ajohn

Weather conditions in Hong Kong today (12th October) seem to be perfect for migrating Black Drongos, and there is clearly a massive passage of this species underway, at least at Mai Po. Up to 0950, over 750 individuals had been observed at the reserve, mostly flying straight over without stopping. Passage was still underway at this time, and more birds are certain to pass through over the course of the day. More birds were almost certainly missed during the morning as well.

The record count reported in the Avifauna is a mere 150 individuals. I seem to remember a higher count since then (last year), but I don't remember the total number. Today's passage may well exceed even that total.

If anyone is outdoors around Hong Kong today, it would be worth checking for the species and getting a count of the number of individuals. It would be interesting to see how widespread this passage is and how many in total can be recorded over the course of the day.

kmike

3 in Lam Tsuen at 0815 this morning

hardly spectacular. . . but every little helps!

Cheers
Mike

lkatherine

Another 100 fly over at Mai Po in the past hour (10:00-11:02).

Will keep counting

Katherine

subbuteo

I had another seven in Lam Tsuen at 7.20 this morning.  Flew high and up towards KFBG.

lkatherine

Another good hour count from 11:20-12:00 --> 114 birds

No good numbers during lunch hour 13:13-14:00 --> 10 birds only

Total number at Mai Po so far: >750+100+114+10 = >974 birds!

Katherine

lrichard

Prior to today, highest counts reported to BirdLine were 237 seen at Mui Wo, Lantau by Paul Aston on 7 October 2007.

The highest Hair-crested Drongo count, 67 over Tai Po Kau Headland seen by Ruy & Karen Barretto, was also on 7 October 2007.

tmichael

I shall clearly have to pay more attention to them, and try to document them in some way, but the numbers of Hair-crested Drongoes going to roost in winter time near Hing Keng Shek, Sai Kung regularly exceed 67, exceeding 90 I think. That's during the period from 2004-5 to 2009-10, when I lived there.

When I watched regularly at Mount Austin from 1992-96, Hair-crested Drongoes were only ever seen on one weekend, but were seen nearly every year on that weekend ie the weekend falling between c 28/9 and 5/10.

A bit off topic on a thread that started off being about Black Drongoes I guess, so on that topic I remember Mai Po and environs used to be generally full of Black Drongoes towards the end of September. I believe the species breeds further north now, so maybe that's why peak passage events appear to be getting later and later.

I haven't seen one today!

Mike Turnbull

[ Last edited by tmichael at 13/10/2010 11:32 ]

wgeoff

There were no movements of Black Drongo on Po Toi this week (including Tuesday) although this is usually the peak passage period for Black Drongo.

It seems this movement may have been restricted to the Mai Po area.

[ Last edited by wgeoff at 14/10/2010 16:33 ]