Summer Rarity

Lesser Whistling Duck - the target bird of the day

We have a very minimal bird list during summer, so whenever we get something out of the ordinary in the summer it is very much appreciated. News of a Lesser Whistling Duck that had been hanging around Mai Po pond 8b caught my attention and I went to try my luck early morning.

Things were pretty ordinary to start with, I saw a lot of Black-crowned Night Herons, many were juveniles, I am sure they breed in Mai Po somewhere. I also found a Little Grebe nest and they had one chick on the nest, they eyed me carefully and one of the parent called the chick to climb onto it's back, probably didn't trust me very much...Another breeding species at Mai Po is Black-winged Stilt, during the summer they kind of take over the little islands at pond 16/17 and claim as their own, they are highly territorial and will attack any birds that try to go near their nests or chicks.

Black-crowned Night Heron

Little Grebe at nest

Black-winged Stilt

Upon arriving to pond 8b, the lowered water levels attracted a lot of Egrets, this is why Mai Po is so important for waterbirds, even during summer we get huge numbers of waterbirds congregating. Chinese Pond Herons, Little Egrets, Intermediate Egrets, Great Egrets and Grey Herons could all be found in the same pond.

Hundreds of egrets...

Assemblage of Egret species 

Great Egret

I located the Lesser Whistling Duck pretty quickly, it's brown plumage stood out from the crowd. It is a pretty elegant looking duck, long necked and rather slim. This species is widely distributed throughout south east Asia and India, while a summer migrant to southern China. It started pouring down minutes after I saw the bird, so I didn't stay too long. The duck didn't seemed to mind either, and stood out in the rain.

Lesser Whistling Duck - in the rain

Lately I have also DIY my own set of macro tools, with an old magnifying glass that had been laying around underneath a drawer, an old and very little used EF-S 18-55mm lens, plus a bit of tape...I had myself a pretty decent macro lens! I improvised with an old folder and made a reflector for my flash gun, the results were pretty decent, considering I made this out of zero budget! I had quite a lot of fun photographing different species of spiders, here are a few species I found...

Rhene flavicomans

Rhene flavigera - female

Siler semiglaucus - female

Siler semiglaucus - male

Zebraplatys bulbus - female

Zebraplatys bulbus - male

Telamonia festiva

Myrmarachne magna

Myrmarachne formosana - male

Castianeira hongkong

Summer Wildlife

While birding is at it's slowest right now, it's a great time to explore the wildlife in Hong Kong. Spend just a little bit of time outdoor and you will find yourself surrounded by various insects (also a lot of mosquitoes), I sat on a rock by the stream and marvelled at half dozens of Common Blue Jewels elegantly dancing around, males are electric blue while females are greenish yellow.

Common Blue Jewel (Rhinocypha perforata) - male

Common Blue Jewel (Rhinocypha perforata) - female

The beautiful Yellow Bush Dart are also quite common, their bright yellow legs certainly pops out by the stream. I also encountered a huge Robber Fly likely of the genus Microstylum, although I am not sure what species exactly.

Yellow Bush Dart (Copera marginipes)

Microstylum sp.

Most of Hong Kong's frogs are nocturnal, but occasionally you will see a few during the day, I spotted a Brown Wood Frog hidden away in a rock crevice by the stream, while a Paddy Frog decided to hop right out to the middle of the road for some reason.

Brown Wood Frog

Paddy Frog

Hot sunny days are perfect for reptiles which like basking in the sun, we have a lot of different skinks species in Hong Kong, and I saw a few of these on the day, including Brown Forest Skink, Indian Forest Skink, Reeve's Smooth Skink and Long-tailed Skink. Brown Forest Skinks and Indian Forest Skinks are quite similar in appearance, having very subtle and different patterns on their sides and back, although one saying is that Brown Forest Skinks are usually found near water while Indian Forest Skinks are found further in the forest, I saw both of these near the stream, so it surely cannot be an accurate way to tell these two apart.

Brown Forest Skink

Indian Forest Skink

Reeve's Smooth Skink

Long-tailed Skink

I also saw a Chinese Forest Skink but it was too quick for me to photograph. A Changeable Lizard though made a great photographic subject, posed for as long as I wanted.

Changeable Lizard

This is also a good season for butterflies, I myself is not a huge butterfly person, but the variety you can find in Hong Kong can be quite staggering. I saw mainly common species such as the Dark-band Bush Brown (Mycalesis mineus), Staff Sergeant (Athyma selenophora) and the White-edged Blue Baron (Euthalia phemius), I saw one butterfly that I did not recognised, as it turns out it was quite a nice find, a female Common Archduke (Lexias pardalis), which is quite a new addition to the Hong Kong butterfly list, only first recorded in 2008, but apparently had been breeding in Hong Kong and now spreading.

Dark-band Bush Brown (Mycalesis mineus)

Staff Sergeant (Athyma selenophora)

White-edged Blue Baron (Euthalia phemius)

Common Archduke (Lexias pardalis)

Although all my Lepidoptera findings were rather down sized by one of Hoiling's encounter, with the amazing Atlas Moth. How envious it made me...although I have seen them before elsewhere, I've never seen one in Hong Kong. They are simply one of the most stunning and majestic looking moth in existence.

Atlas Moth (Attacus atlas) - photo credit to Hoiling

Last but not least, more Hainan Blue Flycatchers! They provide birders in Hong Kong great comfort when there are no birds around...

Hainan Blue Flycatcher - male

Tai Po Kau - Fledging Time

Although June is quiet, I still enjoy going out for walks, you are unlikely to spot anything rare, but there are plenty of resident species to go around, plus it's only this time of the year that you get to see some of the breeding behaviours of various species. At Tai Po Kau the other day, I encountered a family of Yellow-cheeked Tits, the two adults attending to two fledglings. The curious fledglings were obviously not very skilled at catching their own food yet.

It also seems that their parents were not providing them with bite size food items anymore, but big chunky caterpillars with a lot of prickly hairs...So, the young bird got to learn to flick all the hairs off before enjoying the juicy worm. After delivering a large caterpillar, the male seems to be too tired to bother and just perched there to preen for up to ten minutes...avian parenting is no easy task.

It was overall quiet, even most of the common species did not make it easy for photographs. I could not relocate the Brown-breasted Flycatchers, perhaps they decided to move somewhere else to nest? There were still a few Hainan Blue Flycatchers in song, a handsome male made an appearance. A small flock of Greater Necklaced Laughingthrushes showed briefly, while I encountered a few small bird waves including a lot of Velvet-fronted Nuthatches and plenty of Chestnut Bulbuls. I heard the Bay Woodpecker in the distance, but it was way too far away that I didn't even bother trying.

Although summer is quiet for birds, there are plenty of other wildlife around to see. Giant Golden Orb Weaver Spiders Nephila pilipes are fairly easy to find at this time of the year, females can grow as big as your hand. Their webs are so strong that I've actually seen them trapping Japanese White-eyes for lunch!

Insects numbers are also near it's peak in the summer months, there were also plenty of interesting looking beetles around of various sizes. I am not sure of some of the ID, but the Neolucanus sinicus; a stag beetle was probably my personal favourite of the day.

Melanotus sp.

Languriidae sp.

Idgia oculata

Cantao ocellatus - I didn't even know they are carnivorous!

Neolucanus sinicus - brilliant looking stag beetle

Finally, a nesting pair of Blue Whistling Thrush near where I live is rearing their second brood this season! They found a spot near roof top park that is out of reach from people or cats. I took a closer look the other day and saw three chicks in the nest. This is one of the 3 known nest sites of Blue Whistling Thrushes near where I live, and probably the newest nest of all.