Late Winter Birds - Scaly-sided Merganser revisited

Since my Vietnam trip I have been catching up on work mainly, therefore not that much time spent on birding myself except for tours. The only bird that I went back for again myself was the Scaly-sided Merganser at Tai Tong, it stayed on for a long while and provided brilliant views for almost anyone who cared to go. On my third try I finally got some closer views as it came to the rapids to feed, it is truly a special bird to see in Hong Kong, to see it up close was even more brilliant! On the day I visited I waited for 5 and a half hours until it came over to feed, but it was worth the wait.

Scaly-sided Merganser - female

Despite it having a broken lower mandible, the Merganser's been observed to be feeding fine, a Little Egret even learn to follow it around to try snatch the fish off. It was very entertaining to see it diving in and out of the rapids, I was completely mesmerised by its ability to dive through the quick flowing water, you can see that it was truly in its elements when it was fishing along this stretch of river.

Scaly-sided Merganser with its 'friend', a Little Egret

Truly in its elements

Occasionally it will rest around the quieter waters, even swimming very close to shore. You can clearly see how its tongue hangs out from the bottom of the lower mandible. Despite the injury I am glad this bird is doing well, hopefully it will soon depart to head back to its breeding grounds.

Scaly-sided Merganser - potentially one of the best bird of 2023!

Other notable birds at Tai Tong include a flock of very confiding Greater Necklaced Laughingthrushes, just feeding by the side of the road absolutely unbothered by anyone passing by. The same goes to numerous Tristram's Buntings along the road, which were simply a joy to photograph.

Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush

Tristram's Bunting - female

Over at Tai Po Kau, I only connected with most of the common species, with the exception of a Rufous-faced Warblers one day which left me with no photographs. Nonetheless, Tai Po Kau is always enjoyable and even seeing the common species can be a lot of fun.

Black-throated Laughingthrush

Yellow-cheeked Tit - female

Rufous-capped Babbler

Great Barbet - now calling constantly...

Grey-headed Canary Flycatchers seems fairly uncommon this winter, I've only seen one around. The flowering coral trees are now attracting a lot of birds, including the always splendid Greyish-crowned Leafbirds, plus the usual Fork-tailed Sunbirds.

Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher

Greyish-crowned Leafbird - male

Fork-tailed Sunbird - male & female

Over towards Mai Po, sights of Oriental Storks flying around seems to be a regular sight this winter, with at least a dozen staying around the reserve and nearby areas. It doesn't make them any less breathtaking to see, especially when they decide to soar right above your head.

Oriental Stork

Deep Bay area is probably one of the best place to see wintering raptors in Hong Kong, such as Greater Spotted Eagle and Eurasian Kestrel, both seen at San Tin. Eastern Marsh Harriers are of course easiest around Mai Po, while the female Pied Harrier is still present around San Tin area, although takes a bit of luck if you want to see it up close.

Greater Spotted Eagle

Eurasian Kestrel

Eastern Marsh Harrier

Pied Harrier - long staying female

Yellow-fronted Canary is a regular sight at Mai Po, especially along the access road, you can often hear them singing in the trees above you, but occasionally they will come down to feed. Prinias are now getting easier to see as spring approaches, here a Plain Prinia sitting out in the open. Little Buntings are fairly easy to locate around fish ponds such as Tai Sang Wai and Ma Tso Lung alike. Around the fish ponds it is not unusual to see Black-faced Spoonbills at close range.

Yellow-fronted Canary

Plain Prinia

Little Bunting

Black-faced Spoonbill

This is a good time to look at Wagtails and Pipits around the dried fish ponds, I found a few lugens White Wagtails amongst he many leucopsis and ocularis, you can see some dark patches on the shoulder and mantle. Eastern Yellow Wagtails almost always pose nicely for photos, but you may find a Citrine Wagtail amongst them if you are lucky, such as this one at Ma Tso Lung. Scanning Richard's Pipit is always a good habit, even though we usually don't end up with anything other than Richard's...

White Wagtail - lugens

Eastern Yellow Wagtail - taivana

Citrine Wagtail

Richard's Pipit

The male Bluethroat at Tai Sang Wai is still around, while several other can be seen in the same area, nothing quite as bold as this brilliant looking male. Another long staying bird is the drake Ferruginous Duck at San Tin, still lingering on with the small flock of Tufted Ducks.

Bluethroat - male

Ferruginous Duck - still around

Theres been an Olive-backed Sunbird around Shek Kong Airfield, I went past the flowering tree when it wasn't present, but wasn't too bothered by its absence. The nice looking male Red-flanked Bluetail is still around, while numerous Yellow-billed Grosbeaks can often be found along the gully. Crested Goshawks are also regulars in the area. THE best bird for me there was no doubt a Eurasian Jay, which flew over my head as I was leading a birding workshop! No photo for that one, but it was quite a nice view and a long awaited bird to add onto my Hong Kong list, which now stands at 503.

Red-flanked Bluetail - male

Yellow-billed Grosbeak - male

Crested Goshawk

Still not a lot of movements in terms of spring migrants, weather been way too dry and cool for spring, but I believe we should start seeing some movements in the coming week or two.

Birdy Fish Ponds

While Mai Po Nature Reserve is arguably the best birding spot in Hong Kong, there are plenty of wetlands outside of Mai Po that can be very productive during the migration. Fung Lok Wai is one of the areas that I've come to really like, the overgrown fishponds in the area provides a lot of cover for reed warblers, this is likely one of the best place in Hong Kong to look for Manchurian Reed Warblers, as I found two there just one morning. One of them was relatively showy, although still incredibly difficult to get any clear photos with nothing in the way.

Manchurian Reed Warbler

Oriental Reed Warblers and Black-browed Reed Warblers can both be found here with relative ease, there's almost at least one Black-browed Reed Warbler in every patch of tall grass. Dusky Warblers were in even higher numbers, they were simply everywhere you look, with one almost every few metres, with this many of them, it gives you a lot of chances to get good photographs of at least one of them.

 

Oriental Reed Warbler

Black-browed Reed Warbler

Dusky Warbler

Other interesting birds in the area includes a female Plaintive Cuckoo, the Pheasant-tailed Jacana is still around, although still incredibly difficult to approach and often fly off way before you are anywhere close to it. Eurasian Coots are not that common in Hong Kong anymore, but can still be found here relatively easily. Four Amur Falcons drifted through high up, this species is often very on time when it comes to migration.

Plaintive Cuckoo

Pheasant-tailed Jacana

Eurasian Coot

Amur Falcon

The tall grass also attracted plenty of buntings, I had at least two Chestnut-eared Buntings along the track, while several flocks of Yellow-breasted Buntings came through, mostly seen inflight, but quite a few came down to feed on the ground as well, including several lovely looking males.

Chestnut-eared Bunting

Yellow-breasted Bunting - male

San Tin is another good areas of fish ponds, the area also attracts a good numbers of buntings, including Black-faced Buntings, several Yellow-breasted Buntings, a few Little Buntings and Chestnut-eared Buntings. With this many buntings around, I can only imagine how good it will be to be in Long Valley!

Black-faced Bunting

Yellow-breasted Bunting - female

Little Bunting

Chestnut-eared Bunting

A half drained fish pond attracted plenty of waders, including a few Spotted Redshanks and many Common Greenshanks. A small flock of Eurasian Teals also decided to drop in here. Other than the three species of Reed Warblers (Manchurian, Black-browed and Oriental), Zitting Cisticolas can also be found in the tall grass, but often not as skulky.

Spotted Redshank

Common Greenshank

Eurasian Teal

Zitting Cisticola

The best bird for me at San Tin was a Japanese Quail, there seems to be a good number of these around at the moment, with several reported at various locations. Its been a while since I got a photographable one, so I was quite happy to catch a glimpse of this one before it ran off to the side of the road and not to be seen again!

Japanese Quail

Along Tam Kon Chau Road I had a Pied Harrier, it flew in quite close but completely caught me off guard! So I had completely wrong settings on my camera, luckily I was able to salvage a few shots from the burst of photos that I took.

Pied Harrier

Tai Sang Wai is becoming increasingly popular amongst photographers, so birding there is now much less enjoyable. That being said, there are still some good birds there, most notably a Japanese Quail, although I didn't see it while I was there as there were too many people on the road...A rather friendly Chestnut-eared Bunting though was more obliging to show.

Chestnut-eared Bunting

There were a few interesting birds around, but none were too photo friendly, including a rather distant Black-winged Kite and several species of waders on a drained fish pond. The only note worthy bird was a single Common Starling, which I think is quite an early bird, only 4 days shy of being the earliest recorded in autumn.

Common Starling

There were up to five Red Bishops along the fish ponds, being very colourful these birds naturally attracted tons of photographers...Although I am quite concerned about how these birds got there in the first place. These are no doubt released caged birds, but I suspect these may have been released on purpose by photographers rather than from mercy releases, as most mercy releases only happen during certain festivals. If this is the case, I find this a rather tasteless practice that should not be encouraged, not only does this encourage to buy birds from the bird trade which may include wild caught birds, but releasing caged birds can lead to bird flu getting spread to wild birds or even worst create invasive species that fight for resources with our native birds...'Luckily', they only seems to sell males at the bird market due to popular demand, as females are drab and not desirable, so there is very little chance that these exotics will establish themselves in Hong Kong.

Red Bishop - male