wgeoff

First Week in April

A new thread this week to start the new month.

The week on land started very quietly with nothing new at all on Tuesday. But a few migrants started coming in on Wednesday and Thursday morning was good for flycatchers, four different male Narcissus, two Ferruginous and one male Blue-and-white, all just before the rain started



Also at least four Ashy Minivets and a Pale-legged Leaf Warbler



Many of the wintering species still remain, with at least six Japanese Thrush, the Black-naped Monarch and Red-tailed Robins singing from everywhere, at least ten.

The scrub clearance has opened up many areas previously unknown, my favourite is the river valley up to the upper reservoir and the surrounding areas to the north of the sister’s café. In the reservoir this week, a Burmese Python waiting for unsuspecting birds coming down to drink.



It had caught at least one Spotted Dove, judging by the feathers left behind.

At sea, a few Great and Little Egrets, Cattle and Pond Heron are now starting to move past, also another Grey-faced Buzzard, at least two Oriental Pratincoles and four large waders, probably Curlew.
For seabirds, the week belonged to Red-necked Phalarope with a spectacular passage of 2,490 in two hours early on Thursday morning in almost continuous flocks of 20’s and 30’s, the largest 140. Here a flock of over 70



Also a few Great Crested and Aleutian Terns with at least one Common Tern

This should be a good weekend following the rain. There is a good ferry service from today (Friday 6th) right through to Saturday 14th April when the Festival ends – for details see elsewhere. Ferries will start at 8.15am and return at 6pm every day except perhaps Saturday 7th, you’ll have to phone Tsui Wah on 2272 2022 to find out what the service is on that day.

[ Last edited by wgeoff at 6/04/2012 19:25 ]

wgeoff

Events over this Easter showed a typical sequence of how land bird migrants arrive and depart from Po Toi in spring under the effects of the weather.

A small depression but with heavy rain passed through Hong Kong on Thursday 5th April. Migrants started to arrive on Po Toi on the Thursday just before the rain, their numbers reaching a peak over the weekend and then tailing off as the weather improved and the skies cleared, the wind swung round to the south east and they were able to continue their journey north. They were nearly all gone by Wednesday 11th.

I’ve pieced together the numbers for 15 species over the period 5th to 11th April, taken from the website and my own records, and they look like this

                                                                       


You can see how the numbers peaked from Friday to Monday and then fell away as soon as the weather improved. The only surprise is that there were not more Grey-faced Buzzards. Normally these conditions in early April will bring in some good-sized flocks.

This is not to mean that birds only migrate when it rains – they are migrating all the time, but in good weather most will pass overhead without landing on the coast and probably land in good habitat somewhere inland, maybe overflying Hong Kong altogether. But they don’t like flying into a north-east wind particularly when it rains, so when this happens, they just drop down at the first available location which is the coastline. Many must arrive on the outer Dangan Islands but the habitat is not so good for feeding so they make their way into Po Toi from there. Po Toi has those great Fung Shui trees to keep them fed and protected until they are ready to move on.

Early April is very unpredictable – some years we get three or more of these weather sequences in quick succession, e.g. 2007, which is great for the birdwatchers but not for the birds. Some years there is only one, it seems like this year there will only be one because nothing more is shown in the 7-day weather forecast. The second half of April is more predictable and the migrants should be back on Po Toi by then.

This was Festival Week, my least favourite week of the year on Po Toi, and with no birds and too many people I ran away early. Many of the wintering species had also left on Monday night, there were no Japanese Thrush and many fewer Red-tailed Robins calling on Tuesday and Wednesday. I have no photos of land birds but it was interesting that some daytime migration could be seen on Wednesday – a flock of Large-billed Crows and another of Chinese Bulbuls, both setting off from the Lighthouse area, plus some large flocks of Pacific and House Swifts presumably feeding off insects flighting in the warm weather, and a single Pacific Reef Egret flying north east far out in the channel between Po Toi and Dangan. I’ve seen this species doing this in other years at this time and it’s obviously some sort of migration or dispersal of a species normally considered resident. The local male took off immediately (it must have good eyesight) and flew out to chase the intruder away.

At sea, the calmer south-east winds of Tuesday and Wednesday are not so good this early in April (it doesn’t matter so much later in the month) so I only had a few terns, Aleutian, Common and Great Crested plus four early Black-naped. But also 5 Ancient Murrelet decided the winds were ideal to set off for Japan, one single and two pairs, here




Next week may be quiet but things should warm up afterwards

[ Last edited by wgeoff at 12/04/2012 15:28 ]

wgeoff

Wow, what a rain.

From Monday 5pm through to Tuesday 12noon and then again from Thursday 11.30am to 2pm, Po Toi was deluged by huge storms. Paths turned into rivers, rivers turned into raging torrents, the columbarium was completely flooded (bye-bye grandma's ashes) and the Thursday ferry birders spent almost the whole time sheltering in the cafe next to the ferry pier.

And the birds - they didn't like it too much either. A good selection of species but nothing really unusual.
Amongst the better records, single Grey-faced Buzzard, Chinese Goshawk, Besra, a Grey-tailed Tattler on the rocks, a probable Swinhoe's Snipe in the columbarium valley (the hard blocks were good stepping stones until they eventually also went under the water), Chestnut-winged, Hodgson's Hawk and Indian Cuckoo, a lonely Collared Scops Owl (the only bird Thursday day-trippers managed to see), two Blue-tailed Bee-eaters on Tuesday, the Two-barred Greenish Warbler calling (singing?) loudly, Grey-streaked and Asian Brown the only flycatchers, a White-cheeked Starling and Black Drongos now returned together with two Hair-crested.

A few photos from a week when taking photos was nearly impossible




The Two-barred Warbler photo above was actually taken a few weeks ago, when I had to ask Paul Leader to ID it because it looked so odd, but I think it's the same bird as now which has started calling loudly. Here is a recording of the call, sounds like a sparrow

http://www.geoffwelch46.com/TWOBARREDGW21.mp3

So, why no flycatchers or rarities given the amount of rain? I've been pondering this and can only suggest 'the wrong type of rain'. The rain was coming from storms which drifted along the coastline, not going out to sea. The birds above are mainly south China migrants, coming round the coast, none of the usual migrants coming from across the South China Sea. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Maybe Sunday will be a better day for birds.

At sea, nothing exciting again. A late Black-tailed Gull, two Caspian Terns plus Aleutian, Common, Black-naped and 23 Greater Crested on Thursday morning. A good flock of terns from the ferry coming back, Common, Aleutian and a few Whiskered.
Here a Caspian Tern, which is rare on Po Toi



Short-tailed Shearwaters next week?

P.S. In case any of you out there still think it's a holiday for me on Po Toi, I was bitten again by one of those giant centipedes. It's not much fun waking up to find one of those huge things creeping all over you. They come out because the rain makes it too wet under the ground.

[ Last edited by wgeoff at 20/04/2012 09:23 ]

wgeoff

Thanks Mr Tai and Manson.
I kissed the centipede also, with the bottom of my shoe. I don't think he liked it.

Repellant - I tried spraying all around the bed with Baygon cockroach spray, but it didn't work. Anything stronger than that would do me more harm than the centipede.

Following this sort of incident, I do sit there wondering what life must have been like in the village 50 years ago. No electricity, very little water, self-dependent on food, exposed to typhoons in the summer - I don't think we, who take all these things for granted, would survive very long.

wgeoff

Black-winged Kite is a good record - I've only ever seen two single birds before.

wgeoff

Where are all the migrants this year?

Even the change of wind on Wednesday didn't produce much (we had no rain on Po Toi) and my score of 31 non-resident land bird species over the week is 20 below expectation for the last week in April. No Brown Shrike, Yellow Wagtail, Grey-streaked Flycatcher or Arctic Warbler!

So just a few photos to show - Intermediate Egret on the fishponds, Striated Heron in the lagoon and a Chinese Goshawk



The only other species of note was a single Dollarbird on Thursday.

At sea, very few seabirds but at least one Short-tailed Shearwater, on Wednesday evening, seen by my guests for the week, Annika and Antero, but not me as I'd given up by then. Another all-dark shearwater seen distantly by us all earlier in the day did not look like Short-tailed but it's academic - it was well outside HK waters.

Best birds at sea were the waders, some large flocks of Whimbrel heading north east before the storm, totalling 320 including these flocks



So, a very poor week for my guests.

On another subject, I hope you are all supporting the 'Po Toi for Country Park Campaign' being so well organised by Beetle - see here

http://www.hkbws.org.hk/BBS/view ... 6395&highlight=

The columbarium is crumbling under the effects of rain, water and nature but we still need protection to prevent this happening again



[ Last edited by wgeoff at 27/04/2012 08:34 ]

wgeoff

It does look rather long, although sometimes it can look long because their feet stick out - see here



I know Annika has more, maybe we can see them all.

Geoff

wgeoff

Both these look good for Short-tailed - here some comparison photos

wgeoff

These call recordings are very useful, thanks Antero. I can compare them with my past recordings of Arctic Warbler calls.

In spring, I regularly get birds which use both double and single 'dzzzt' call notes (same bird). In autumn, I only get single call notes. Is this significant?

wgeoff

OK, I'll arrange for a URF

wgeoff

In my opinion, this is a Short-tailed Shearwater. If it's not, then I have many of photos of birds looking just like this. I think the tail appears long because the feet are sticking out.
I think AjaA's bird is also a Short-tailed although I do admit the first photo is bit odd for tail length, but the second and third are pretty much spot on. We'll let the RC argue it out.

Bulwer's Petrel both looks and flies differently. It's wings are even longer relative to the body size, and the body is very slender and front-ended. It does not fly with stiff wings but with wings which angle down at the carpal joint with both tips almost touching the water simultaneously, mostly gliding along with only the occasional wing beats. You will know you have something different if you see one.

Here are two photos of a 'Bulwer's Petrel' which I had in 2007, unfortunately not accepted by the Records Committee (it would have been a First Record)



These photos are taken one second apart. As you can see, the appearance of this species can change quite fast

[ Last edited by wgeoff at 30/04/2012 20:38 ]