Last Saturday evening I got a telephone tip-off to say that a Blue-throated Bee-eater was sitting on some wires less than two kilometres from where we live.
I "high-tailed" it up to Kwu Tung and met the finder, George Ho. I saw his photos and the wires the bird had been on, but the Bee-Eater was gone. Then the heavens opened, and it rained heavily until after it got dark.
George posted details of his sighting on the HKBWS website (link above), and both English and Chinese birdlines carried the news.
At dawn on Sunday it was still very damp, but HK's sixth Blue-throated Bee-eater was re-found. The bird hung around a damp area of huts, gardens and a maze of alleys until the weather cleared a bit shortly after nine o'clock. Then it flew high into the sky....
Blue-throated Bee-Eater
... circled a couple of times and disappeared, embodying, perhaps, the departure of spring.
I "high-tailed" it up to Kwu Tung and met the finder, George Ho. I saw his photos and the wires the bird had been on, but the Bee-Eater was gone. Then the heavens opened, and it rained heavily until after it got dark.
George posted details of his sighting on the HKBWS website (link above), and both English and Chinese birdlines carried the news.
At dawn on Sunday it was still very damp, but HK's sixth Blue-throated Bee-eater was re-found. The bird hung around a damp area of huts, gardens and a maze of alleys until the weather cleared a bit shortly after nine o'clock. Then it flew high into the sky....
Blue-throated Bee-Eater
... circled a couple of times and disappeared, embodying, perhaps, the departure of spring.
Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteDidn't know that this species migrate up to Hong Kong. I normally see it in central and southern Thailand.
Hi Unravel:
ReplyDeleteA few Blue-throated Bee-eaters breed in the hills of the Chinese provinces to our north... Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian, for example. I guess they must spend the winter in South East Asia, but no-one knows for sure.
We also get Blue-TAILED Bee-eaters annually on passage, which I've seen but not managed to photograph this year ! :-)