26 Mar 2009

"South of the Clouds"

is the title of Gerald Reitlinger's very readable account of a journey he made in Yunnan Province in the late 1930s. They journeyed from Kunming to Dali, Lijiang and Shigu, on the upper Yangtze river.

We're off to Yunnan tomorrow. All being well, we should be back in mid-April.

4 Mar 2009

Gulls at Mai Po

The first weekend after Mai Po re-opened was one of the best periods to look at HK's gulls. Here are a few.

Saunders's Gull


Saunders's Gull


Pallas's (Great Black-headed) Gull (right, centre)


"tamyrensis" (?) Heuglin's Gull

Left -"mongolicus"-pink legs and light grey back, centre - - "heuglini" yellower legs and darker back


Ho hum.... we're back to the UK tomorrow and normal patchy postings will resume at the end of this month !