American Wigeon - Howdy partner?

An American Wigeon had been around Mai Po board walk for quite some time, I have not had the time to visit this very lost vagrant. This is our second American species this winter (Franklin's Gull being the first) that had wandered far from it's natural range. This species should be wintering somewhere in Southern United States or as far south as Central America, but somehow this one had found it's way to Hong Kong.

American Wigeon - Howdy partner! You could have wintered in Texas.

My Father and I arrived at Mai Po just around 12:30pm. The tide was predicted to be highest at 2:30pm at 1.9m, so that gave us plenty of time. Things started off OK, I got 3 very distant Buff-bellied Pipit upon walking to the AFCD warden's post. At the warden's post a flock of Silky Starlings were close-by. After that, it was all walking. We went directly to the furthest floating bird hide.

Buff-bellied Pipit - a little too far away...

Silky Starling

Upon arrival, we found the bird hide already packed with people! Luckily there was still a space in the corner left for us, so we settled in and started searching. Common birds to start with...Regular Eurasian Wigeons, Shovelers, Pintails, Teals...etc, then there were Curlews, Redshanks, Greenshanks, Pacific Golden Plovers, Temmink's Stints...Black-headed Gulls were everywhere and a few Saunder's Gulls. A single injured Bar-tailed Godwit foraged around, one of it's feet looked strange. Quite a few Common Snipes were hiding in the grass near the bird hide. An Osprey perched on it's favourite spot, a very usual site for Deep Bay. A Black-faced Spoonbill came to about 5 meters to our bird hide, which gave me an opportunity to take some closeup portraits. Great Cormorants were everywhere...

Eurasian Wigeon

Eurasian Curlew

Mixed bag of Pacific Golden Plover, Redshanks and Marsh Sandpiper in the back.

Pacific Golden Plover

Temmink's Stint

Saunder's Gull and Black-headed Gull

Greenshank with Bar-tailed Godwit

Common Snipe

Osprey

Black-faced Spoonbill - extreme closeup

Great Cormorant

Suddenly, there was a huge commotion of birds and everything scattered! Surely enough, an Eastern Marsh Harrier flew past, looking for it's next meal. This is always a spectacle to witness.

All panic!

Eastern Marsh Harrier

After the birds had settled, Michelle Wong spotted the American Wigeon in the flock. I soon locked the telescope onto the bird base on her descriptions. It was moving fast with the other ducks, and I couldn't even come around to show my Dad and I lost it in the huge flock of Eurasian Wigeons. It was out of sight for some time, until another raptor flushed the whole flock of ducks back to the right. I scanned the water once again, and this time relocated the dabbler shortly. This time it was in view long enough for everyone to enjoy! It look so different when you can compare it to Eurasian Wigeons side by side, it looks a little chunkier as well with a bigger head. Great to finally connecting with this rare dabbler, another new tick for me!

American Wigeon - what we came here for today

After we were all satisfied with our American vagrant, we started concentrating on the gulls...None of the rarer wintering gulls were in sight, and no sign of the Franklin's Gull either. So, I settled in to study on the larger gulls presented before me. Three species of large Larus winters in Hong Kong, Heuglin's Gull, Caspian Gull (mongolicus）and Vega Gull. Identification of large gulls in Hong Kong was highly debated many years ago, but it seems the experts had finally settled with these three as our "basic" Herring Gull type species now. Heuglin's are by far our most common of the three, it also got the darkest mantle of the trio. So, it make sense for us to look for birds with lighter mantles, I found one of them that looked promising as a Caspian Gull mongolicus, although it's leg is still quite yellowish instead of the pinkish, but the larger size, cleaner head patterns and lighter mantle make me lean towards it being one? I later saw one inflight with more obvious pinkish legs that I am calling as mongolicus as well...Vega Gull is a little easier, they have the most "dirty" heads, and pinkish legs are also a good indicator. It's the least common of the trio, so it was nice to get a good look. At one point it was approached by a Heuglin's with broken wings while it was sleeping.

Heuglin's Gull - our "baseline"

Caspian Gull (mongolicus) - please do point me out if I am wrong!

Vega Gull

Just as we were packing our things, a White-breasted Kingfisher came and perched on one of the "kingfishers post", a classic pose to end the day!

White-breasted Kingfisher - lovely note to end the day

Tristram's Bunting - Local patch speciality

A walk at Tai Po Kau in the morning was not very productive, although good birds were recorded by others, I didn't encounter none of those! Sulpher-breasted Warbler and White-spectacled Warbler were both seen by other birders, I only heard the Bay Woodpecker today, which was pretty active.

My Father thought he saw a few Tristram's Buntings while he went for a run at the jogging trail. So, after lunch and a quick nap, I headed out to see if I could find anything interesting at our local patch. It didn't take long before I saw a small flock of at least seven Tristram's Buntings feeding on the ground, but they were quite skittish and went straight into cover upon seeing me. It took a while before they came back out feeding again and I managed to take a few shots of these pretty Buntings. This species had long been a winter speciality at Wonderland Villas, back a few years we also had quite a few of those and they attracted quite a lot of photographers and birders.

Tristram's Bunting

Wonderland Villas had been quite quiet in recent years, and I am glad that things have picked up the pace slightly this year. In the few hours along the trial and the gully, I had four Red-flanked Bluetail, one Daurian Redstart, Grey-backed Thrush, Japanese Thrush, Asian Stubtail Warbler, Chestnut Bulbuls. Finally, I had an Eurasian Woodcock along the gully, although it spotted me before I spotted it and it flew away before I could reach for my camera...unfortunate but still a decent record for my local patch!

Red as Lai See - Common Rosefinches at Shek Kong

Chinese New Year coming up, we will be getting 3 days of public holiday. Most will be busy visiting family and friends, as this is the time of the year to gather and wish for a better year to come. A Chinese tradition is to hand out red envelopes or Lai See as well call them, where the Lai See is a symbol for good luck and prosperity as well as to guard off evil spirits. Today, we are less superstitious, but we carry on with the tradition for a more festive reason.

This morning, I decided to visit Shek Kong Airfield Road once again, hoping to get some better shots of Common Rosefinches. Upon arriving at around 9:45am, around a dozen of birders and photographers were already there waiting for the Rosefinches. It didn't take long for me to spot a female that they were photographing. But very soon, I also spotted the male towards the back of the trees. After a while, the male finally came out to the front as well, giving wonderful views for all to enjoy! I am not sure what species of tree they are feeding on, but seems like a Rosefinch favourite at Shek Kong.

Common Rosefinch (male)

Common Rosefinch (female)

The stretch of trees they were feeding on

Soon after, more Common Rosefinches joined in, I counted at least 7 individuals (likely more), with 3 different males in the group! What a turn out! I felt a bit sorry to neglect the females, but I have taken enough photographs of females before and such wonderful view of males are by no means easy to come by! So thereafter, I concentrated on the males. One of them in particular was very mature and brightly coloured. They were all so very cooperative, in the next hour or so I had some of the best views I have had of this species. Such a wonderful encounter with this species, and right before Chinese New Year! Red is a very Chinese New Year colour, so I guess it's kind of the right time to be seeing these charming little "Lai See".

A few birders taking photographs of the Rosefinches

The neglected female...sorry!

The beautiful males!

There were also many warblers around the area, mainly Pallas's Leaf Warblers and Yellow-browed Warblers. Also quite a few Dusky Warblers. Japanese White-eyes were all very active, constantly feeding. The cold weather must have made them more hungry then usual and they take very little notice of you when they are concentrating on finding food.

Pallas's Leaf Warbler

Yellow-browed Warbler

Japanese White-eye

My Dad joined me to visit Long Valley later in the afternoon. There wasn't a lot of birds, and nothing particularly rare. But the weather was so nice that the walk was very pleasant. Most notable bird was a single Citrine Wagtail. Siberian Stonechats were everywhere, so were Scaly-breasted Munias. A few cute Little Ringed Plovers were enjoyable to watch at fairly close range. We did saw a very distant Dusky Thrush, and a lot of Painted Snipes but all were in cover and views weren't that great. The day ended with a flock of Silky Starlings.

Citrine Wagtail

Siberian Stonechats couple

Scaly-breasted Munia

Little Ringed Plover

Silky Starling

May I wish a Happy Chinese New Year to everyone, and for all birders I wish you 鳥運亨通 (good luck with birds)!