Birds - many with wet feet

Yes, I know I'll have to be more imaginative in my choice of attention-grabbing blog post titles.

Anyway, a "mixed bag" from the past couple of weeks. Here's one from Shek Kong Water Catchment...

Dark-sided Flycatcher - Muscicapa sibirica

At the "scrape" at Mai Po, exotic Harriers proved elusive for me, but this male and juvenile Painted Snipe provided something to look at.

Greater Painted-Snipe - Rostratula benghalensis

Black-faced Spoonbills have really started to come back to Deep Bay in the last few days, November is actually the month of Hong Kong's high counts of these.

Black-faced Spoonbill - Platalea minor

Near Mai Po's "Tower Hide", an Asian Brown Flycatcher -

Asian Brown Flycatcher - Muscicapa dauurica

And from the "Tower Hide" itself, another species now building up in numbers;

Great Cormorant - Phalacrocorax carbo

A few of the "usual suspects" in my favorite drain, taken from a portable  "Tragopan V3" hide….

Common Snipe - Gallinago gallinago

Wood Sandpiper - Tringa glareola

Marsh Sandpiper - Tringa stagnatilis

Back out at Mai Po's boardwalk hides -

Black-tailed Godwit - Limosa limosa (melanuroides)

Common Greenshank - Tringa nebularia

Finally, another group of birds returning for Hong Kong's winter. "Large White-headed Gulls" give me identification headaches, but someone suggested that I just call all the 1st and 2nd-winter birds "Brown Gulls".

Chances are, this is a Heuglins Gull (now held by the I.O.C. to be a race of Lesser Black-backed Gull), because most of our LWHGs are this type.  But I'm not sure.

Heuglin's Gull - Larus fuscus (heuglini) ??

Ho hum.  Looks like I've got all winter to re-acquaint myself with the gulls.

Eastern Marsh Harriers at Mai Po, Hong Kong

Eastern Marsh Harrier - Circus spilonotus

Both EMH and Pied Harriers have been around Mai Po in the last few days. Pied is usually a passage migrant here in Hong Kong, Eastern Marsh Harriers may be arriving for the whole winter.

I detect a "speciesist" tendency among the Hong Kong bird-photographing fraternity, who seem biased in favor of Pied Harrier, - especially if an adult male comes into view.

So far this autumn, no adult males, but perhaps it's only a question of time.

Meanwhile the only Pied Harriers this autumn I've seen were: -

                        1) Juvenile
                        2) Against the light
                        3) Miles away.

So you'll have to settle for these; two different first-winter Eastern Marsh Harriers.

Eastern Marsh Harrier - Circus spilonotus

Eastern Marsh Harrier - Circus spilonotus

Eastern Marsh Harrier - Circus spilonotus

And the second, rather cooler-toned individual; -

Eastern Marsh Harrier - Circus spilonotus

Eastern Marsh Harrier - Circus spilonotus

Eastern Marsh Harrier - Circus spilonotus

Finally: - "John's Photo Masterclass"

The feature you've all been waiting for, no doubt.  (To give myself more gravitas, I'm going to refer to myself in the third person from here on.)

Eastern Marsh Harriers - Circus spilonotus

John says :

"If you can get both Harriers in the same frame, don't cut off the wing of one of them, like I just did !"

Mostly Autumn Migrants

Mostly in the order they were taken, mostly passage migrants, mostly at Mai Po...

Purple Heron

Bar-tailed Godwit

Bar-tailed Godwit - race "menzbieri"

Whimbrel

Eurasian Curlew

Eurasian Curlew

Garganey (female)

Pacific Golden Plovers

Pheasant-tailed Jacana

Pheasant-tailed Jacana

(Western) Osprey

Common Redshank

Common Greenshank

Grey Plover

"Th - Th - That's All, folks !"

Dollarbird