3 May 2010

Po Toi and HK southern waters, Sunday 2nd May

A birdwatching society boat trip, on a boat intermediate in size between these....



A couple of Arctic Skuas were seen... this one flew closest to the boat...

Arctic Skua


And a shearwater, doing exactly what it says in the species job description ...

Short-tailed Shearwater


We saw over one hundred phalarope on the open sea. Their presence in is usually a good sign that seabird migrants are around. Although, until yesterday, I'd seen more phalarope at Mai Po than at sea !
Red-necked Phalarope


Other visible migrants included a Peregrine, a couple of Barn Swallows and a few Little and Cattle Egrets, but my "bird-of-the-day" was THIS... a Hong Kong "tick" for yours truly, a beast that has been hiding from me for some time now..


Ancient Murrelet

Only one, only a fly-by, but in Sunday's light the view was clear enough.

A fine start to May !

6 comments:

  1. Nice in slight shoots.
    Power of Canon EOS-1D Mark IV ;)

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  2. Hi Tabib,

    Yes, the 1D IV is very useful..

    You are midway between Fraser's Hill and Taman Negara, I guess ?
    Jemi and I have passed through Raub, I think !

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  3. Hello.

    I rode a birding boat in Hokkaido, Japan at 9/May. I saw hundreds of Short-tailed Shearwater and thousands of Phalaropes (including Grey Phalarope) on the open sea.
    Sea birds' migration started in Japan too.

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  4. Hi "Martesorex",

    Our seabirds must be heading towards Japan - mostly northwards, anyway - at this time of the year.

    As for landbirds - every Japanese Paradise Flycatcher here makes me think of Japan, too !

    John

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  5. Hi John

    Interestingly we are getting some of the same species coming up the west coast of Malaysia. Not sure where they'll go next though!

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  6. Dave,

    Are they lost ? Will they do an "about face" in the Bay of Bengal and head back towards the Pacific ?

    Seabirds... mysterious...and underwatched !

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