brendank

Nice walk at Tai Mo Shan before the rain set in.

1 Slaty-lagged Crake (heard around 11:00 am in small trees and dense grass about 100 meters down from the peak, strange that it was calling then)
10 Brownish-flanked Bush Warbler (singing everywhere)
1 Crested Serpent Eagle
1 Pacific Swift
4 Chinese Francolin (including one that flushed right next to me)
3 Upland Pipit (could only see them in flight, impossible to see when they land. Getting less common due habitat loss?  There is much less grassland than last year.)

1 Indian Muntjac--the highlight of the day!!

Later I went to Tsing Yi and the Swinhoe's Egret is still there! Thanks, Chun for finding this!!

muntjac.JPG (83.63 KB)

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uplandpipit.JPG (22.16 KB)

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[ Last edited by brendank at 21/05/2011 21:44 ]

Dragonfly

Fine morning at Tai Mo Shan today; Most at the southern slopes of the mountain.
Highlights:

Crested Goshawk 1
Chinese Francolin 3 calling plus 1 female flushed
Large Hawk Cuckoo 1 calling
Indian Cuckoo 1 calling
Plaintive Cuckoo 1 calling (quite late cuckoo calls?)
Lesser Coucal 1
Richards Pipit sinensis 1
Upland Pipit 2 singing
Blue Whistling Thrush 3
Large Grass Warbler 4
Brownish-flanked Bush Warbler - - at least 14 therof min 4 juveniles Many adults still singing. The bushes seemed to be alive with bush-warblers.
Lesser Shortwing 1 singing
Red-billed Leiothrix 6, thereof 1 juv
Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler
Chinese Babax 3
Rufous-capped Babbler
Vinous-throated Parrotbill2
Hwamei 10+
Long-tailed Shrike 3

tmichael

The cuckoo calls are very late; I heard a Large Hawk Cuckoo at Po Lo Che, sometime between 11 and 19 July, and it struck me that that was already late, as 15 June is the normal sort of date after which you just don't hear them, it seems to me.

Of course, interestingly, due to a rather cool, dry spring (I believe!), they were late to start "full-on" calling this year.

Also termite events seemed both limited and late to me this year.

Mike Turnbull

tmichael

The cuckoo calls are very late; I heard a Large Hawk Cuckoo at Po Lo Che, sometime between 11 and 19 July, and it struck me that that was already late, as 15 June is the normal sort of date after which you just don't hear them, it seems to me.

Of course, interestingly, due to a rather cool, dry spring (I believe!), they were late to start "full-on" calling this year.

Also termite events seemed both limited and late to me this year.

Mike Turnbull

wgeoff

Although these are late, they are not quite the latest which are

Large Hawk Cuckoo - 25 September 2008 - a juvenile, or for calling birds, one at Long Valley on 8 September 2006
Indian Cuckoo - 10 August 1991

ajohn

I also noticed Large Hawk Cuckoo calling fairly late this year - well into July.
The other thing to be a bit cautious about is mimicry - I have often heard Black-throated Laughingthrush mimicking Indian and Large Hawk Cuckoos (sometimes alternating between these two) and they seem to do it a bit more just outside the peak cuckoo calling season.
Plaintive Cuckoo can call at any time of the year in Hong Kong.