More Summer Herping & Breeding Birds

Work continues to be busy this past month or two, with barely anytime for birding. We have been sneaking off for some night time walks after work on occasions, with moderate success! Best reward for our efforts was no doubt a Pointed Scale Viper, a rare snake that is quite localised in Hong Kong, this is the first time I've ever seen one, and what luck it was to find it sitting on the side of the footpath! With this species I have now completed my quest to see all three species of vipers in Hong Kong.

Pointed Scale Viper - fabulous species and master of camouflage!

Our second best snake was a Banded Krait, one of my favourite snake species in Hong Kong, despite their notoriety, this highly venomous species is actually fairly gentle, when disturbed they will curl up and hide it's head under the body.

Banded Kriat

Other snakes we encounter a lot these days are Common Wolf Snakes, here is a particular small one found on the side of the road, likely just hatched not too long ago. Bamboo Pit Vipers are in no short supply and we often see one or two when we go out. We also encountered a Futsing Wolf Snake while doing a night walk with a group, so I didn't bother with any photos, but it was quite the beauty.

Common Wolf Snake

Bamboo Pit Viper

We probably have more exotic turtle species in Hong Kong than we have local ones, which is most unfortunate, it is not uncommon to find highly exotic species on occasion, such as this critically endangered Annam Leaf Turtle. We have actually picked up Amboina Box Turtle in the past and she gave birth to three healthy turtles that was a cross between Annam Leaf Turtle and Amboina Box Turtle...All these mix and match is not good for any population of turtles including our own Golden Coin Turtles!

Annam Leaf Turtle

I also have a soft spot for amphibians, and consider myself quite lucky to have seen all but 2 species of frogs in Hong Kong. Here are a nice collection of a few regularly seen species, including the Short-legged Toad, Lesser Spiny Frog, Brown Wood Frog and Brown Tree Frog.

Short-legged Toad

Lesser Spiny Frog

Brown Wood Frog

Brown Tree Frog

Reptiles and amphibians are not the only animal we encounter at night, here is a rather confiding Chinese Porcupine I saw at Lung Fu Shan. Porcupines are not rare in Hong Kong, although most of the time they run off when they sense they are being watched, occasionally you get confiding ones like this where you can observe they at close range.

Chinese Porcupine

Summer months are great for insects, in Hong Kong we have a fair share of interesting critters for all to discover if you care to look. Here are some highlights from last month, including the fabulous Prosopocoilus biplagiatus, Xylotrupes sp., Xystrocera globosa and the locally rare Pyrops watanabei.

Prosopocoilus biplagiatus

Xylotrupes sp.

Xystrocera globosa

Pyrops watanabei

The lack of bird photos is not to be alarmed, I have been keeping track of some bird movements, just haven't been out looking for them as much, birds related subjects shall resume soon as autumn migration is underway. First, here are some local resident birds for you.

Speckled Piculet

Huet's Fulvetta

Yellow-cheeked Tit - male

Crested Serpent Eagle

White-bellied Sea Eagle

One of my better mid-summer find was a family of Orange-headed Thrush at Tai Po Kau, while a resident in Hong Kong this species is not particularly common and is still exciting to see even for me. This rather confiding juvenile provided very close views.

Orange-headed Thrush - juvenile

Brown Noddy - A Mid-Summer Twitch

Brown Noddy - 3rd record of Hong Kong

News of a Brown Noddy around Wong Mau Chau travelled fast, I wasn't able to go on the first few days after I received the news, but luckily the bird seems pretty stable and stayed on in the area. Brown Noddy is a rare vagrant in Hong Kong with only two previous records, naturally everyone wanted to see it. With help of friends we were able to arrange a boat to head out towards Wong Mau Chau to search for the Brown Noddy. We arrived at Wong Shek Pier just past 7am, and were soon searching for the bird out at sea.

Along the way we saw plenty of Bridled and Black-naped Terns, both regular breeding species in Hong Kong. I have been a bit lazy of late and haven't been to look at the breeding tern colonies, so I was quite happy to see them, although I didn't see any Roseate Terns.

Bridled Tern

Black-naped Tern

It took us half an hour before I spotted a bird perched on a piece of polystyrene foam, we went closer to investigate and sure enough it was the Brown Noddy, just sitting there preening and sunning itself! 

Brown Noddy - Resting on man-made 'island'

We had fantastic views of it sitting there before it flew off to feed with the other terns near Wong Mau Chau, where we continued to have awesome flight views at close quarters. It was an awesome experience to see it fly right past our boat, sometimes within an arm's length. This is the first ever 'twitchable' Brown Noddy in Hong kong, therefore not surprising it is also the most documented, there were three other boats out that same morning. 

Brown Noddy - flying past twitchers

I must once again praise the animal tracking system of Canon EOS R6, I fitted it with my EF 100-400mm lens and it delivered pretty good results, this setup was perfect for this occasion, as the bird occasionally came in so close that I had to pull my lens back to 100mm to get the entire bird in view. This setup was also light enough that my arms weren't hurting even after nearly two hours of continuous shooting. This was definitely top bird this summer so far, hopefully we will also get a Black Noddy sometime soon...

Brown Noddy - Top bird of summer!

Snakes! Mid-summer Herping

I often spend more time outdoor at night during the summer months than I do during the day, and lately it has been ALL about snakes. Although none of the species I encountered were particularly rare, it is still thrilling to find them in the wild. One of those regularly encountered species is the Common Wolf Snake, they really like to climb into crevices and quite often make their way into people's home by accident. They are beautifully marked and really quite docile most of the time, although they do leave a rather unpleasant smell when handled.

Common Wolf Snake

By far the most commonly encountered snake species at night is surely the Bamboo Pit Viper, it doesn't make them any less exciting, as they really are quite gorgeous. Despite their notoriety for being very aggressive, most individuals I encounter rarely strike.

Bamboo Pit Viper

Although the title of 'most common snake species' in Hong Kong likely goes to the Common Blind Snake, a tiny species that resembles more like earth worms. They are terribly difficult to get a good photo of simply because they rarely stay still, plus their scales are very reflective. 

Common Blind Snake

A few days of heavy rain seems to have washed a lot of wildlife out, this Checkered Keelback was found dead in the buffalo fields at Pui O, there were no obvious external injuries to it, I am guessing it got washed down stream in the storm, although they are strong swimmers I guess they can still drown in bad weather?

Deceased Checkered Keelback

We had a very decent casual outing to Tai Mo Shan with help of James Kwok and friends, where we saw six species of snake in one night, including Greater Green Snake, Anderson's Stream Snake and sadly a dead Burmese Pythons. The other three species includes this wonderful Futsing Wolf Snake which I spotted, being only my second Futsing, they are supposed to be fairly uncommon. 

Futsing Wolf Snake

We found two Mountain Water Snakes, this species is commonly found along forested streams and well vegetated pools, you can often find many of them along the stream especially after heavy rain. 

Mountain Water Snake

Finally, the Striped Stream Snake, which is a photo tick for me as I've only previously seen one very briefly. Very glad to find this one to finally get some decent photos of. 

Striped Stream Snake

The heavy rain last week also helped with bringing out more amphibians, here are some regularly seen species, such as the Ornate Pygmy Frog, Paddy Frog, Chinese Bullfrog and Asiatic Painted Frog. 

Ornate Pygmy Frog

Paddy Frog

Chinese Bullfrog

Asiatic Painted Frog

June and July is not really the best time for moths, but occasionally we still find spectacular species such as the Actias ningpoana, or the Chinese Moon Moth.

Actias ningpoana

Finally, had another lucky night at Nam Chung where we ended our evening with a rather confiding Masked Palm Civet feeding on the fruits of Ficus variegata.

Masked Palm Civet