Shaking Off The Rust

Amur Paradise Flycatcher

An extremely busy schedule for the last few months had pretty much filled up my entire timetable, with work and exhibitions all too overwhelming. My binoculars and cameras were simply gathering dust in my dry cabinet, I simply did not have any spare time left for any birding, so it certainly felt my eyes were getting a bit rusty.

With the last of the exhibitions done and everything packed on Monday, I took a day off on Tuesday to take a walk at Tai Po Kau. I have not visited Tai Po Kau during the day for well over a month, so I didn't have much expectations in terms of what species I may find, a large flock of 40 Scarlet and Grey-chinned Minivets were a very good start. The birds were looking a bit scruffy at this time of the year, likely to be moulting after breeding season.

Scarlet Minivet - male

Grey-chinned Minivet - female

I found myself in the middle of a huge bird wave, birds were busy feeding all around me. A supporting cast of common forest birds were here as usual, Velvet-fronted Nuthatches were showing well today, with a few coming down to eye-level, a few Yellow-cheeked Tits were also around. In the flock there were also plenty of Blue-winged Minlas, Cinerous Tits, Japanese White-eyes and a single Black-winged Cuckooshrike.

Velvet-fronted Nuthatch

Yellow-cheeked Tit

Within the flock I saw a reddish bird that dived down to hawk for insects, a classic Amur Paradise Flycatcher move, and soon I got my bins on the bird. A great sign that the Autumn migration season had begun. As I tried to follow the flycatcher, a green bird foraging in the tree next to me caught my eyes, turned out it was the long staying Blue-winged Leafbird that had been here for over two years. A species outside it's natural range and most likely an escaped caged bird, this male had made himself comfortable and seems to be fitting in well. It is a pretty bird to look at so I am not complaining.

Amur Paradise Flycatcher

Blue-winged Leafbird

Down below a flock of three Streak-breasted Scimitar Babblers came along, they gave excellent views and kept me entertained for a good five minutes. All these birds were seen even before I got to the red walk's entrance!

Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler

Things were calmer in the trail, but by no means quiet. I soon found another bird wave and amongst the birds were two more Amur Paradise Flycatchers! I think this is the highest day count for me personally, they are exciting to look at no matter where you see them. An interesting thing to note is that Amur Paradise Flycatcher were split from the Asian Paradise Flycatcher complex a few years back into three species, the Blyth's (Oriental), Amur and Indian. I've longed found Indian Paradise to look very different from the rest of it's cousin, so no trouble there, but separating Amur and Blyth's takes a bit more care, where Blyth's usually show very little contrast between it's throat and breast, Amur have much darker throats, in good views and adequate lighting this should not be too much a problem. It is said that Blyth's are usually sedentary, while Amur are migratory.

Amur Paradise Flycatcher

Hainan Blue Flycatchers were still in good numbers, I saw two pairs in total. The males are now much shyer though after the breeding season, only a female perched long enough for me to get a photo. I also saw a few Mountain Bulbuls, gave away their location by their easily recognisable call.

Hainan Blue Flycatcher - female

Mountain Bulbul

A flock of Black-throated Laughingthrush made an appearance, most were the normal form with white cheeks. There was one single lugens morph in the flock, a few seems to have made their way into Hong Kong through the bird trade. By appearance they look very different, more rusty and less bluish, they also lack the distinctive white cheeks, but this one I found had a few strands of white cheek feathers, I wonder if this could be due to hybridisation?

Black-throated Laughingthrush

Black-throated Laughingthrush - lugens

Finally, a young Pygmy Wren Babbler which showed well for me briefly, allowing me to get a shot through a small gap in the undergrowth.

Pygmy Wren Babbler

Hopefully I will get to update my blog regularly again!

More Landscape - Less Birds

A walk on Tai Mo Shan on Saturday morning produced very little. With the usuals up there and again no luck with the Grassbird, not even a single Francolin called that morning. Both Parrotbills and Brown-flanked Bush Warblers made it photography difficult, and a Pygmy Wren Babbler came extremely close without revealing itself. The heavy mist and a few heavy showers didn't really help much either.

The only bird that came out of the tall grass to generously meet me was a very curious immature Plain Prinia, which was obviously interested with my pishing - a trick that doesn't normally work very well in Hong Kong.

Plain Prinia - immature

A skulker in form of a Chinese Hwamei decided to let me get a half decent view, as it sang constantly within a low tree, I managed to find a small opening and managed a record shot. These prolific songsters are popular caged birds in much of China and Hong Kong, where people keep them for their beautiful song. Their song is powerful and varied and is a signature sound of the hill side of Hong Kong.

Chinese Hwamei

I counted over 40 Large-billed Crows near the car park, congregating in good numbers. You will often see them perched above the roads and coming down onto the tarmac to pick up the road kills.

Large-billed Crow

Much lower down, I got a male Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker that decided to come down lower for me to take a few photos. Nothing brilliant, as half of it's signature "scarlet back" is still missing, but these colourful little guys are still a joy to look at every time.

Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker - male

The mist lifted slightly as I descended, and I was rewarded with some pretty spectacular views, with a rainbow bowing over the hills overlooking New Territories. My 500mm lens allowed me to snap some landscape at an interesting angle. Yup, Hong Kong is a beautiful place indeed.

Hok Tau - Piculets and A Bit More

Busy work schedule had limited my time birding outside, but a few friends who visited Hok Tau and yielded some interesting birds such as Speckled Piculets and Indochinese Green Magpies, this got me off my ass to pickup my paces. Hok Tau is a place I rarely visited, it is part of Pat Sin Leng Country Park, opposite to Robin's Nest. The habitat is not considered prime, with mainly secondary forests and tall scrubs with patches of more mature woodlands along rivers and streams.

I picked up Hoiling early on Monday morning and drove towards Hok Tau. things were better then expected as we encountered a small flock of birds at the carpark, mainly Scarlet Minivets, Bulbuls and Velvet-fronted Nuthatches. The Minivets had obviously been busy breeding, as there were quite a few juveniles around.

Scarlet Minivet - male

Scarlet Minivet - juvenile

Velvet-fronted Nuthatch

We continued along the main road, on the way we saw a single Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker feeding on a low bush, it's orange bill indicate this as a juvenile, but probably still too early to sex. A small flock of Masked Laughingthrush made an appearance, while a single Lesser Coucal perched out in the open to sing.

Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker - juvenile

Masked Laughingthrush

Lesser Coucal

We walked to a picnic area to look for some birds but found very little except Red-whiskered Bulbuls and a pair of Streak-breasted Scimitar Babblers which showed briefly. There were quite a few juvenile Long-tailed Skinks as well.

Red-whiskered Bulbul

Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler

Long-tailed Skink

After a bit of shower, we backtracked to the spot where a pair of Speckled Piculets had been seen lately, sure enough I heard the call of the Piculet and soon we both locked our bins onto this tiny woodpecker. It however stayed pretty high up near the canopy making photographing it difficult. This species had been increasing in Hong Kong steadily, and had became a stable resident in many country parks, although it's still not an easy bird to see by all means!

Speckled Piculet - a spreading resident

We walked towards the reservoir afterwards, on the way we spotted a pair of Hainan Blue Flycatchers. More juvenile birds came in form of Rufous-capped Babblers, as a small flock greeted us by the the roadside, a few pretty much fully grown youngsters continued to beg for food from their parents...a few juvenile Cinerous Tits were also spotted. Greater-necklaced Laughingthrushes also made an appearance.

Hainan Blue Flycatcher - male

Rufous-capped Babbler

Cinerous Tit - juvenile

Greater-necklaced Laughingthrush

It started pouring down hard just as we reached the reservoir, so we decided to turn around. As rain subsided slightly, I saw a Greater Green Snake sitting right on the tarmac road, a medium sized diurnal snake that is non-venomous. They are possibly one of the prettiest snakes we have, a beautiful light green across the whole length of it's body and a yellow underside. This particular one allowed me to get pretty close before slithering out of sight. Certainly interesting enough to be the highlight of the day! The Indochinese Green Magpies never showed in the end, but at least we got something else green that day.

Greater Green Snake