pitarhk

22/08/2011 Magazine Gap

The Frigatebird playing with Black Kite around 20 Minutes then disappeared.

Digiscoping by iPhone.

brendank

Great find!

ypakwai

lchunfai

Iphone and Bino are always important !!

pitarhk

23/8/2011 1730~1858 still here!

pitarhk

24/8/2011 17:50~18:50 still here!

ddavid

Congratulations!!

Where exactly would be the best viewpoint to look for this bird?

Thanks in advance...

David

brendank

I tried looking for this bird from Aberdeen today from 1800-1900.  I guess I had the wrong vantage point because I couldn't see it.

pitarhk

Quote:

Original posted by ddavid at 24/08/2011 19:21
Congratulations!!

Where exactly would be the best viewpoint to look for this bird?

Thanks in advance...

David

David,

We are watching in Guildford Road.

Peter

ddavid

Peter -

Great! Thanks for the information!

David

pitarhk

24/8/2011

Andy-li

lchunfai

Apart from iphone and bino.. hard work is also important

brendank

It seems the Frigatebird maybe roosting in the trees which can be seen from Coombe Road near Carolina Gardens. After the bird was seen flying in tonight at 1750, it was observed perched for a long period of time.

frigatebird1.JPG (91.46 KB)

25/08/2011 23:01

frigatebird2.JPG (87.65 KB)

25/08/2011 23:01

fatchun

Brendan! What a great capture!
Well done!

Chun

pitarhk

Brendan! That great!

Peter

iherman

Brendan and Peter great shot

kmatthew

It was delightful to see this magnificent juvenile today! It definitely put up a great show and an amazing dog fight with the kites!! Though seeing a Frigate at the Peak sure is one of the weirdest of my birding experience.

HKBWS Vicky

Matthew,
Frigatebird at the Peak is not weird. As I remember, this Frigatebird is the 3rd record that found during kite count (all by kite group members)!
Would you like to join the kite research group??

tsheunglai

Dear all

I disagree that all Lesser Frigatebirds were found by the Black-eared Kite Research Group. How about
the one around 1997?

I've also had reservation about the conservation-producing power of the group. They are putting up a lot
of effort in studying b-e kites. But from my observation the groups of kites found in HK are in excellent
state. They are at peak as regards population support enviros and quite diversified. Have the study group
paid attention to the group of kites on Lamma Island as well? They are propsering there! Have the group gone there to count them? The group at Magazine Gap have members of it harassing not playing with the Lesser Frigatebird.  They were chasing the bird when I found the latter on Thursday evening.

So I advise those who want to see the bird do hurry. When the frigatebird finds the disturbance unbearable, it probably will go elsewhere.

Anyhow thanks for the info about the bird. It quite amounts to nearest distance we've been able to
observe and photo a seabird.

S L Tai

NB I do hope everyone here understands when I put forward different opinions. Cool water is a lot of
times good for a 'hot-head'. And I always support myself with objective observation and findings.

kmike

While Mr Tai is right that not all frigatebirds were found by the kite group members, I think the point was that kite group members did find those three records.

There have been other records, such as the bird seen from Tai Po Kau during a Big Bird Race, and one that stayed around Mai Po for several days in 2001 that played an important role in the discovery of the Pteradroma petrel - see the full story here:
http://johnjemi.blogspot.com/2011/03/one-that-got-away.html

I believe there have been others seen from boat trip in southern waters.


Cheers
Mike K

PS Superb pictures Matthew!

[ Last edited by kmike at 26/08/2011 12:39 ]

yvicky

Dear Mr. Tai and Mike,
The 3 frigatebird records that HKBWS Officer mentioned are talking about 3 records that seen at the peak during kite count in the past years! Please don't mis-understand!!

Dear Mr. Tai,
Thank you for concerning about the KRG work. We did counted the Lamma Island in winter 2007 or 2008. However, we found that the kite there may overlap with the Magazine Gap site (i.e. the peak). Overlapping of data will only cause inaccuracy of data in both sites and therefore we didn't take Lamma Island as a regular counting site. The number of kite in Magazine Gap is stable throughout past years and it is the biggest kite roosting site that we have found. However, it doesn't mean we can stop counting this site and go somewhere else.

Vicky
Conveyor of KRG

[ Last edited by yvicky at 26/08/2011 16:17 ]

ddavid

The connection between Lesser Frigatebirds and the Black Kite roost at Magazine Gap goes back at least 23 years! To quote directly from the Avifauna: "A long-staying bird was recorded regularly in the roost of Black Kites Milvus migrans at Magazine Gap from 8 April to 12 August 1988, with two there on the last date: another took up residence in the same roost from 27 December 1991 to 26 August 1992". A good photo of the last individual (taken by Wendy Young) appeared in the 1991 Bird Report - long before the days of digital cameras!

Other similar records (taken from the Hong Kong Bird Reports) are as follows:

1992 - singles over Aberdeen CP on 29 March, Aberdeen Harbour on 29 March and at Wong Nai Chung Gap on 13 June
1994 - one (Frigatebird sp.) at Magazine Gap on 22 March
1995 - an immature in a pre-roost gathering with Black Kites at Magazine Gap on 15 June
1997 - one (Frigatebird sp.) at Magazine Gap on 17 February

No further records from the Peak have been mentioned in subsequent Hong Kong Bird Reports (up to 2006). However, this is probably due to a lack of observer coverage during that period - 1997 and all that!. Now that the KRG is doing regular counts at Magazine Gap - and all credit to them for doing so - the records of 3 different frigatebirds (4 with the current bird?) since 2006 serves to further substantiate the connection between Lesser Frigatebirds & the Black Kite roost.

I don't,offhand, have the dates of the occurrences that Vicky refers to. Perhaps they could be posted on this thread...

David
www.hknaturewalks.com

[ Last edited by ddavid at 26/08/2011 22:30 ]

yvicky

Thank you David for posting all the Lesser Frigatebird records. And this proofs that Magazine Gap is a site with higher chance to see Lesser Frigatebird!!

The previous 2 Lesser Frigatebird sighted DURING KITE COUNT that I've mentioned are either not submitted or not yet published.
One on 14-Jul-2002 by a former KRG member and one on 20-Sep-2009 but cannot 100% sure it is a Lesser. And this one (on 21-Aug-2011) is the 3rd KITE COUNT record. I was absent on all 3 counts!!

Well, the jest is not a jest anymore and people are getting serious on the frigatebird records. But I still insist that my sentence "this Frigatebird is the 3rd record that found during kite count (all by kite group members)!" is correct!!

tsheunglai

Dear all

I looked up Avifauna of HK an hour ago to find support to my revlelation. The 1997 bird was missed by me although I still have Mike Turnbull to thank for taking me up to Magazine Gap on his way home on the Peak.

We old hands do remember our birding trials, failures as well as successes.

As regards overlapping of survey, the population/group at Magazine Gap is strategically poistioned to
facilitate its members to go to southern coastal waters of HK, naturally for some wandering to and beyond
Lamma. For raptors it is an easy task. It is also humanly visible. But to do surveys I think I would go
to the birds' roosting/breeding sites during evenings/mornings before they leave for their daily feeding.

I opine relying solely on common sense. I'm no trained/experienced bird counter for b-e kites.

I intend to help but I still think the present admirable survey efforts of some would better be
diverted elsewhere. White-bellied sea eagles deserve our attention for their selective way of taking
up breeding/roosting places. For this Gary has my unreserved support for his effort.

S L Tai

ltsunpun

很失望，全部是英文，有些用詞太深，不明自，又懶得查字典，太多生字。但拿英文bulletin的人比中文bulletin的人少很多很多，很奇怪。

tsheunglai

駱先生你好:

香港是個華洋夾雜的地方, 相對而言, 明白英文的華人比兼通中文的洋人多, 因此小弟採用英語在此欄作
溝通的媒介, 請見諒!

這個短訊亦是倚賴小蒙恬, 經過多番掙扎、改字眼才完成ｏ 情况許可、我會雙語表達ｏ

戴尚禮上
S L Tai

ltsunpun

多謝戴生，祇不過我英文不好，看不懂才發老脾，請原諒。如果你能夠寫多些simple English，對我這個半桶水的人會有幫助。明白用双語困雖和花時間，雖然理想但始終不易做到，如果在某些垂耍討論才加上中文，將會擴大讀者層面。請不要勉強，用你認為最舒適的方法去做，就可以了。  祝鳥運享通。  駱俊賓