A Duck, a Crane and a Duck!

Mandarin Duck - my best bird in 2017...so far!

Nathan Goldberg, a student studying at Cornell University contacted me months ago about visiting Hong Kong, this Saturday we finally got together for a day of birding. It was still dark when I picked him up from Kowloon and we drove straight to Tai Po Kau Park. This had became one of my favourite spot to start off a day's birding, especially with the ficus tree in fruit at the moment. We waited around the tree and Nathan got acclimated to the sounds of the forest in Hong Kong, we were of course also there for the Great Barbet; which showed very well, evidently the Barbets had became a local twitch for local birders and photographers alike, there were about 30 people below the tree by the time we leave.

Great Barbet - still plenty of food to go around

We started Tai Po Kau pretty well, connecting with a Pygmy Wren Babbler on the way up after 10 minutes of trying, the skulker gave fairly good views before melting back into the undergrowth. As Nathan managed to get a Mai Po permit for the day, we thought we would plough through Tai Po Kau quickly so we get enough time for the ramsar site in the afternoon. Things went pretty good for the short amount of time we were there, we hit our first mixed flock even before we got to the trail, White-bellied Epornis came close for a good look. The beautiful Silver-eared Mesias were as eye-catching as ever, a flock of these gave very good views.

White-bellied Epornis

Silver-eared Mesia

We encountered a few more feeding flocks when we got to the trail, connecting with nearly all of the "usual suspects" in Tai Po Kau. This itself is in fact not an easy task nowadays, as flocks are now much further apart and birds more disperse due to improvement of habitats elsewhere. Huet's Fulvettas showed well, along with Streak-breasted Scimitar Babblers, a male Yellow-cheeked Tits at close range stole the show, a few Mountain Bulbuls gave fairly good views as we cleaned up on the local Bulbuls! Grey-headed Canary Flycatchers were again quite active and showed extremely well.

Huet's Fulvetta

Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler

Yellow-cheeked Tit - male

Mountain Bulbul - one of the more "difficult" local bulbul species

Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher

On our way out I checked the Rhodoleia tree which had just started flowering, surely enough a pair of Orange-bellied Leafbirds were there. They perched motionlessly which made them difficult to detect at first, but you simply cannot take your eyes off once you locked onto them. This being one of Nathan's target bird here ended our Tai Po Kau visit perfectly.

Orange-bellied Leafbird - male

We decided to go for an early lunch before heading into Mai Po, before that we drove to Siu Lek Yuen close-by to check for a Mandarin Duck that was spotted the day before. Although I have seen them before I never seems to have much luck with this Hong Kong rarity in recent years. We arrived at the spot where a group of photographers were already there, but they didn't have the bird in view. So, we decided to walk along the river to see if we can spot the duck somewhere down stream. As we were walking Nathan suddenly exclaimed that he found the bird sitting along the bank! Mean while I was looking at the completely wrong distance, as Nathan spotted the duck nearly 300 meters away from where we were standing! Credits to him, and I probably need to get my eyes checked pretty soon...

Mandarin Duck - it's far, but definitely recognisable!

We arrived at Mai Po just past noon and Nathan got his permit without much trouble. Things started off slowly, but a few Plain Prinias were welcoming sight, a bit of pishing got a group very excited. Strangely enough they seems to be the very few birds in Hong Kong that reacts well to pishing.

Plain Prinia - pisssshhhh

We tried locating any Yellow Bitterns from the Education Centre but came up empty handed, although a flock of confiding Chinese Grosbeaks just outside were more then enough to make up for that.

Chinese Grosbeak - male top, female bottom

We reached pond 16/17 soon, hoping to find the Siberian Crane that had been around there lately, sure enough that was pretty much the first bird we saw as we sat down! Views were not great to begin with as the large bird stayed behind the reeds, but it later came out to the open for us to indulge spectacular views of this rare crane. It was awesome to be able to connect with this bird, and no doubt one of Nathan's target bird of this trip, good to have this species on my 2017 list as well!

Siberian Crane - the crown jewel of Mai Po right now

Another globally rare species at the scrape was of course Black-faced Spoonbills. They are in fact quite common in Hong Kong during winter, and it's easy for us to forget just how endangered they are still. Their numbers dropped below a thousand individuals back in 1980s, fortunately their numbers seems to be increasing again and the global population now estimated at around 3,000 individuals world wide. Good views of a few close to the bird hide was another highlight.

Black-faced Spoonbill

Other more common birds around...A few Garganeys were nice addition to our day list, White Wagtails showed well next to the hide, and an Eastern Buzzard flushed many of the ducks but failed to grab any. A Peregrine Falcon also tried for a few avocets at the far end of the scrape but seems to have failed.

Garganey

White Wagtail - leucopsis

Eastern Buzzard

We headed out to the boardwalk just in time before the tide came in. Good timing as well as the Black-capped Kingfisher came out and perched on one of the "kingfisher pole" for a good fifteen minutes or so for us to enjoy. (Sorry Jeff...if you're reading this!)

Black-capped Kingfisher - our most "elusive" of the four local Kingfishers

The tide came in a little bit earlier then anticipated, but in a rather disappointing fashion as most of the waders were either not in range or just not there! I scanned hard for any Nordmann's Greenshanks within a flock of Common Greenshanks without much success. Same went with Far-eastern Curlew which kind of broke my "there's always one in there" rule...A female Eastern Marsh Harrier came and flushed the waders a few times, but despite shifting positions we got very few new waders. A few Black-faced Spoonbills were feeding very close to the hide though. Matters were made worst by a large group of WWF tour filling every window space within the hide...Locating a few Saunder's Gull at the far end of the bay kind of made up for the lack of waders.

The disappointing flock of Greenshanks...

Eastern Marsh Harrier - flushing all the ducks

Black-faced Spoonbill

But, with Siberian Crane on our day list, we couldn't really complain about anything. On our way out we stopped by a few fish ponds to enjoy a flyby Black Kite and a perched White-breasted Kingfisher, which sums up our day perfectly as that completes our local kingfisher collection of the day!

Black Kite

White-throated Kingfisher

Since I only managed a crappy photo of the Mandarin Duck the day before, I decided to try for the duck again Sunday morning with my Dad. We got to Siu Lek Yuen just past 8:30am and didn't have much luck. The bird was not seen by anyone, everyone was looking for the bird along the river.

By 9:30am we thought that it was gone and headed back towards the car park, as I got to the bridge next to the car park I noticed a bird lurking beneath it in the shadows. Surely that's a Mandarin Duck! We quickly called a few birders back as they were about to leave and everyone got a pretty good look at the duck resting just below the bridge. It later started venturing out into the open and we ended up with a stunning view of the bird in great lighting! It's a shame this male is in moult...we can only hope that it sticks around a few more weeks and moult into the glorious drake that it can be!

Mandarin Duck - eclipse drake, and hopefully in full plumage soon!

2016 Birding Review

Another year gone, time for yet another annual review! 2016 been an interesting year for birds, probably the most American species I have seen here in a year, plus we received quite a few species that had been extremely high on my HK wish list! Many of them I've missed years ago, and finally ticking them off this year was truly amazing. Here is a list of some of my most memorable birds from 2016.

1. Siberian Crane - lifer & HK tick

This one is a no brainer, THE most exciting and indeed most spectacular bird of the year. This was especially special for me because I missed the bird in 2002 whereas my dad was one of the lucky few who saw the bird flew off into the distant and never return! The adult was with the juvenile for the first few days before the juvenile disappearing somewhere, the adult though had stayed on till the day of writing!

2. Red-throated Diver - HK tick

Another one that my dad had and I haven't, a long awaited tick for Hong Kong, this one at Lamma Island created quite a buzz in the birding community and a big twitch for everyone. The bird stayed for quite a while and was even later spotted near Aberdeen pier.

3. Chinese Barbet - HK tick

This increasingly common bird from Guangdong is making their first baby step in colonising Hong Kong, one that I will welcome with both arms stretched out! Stunning view of this calling barbet in spring had me feeling extremely sorry for this lonesome bird, being the first in Hong Kong you will have to work extra hard to find a mate.

4. Japanese Yellow Bunting

An incredible streak with this rare species, where I saw a pair at Long Valley on 25th of March and later on 28th of March at Mai Po! Usually seeing one was unusual enough, but seeing this many in a few days time was just over the top crazy.

5. Northern House Martin - HK tick

A new tick for me at the beginning of the year and I saw some more near the end of the year. Seems their numbers had increased significantly in recent years, wonder why...

6. American Wigeon - Lifer & HK tick

Quite an exciting dabbling duck to find in Hong Kong! This drake was well away out of it's natural range. A new tick for me and I hope it enjoyed it's vacation at Mai Po.

7. Franklin's Gulls

A strange year with this species, we first received our first one in November 2015, then suddenly two bird turned up at Deep Bay in April! Had some incredibly good views of the pair of American gulls one afternoon. Maybe next year they will come in flocks...

8. Plain Flowerpecker

Quite an interesting find for me, as according to many they have not been recorded in Hong Kong for many years. I heard their song in Taiwan during my January 2016 trip and recognised the call in Tai Po Kau, later I found that you can hear their calls throughout the forest! Clearly they have been under recorded as many birders were simply not familiar with their songs and calls. They became a bit of a local twitch for a while!

9. Russet Bush Warbler

Not exactly a rarity, but this species had been a bit elusive to me until this year. I could never get any decent view of this species before, you could be less then 3m away from the bird and you still won't see it! This year though I got more views then I could ever dream of, resulting in some pretty good photos as well!

10. Malayan Night Heron - HK tick

Another species I needed on my Hong Kong list badly, my dad had got this bird years ago already while they eluded. Finally, a juvenile was spotted at Yuen Long back in September and gave me this much needed tick.

11. Greater White-fronted Geese

We have been getting a lot of geese in recent years, and four Greater White-fronted Geese in one day were simply more then we asked for! Three of them stayed on and are still around San Tin!

12. Slender-billed Gull

This rare gull was not a lifer for me, but one that I've always wanted to see again as I never had the chance to get any record photos of it. This one at Deep Bay exceeded all expectations!

13. Amur Falcon - male

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Amur Falcons, simply my favourite raptor in Hong Kong! I've never seen one perched until this fine male! Simply breathtaking!

14. Buff-breasted Sandpiper - Lifer & HK tick

My last lifer of 2016, a great Christmas present for all birders in Hong Kong, this amazing vagrant was only the second Hong Kong record. The bird had stuck around until 2017!

15. Lesser Cuckoo - HK tick

A new tick for me this year, this was one of my better findings on Tai Mo Shan this year. This scarce cuckoo was not easy to see and I was lucky to find one perched on a distant tree, not the best of views but I am not complaining!

Honorable Mention:

Great Barbet

A commonly heard species in Hong Kong but very seldom seen, I've only seen them on a few occasions in the past. So, discovering a fruiting ficus tree that managed to attract seven at the same time was simply mind blowing for me. This finding had again led to a local twitch by many birders, seems like the mysterious air of this species had finally lifted!

Looking forward to more exciting birds this coming year!

Birding Weekend With An Old Friend

Little Bunting - One of John's lifers on this trip

It's always wonderful to have birding friends from abroad visiting Hong Kong, I love showing them places I usually go birding and to exchange birding experiences of different birds in another country. John Hansford had been a personal friend for 10 years, he had been extremely kind and showed me some of the best birds on his local patch back in Somerset when I was studying there, including Bramblings, Dippers and Northern Goshawks! He visited Hong Kong in 2014 for a business trip, and he is back this time for a short stopover before heading to China. So, naturally we got together for a birding weekend around Hong Kong!

After picking John up at 6:30am, we began our first day at Lok Ma Chau in perfect weather. Our first birds were a flock of starlings, mainly White-cheeked Starlings which John had missed on his last visit. A bit of excitement when John suddenly spotted a huge raptor that came our way in form of an adult Imperial Eagle! Giving us close fly-by view before disappearing behind the ridge! Further up the road another raptor was spotted, this time a perched Eastern Buzzard, they look much lighter then the Buzzards in the UK according to John. Later on we even had a Greater Spotted Eagle perched on a distant tree, really not a bad morning for raptors. We got some other common birds at Lok Ma Chau to warm things up for John and allow him to get use to our usual birds.

White-cheeked Starling

Imperial Eagle

Eastern Buzzard 

Greater Spotted Eagle

We headed over to Tai Sang Wai next, things were quiet and we mainly just had a few pipits and wagtails, an Eastern Yellow Wagtail provided confiding views in the car. Otherwise it was a little disappointing, so we decided to go get a big breakfast at San Tin before we head into Mai Po, at the car park outside the restaurant we picked up Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker.

Eastern  Yellow Wagtail - subspecies taivana

Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker

Heading into Mai Po I heard a strange but familiar call as we drove along, I stopped the car and soon picked up a dark bird singing on a roadside tree which turned out to be a Hill Myna! I have woke up to their calls on my trip to Sepilok, which explained why it sounded so familiar. This is likely an escaped, although it was still a nice experience seeing it outside. John got his permit at the WWF office and we headed into the reserve, on the way picking up a Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike at the Mai Po carpark, one of John's target bird! Further along we also got a handsome and confiding male Daurian Redstart. Cormorants now filled up every tree.

Hill Myna - singing it's heart out to a mate that probably won't hear it...

Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike - Another one of John's target bird

Daurian Redstart - male

Great Cormorant - wintering flocks have now taken over the trees at Mai Po

Right outside the AFCD warden's post were a flock of Black-faced Spoonbills, one of the main target at Mai Po, a few of them flew past and gave some amazing fly-by views at close range! A flock of confiding Pintails were our first ducks of the day. Along the concrete path we also added a few Black-faced Bunting, the female gave particularly great views.

Black-faced Spoonbill - one of the many present near the AFCD warden's post

Northern Pintail

Black-faced Bunting - one of the female which showed well

The Education Centre provided a great washroom stop, but it's also the best location to look for Yellow Bitterns, where we found two in total. Moving on, a Siberian Stonechat gave good views along the footpath on one side, and a Cormorant roost on the other side of the path allowed extremely close views to our roosting Great Cormorants, so close that you can smell them!

Yellow Bittern - took a little while to find this one...

Siberian Stonechat

Great Cormorant - close encounter with them is a must at Mai Po

 A few of the resident Water Buffalos were quite fun to watch, a sight that is increasingly rare in New Territories, these were kept and managed by the WWF, they are in fact very beneficial in helping to turn the soil, which will in turn attract more birds. Further along we spotted a Greater Spotted Eagle, which provided some decent views, it was later harassed by a few Black Kites and chased away.

Water Buffalos

Greater Spotted Eagle - the local Black Kites were not exactly friendly...

We arrived at pond #22, I immediately spotted the adult Siberian Crane foraging along the reeds. The adult had stayed on and have been present for over a week! We were both relieved to find the crane still here after it gone missing the day before. John was so lucky that it stayed long enough for him, and was so pleased to have seen it after I sent him some photos only a week earlier! Despite this being my third visit to the bird within one week, it felt extremely special and privileged to be able to see this amazing and rare bird in the wild. The crane provided some awesome views for up to an hour, it was very active and was constantly eating. Just past noon, the crane rested and preened itself for a little bit and suddenly took off, it didn't go high and flew south west, the adult seems to have developed this habit of going from pond #22 at Mai Po to an unknown location during the day. It was spotted again the day after, hopefully it will stay all winter.

Siberian Crane

Siberian Crane - flying away somewhere we do not know, Shenzhen in the background

After the amazing encounter with the crane, we picked up an extremely confiding Long-tailed Shrike; one of John's favourite bird in Hong Kong, this time allowing him to get some good photos under quite good lighting. Another Eastern Buzzard soared above us as we made our way into the board walk. A small patch of Shepherd's Needles near the entrance provided some good butterfly watching, the best one there was probably a Chocolate Royal.

Long-tailed Shrike - a very friendly one at Mai Po

Eastern Buzzard

Chocolate Royal - Remelana jangala

We arrived at the new hide quite early, the tide was not particularly good today but we headed out to look for the Black-capped Kingfisher John missed last time. The Kingfisher was much more cooperative this time, and we were watching it just 10 minutes after we arrived. There weren't that many waders on the mudflat, just a few Eurasian Curlews, Grey Plovers, Greenshanks and Kentish Plovers. We spotted a few Saunder's Gull in the distance, but all else were simply too far even for my scope. An Eastern Marsh Harrier flew past the hide quite far away, only a few Chinese Pond Herons provided close views. At around 3:30pm we decided to head back out to look for some other birds, on our way out we had an extremely confiding Great Egret, which provided some good chance for some extremely closeup shots.

Black-capped Kingfisher - personal all time favourite bird in Hong Kong

Kentish Plover - one of the very few waders that decided to come close to the hide

Eastern Marsh Harrier

Chinese Pond Heron

Great Egret

We decided to head back out to the car park along the metal fenced road, flocks of Tufted Ducks had us scanning for any other diving ducks, we found none. Yet another Eastern Marsh Harrier drifted past, and a Pied Kingfisher provided some good hovering views. Further along John spotted a Purple Heron, perched on the same tree with a Grey Heron, which provided an interesting comparison between the two species. At a spoonbill roost we scanned for any Eurasian Spoonbill and surely found one within the Black-faced, they are usually quite easy to pick out even without seeing it's beak, as they are slightly larger and usually look quite "dirty".

Tufted Duck

Eastern Marsh Harrier

Pied Kingfisher - displaying it's party trick

Grey Heron & Purple Heron - cousins

Eurasian Spoonbill with Black-faced Spoonbill - spot the difference

We finally headed to Tun Yu Road that is close to the Lok Ma Chau MTR station where the drainage ditch can usually hold a good numbers of waders. And surely, we found a wide range of birds, including a lot of Black-winged Stilts, Avocets, Marsh Sandpipers, Greenshanks, Wood Sandpipers, Green Sandpipers, Teals and Common Snipes. The sunset view over looking the skyscrapers at Shenzhen ended our first day.

Seems to be a popular drainage ditch amongst birds

Black-winged Stilt

Marsh Sandpipers

The next morning I picked John up again at 6:30am, we headed to Tai Po Kau to look for some forest birds. Forest birding can be tough, and requires a lot more luck. The first bird that we got was a Fire-breasted Flowerpecker singing high up on the mistletoe infested maple tree, a lifer for John. We encountered a small bird wave near mid way of the access road, but most birds were quite high up, only bird that we had half decent view were a few Yellow-cheeked Tits. We did managed a pair of Orange-bellied Leafbirds very high up, which imitated the call of a Besra. At picnic area 1 we picked up a female Red-flanked Bluetail.

Fire-breasted Flowerpecker - female looks much more buffish then Scarlet-backed

Yellow-cheeked Tit

Red-flanked Bluetail - female

Things were pretty quiet in the forest, we did encounter a few bird waves which gave us some decent views to some of Tai Po Kau's key species. White-bellied Epornis showed very well, allowing very close views. Chestnut Bulbuls were constantly in the background. The minivets are always the star of the show, Grey-chinned Minivets were particularly confiding today, occasionally coming within a few meters to us! Scarlet Minivets also showed well. The main staple of Silver-eared Mesias and Velvet-fronted Nuthatch kept us busy. An interesting find by John was a single Red Muntjac that gave a brief view at picnic area 2, although I didn't manage a photo it was still exciting to see such beautiful animal in it's natural habitat.

White-bellied Epornis

Chestnut Bulbul

Grey-chinned Minivet - male and female

Scarlet Minivet - male and female

Silver-eared Mesia

Velvet-fronted Nuthatch

A Goodson's Leaf Warbler were the only interesting warbler within the flock, it foraged in it's unique nuthatch manner. There were a lot of Pallas's Leaf Warblers as well as Yellow-browed Warblers. Fork-tailed Sunbirds also joined in the flock, I only managed a photo of the female present. Grey-headed Flycatchers were very vocal, but remained quite high up, I only managed a record shot from below. There were quite a lot of Black-winged Cuckoo-shrikes, we saw a total of at least 6 birds, a female showed particularly well.

Goodson's Leaf Warbler

Pallas's Leaf Warbler

Fork-tailed Sunbird - female

Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher

Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike - female with the barred underparts

The best bird came in form of a dark morph Oriental Honey Buzzard that drifted past briefly, too quick for me to get a photo of, but we had a pretty good view of the bird, simply glad to have seen it! We visited the Tai Po Kau park opposite the main road when we got back down to the car park. There wasn't much on show there but we added a handsome male Grey-backed Thrush which showed well.

Grey-backed Thrush - male

We headed to Shek Kong Airfield Road next, things started off quite slow, an ocularis White Wagtail was present, along with a Grey Wagtail and a few other leucopsis White Wagtails. Paced picked up slightly after a few Taiga Flycatcher, when I found a male with remnant of red feathers on it's chin, not something you see very often in Hong Kong. A single female Chinese Grosbeak was seen, but giving very obscured views. As we drove off I heard some weird noises coming from the trees, I stopped the car and we were soon looking at a flock of 9 Red-billed Blue Magpies at close range! A very common bird in Hong Kong, but not always one that you can see up close, they gave absolutely amazing views for up to a few minutes before disappearing again across to the other side of the gully.

White Wagtail - ocularis

Red-throated Flycatcher - a male with tiny bits of red still on the throat

Chinese Grosbeak - female

Red-billed Blue Magpie - the magnificent!

Long Valley was up next. We got a friendly welcoming by the Avocets. A few ducks were present including Northern Shovelers, ducks seems to have became a regular fixture now at Long Valley during winter. A first winter macroynx Eastern Yellow Wagtail showed well on a nearby pond. 

Pied Avocet

Northern Shoveler with Chinese Pond Heron in the background

Eastern Yellow Wagtail - macroynx first winter

At the paddies, a confiding Little Bunting gave great views, we finally got a good look after only short moments of encounter at Mai Po. We only received brief views of a single Yellow-breasted Bunting which flew out from the field. A Chestnut-eared Bunting however was much more obliging, and perched on top of a tree for clear views.

Little Bunting - a very confiding one

Chestnut-eared Bunting

A few extremely confiding Cattle Egrets were casually strolling the fields pecking at insects. A few Black-browed Reed Warblers gave only brief glimpses, but good enough for a positive ID. The Greater Painted Snipes were at right where I expected them to be, they gave relatively good views by Painted Snipe standard. The only other more interesting species I managed to find were a pair of Buff-bellied Pipits. Otherwise, we got mainly common birds. Large flocks of Silky Starlings congregated at the end of the day, I scanned for Common Starlings or any other Starlings but couldn't find any. Our day ended under a wonderful sunset overlooking the paddies to complete the Long Valley birding experience.

Cattle Egrets

Greater Painted Snipe

Buff-bellied Pipit

Silky Starlings

Sunset at Long Valley

On the two full days of quite casual birding we managed 132 species in total, quite a few memorable ones including the Siberian Crane and the Oriental Honey Buzzards. It's a perfect testimony of how rich our avifauna is and the wide range of habitat easily accessible. It does make me appreciate what we have here a lot more.