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| Oriental Reed Warbler - Acrocephalus orientalis |
Last Friday (Nov 8th) I joined Andrew Hardacre at Nam Sang Wai. The good news was that we found that a government contractor had trimmed some of the sonneratia trees and other foliage at the slipway, freeing up sight lines and photo opportunities (if the tide was right) of the waterbirds.
But the bad news was that the light was poor, so we popped around the back of the AFCD post and had a "go" at photographing the warblers in the reed beds there.
Here are some of the results..
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| Oriental Reed Warbler - Acrocephalus orientalis |
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| Black-browed Reed Warbler - Acrocephalus bistrigiceps |
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| Black-browed Reed Warbler - Acrocephalus bistrigiceps |
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| Black-browed Reed Warbler - Acrocephalus bistrigiceps |
Having looked at a paper in the 2011 Hong Kong Bird Report called "Seasonality of Acrocephalus and Locustella warblers in the reed beds at Mai Po Nature Reserve" (pp234 - 267) I can confidently assert that
Oriental Reed and
Black-browed are much commoner in autumn than they are in winter. Both species are coming to the tail end of their autumn passage.
An "also seen" was this
phylloscopus
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| Dusky Warbler - Phylloscopus fuscatus |
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| Dusky Warbler - Phylloscopus fuscatus |
On a "Phylloscopus warblers" theme, here are some shots of
Yellow-browed Warbler, taken from a window in the flat.
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| Yellow-browed Warbler - Phylloscopus inornatus |
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| Yellow-browed Warbler - Phylloscopus inornatus |
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| Yellow-browed Warbler - Phylloscopus inornatus |
Off to Long Valley this morning, Andrew H. and I decided we'd try to get some shots of the
Baillon's Crake that has been occupying a particular LV pond for a few days. The pond is used for the cultivation of the little red worms people feed to aquarium fish. For the sake of science, I can report that Baillon's Crake eats those worms too. I didn't get a decent photo of it doing so, but Andrew
did:-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29954808@N00/10793634224/
Anyhow, here are my efforts....
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| Baillon's Crake - Porzana pusilla |
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| Baillon's Crake - Porzana pusilla |
A bonus bird - for Long Valley anyway,
Grey-headed Lapwing, with an altogether bigger catch.
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| Grey-headed Lapwing - Vanellus cinereus |
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| Grey-headed Lapwing - Vanellus cinereus |
Finally, not a warbler at all, really….
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| Zitting Cisticola - Cisticola juncidis |
Zitting Cisticola….included in this post because it used to be called "Fantail Warbler".
So that's where our reed warblers go!
ReplyDeleteImpressive set of photos.
ReplyDeleteFantastic work, as always :)
ReplyDeleteI hadn't seen a Grey-headed Lapwing photo before so nice to see that, and the ones of the Yellow-browed Warbler are lovely.
ReplyDeleteThanks, everyone... - Stu, several Japanese-ringed Oriental Reed Warblers have been "controlled" at Mai Po over the years, so, yes, they really are your Japanese birds !
ReplyDeleteYet another great series of pics, love the first Grey-headed Lapwing shot! Also some of your stunning wader pics in an earlier post really made an impact - am looking forward to another trip to Mai Po and seeing some of them myself soon.
ReplyDeleteJeremy, I look forward to seeing you at Mai Po again !
DeleteI just LOVE this post! Not only because I'm a major fan of LBJs but also because of those Baillon's Crake shots! I'm still looking for this wonderful crake.
ReplyDeleteAyuwat, Thanks for the compliments.... this year two or three Baillon's Crakes showed really well, especially one in a pond in HK Park, in the heart of the urban area !
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