Twitch for Cotton Teal

A tip-off (Thanks, Tung and the others who gave us a call) and off we went to Shan Pui village, Yuen Long.

Loads of people had come and gone, but an appreciative crowd lingered..




the support act - Pheasant-tailed Jacana


and Hong Kong's fifth (?) COTTON TEAL (foreground) - Common Moorhen at the rear


And here's one taken in Long Valley yesterday

Oriental Reed Warbler

Lots of interesting autumn migrants around at the moment.

Emberiza aureola - Yellow-breasted Bunting

According to my 1974 edition of "Hong Kong birds" by Geoffrey Herklots, this species is "extremely abundant on migration in China"....and ...... "several flocks were seen at Ping Shan on 22 Oct. 1931"...

Well, on 21 Oct 2009 they were pretty abundant in the rice paddies at Long Valley, near Sheung Shui





Herklots again, quoting Lt. R.E. Vaughan and Staff Surgeon K.H.Jones from the January 1913 edition of "The Ibis" : -

"Rice birds are prized by Europeans and Chinese alike, and not only do the rich natives at Canton consume large quantities, but many are tinned and exported to Singapore and America for the benefit of Celestial exiles."......

"As a matter of fact, any small yellowish bird is sold as a Rice-bird by the Chinese, and one itinerant merchant in Macao was seen with two hundred Eastern Grey Wagtails to dispose of for culinary purposes."

Luckily we're all too clever to return to those dark days.... or are we ?

We've been away

We're back from 28 days in Yunnan Province...

more of the usual junk soon

Mai Po access road

I knew I'd missed the tide, but a minor errand took me to Mai Po. Along the access road some birds had "migrant" written all over them

Purple Heron



... and about thirty Whiskered Terns




I got LOTS of shots with a dull grey background, so you'll have to settle for these..

Long Valley

Lurched around LV today with Andrew H. as it got increasingly steamy


A pair of Painted Snipe



A circling Grey-headed Lapwing


And a demonstrative Black-winged Stilt.

Saw a Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler being snapped by Andrew, but no prize for me !

Po Toi - migration "hotspot" Part 1

On Sunday 13th September we were not surprised to find twenty-or-so birders and photographers on the 08:00hrs ferry from Aberdeen to Po Toi. As is usual these days, photographers (including us) were the most numerous.


View from the end of the pier. The famous seafood restaurant is to the left, and the casuarinas, where Dollarbirds and Black-naped Orioles can while away their day, are on the right.



We spotted a Grey-streaked flycatcher before we had left the pier, and found that there were two of them giving eye-level views


Bold and confiding - Grey-streaked Flycatcher



"Get off MY perch" - you might imagine they'd save their energy for flying over the ocean....




The Grey-streaked Flycatcher show drew a good audience