Nam Sang Wai - Part IV

I have been noting how many different birds I can photograph in a winter from one spot, in this case the slipway at Nam Sang Wai.  This is the fourth collection of images.

As I was getting the camera out of the back of the car yesterday morning, Jemi spotted this White's Thrush in the grass between the road and the old police post. 

A "bonus bird" for NSW.

White's Thrush (Zoothera aurea)

Zoothera dauma was "White's" Thrush in the 1980s when I first saw it here in Hong Kong - named after the Vicar of Selborne, Gilbert White, who wrote his famous nature diary over 200 years ago.   Later we called this bird "Scaly" Thrush, a more descriptive name.  However the Himalayan population has been split from the long-distance migratory one - and our  winter visitors are now Zoothera aurea and have gone back to being "White's" Thrush.

Why am I boring you with all this ?  In July 2010 the Hong Kong Birdwatching Society brought out a revised list of Kong Kong Birds, and I find I have to keep checking to make sure I'm using the current English and scientific names. Which I try to, usually.  When I remember the name has been revised.

But most nomenclature issues are small compared to the wonderful world of Large White-headed Gulls (LWHGs).  Not only are LWHGs hard to identify, but the taxonomic goalposts keep moving, too.

And to get the worst shot out of the way, here's a Masked Laughingthrush that was in one of the invasive mangrove trees  - sonneratia - just over the wall in front of the car.

Masked Laughingthrush (G. perspicillatus)

All the other photos in this post were taken from the Nam Sang Wai slipway yesterday.  ( I could increase the final "NSW" species tally by lugging the big lens and tripod around the fishponds in the area  but Spotted Dove and Common Myna, etc. won't count unless I can photograph them at the water's edge, where the egrets and spoonbills are. )

Black-headed Gull (C. ridibundus)

White-breasted Waterhen (Amaurornis phoenicurus)

Tufted Duck (A. fuligula)

Eastern Buzzard (Buteo japonicus)

Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata)

Heuglin's Gull (Larus fuscus heuglini)

As you can see, a LWHG.  Don't panic !  I may have misidentified it anyway !

The slipway at Nam Sang Wai - small turnout due to the New Year festival

So, for number of species photographed in or nearby the slipway, it adds up to 24 (Parts I - III) plus 7 here - 

31 species to date in this series.