Telford 3 Nov 2018 - warbler fancy

Two years ago, Wing Tung and I saw the Baikal Grasshopper (her tick) and Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler in a small patch of garden in Telford, Kowloon Bay, a very urbanised area. We spent our Lunar New Year holidays there with the two cuties: Small North 小北 and Small Grasshopper 小蝗.

This year, several warblers came again (in fact there was also Pallas’s last winter)! That includes Pallas’s, Lancy, Stubtail, Oriental Reed etc. Today, we went and saw the three of them: comparative  friendlier Little Brown Jobs - Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler, Black-browed Reed Warbler and Rufous-tailed Robin. My target was trying to take some decent shots (especially Black-browed) for our future warbler identification articles/posts, but it was far more difficult as I expected because of too many birders and photographers while very limited open spaces for the warblers....

Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Ma Zip: are you talking to me?

Rufous-tailed Robin

Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler - not a tame one, especially compared to the one Wing Tung and I safed.. that one was tamer. To separated from Lancy, note the different head pattern, size, jizz and the streak shape.

Black-browed Reed Warbler - first time for us to have a better photo

Black-browed Reed Warbler - the thick and contrasting black 'brow' form a distinctive median crown stripe, which is indistinct in Manchurian

Black-browed Reed Warbler - the wing and tail of Manchurian are longer, also ginger tone on rump and uppertail coverts in Manchurian

Black-browed Reed Warbler

Black-browed Reed Warbler - Look at the sky, what are you thinking right now?

Black-browed Reed Warbler - bill is slimmer than Manchurian

Black-browed Reed Warbler

Black-browed Reed Warbler

Black-browed Reed Warbler

Anyway, still very please to see these LBJs in excellent views and it’s also a good opportunity to investigate the importance of urban green island, migration route of some passerines (like why this patch attracted so many LBJs) and the contribution of local economy by twitchers and birders....

More and more to study!