Kung Chau & Tai Mo Shan 7 Jun 2019 - Sooty Tern

The Sooty Tern was first reported on 1 Jun, when I was birding in Wuyuen, which I thought I would dip this one again. We saw a distant bird few years ago but not a tickable one, so this bird could be my lifer.

After nearly a week, we finally made a twitch today and amazingly the bird was spotted right we arrived. A very friendly immature tern, even photos were not good enough due to the strong sunlight, having excellent view of this pelagic tern was fantastic experience. Other tern observed were Black-naped, Roseate, Bridled, Whiskered and a White-winged by Koel only.

checklist: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S57155005

Kung Chau - a small tern island

Sooty Tern - immature is very smart looking tern: just all dark brownish

Sooty Tern - in flight from above, a uniform dark brownish upperparts

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern - really sooty

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern - finding for fish

Sooty Tern - this individual was quite aggressive, always called and chased other Bridled Tern as here

Sooty with mountain

Sooty Tern - sadly the sunlight was too strong

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern - also lacks the pale collar as Bridled does

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern - using the 500mm PF for flight photos is less tiring than 400 2.8

Sooty Tern with Bridled Tern - it only landed for awhile

Sooty Tern with Bridled Tern - the camouflage for immature Sooty Tern is good

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern - as see the underwing is white like the adult, and not as extensive as Bridled Tern

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern with Roseate Tern

Sooty Tern - got a big fish

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern - we spent around 1.5 hours for this

Sooty Tern - the underparts

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern - the bright cap may be confused with Noody but all other features are wrong

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern - Nikon camera can focus better in green background

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern - it flew really close to us

Sooty Tern - chasing Bridled Tern again

Black-naped Tern - unexpectedly they seemed to be more uncommon today

Roseate Tern with Whiskered Tern

Roseate Tern with Whiskered Tern

Roseate Tern

Roseate Tern

Roseate Tern

Roseate Tern

Bridled Tern - flight in below, comparing to Sooty, Bridled shows extensive white underwing and white supercilium

Roseate Tern

Roseate Tern

Roseate Tern

Roseate Tern

Roseate Tern mutual preening

Roseate Tern

Whiskered Tern - the tail fork is shallower

a successful morning

After the boat trip, we went up to Tai Mo Shan for an hour walk for the Lesser Cuckoo, a breeder there. We only heard one but not seen. Anyway, still a Chestnut-winged Cuckoo which was quite responsive as a bonus there.

checklist: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S57154455

My 2019 HK Big Year is 248

Light-vented Bulbul

Chestnut-winged Cuckoo hiding