't much seen during the tour, possibly because there were too many students at one time, but in general the birds (especially common ones) did not want to show! This was however made up for with a few Amur Falcons drifting pass, which allowed me to share with them the stories of their amazing migration route from North East China all the way to South Africa. So, all in all it wasn't too bad.

Observing an Amur Falcon with the birding group

It was already 4:15pm when the tour was over. The remaining day light should not be wasted! So, I decided to try my luck at Wo Sang Wai, the flat area with fish ponds and many overhead wires provides a great roosting spots for Amur Falcons, or so I hoped...I arrived at around 5:00pm, and scanned the wires and sky constantly, but had little luck at first.

By 5:15pm it was getting darker, so I thought my luck had ran out and was ready to leave, when I suddenly spotted a falcon flying towards me! I quickly got out of my car but the falcon never stopped, I saw it landed too far away for any real chance to relocate it. Just as I groaned and thought I blew my only chance, I spotted a silhouette of a bird smaller then a dove perched on an overhead wire nearby. An Amur Falcon indeed! I got even more excited when I saw that it was an adult male!

Amur Falcon - looking rather tired out when it first landed

Completely overjoyed I quickly got back in the car and snuck up to the bird, it was probably too tired to care for a crazy guy snapping away his camera at it. I enjoyed excellent close-up views for up to 10 minutes before it finally had enough of me and flew to a wire a little further away. A dream come true for me that at last I had one sitting on the wire!

the red bill and feet showing well at close range

As I left, I looked at this little raptor one last time, simply amazing to think that this little fella is able to fly all the way to South Africa on it's own and back every single year of it's life. What an incredible journey that must be and that it had probably seen way more in a single journey then I possibly would in my entire life time. I was suddenly more envious of the bird itself.

Franklin's Gulls and a bit more - One day at Mai Po

A Saturday free must not be wasted, this morning saw me arriving at Mai Po at around 9:30am. I arrived much earlier then the predicted tide as I didn't want to miss anything, most notably the pair of Franklin's Gulls that had been sticking around. Months ago I saw the Franklin's at Deep Bay, it had been seen on and off since then. Only a few weeks ago however did birders suddenly realise there were in fact TWO of this mega rarity! Whether it was one and was joined later by the other or were there a pair all along will remain a bit of a mystery, but it's very unlikely that I will see two of this rare vagrant at the same time in Hong Kong again if I miss these two.

Franklin's Gull - the pair of American vagrant

First bird I saw was one of the now resident pair of Asian Barred Owlets along the access path past AFCD warden's post. It wasn't difficult to pick out and allowed quite good views. Not a bad start to the day at all!

Asian Barred Owlet - one of the most easily seen Owl species in Hong Kong

I was soon sitting at the new bird hide out at Deep Bay mud flat. Not a lot to see as the tide was still way out, so I took some time looking at fiddlers crabs and mud skippers; both staples for the numerous waders at here. They are themselves quite entertaining to watch, especially the mudskippers. They are quite territorial and will fight over good burrows, where you will see them "waving their flags" as a warning display to scare off any potential rivals. If the warning is ignored they will engage in mud wrestling.

Fiddlers Crab

Mudskippers

A few birds showed up later on, mostly common waders including Greater Sand Plovers, Grey Plovers, Whimbrels and Terek Sandpipers. They kept me well entertained. A few Grey-tailed Tattlers were also feeding close to the bird hide, this is a typical migrant wader here in Hong Kong, it's the right time to see them right now.

Greater Sand Plover

Grey Plover

Whimbrel

Terek Sandpiper

Grey-tailed Tattler

One of the most unusual sighting of the day, a Purple Heron flew out from the mangroves and landed right on the mud-flat. This species rarely ventures out from cover, so I wasn't too sure what this one was planning on doing, it certainly looked out of place. Gull-billed Terns were still in good numbers, a few show-off their aerobatic skills in front of the hide, snatching up food from the ground in mid-flight. There were still a few Caspian Terns around, but most have already moved on.

Purple Heron - an unusual setting for this species

Gull-billed Tern

Caspian Tern

A few Ruddy Turnstones came close to the bird hide, this is another passage migrant wader. A colourful species (waders standard), they certainly are eye-catching. They look for little snails in the mud and swallows them whole.

Ruddy Turnstone

A pair of Pied Kingfisher kept flying about, the male kept giving the female "gifts", so no doubt they are a breeding pair. This behaviour is not uncommon amongst birds, it's safe to say that birds do understand romance. It's a shame I missed the moment the male delivered the fish to the female, but as you can see, it was quite a big gift, it took the female a few tries to swallow it whole.

Pied Kingfisher

As the tide came closer, smaller waders became more visible. Curlew Sandpipers, which most have now transformed into their rufous breeding plumage are easy to pick out from the crowd. A few Long-toed Stints fed along the waterline. Red-necked Stints also gathered to feed along with Broad-billed Sandpipers. I picked up a single Sanderling amongst the group, it's very "white" compare to other small waders.

Curlew Sandpiper

Long-toed Stint

Red-necked Stint

Broad-billed Sandpipers

Flock of smaller waders

Sanderling

A Little Tern came by shortly. I have always liked this tiny tern, as with all terns they are quite elegant, yet they have this kind of playfulness to their character which makes them very likeable. 

Little Tern

Finally, my main target of the day. The pair of Franklin's didn't disappoint, although staying quite far, this view was still much better then my last, and to see two at the same time was incredible! They are now moulting into their breeding plumage, so picking them out from the crowd was not that difficult. One of the Gull later took flight and circled around for quite some time, calling constantly. The pair soon flew off into the distance. I do wonder whether this pair will find their way home, even if they do stay, it's highly unlikely that they will find anywhere suitable for nesting here in Hong Kong...

Franklin's Gull - now assuming breeding plumage

Franklin's Gull - in flight

A strange looking large Gull was terrorising other birds, can't quite figure out what exactly it is but it seems to be some type of hybrid? It surely got a bad temper though as it chased the egrets around trying to snatch the fish out of one of the egret's beak. A big bully indeed. Other egrets and the remaining Spoonbills couldn't care less and was focusing on a feeding frenzy. 

Hybrid Gull?

Black-faced Spoonbills & Egrets - feeding frenzy!

I headed back out to the scrapes, passing the Great Egret colony once again. They seems to be doing quite well, there seems to be a few chicks in the nests. I saw quite a few carrying nesting materials back to the colony as well. The displaying egrets are always fun to watch.

Great Egret - "surely you know you are not a peacock?"

The waders weren't particularly close at scrape 16/17, I did manage to spot a Nordmann's Greenshank but it was too far for any decent photographs. There were however quite a lot of Pale Martins feeding along the pond. As I was photographing the Martins I saw a small swift amongst the flock, a quick look reveal it to be a Himalayan Swiftlet! I have a much better look this time and even managed a few record shot of this quick species.

Pale Martin

Himalayan Swiftlet 

The Pacific Golden Plovers at the scrape weren't particularly close, but their beautiful breeding plumage sure make them stand out from the crowd. There were a flock of Red-necked Stints there but was scared off by a Black Kite before I have time to scan through them for any possible Spoonbilled Sandpipers...Later on my way out I saw a pair of Little Grebes, a closer look reveals that it was a parent tending to it's young.

Pacific Golden Plover

Little Grebe - juvenile

On my way out at Mai Po Access Road, Whiskered Terns filled up the skies above the fish ponds. It's such a typical view this time of the year. I spotted one or two Little Terns along with them. And they provided a wonderful ending to such a fulfilling day.

Whiskered Tern

Little Tern