It's October ! - some autumn passage migrants

They're big, they're gaudy, and their modelling career probably peaked with the publication of  "Hong Kong Birds" by Geoffrey Herklots in 1954 - but I still find Black-capped Kingfishers irresistible. Some may stay in HK for the winter, but most are heading further south.

Black-capped Kingfisher - Halcyon pileata

Black-capped Kingfisher - Halcyon pileata

Black-capped Kingfisher - Halcyon pileata

Black-capped Kingfisher - Halcyon pileata

Black-capped Kingfisher - Halcyon pileata

October is a good month to see Blue-tailed Bee Eaters, and at the start of October I was keenly scanning every power line looking for them, but only found Bulbuls or Black Drongoes.  

However on October 11th, at Tsim Bei Tsui there were over thirty; - here are twelve to start with.

Blue-tailed Bee Eater - Merops philippinus

The Bee Eaters, many of them juveniles, are strictly "fly-throughs".  The scientific name provides a clue to where many will spend the winter.

Blue-tailed Bee Eater - Merops philippinus

Blue-tailed Bee Eater - Merops philippinus

Blue-tailed Bee Eater - Merops philippinus

Blue-tailed Bee Eater - Merops philippinus

Blue-tailed Bee Eater - Merops philippinus

And finally, here are four passing autumnal raptor species.  Raptors, especially juveniles,  usually provide hours of  ID fun for young and old alike.  

Pied Harrier - Circus melanoleucos

Common Kestrel - Falco tinnunculus

Amur Falcon - Falco amurensis

Eurasian Hobby - Falco subbuteo

The Kestrel may hang around for Hong Kong's winter, but the others are likely to be long gone by November.....

Tai Po Kau regulars

The other day I pottered around Tai Po Kau, doing the Red Walk and bits of the Blue Walk.

Huet's Fulvetta - Alcippe hueti

Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler - Pomatorhinus ruficollis

Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler - Pomatorhinus ruficollis

So far, so quiet.  After viewing the Scimitar Babbler trying to demolish the rotten tree stump, it got very quiet.

But back at the main road, at the foot of the hill, it suddenly got very busy.

Yellow-cheeked Tit - Parus spilonotus

Yellow-cheeked Tit - Parus spilonotus

Yellow-cheeked Tit - Parus spilonotus

Yellow-cheeked Tit - Parus spilonotus

Yellow-cheeked Tit - Parus spilonotus

Yellow-cheeked Tit - Parus spilonotus

Velvet-fronted Nuthatch - Sitta frontalis

Velvet-fronted Nuthatch - Sitta frontalis

Grey-throated Minivet - Pericrocrotus solaris

Blue-winged Minla - Minla cyanouroptera

"The usual suspects" are always in Tai Po Kau; - finding them is another matter !

Goodness Gorsachius Me

Malayan Night Heron - Gorsachius melanolophus

It was still very dark when I left the house. A morning in early September. The soon-to-be rising sun made a faint glow through patchy clouds. 

I had Long Valley in mind, but on a whim decided to have a look at an area I don’t get to much these days, - a “hop, skip and jump” from there, along an old army road near the border. 

Close to the Ng Tung river, what used to be paddyfields have mostly become a mess of container yards. In recent years I’ve visited the area at night to look for owls, but it has mostly been disappointing. “Still, should be good for a migrating flycatcher or two", I thought.

There are, however, Wild Boar along that road, so I wasn’t completely surprised when I rounded a bend and found a young boar standing there. It was still only 0615.

I wasn’t that prescient, though, because the camera was still in the bag, in front of the car passenger seat.  The boar (a bit like THIS one) ...

- couldn’t decide at first whether it was frightened enough to run away.  While I dragged the 500mm lens with camera attached from the rucksack it made up its mind and skipped into the undergrowth.

Camera at last in hand, I scanned the bushes, but it was gone.

At another bend I braked on sight of a distinctly heron-like silhouette a few yards in front. Something was standing on the concrete road with it’s back to me..

Malayan Night Heron - Gorsachius melanolophus

I could tell straight away that “That’s not what Black-crowned Night Herons do”  Of course, it was a Gorsachius night heron, and recognisable as a juvenile Malayan Night Heron (G. melanolophus) by the remains of scaly feathering on the nape, and some white edging to the tip of the folded wing.

Malayan Night Heron - Gorsachius melanolophus

I found that the road was not busy so early in the morning and had the MNH in view for about fifteen minutes. An ISO of 3200 still only gave 1/13 of a second shutter speed at f4, - it was that dark. Then I backed away from the feeding bird to somewhere where the road was wider.  Ten minutes later another car ( someone going to work, presumably) swept past and I was sure that would have flushed the MNH from the roadside leaf litter.  Following the other car a few moments later, I found the bird had gone.

This species has a short but interesting track record in Hong Kong. To begin with, it is one of a very few breeding species that visits HK to breed and then migrates south to spend the winter.

Malayan Night Herons were first recorded in Hong Kong in 2003, by means of a camera trap on Lantau Island, when a pair was photographed.  The record was duly accepted with no human beings having seen the birds themselves.

In the late summer of 2004, another pair were found close to Fanling Golf Course. There were two young, and the birds were last seen on October 1st of that year.  

A number of discreet visits to this group showed two, possibly three young. 

Malayan Night Heron - Gorsachius melanolophus

Malayan Night Heron - Gorsachius melanolophus

But my biggest “bonus” bird on that first day was two hundred metres further on from the juvenile bird. Beside the track, only four metres away, was an ADULT Malayan Night Heron, calmly regarding me from a heap of cut branches.  It was so close I couldn’t get it all in the frame.

Malayan Night Heron - Gorsachius melanolophus

Mid-Autumn Festival has come and gone, and so have these secretive visitors.

A morning at Mai Po (Sept 10th, 2015)

It's already a fortnight since I took these shots at Mai Po Nature Reserve, but my excuse is that I was distracted by a Fairy Pitta (see previous post) in between then and now.

In the fig trees behind the Tower Hide...

Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike - Coracina melascistos

Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike - Coracina melascistos

Asian Paradise Flycatcher - Terpsiphone paradisi

Asian Paradise Flycatcher - Terpsiphone paradisi

Skulking on the ground beneath -

Pale-flegged/Sakhalin Leaf Warbler  - Phylloscopus tenellipes/borealoides

In front of the Tower Hide, a vocal and conspicuous resident...

Pied Kingfisher - Ceryle rudis

...and a shyer passage migrant, doing what this species always seems to do - dive for cover !

Purple Heron - Ardea purpurea

Here, a bird that Clements calls "Nutmeg Mannikin" in his checklist -

Scaly-breasted Munia - Lonchura punctulata

At the boardwalk, the "Barwits" are heading south.  The race here is menzbieri - restricted to the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF) it is now considered endangered, with populations of this form falling rapidly.

Bar-tailed Godwit - Limosa lapponica

Bar-tailed Godwit - Limosa lapponica

Finally, a passage migrant duck - Garganey.   I always get "Garganey" and "Gadwall" mixed up - so now I think of the name written along the bird's eyebrow - "Gar-GA-ney"....

Garganey - Anas querquedula

Garganey - Anas querquedula

Garganey - Anas querquedula

Well, it works for me.

Away with the Fairies

Fairy Pitta is a scarce passage migrant here in Hong Kong.

Fairy Pitta - Pitta nympha

One or two are seen each year by a lucky few birders.  As it happens, I've only seen one once before, a spring bird at Tai Po Kau in 2006.

On Monday, 14th September, David Diskin was birding near Lau Sui Heung Reservoir when he discovered a Fairy Pitta near post 2207 of the Maclehose Trail.

I was out birding when I saw Dave's message on a Bird News "Whats App" group.  Ah, technology ! - birding information in real-time.

I got to the site named by Dave in 45 minutes, and spent a while staring into the woods to no avail.

Then, there was another message from Dave to say that the Pitta ( or another individual) had been found by him near Lau Shui Heung Reservoir, a kilometre down the track I was on.

I told him where I was and Dave kindly agreed to meet me and show me exactly where he'd last seen the bird.   At the reservoir we had the briefest glimpse of the pitta again, but Dave had to leave.

Fairy Pitta - Pitta nympha

I decided to hang about and see if the bird would come back to the footpath, which is exactly what it did after about half an hour.

It was suitably alert but not too shy, and I kept seeing it on-and-off in the waterside vegetation.

Fairy Pitta - Pitta nympha

Handholding a 500mm f4 lens I did my best to line up angles to get a clear view. I used no tape or bait - but if I had thought a pitta would eat crumbled oatmeal biscuits I would have offered it some !

Fairy Pitta - Pitta nympha

I left at about 11:45 and I know the bird was seen at the same place later in the afternoon.  But as a typical passage bird, it moved off overnight and was not seen on the Tuesday or Wednesday.

Fairy Pitta - Pitta nympha

Anyway, I was very pleased to make its acquaintance.