Mai Po and Long Valley 21 Mar 2019 - a glossy twitch

We received the news of Glossy Ibis and I had a rest day today so we went to Mai Po for a try. Sadly no joy, but we still had a good time in Mai Po especially the tide was not bad. We saw many Caspian Tern, a more active Long-billed Dowitcher, Red Knot, Bar-tailed Godwit, Far Eastern Curlew, single Black-tailed Gull, plenty Vega Gull mongolicus, and the highlight - two responsive Styan's Grasshopper Warbler!

a quiet 16/17 without any ibis....

only a Purple Heron - digiscoped by noctivid

Deep Bay was much better, with lots of waders

Styan's Grasshopper Warbler Helopsaltes pleskei, a change of genus. First time for Chelsea and my second year to spot a responsive molting bird 

(musical nuclear weapon is waiting us 😎)

Mai Po checklist: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S54064918


You can never predict what will appear next in birddom! We received the Glossy Ibis news in Long Valley (Long Valley, I said that!!!!) right after arriving Yuen Long...... So an immediate twitch was done and luckily two immature Glossy Ibis showed super well! What a day for us! 😄 (7 lifers for Chelsea lol)

once we got off from taxi, we saw the two ibis took off........ we immediately took our bins and ticked first, then photoed next

Glossy Ibis in flight

Glossy Ibis - they loved feeding on Apple Snails here

Glossy Ibis and White Wagtail

two immature Glossy Ibis - adult will be much more colorful (hence glossy)

Glossy Ibis

Glossy Ibis is a monotypic species which is globally distributed, and a wanderer. Nomadic behavior makes them come here for no reason. Ibis is usually a comparatively adaptive species group, so we may see more and more Glossy Ibis in East Asia in short future.

Glossy Ibis with Black-winged Stilt

Glossy Ibis - we also need the Black-headed Ibis especially the eastern population, which should be an uncommon winter visitor in HK but now is vagrant because they declined dramatically......

two Glossy Ibis, their sizes and plumage are slightly different

Glossy Ibis

Glossy Ibis - still good to see an immature in a boring spring even not glossy enough

Black-winged Stilt - wrong focus

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

Chinese Pond Heron - another wrong focus

they changed pond quite often

Gloss Ibis and Wood Sandpiper

Glossy Ibis

Glossy Ibis in flight

they eventually flew high and disappeared then we didn't wait, though they returned after we left.

a smart and talkative African Grey Parrot

My 2019 HK Big Year is 196.