HK Wetland Park 7-10 May 2018 - owlet and cuckoo week

After seeing the super tame immature Asian Barred Owlet and good view of Indian Cuckoo, I went to try more owlet or cuckoo (with my camera!). The result was fair, I didn’t see any more immature/recently fledged owlet but I saw two adult owlet, perching side by side together. Also at least three Indian Cuckoo and one Large Hawk Cuckoo in the same spot and all not just call but could be seen, allowing some record shots.

Asian Barred Owlet

Asian Barred Owlet - owlet loves bathing a lot!

one of the three Indian Cuckoo seen, this one was calling in flight

this is the 4th cuckoo, making a hawk cuckoo jizz, sadly no call

same bird as above. the dark hood and blackish barring, also the black terminal band all point to Indian Cuckoo, the 4th of the day

this one is definitely Large Hawk Cuckoo, and with call!

Rainy days for whole week, not good for migrants. The long staying adult male Tufted Duck was still there, also some Black-faced Spoonbill still leaving behind, which were all immature birds. Best bird of the week should be an adult male Lesser Sand Plover, in atrifrons group, a rather uncommon taxa in HK and I have seen them in late summer but not in spring before (in fact there was one more Lesser Sand Plover at the same time but still in winter plumage and hence I couldn’t make a safe ID).

this is a heavily cropped photo of the plover in 400mm

Lesser Sand Plover atrifrons group, a digiscoping shot. As the broad breast band suggests this is a breeding Lesser but not Greater Sand Plover. The lack of white forehead nor the blackish boarder between white throat and the breast band indicate this is atrifrons group. The atrifrons group is breeding in Central Asia / Himalayan region, different to the more commonly seen mongolus group in HK, which is breeding in east Asia. Apart from morphology, the phylogenetic study also suggests this atrifrons group can be treated as a separate species, Tibetan Plover Charadrius atrifrons. We have seen this in Mai Po several times in late summer, but this is my first time in spring / early summer.

Lesser Sand Plover atrifrons group, this photo shows the forehead and breast band more clearly. 

There was a report of Eurasian Jay in my local patch from eBird on 9 May, I tried later but did not see any. The jay is now not easy (or even very rare) in HK and would be my 445th  HK tick, though this is a very common species in the whole Eurasia.

busy feeding young 1 - the Eurasian Tree Sparrow is getting food for chicks and itself, in the blooming season of juvenile bud of Ricaniidae

busy feeding young 2 - this female Oriental Magpie Robin also used insect to feed her chicks

also some eggs seen today, probably White-breasted Waterhen

The checklists of the week are here,
7 May: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S45399914
8 May: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S45443249
9 May: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S45477491
10 May: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S45510698