Yellow-browed Bunting - Emberiza chrysophrys
A mid-April boat trip can turn up some good birds, so we arrived at Aberdeen Public Pier bright and early at 07:30hrs, with a group of about forty like-minded Hong Bird Watching Society members.
But the clear weather of the past few days had encouraged most of the migrant birds to keep moving…. and the seas were empty as the boat chugged out to Waglan Island, apart from a few very distant Great Crested Terns.
Po Toi Island
Yellow-browed Bunting - Emberiza chrysophrys
We landed on Po Toi at 10:30 and people set off in different directions. The island itself, like the sea surrounding it was very quiet but two or three Yellow-browed Buntings were seen at different places, including this handsome male photographed by Jemi on the path behind the old school.
Back at sea in the afternoon, and a single Great Crested Tern posed on a piece of polystyrene.
Great Crested Tern - Thalasseus bergii
Around Lamma Island, we found a single Black-naped Tern sitting on a yellow navigation buoy, regarding a boat load of weekend fishermen with disdain.
Black-naped Tern - Sterna sumatrana
With a grand afternoon total of two individual terns, some disappointment was in the air. All was not lost, however, and above the northern slopes of Lamma the persistently hard-working people at the front of the boat spotted needletails. With HK's first Brown-backed Needletail seen only three weeks ago (over Po Toi Island, where else ?) these have become a hot topic again.
Today's boating birders determined that both White-throated and Silver-backed Needletails were present, but I could only manage record shots of the former species.
White-throated Needletail - Hirundapus caudacutus
Almost three years to the day since Geoff Welch took these shots on Po Toi !
http://orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?p=3&Bird_ID=548&Bird_Family_ID=&pagesize=1
http://orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?p=3&Bird_ID=548&Bird_Family_ID=&pagesize=1
With the day just about saved with some last minute needletail aerobatics, we headed back to Aberdeen Harbour, the place where we had started.
Nice bunting, Jemi. I doubt if I'd have got either needle tail!, well done, sir
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see the bunting! Needletails are also great birds. I just love watching their huge bodies swifting acrobatically through the air. Here in Thailand, we mostly get Brown-backed Needletail instead of White-throated, which I've only seen once so far.
ReplyDeleteAndrew, it was those keen people at the front of the boat who first found the needletails, I was hiding from the sun on the rear deck...
ReplyDeleteAyuwat, Brown-backed is a needletail I've never seen... I'm usually too distracted by the more colourful birds in Thailand