19 to 23 February
We’ve indeed taken a late autumn/winter break, as our last survey dates from 1 October last year. The first signs of spring migration may appear by the end of January, but things get really started to move from mid-February.
I decided for a longer survey, covering five days, and arrived on 19 February with the first ferry, and could seawatch from 10h00 until 17h30. The day started cloudy, but it soon became hot and sunny, with winds blowing from the northeast with force 2.
Seabirds:
3 Ancient Murrelets
Gulls:
471 gulls spec.
32 Black-tailed Gulls
50 Heuglin’s Gulls
Swift(lets), swallows and martins:
1 Barn Swallow
Checklist on eBird:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S129483645
Count on Trektellen:
https://www.trektellen.nl/count/view/3323/20230219
20 February would again be a mostly sunny day, after a cloudy morning. Winds increased to force 4 and turned from northeast to east. The seawatch session was from 06h50 until 17h00.
Seabirds:
21 Streaked Shearwaters
Gulls:
27 gulls spec.
52 Black-tailed Gulls
37 Heuglin’s Gulls
Swift(lets), swallows and martins:
2 Barn Swallows
Checklist on eBird:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S129483693
Count on Trektellen:
https://www.trektellen.nl/count/view/3323/20230220
The same weather pattern was repeated on 21 February, with a cloudy morning and mostly sunny afternoon. But winds had strengthened overnight to force 6, still coming from the east. I again watched from 06h50 until 17h00.
Seabirds:
5 Streaked Shearwaters
1 jaeger spec
9 Red-necked Phalaropes
Gulls:
32 gulls spec.
129 Black-tailed Gulls
3 Heuglin’s Gulls
Terns:
1 Greater Crested Tern
Swift(lets), swallows and martins:
1 Barn Swallow
Checklist on eBird:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S129483803
Count on Trektellen:
https://www.trektellen.nl/count/view/3323/20230221
22 February was even sunnier, with just a few scattered clouds. Winds continued to come from the east with force 6, but decreased to force 4 in the afternoon. Especially the afternoon saw almost no birds and I seawatched from 06h45 until 16h45 on a very quiet day.
Seabirds:
1 Ancient Murrelet
21 Streaked Shearwaters
Raptors:
1 Peregrine Falcon
Gulls:
97 gulls spec.
100 Black-tailed Gulls
15 Heuglin’s Gulls
Swift(lets), swallows and martins:
1 Barn Swallow
Checklist on eBird:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S129484206
Count on Trektellen:
https://www.trektellen.nl/count/view/3323/20230222
The last day of the survey, 23 February, was even quieter than the previous one. Again mostly sunny, apart from some scattered clouds in the morning. Winds were blowing from the northeast with force 4. I started at 06h45 but finished a bit earlier than usual – mainly because there were just hardly any birds.
Seabirds:
1 Parasitic Jaeger
Gulls:
32 gulls spec.
48 Black-tailed Gulls
Swift(lets), swallows and martins:
2 Barn Swallows
Checklist on eBird:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S129484248
Count on Trektellen:
https://www.trektellen.nl/count/view/3323/20230223
Remarks
As this is the only survey for the 2022-2023 winter, I won’t write a summary of the month and of the season, but just leave it with some remarks here.
The weather was quite challenging. The combination of bad lighting, due to bright sunshine for most of the day, heat haze and some distant fog, made it difficult to identify mainly the gulls which didn’t pass-by close. And that were a lot of them, especially on 19th. We recorded no less than 471 unidentified gulls on that day. This time of year, the most common migrating gull is Black-tailed Gull. The peak for Heuglin’s Gulls does not occur before March. Hence, it is highly likely that most of the unidentified gulls were Black-tailed. Under better weather conditions (cloudy), it would have been easier to correctly identify them and we would most probably have had a record high count for the species for Hong Kong (which stands at 293). Although it has been pointed out by Geoff Welch that the number of this species may fluctuate year to year, I think we can presume that large numbers of Black-tailed Gulls pass Po Toi on ‘good days’ in February, in higher numbers than previously thought. Let’s hope we can actually witness that on a next occasion.
The Greater Crested Tern on 21st is a new early date for Hong Kong, the previous one was on 16 March 2022. It is also the first winter record for the territory.
We got one and a half or so day with strong easterly winds. This brought in some seabirds, but certainly not many.
Overall, the results of this survey, in comparison with those of last year in the second half of February, were quite weak. Last year, we encountered hundreds of Streaked Shearwaters and up to 23 Pomarine Jaegers in a day and some Long-tailed Jaegers. Obviously, not every day in every year will be equally good, or bad. But we look forward to better days in March…
