Not just birds

2019年11月25日星期一

San Tin 25 Nov 2019 - endgame grebe

The election finished finally which our side was totally defeated, little bit over our expectations but I don’t think this is the end of our world.

Life goes on, especially the birder life. So after finished counting the vote at 3am, I made a second twitch for the Black-necked Grebe, luckily, it behaved well and allowed good views. Not a lifer for me but a HK tick.

For other migrants, several Common Pochard and a female Ferruginous Duck, the same Great Crested Grebe, Whiskered Tern, two Common Starling, a single Greater Spotted Eagle and Eastern Marsh Harrier, and I flushed a Pheasant-tailed Jacana. Also noted two Dusky Warbler in song (not strange in such a hot day!). Furthermore, an interesting pipit with unstreaked mantle was seen but sadly not good enough for confirmed ID. Well, not a bad morning.

Today was also my first time to make a field test of the sony gear. As I haven’t made correct setting, the photos are just record shots. However, I still find some pros and cons of the A7RIV with the 200-600mm and the 1.4x extender, as generalised here (of course, not a full review!):

1. not user friendly enough comparing canon and nikon
2. I haven’t adjusted correct setting so always out-focus for slow moving birds like the grebe and duck
3. high pixel is good for cropping but bad for noise control, max ISO 1000 for me! Also you need much higher shutter speed
4. the 1.4 extender is good, just minor effect on focusing speed and accuracy
5. need faster and bugger card, more batteries
6. too slow to check and delete photos, but good experience for using EVF
7. hood is weak
8. repeat again, not user friendly lol......

Anyway, I will try more before making a conclusion.

Today’s checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S61728395
and my 2019 HK Big Year is now 289.

Black-necked Grebe - well I just uploaded one photo here as I am really not satisfied about the picture quality of today's shots (for good lighting and acceptable distance with a 600mm and fullframe camera).... I am not so sure this is because of the 1.4 extender or out-focus or low shutter speed (already 1/800s) or my wrong setting or the suppression of RAW to JPEG or my computer problem. Anyway still need to learn and practice more.....

And... absolutely better than iPhone lol......💀💀💀💀💀

2019年11月17日星期日

Tsim Bei Tsui and Long Valley 17 Nov 2019 - one more week, no jay no joy

Last week to go, aimed to look for Eurasian Jay again and as expected failed again.

The first stop of today is Victoria Park for waiting bus, produced several Yellow-crested Cockatoo.

Checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S61503229

Tsim Bei Tsui, a place good for Eurasian Jay but not today, only many thrush species passing, a Grey Treepie, a long-time-no-see Black-capped Kingfisher, usual Golden-headed Cisticola, a Western Osprey, a Common Kestrel and a Peregrine Falcon. Unexpectedly we saw large groups of Chestnut Bulbul and Indochinese Yuhina in this spot.

Checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S61511397

Western Osprey

Lizzard

Indochinese Yuhina - a huge flock of them but only one could be recorded

Chinese Grosbeak

Golden-headed Cisticola - they loved wire today

or also called Bright-capped Cisticola

Common Kestrel

view from Tsim Bei Tsui

cold drink in hot day

We changed to Long Valley in the afternoon. No Yellow-browed nor Black-headed Bunting seen by us, we only spotted Yellow-breasted, Little, Chestnut-eared and Rustic Bunting, also three Grey-capped Greenfinch.

Not a very good list: https://ebird.org/checklist/S61513977

And 2019 HK Big Year is 286.

Rustic Bunting....

farmer and Yellow-breasted Bunting

Chinese Pond Heron

Chinese Pond Heron with a nice background

again Rustic Bunting - there are several today I think

Chestnut-eared Bunting

Yellow-breasted Bunting in flight

Rustic Bunting in flight - note the reddish scales on rump and uppertail coverts

Rustic Bunting in flight - and the red streaked flanks

Rustic Bunting in flight

Grey-capped Greenfinch

or also called Oriental Greenfinch

another drink ended the day

2019年11月16日星期六

San Tin and Mai Po 16 Nov 2019 - no shrike day

We visited San Tin first to find some news species, but eventually we dipped many things which Graham and Mike saw, like Eurasian Jay and Himalayan Swiftlet, while for us, we saw Greater Spotted Eagle, Black-winged Kite, Little Bunting and the best of the day - a Rustic Bunting found by Wallace.

Checklist of San Tin: https://ebird.org/checklist/S61483597

Whiskered Tern

Richard's Pipit - note the strong bill

Little Bunting

Great Crested Grebe

Great Crested Grebe and Tufted Duck and Little Grebe

Black-winged Kite in flight

Common Snipe - note the longish bill and bold streaks on scapulars

Rustic Bunting - note the reddish flank

Good Lunch

Cold Beer

After lunch, we headed to Mai Po, mainly for the Chinese Grey shrike again but we dipped, still we saw the Black-winged Kite, same female Ferruginous Duck, 2 Eastern Spotbill Duck, 4 Yellow-fronted Canary and a White’s Thrush (which was firstly identified as wryneck and very responsive to wryneck playback lol........💀💀).

Checklist of Mai Po: https://ebird.org/checklist/S61483313

And my 2019 HK Big Year is 282.

Temminck's Stint

Ferruginous Duck

Ferruginous Duck - brownish red head, black iris and white vent are key ID features

Ferruginous Duck - more white vent, always find for white vent in Aythya in HK

Black-winged Kite

Long-tailed Shrike dark morph

Nice sunset

2019年11月15日星期五

Ho Man Tin 15 Nov 2019 - realistic birding

Still chaos everywhere in HK so I squeeze sometime for birding, in Ho Man Tin today.

Thrush influx is noticeable but only Japanese Thrush can be seen, also a female Orange-headed Thrush. Not much for the other migrants, only Rufous-tailed Robin, Red-flanked Bluetail, and still the Chestnut Bulbul.

A very vocal Chinese Hwamei is my best of the day...

Checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S61460395