Ho Man Tin 26 Sep 2018 - Siberian Blue Robin

Again I had half day free before our coming trip later this week, so I went to Ho Man Tin today to see any new migrants or tame Tiger Shrike. As a result, the Tiger was a no but many new arrivals. Plenty Phylloscopus: including a new Two-barred Warbler, a very yellowish non-calling Arctic Warbler etc, several Asian Brown Flycatcher, at least two Orange-headed Thrush and a first year Siberian Blue Robin.

Tung and I firstly ticked the Siberian Blue Robin in Po Toi years ago after several trials, and till now we have already seen plenty of them. Like the blue robin, birds are always easier to be seen after ticked, but we will never forget our joy on the first day.

Black-naped Oriole

a very cute juvenile Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Siberian Blue Robin - the pale tips on greater coverts are features of first-winter bird

it was just jumping around when we were chatting

Siberian Blue Robin

Siberian Blue Robin - an eyelevel shot

Siberian Blue Robin - we wish to see Firethroat, but the leg color is wrong

Full checklist, not the best but better than last time: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48751523

Long Valley 25 Sep 2018 - dipping warbler day

As expected, the Manchurian Reed Warbler has gone. The only Acrocephalus today was a single Oriental Reed Warbler. Besides that, we flushed several Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler and one early Dusky Warbler.

Best bird of the day? Should be a flying adult Chestnut-winged Cuckoo. And some Red-necked Phalarope still stayed and made the day less boring.

Barn Swallow

Barn Swallow - we also saw a single Red-rumped Swallow nearby

Black-winged Stint - immature and adult, note the fringes on the upperpart of younger bird

Black-winged Stilt - adult

some ducks are returning - a very record shot of Eurasian Teal, as told by the speculum. Tung and I usually saw Garganey more in LV in early fall, so this teal is an early arrivial? more about the speculum can be seen here: https://www.birdguides.com/articles/species-profiles/focus-on-identifying-female-green-winged-and-baikal-teal/

Swintail Snipe

Oriental Magpie - as split in IOC now

(Eastern) Spotted Dove

Red-necked Phalarope - a relaxed bird

Red-necked Phalarope - two feeding birds. The long thin bill, dirty upperpart and smaller size help separating from similar and rarer Red Phalarope

Red-necked Phalarope - sometimes they'r fearless

so we could observe their feeding behavior. Phalarope is well known to feed plankton/invertebrates by using water surface tension, an energy saving technique done by its long thin bill. As see in the photo, the prey was 'pulled' along with water, no suction is required.

At least 52 species were seen in four hours as here: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48730094

Ho Man Tin 22 Sep 2018 - half day birding with friend from Singapore

We heard that birding in Ho Man Tin was so exciting yesterday with Fairy Pitta, Brown-chested Jungle Flycatcher Jungle Flycather, Tiger Shrike, Siberian Blue Robin etc etc. so we continued our plan to HMT today after my class even Jon found a Manchurian Reed Warbler in other place, a long-wishing target on our list, but finally resulted nothing (a very very very typical birding case for Tung and me, and we were birding with my (past) colleague today who is as unlucky as us too [!], so the result is a bit ‘expected’)

As see the checklist here: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48662305 

Nothing really worth mentioning except the responsive Pale-legged Leaf Warbler, should be the same individual as last week, which is our Singapore friend - Catalina’s lifer. Hope you have a good time in HK and see you soon in Singapore maybe, and safe flight back to SH tomorrow!

Pale-legged Leaf Warbler - a very responsive individual. Pinkish leg, dark bill with pale tip, wagging tail jizz and the distinctive high pitch call confirm the ID

And we wish the Manchurian Reed Warbler will stay for us on 25/9..... please...

HK Wetland Park 17 Sep 2018 - a day after typhoon

Typhoon Mangkhut did not hit HK directly but still caused serious damage to many aspects, like many trees were fallen or places were flooded in my local patch.

the 'mudflat' was flooded, but good for phalarope which is new for me here 

fallen trees everywhere, but the scops owl tree is strong and up still

Nothing 'unexpected' came to my patch, like (injured) seabirds, but still got two new ticks here: Red-necked Phalarope and Whiskered Tern (not Black!).

the flooded mudflat is safer than the sea for these 3 Red-necked Phalarope, one adult and two first winter

Whiskered Tern - no idea why this species was a first. At least 7 were seen, some were still in partly summer plumage

a post-typhoon meal for Chinese Pond Heron

this one with a geolocator, a project we always want to investigate more

The full checklist is here, not an astonishing one after typhoon, but there are plenty chances coming as there will be much more "super typhoon" due to global warming in future.

https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48560125

Ho Man Tin 13 Sep 2018 - a regular day before typhoon

Today was my regular off, I couldn’t wake early so I just chose to have a short walk in Ho Man Tin after lunch.

Ho Man Tin is a magical place in HK birddom, you can see many unexpected migrants there because it is an important ‘island’ for migrating birds in fully urbanised Kowloon Peninsula, a best place to rest and refuel, and then ‘attract’ birders. Wing Tung and I were used to be unlucky in this hotspot, but we still did see something good there like Siberian Blue Robin, Tiger Shrike, and our first Fairy Pitta (a twitch just after Singapore)!

Recently, there is news of Tiger Shrike, Brown-chested Jungle Flycatcher and Siberian Blue Robin, which are usual autumn migrants, but I only managed to see the last one today.

Orange-headed Thrush - a female

also female Siberian Blue Robin, not as tame as last year bird

immature Blue Whistling Thrush which is spotless

1st winter male Yellow-rumped Flycatcher - compare to female, male shows darker (blackish) uppertail coverts

Yellow-rumped Flycatcher - a common fall migrant in HK

Yellow-rumped Flycatcher - we saw plenty this season

Yellow-rumped Flycatcher - this bird was quite responsive but still not easy to get a decent photo especially I brought my small lens only

Brown Shrike - why not a tiger...

Phylloscopus was my other target but only several Pale-legged Leaf Warbler and Arctic warbler could be seen and heard.

The strangest found today was a Feral Pigeon, a rather small one in unusual plumage, maybe a hybrid or so.

Feral Pigeon by iPhone only - should I change the iPhone Xs Max? By the way, the color combination of the pigeon is so similar to White-eyed River Martin😐

The full checklist: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48471286

HK Wetland Park 11 Sep 2018 - Tiger Shrike

Not a bad start of today as I finally managed to flush two Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler, one even perched for awhile and allowed a record shot, my first Locustella of this season (but now they change to another genus Helopsaltes according to IOC 8.2). Also a Besra mobbed by 4 Black Drongo.

Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler

Besra

The same Swin/tail Snipe presented for whole day but I still couldn’t get a shot to prove its ID.

Swin/tail Snipe - this snipe stayed here for nearly a week, actively molting its primary and long toe projection indicate Pintail (??)

Lunchtime was hot and quiet, only three calling Pale-legged Leaf Warbler until I flushed a very reddish bird, my first guess was an adult male Red-backed Shrike until this bird landed on floor then a bare branch, a smart looking juvenile Tiger Shrike in my Noctivid! Unluckily, I was too slow to take a photo (as a [skillless] birder we always look first before photo). I did try again in late afternoon but no more tiger, only an adult Crested Serpent Eagle.

Tiger Shrike is not a really rare species in HK (recorded every autumn, rare in spring) but strangely this is my second time to see here, while we saw plenty in mainland China and SE Asia (Wing Tung did find us a nice adult male in Singapore, though a bit far for good photos). Anyway, always fun to find something unexpected when we are bored.

Two typhoons are coming and may bring us something new and much more exciting.

Long Valley 9 Sep 2018 - first sniping in this season

Early fall is good for sniping in HK especially there are much more Swinoe's/Pintail Snipe than Common Snipe. This morning was cool, not very hot for birding so we started our first sniping section this season.

Not a bad day as we flushed 20 more Swinoe's/Pintail Snipe but sadly none was safely identified (unlike the first Pintail Snipe we took years ago). From the view and the poor photos below, we believed around 80% of the snipe of today are Swinhoe's rather than Pintail.

Surprisingly no reed or grasshopper warbler today, the other noticeable migrants were a single Eurasian Hobby and Eurasian Wryneck (should be a Plaintive Cuckoo, Oops.....)

Rock Dove - best picture of the day. Interestingly we don't have many photos of this species even Tung and I saw uncountable Rock Dove in many countries.

adult Eurasian Hobby, too late when I got my camera ready.

Swin/tail Snipe A of today, the lack of obvious white trailing edge could tell this is not a Common Snipe. Unlike Taiwan, snipe in Hong Kong always go high and far when flushed, no matter which species. You can check more in Steve's blog (here: http://birdingpage.blogspot.com/2018/08/acute-snipe-sickness.html ), he got plenty good identifiable Swinhoe's Snipe photos.

Swin/tail Snipe B, this one didn't show any toe projection in this angle, a feature of Latham's Snipe but as Steve mentioned, Latham's start their primary molt until arriving wintering ground in Australia or New Zealand, while this one already molt the inner primaries.

Swin/tail Snipe B, as the tail is long, and the inner primary is new, we would guess this is a Swinhoe's.

Swin/tail Snipe B and C, blurred tail pattern, maybe we will get much better shots when we have the Nikon 500mm PF? The very white outertail and tips of central rectrices, also favor Swinhoe's, and the shape looked like unpin (?)

Swin/tail Snipe D, the toe projected more, a pro Pintail feature.

Swin/tail Snipe E, not a clear shot and strange tail, but looked like more pro Swinhoe's.

Swin/tail Snipe E, same as above

So to conclude, we still cannot tick the Swinhoe's Snipe safely and we need to improve our skill, gear, and also knowledge for snipe ID!

Full checklist here: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48381986

HK Wetland Park 4 Sep 2018 - first birding day in Sep

Today was my first birding day this month, started with a Thick-billed Warbler trapped and ringed near reedbed (I’m still hoping to get some good hand-free photos of this species).

The adult Amur Paradise Flycatcher arrived yesterday should be gone already, a normal case here, but two new flycatchers, an Asian Brown Flycatcher and a Dark-sided (Siberian) Flycatcher, the latter was an adult which we seldom see in early fall.

Siberian Flycatcher

The two Pale-legged Leaf Warbler were still showing well and calling actively, good for sound recording but not good for a clean shot. And an Arctic Warbler newly arrived at noon, which was even more unphotoable.

Pale-legged Leaf Warbler, confirmed by call

Pale-legged Leaf Warbler - same bird as above, showing a typical shorter primary projection (5 tips beyond tertials) than Sakhalin Leaf Warbler 

[ again here: https://lovingthetodiesforever.blogspot.com/2018/08/identifying-sakhalin-leaf-warbler.html ]

recording of the Pale-legged Leaf Warbler above, also very typical higher frequency (reaching 6kHz), as here:

https://www.hbw.com/ibc/sound/pale-legged-leaf-warbler-phylloscopus-tenellipes/call

again a comparison from our two recordings

Pale-legged Leaf Warbler - another individual, also confirmed by call

a pair of White Wagtail during the hot boring plant training

Sooty-headed Bulbul - molting bird

Long-tailed Shrike - nice background but bad perch