brendank

6 April 2012

Excellent birds but poor weather. Photography was almost impossible.

probable Fairy Pitta (seen behind sisters cafe, flushed and seen in flight. I saw the blue wings and green back in flight and thought I might have seen some rusty brown color on the crown and pale supercilium)
2 Brown Hawk Owl
1 Grey-faced Buzzard
1 Japanese Quail (flushed on the way back from South Peninsula)
1 Japanese Yellow Bunting (female)
7 Ashy Minivet
2 Pale-legged Leaf Warbler
3 Blue-and-white Flycatcher (2 male, 1 female)
2 Narcissus Flycatcher
2 Asian Brown Flycatcher
1 Mugimaki Flycatcher
1 Black-naped Monarch
34 White-winged Starling
2 Chinese Pond Heron

From the ferry
1 Long-tailed Jaeger
2 Greater Crested Tern
1 Kentish Plover

Tried seawatching for a while but the weather closed in and it was just impossible to see anything at sea.

jaeger.JPG (48.99 KB)

6/04/2012 18:30

brendank

7 April 2012

East wind made for great seawatching today.  From 1420 to 1700 I had

13 Streaked Shearwater (in one group)
8 Long-tailed Jaeger
2 Parasitic Jaeger
9 Heuglin's Gull
11 Greater Crested Tern
7 Oriental Pratincole
9 Bar-tailed Godwit
510 Red-necked Phalarope
2 Black-crowned Night Heron
1 Kentish Plover (perched on the rocks)

On the island 9 species of flycatchers were seen but not all by me.

The bird I originally identified as a first year Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher had the wrong tail pattern for that species. The only thing I can think of is a female Hainan Blue although the the head and back were extremely grey for that species. Still I can't think of any other possibilities.

On the ferry home a Peregrine Falcon was seen harassing a group of 12 Black-winged Stilts near Aberdeen.

brendank

8 April 2012

Didn't spend much time for landbirds but seen at the seawatch from 1140-1710.

1 (maybe 2) Lesser Frigatebird
12 Streaked Shearwater
5 Long-tailed Jaeger
2 Parasitic Jaeger
7 Greater Crested Tern
12 Little Tern
3 Wood Sandpiper
1 Eastern Curlew
202 Red-necked Phalarope
40 Cattle Egret
1 Black-crowned Night-heron

I first saw the frigatebird at 1400 when I got a message from Ivan about it. Peter and Michelle then saw it over Mat Chau at 1600. Then at 1628 I had the (or perhaps another?) Frigatebird 1 km out in the Dangan channel headed north-east and I watched it until it disappeared. Then at 1700 the Lesser Frigatebird was right over my head at the seawatch. If it was the same bird, it must have looped around the entire island.

One White-breasted Waterhen was on the beach at the south peninsula. An exhausted migrant?

[ Last edited by brendank at 8/04/2012 21:24 ]

brendank

Later on in the day the sea was very quiet as well

4 Parasitic Jaeger
1 Long-tailed Jaeger
1 Heuglin's Gull
1 Black-tailed Gull
121 Red-necked Phalarope
4 Whimbrel
4 Eurasian Curlew
6 small terns which were possibly a mix of Common and Aleutian
1 Common Buzzard

[ Last edited by brendank at 9/04/2012 21:35 ]

brendank

12 April 2012

I took advantage of the festival week ferry schedule to do some sea-watching this afternoon but it was quite slow just a single Greater Crested Tern, three Common Terns and a very distant jaeger.

[ Last edited by brendank at 12/04/2012 21:13 ]

brendank

14 April 2012

Seawatching 1340-1710:

1 Ancient Murrelet
3 Parasitic Jaeger
3 Long-tailed Jaeger
1 Pomarine Jaeger
1 Heuglin's Gull
2 Aleutian Tern
5 Common Tern
12 Greater Crested Tern

Amazingly not even one Phalarope from either seawatch or ferry.

On the island it was very slow but I understand some people saw a Greenish Warbler.

Around 1530 I noticed a large 12 foot wave approaching. As the see was very calm today and I couldn't see any boats nearby making a wake, I couldn't figure out what had caused. A nearby small fishing boat seemed dangerously close to being tiped over. A rather strange occurrence.  Photo of the wave below

wave.JPG (41.17 KB)

14/04/2012 21:44

[ Last edited by brendank at 17/04/2012 14:57 ]

brendank

Actually in the photo that one looked like a Whimbrel.

brendank

Seawatching today from 1320 to 1715 was exceptionally slow--just one Common Tern and 15 Whimbrel in 2 groups.

The bird above is a Whimbrel. In addition to the long bill, Eurasian Curlew shows cleanly white underwing coverts in flight.

[ Last edited by brendank at 22/04/2012 21:34 ]

brendank

28 April 2012

Best day I have had seawatching in Hong Kong. Fantastic numbers of birds from 1340-1710.

1 Red-throated Diver
9 Short-tailed Shearwater
177 White-winged Tern
108 Aleutian Tern
29 Common Tern
9 Greater Crested Tern
3 Bridled Tern
3 Least Tern

I had the Red-throated Diver in the scope for about 25 seconds. After which I tried to get a photo and by then it was much further than when I originally saw it and that coupled with the fact that I only had my shorter lens today made the results were pretty unsatisfying. You can see below:

diver.JPG (54.69 KB)

28/04/2012 21:07

I did get some nice photos of this very close for seawatching (350 meters) Short-tailed Shearwater. It's interesting because unlike Streaked Shearwaters, Short-tailed Shearwaters always seem to come through one at a time, never in big groups. And unlike terns, they are very irregular in their position. Some are close, some are far and some are even farther when they pass by the south point.

shearwater.JPG (69.55 KB)

28/04/2012 21:07

On land it was more quite. I saw a late Rufous-tailed Robin, an Arctic Warbler, 3 Grey-streaked and 5 Brown Shrikes but not the massive fallout I was hoping for. Other people had Grey-faced Buzzard and Chinese Goshawk I believe.

[ Last edited by brendank at 28/04/2012 21:10 ]

brendank

These photoes of the closest of the 9 shearwaters I saw Saturday. I would say this birds shape matches Annika and Antero's photo pretty well. Perhaps this is a Wedge-tailed Shearwater too but then why couldn't be a Bulwer's Petrel? I don't have any experience with these birds so I am not sure what to say about them at this point.

shearwater1.JPG (62.42 KB)

30/04/2012 19:22

shearwater2.JPG (83.83 KB)

30/04/2012 19:22

shearwater3.JPG (97.78 KB)

30/04/2012 19:22

[ Last edited by brendank at 30/04/2012 19:25 ]