This photos were taken at Pond 20, Mai Po Nature Reserve, today.
Five birds - three species - Greater Spotted and Eastern Imperial Eagles, a fly-by Black Kite !
Greater Spotted Eagles - interesting submissive pose here - "Don't scratch me again, please !"
Greater Spotted Eagle
Black Kite
Eastern Imperial Eagle - a first-year, unlike the two in the first photo in this series
Eastern Marsh Harrier
Oh, and there was an Osprey but I "blew the highlights" on that one. Whoops
Wow, more great birds, I'm thinking about how I can make it over to HK in 2011.............
ReplyDeleteWow the first photo is impressive! Adult Imperial Eagle is definitely one of the birds I'm yearning to see. I've only seen a juvenile once....
ReplyDeleteStu,
ReplyDeleteIm planning for a visit to HK Mai Poi in May 2011. Wanna meet ?
Nice John/Jemi! Did you walk all the way to pond 20? I find it such a long walk! You do have bird luck, I must say...Really need to follow you one day!
ReplyDeleteThanks to all for their comments ! Marie, I cycled to Pond 20, it's too far to carry the heavy lens otherwise !
ReplyDeleteStu, Ayuwat and Jason,
All the wintering raptors will, of course, be gone by May, but here is a link with info about how to get a permit for Mai Po
nature Reserve.
Solo Walk (overseas naturalists on a short-term visit to Hong Kong)
http://www.wwf.org.hk/en/getinvolved/gomaipo/spetour/
There are "birdable" tides at Mai Po from 2nd to 10th May and 16th to 24th May 2011.
Charts of the predicted tides from the Hong Kong Observatory
http://www.weather.gov.hk/tide/eTBTtide.htm
Once you are in Hong Kong you can view the tide height "live" at this link
http://www.weather.gov.hk/tide/marine/hko_tb.htm
-the HK Observatory calls it the "real time tide" chart. Sometimes the tide is not as mathematically predicted, the weather can affect it too. As I said in an earlier post, a tide height of 2.1 or 2.2 metres will bring the birds up to the Mai Po Boardwalk hides
Most birders choose prefer April to May, the spring passage is getting a bit thin by late May. :-)
And I forgot the most important thing... if any of you guys are coming to Hong Kong, I'll be delighted to show you the best birding sites...at ANY time of the year !
ReplyDelete