A what Lark now?

A full day tour with two guests ended on an interesting bird, interesting in that I had almost no clue what it was when I first got my eyes on it! We were looking at a few Red-throated Pipit at Long Valley, the sun was setting and we've just had excellent views of a few Greater Painted Snipes. Just as we were about to call it a day, I noticed a small bird feeding along the edge of a muddy field. It was clearly a lark, but I was not entirely sure what kind of lark it was. Traditionally, Eurasian Skylark is our default lark species, while Oriental Skylarks are rare, along with other larks. Although I have never seen one before, this bird struck me as a good candidate for a Short-toed Lark of some kind. I scrambled for some photos, hoping to get as many details of the bird as I possibly could. We had it in good view for over 15 minutes, before it flew off to another field and disappeared. Ultimately, I narrowed it down to either an Asian or Mongolian Short-toed Lark, given the lack of primary projection, it seems more likely to be the latter. Geoff Carey later sent the photos to Per Alstrom for his comments, and he also think it is a Mongolian Short-toed Lark. If accepted, this will likely be the forth record in Hong Kong, a great way to start spring migration with a lifer in Hong Kong! Sadly the bird was never refound the next day, so I felt blessed to have been able to see this rarity!

Mongolian Short-toed Lark - a real surprise and short staying rarity

Oriental Pratincoles are also a typical spring migrant, I saw a few at my survey site, but many have reported upward of a few dozens in various fish pond areas. Its always lovely to see them glide around gracefully.

Oriental Pratincole

There wasn't anything 'new' around Mai Po, so I didn't really take any photos. The best bird was perhaps the long staying Brown-headed Gull, which i managed to see one day out on the mudflat, but it was too far for any photos. An Eastern Buzzard perched at close range provided good photo opportunity of this common raptor. A Eurasian Kestrel came through Lok Ma Chau village one afternoon and perched on the houses nearby, before getting mobbed by a few starlings and flew off.

Eastern Buzzard

Eurasian Kestrel

Otherwise, Tai Po Kau have been my 'go to' place lately. It is conveniently close for me, and the range of species on show have been quite good of late. The star bird of course being the White-spectacled Warblers, here are two different individuals, first an intermediate morph with slight greyish tint to the crown, and a full green crown morph for comparison. I have not been able to get any good photos of the proper grey-crowned morph despite having seen it a few times in the last few months.

White-spectacled Warbler - intermediate morph

White-spectacled Warbler - green crowned morph

The Hume's Warbler around picnic area two never showed very well, often staying too high up to get a proper view. It came down a bit lower one day for me to at least grab a record shot, while Hume's Warbler looks very similar to Yellow-browed in general, the call is often easy enough to identify, and often the safest way to separate between the two species.

Hume's Warbler

Chinese Barbets have been calling almost constantly of late, although seeing it remains a real challenge, got lucky with one calling near the top of the red walk, where trees are slightly lower, it still took us nearly 15 minutes to locate it, once located it showed amazingly well for as long as we wanted.

Chinese Barbet - a real treat to get good looks at

Its been an absolutely terrible winter for thrushes, there were not many around and those that were around never showed very well. Both Grey-backed and Japanese Thrushes can be found around Tai Po Kau, although without a fruiting tree chances of seeing them well is low. Other remaining winter visitors such as Rufous-tailed Robin and Verditer Flycatchers are perhaps slightly easier to see, with some of the robins now in song as their departure approaches.

Grey-backed Thrush

Japanese Thrush

Black-winged Cuckooshrikes, Grey-headed Canary-Flycatchers, Verditer Flycatcher and Rufous-tailed Robins are all regular winter visitors, with spring fast approaching I believe some of them will depart Hong Kong soon enough, with some of the robins now in song as their departure approaches.

Black-winged Cuckooshrike

Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher

Verditer Flycatcher - male

Rufous-tailed Robin

Rhodolea blooms are coming to an end, with just a few flowers remaining. Flowering Bombax now takes over, and those around Tai Po Kau Park attracts a good variety of birds to visit, including a Black Bulbul.

Orange-bellied Leafbird - male

Black Bulbul

The "standard" cast of local birds are always great fun to watch, and challenging at the same time to get good views of each of them. But, the sense of relieve and accomplishment is hard to compare when you finally get a good look at these forest dwellers. Funny how things have changed and Speckled Piculet is now part of the regular birds in Hong Kong.

Mountain Bulbul

Silver-eared Mesia

Huet's Fulvetta

Streak-breasted Scimitar-Babbler

Velvet-fronted Nuthatch

Black-throated Laughingthrush

Pygmy Cupwing

Grey-chinned Minivet - female

Asian Tit & Grey-chinned Minivet

White-bellied Erpornis

Speckled Piculet

Finally, a singing Chinese Hwamei in full view, certainly a common species that I don't get to see that often. These songsters do become more active in spring, their melodious song can be heard around shrubby hillsides, at Tai Po Kau I only really see them around the lower reaches and bushes near the park.

Chinese Hwamei

A Few Spring Migrants in April

April's been such a busy month, I haven't really had much time doing birding on my own, so I am slightly behind on a few migrants, but things are definitely improving with a few more interesting birds here and there. The only few good spring migrants I have seen lately were two Swinhoe's Minivets, one at home and the other at Mai Po.

Swinhoe's Minivet

Other spring migrants I've encountered including a single Narcissus Flycatcher at Tai Po Kau, although it was too far away for any proper photos. Hainan Blue Flycatchers are back now, and quite a few heard at Tai Po Kau, although none really showed well. I visited Ho Man Tin briefly one morning, I didn't get to spend too much time there due to work, the only bird I got there was a single Asian Brown Flycatcher.

Narcissus Flycatcher - male

Hainan Blue Flycatcher - male

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Tai Po Kau is still a location I go most often due to birding tours, it is always a great location to start the day, and you often see a good range of local birds there on most days. It is the regular haunt for Crested Serpent Eagles, and of course you often see them perch on tall trees along the access road. Both Chinese Barbets and Great Barbets have been showing fairly well lately, both species can often be located through their calls.

Crested Serpent Eagle

Chinese Barbet

Great Barbet

Both Bay Woodpeckers and Speckled Piculets have been fairly active at Tai Po Kau, although the former did not give me any chance to get any photos, Speckled Piculets however are a bit more obliging. 

Speckled Piculet

Temperature's been getting higher, with temperature exceeding 30°C lately, many birds in the forest take baths to keep cool, such as these Blue-winged Minlas and Huet's Fulvettas. Yellow-cheeked Tits are now breeding, I observed a few pairs making nests, therefore less are following bird waves.

Blue-winged Minla

Huet's Fulvetta

Yellow-cheeked Tit - male

A lot of other birds are also actively breeding, I observed Silver-eared Mesias collecting nesting materials, as well as an actual nest of Grey-chinned Minivets, although the pair seems to have abandoned the nest after a little while.

Silver-eared Mesia

Grey-chinned Minivet - female on nest

Other fairly vocal species lately includes Black-throated Laughingthrush and Velvet-fronted Nuthatch. There are not much flowering trees now to see Fork-tailed Sunbirds feeding, but males are quite vocal at the moment and can often be seen perched in the open singing. Plain Flowerpeckers are also very vocal still.

Black-throated Laughingthrush

Velvet-fronted Nuthatch

Fork-tailed Sunbird - male

Plain Flowerpecker

Closer to home, I haven't found many interesting migrants at my local patch, but a male White-rumped Shama was in song, and several Streak-breasted Scimiter-Babblers showed well to me during my short walk.

White-rumped Shama - male

Streak-breasted Scimiter-Babbler

The over wintering Citrine Wagtail at Lok Ma Chau seems to have finally moved on, I saw it once more at the beginning of the month. Around the fish ponds, Whiskered Terns are now returning, with several seen feeding and resting on the fish ponds. The drained fish ponds attracts Oriental Pratincoles to roost there, and they are regularly seen flying around hawking for insects. Pied Kingfishers can still be found around the fish ponds with relative ease at this time of the year, but less White-throated Kingfishers are seen there now as most of them have started breeding on the hill sides.

Citrine Wagtail

Whiskered Tern

Oriental Pratincole

Pied Kingfisher

Several cuckoo species can now be regularly heard or seen around different birding sites, Large Hawk Cuckoos, Plaintive Cuckoos, Indian Cuckoos and Chestnut-winged Cuckoos to name a few. I spotted a distant Oriental Cuckoo during an outing at Mai Po, my first for spring.

Oriental Cuckoo