handrew

At 15.40 this afternoon 2 Peregrines were harassing the Black kites overhead here in Sai Kung. Since we moved here in December last year I have not seen PF and presume these are arriving winter visitors. It is possible that there were 4 birds as the first two went out of sight but two birds reappeared about 5 minutes later. There was also a small number of swifts flying even higher than the peregrines. The falcons seemed to be moving East North East.

tmichael

Peregrines of different forms I think are sporadically in the Sai Kung/Clearwater Bay area. Some of the locally breeding form have been regular in the past in the Silverstrand area, with suspicions they might breed in the High Junk peak area or even on the Ninepins, while others,  apparently not peregrinator but not clearly calidus either, will pop up from time to time - last winter on one day there was a pair by the Yung Shue O road perching on the pines and making plunges at the egrets etc on the fish farms nearby in Three Fathoms Cove. Otherwise they just sort of pop up on the mountain ridges, probably because the observer gets 'big views and there's often little else to see! Maybe the visiting birds are japonensis which more recent literature ie Brazil's BoEA and the latest HK photoguide, suggests is more regular than the Avifauna indicates (NB it's not clear how watertight such subspecific ids actually are).

If we do get wintering birds they must have very large areas they hunt over as the bird densities are nowhere concentrated enough for them to focus on one small area (cf Mai Po scrape at times, or Deep Bay).

Actually near where you are Andrew at Chuk Yeung Road could well be a good spot as it commands views over the bay to the east of Sai Kung town where birds do concentrate to some extent as well as being close to Three Fathoms Cove. Equally as I've said CWB peninsula seems a good spot.

Mike Turnbull

[ Last edited by tmichael at 10/10/2010 17:01 ]

handrew

Thanks Mike. Very interesting. Before we moved here we were down in Silverstrand and did see Peregrines occasionally and I certainly saw them in Clearwater Bay CP. This is a good "look out" site half way up the hill so I can sit outside and drink coffee with 'scope, bins and camera near at hand and watch the world / birds go by. Just to cheer up my wife this afternoon we also had a guest appearance by Rattus rattus. The joys of rural living.

Andrew