Black-chinned Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus leclancheri) at Mei Foo, Kowloon

Discovered yesterday in a public park, this native of the Philippines is a "First Record" for Hong Kong.

Word spread on social media, but we had gone out to a nice air-conditioned cinema downtown, and hadn't got our binoculars when we heard the news. We went along to Mei Foo anyway and joined a group of birders, frustrated that the bird wasn't showing.

After a couple of hours we dispersed peacefully....

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Having dipped yesterday afternoon, we were luckier this morning.

A debate about the origins of this bird is ongoing.....watch this space !

3rd May 2024 - an Ashy Woodswallow "Twitch"

A report by John Allcock - and a well-dropped location "pin" - of HK's fourth Ashy Woodswallow - brightened a dull morning.

Unlike HK's three previous Ashy Woodswallows, this one stayed for a couple of days, to the delight of many, including us.

 Ashy Woodswallow (Artamus fuscus) -     Lam Tsuen Valley, Hong Kong.       3rd May 2024

"Twitching" here and there.....

Brown-eared Bulbul - (Microcelis amaurotis) 

On Saturday, 22nd April we got the ferry to Po Toi Island, in the hope of seeing a "Hong Kong second record" Brown-eared Bulbul that had been reported a few days earlier.

It appeared briefly, but briefly was enough.   This species winters in east China, and this one has got a bit further south than most of the others.

Around on the hills of Po Toi, were a good few typical Po Toi migrant species....
 

Brambling - (Fringilla montefringilla)

Dollarbird - (Eurystomus orientalis)

Swinhoe's Minivet - (Pericrocotus cantonensis)

A boat trip to southern HK Waters followed on April 23rd.  

Boat Trips can be a bit of a lottery, but it turned out to be a good day. 

Brown Booby was a "HK Tick" for us, a complete surprise...

Brown Booby - (Sula leucogaster)

Aleutian Tern - (Onychoprion aleuticus)

Great Crested Tern - (Thalasseus bergii)

Black-tailed Gull - (Larus crassirostris)

Red-necked Phalarope - (Phalaropus lobatus)

Red-necked Phalarope - (Phalaropus lobatus) 

Sadly, plenty of rubbish in the water. But the phalarope seem attracted to flotsam in the waves.

Short-tailed Shearwaters - (Ardenna tenuirostris)

Short-tailed Shearwaters - (Ardenna tenuirostris)

On another boat trip on May 10th 2023, we found that the Red-necked Phalarope were in more advanced breeding plumage than the ones we had seen three weeks earlier.

Red-necked Phalarope - (Phalaropus lobatus)

Red-necked Phalarope - (Phalaropus lobatus)

And, today, off to Sai Kung for the second time for another rarity, Japanese Waxwing.....hanging around near some fruiting trees - but not the tree this barbet claimed possession of.

Great Barbet - (Megalaima virens)

Vagrant or escape ? Only time - or the HK Birdwatching Society Records Committee - will tell !

Japanese Waxwing - (Bombycilla japonica)

A "Twitch" for a Scoter in Deep Bay, Hong Kong - 9th April 2023

 

Velvet/Stejnegers/White-winged Scoter in flight, Deep Bay, HK 9th April 2023

Every month for the last thirty-or-so years a Waterfowl Count has been done in and around Mai Po Nature Reserve and Deep Bay, northwest Hong Kong. 

Because Deep Bay is a Ramsar Site, the Agriculture,Fisheries and Conservation Department has been tasked with monitoring bird numbers through the seasons.  The Waterfowl Count is co-ordinated by the Hong Kong Birdwatching Society and involves twenty or so counters who are assigned their own areas of responsibility - all the counting is done within a two-hour “window” and results tallied later.

All this concentrated attention - as well as providing a comprehensive numbers database - has turned up some rarities over the years and on last Sunday, April 9th, another rarity was sighted by Tom LI, who was counting birds from the pier at Tsim Bei Tsui.

A WhatsApp message appeared with a photo identified by Tom as a Velvet Scoter (Melanitta fusca).  I arrived at Tsim Bei Tsui car park -  overlooking Deep Bay - to find a dozen-or-so birders there already.

Velvet Scoter is the western cousin of Stejnegers Scoter (M stejnegeri), - on range, far more likely than Velvet, wintering in inshore waters around Japan and the Russian Far East.

There was some spirited debate about the birds identity, but backed up by some fine record photos by Tom himself, Peter Wong and others, eventually the consensus was that Velvet Scoter, the less likely species, was, in fact, the bird on view in Deep Bay.

There are two 1980s records of White-winged-type scoters in Deep Bay, and these have been accepted all along as "Stejnegers" Scoter.  Now Velvet Scoter, if verified by the Records Committee, will be a HK “First”.

My shot, taken from Sha Kiu, is above. I confess I didn't contribute to the ID debate with this one !

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Elsewhere in Deep Bay, some views from the Mai Po boardwalk hides.

Some wintering birds are leaving us now....

Pallas's Gull (Ichthyaetus ichthyaetus)

(centre right) Slaty-backed Gull (Larus schistisagus)

last Saunders Gull (Chroicocephalus saundersi) of the year ? - boardwalk April 4th

White Wagtail (Motacilla alba ocularis)

Stejnegers Stonechat (Saxicola stejnegeri)

Eastern Marsh Harrier (Circus spilonotus) with wader prey

Red-throated Pipit (Anthus cervinus)

In the last couple of weeks, nearly all the Great Cormorants have headed north, as have nearly all the gulls and duck.

With a few migrants around now, my pick of the waders so far is this Oriental Plover (Charadrius veredus) on Pond 17A of Mai Po Nature Reserve

Oriental Plover (Charadrius veredus)

Tree Pipit - a HK “First”, and seasonal supporting cast

HK's first Tree Pipit (Anthus trivialis) - in a tree, where else ?

Many Thanks to Matthew Kwan, discoverer of this bird (among Olive-backed Pipits) at Mai Po on 3rd March. 

A reminder to us all to look at everything carefully.  

At the boardwalk, Saunders Gulls have sometimes showed well. They are elegant creatures, and will leave us soon to breed on the northeast Chinese coast.

Saunders's Gull - Chroicocephalus saundersi

Saunders's Gull - Chroicocephalus saundersi

Saunders's Gull - Chroicocephalus saundersi

Saunders's Gull - Chroicocephalus saundersi (1st winter)

Another boardwalk specialty -

Eastern Yellow Wagtail - Motacilla tschutschensis (macronyx)

I don’t have a mirrorless camera yet, but the old 1DX 2 (and 500mm lens) is still good enough for some of the old favourites...

House Swift - Apus nipalensis

Barn Swallow - Hirundo rustica

Cool and clear weather recently, but damp spring should be just around the corner.

Outer Island Birding, Hong Kong

View from the Pier, Kat O

With overseas options closed off by the prospect of a 21-day quarantine on return to Hong Kong, like everyone else we’ve been exploring corners of HK we haven’t seen much of before.

To my shame, in 43 years in Hong kong I had never been to Kat O Chau (Crooked Island).  At the end of November, we put that right. There are ferries out there at the weekend from Ma Liu Shui, and By Golly, they’re popular. 

Kat O was a centre of HK’s mid-20th century fishing industry, and the school there (now closed) had 300 pupils at one stage.  Mechanization led to over-fishing and fish stocks collapsed in the mid-1960s.  Like other rural communities there was a wave of emigration and the fields and houses on Kat O fell to disuse and decay.

From the high point of Kat O island, the visitor can look north to Yantian on the mainland, where things have gone the other way - agriculture has been superseded by a Container Port servicing Shenzhen and other places in east Guangdong.

Down in Kat O village, this Plumbeous Water Redstart looked like it had just arrived for the winter.  It was competing with Daurian Redstarts for insects in a broad drain behind a row of partially-ruined houses.

Nothing says “50s” like an asbestos-tiled roof

Plumbeous Water Redstart - (f) - (Phoenicurus fuliginosus)

Three days later, we got a hot tip concerning the location of an Oriental Scops Owl on Lamma Island.

Lamma Island has changed too, but, - unlike remote Kat O - it’s only a short ferry ride from Central so there a traditional lifestyle has been supplanted by an influx of outsiders as residents.

Despite having specific directions we needed the help of the locals to spot this one. I had fully expected a crowd of birders/photographers at the owl site already, but my preconception was entirely wrong in this case.

We hadn’t seen Oriental Scops for a dozen-or-so years, so it was great to see this one.  And Lamma is a great spot for a “Post Twitch” coffee and cake !

Oriental Scops Owl (Otus sunia)

Oriental Scops Owl (Otus sunia)

This species is a rare passage migrant in Hong Kong. It was around for about four days and then moved on.

In a flash, it’s Christmas, so all the best for Christmas and the New Year.