subbuteo

30 May 2013

I might be a day or two early but it's hot, so I'm calling it summer.

Hodgson's Hawk Cuckoo 1 calling (I think my latest record)
Chestnut-winged Cuckoo  1 calling

Also plaintive and large hawk cuckoo, koel, greater and lesser coucal.

Definitely a lot less around, even of the common birds.  Seemingly less white-browed laughing thrushes (but I think these pair up and keep quiet for a few months). I have had Chinese, Crested, Sooty-headed and Chestnut bulbul recently; Sooty-headed is not that common in summer.

Dylan

[ Last edited by subbuteo at 30/05/2013 19:47 ]

subbuteo

Friday 31 May 2013, 7.15 pm

Brown Wood Owl calling;

Saturday 1st June 2013, 8.20am

Sunny, clear skies, 35C +

Mike Kilburn back in the valley for a visit

Hainan Blue Flycatcher at least 2 singing
Sooty-headed Bulbul 2
Chestnut Bulbul
Large Hawk Cuckoo
Plaintive Cuckoo
Fork-tailed Sunbird
Crested Serpent Eagle 2
Crested Goshawk 2

Also a small, plaintive cuckoo-sized cuckoo.  It perched on a power line and then dropped down, grey, barred chest and belly.  It gave a pipipipipi-pipipipipi call (not sure how many "pi" exactly).  

Dylan

subbuteo

2 June 2013, Very hot!  34C

Not much excitement this morning!

Blue magpie 1 (Flew from the Tai Om wood)
Long-tailed Shrike 1
Large Hawk Cuckoo 1
Plaintive Cuckoo 1
Lesser Coucal 1
Besra 1

Dylan

[ Last edited by subbuteo at 2/06/2013 19:46 ]

subbuteo

3/4 June 2013

Chestnut-winged cuckoo- calling
Large Hawk Cuckoo
Plaintive Cuckoo
Koel seems to be calling more again; all went quiet for a while
Lesser coucal good time of year to pick them up as they are much more vocal
Blue Magpie - a pair, possibly a third with shorter tail plume. Blue magpie is not often seen in the valley so perhaps they breed here in summer?

Dylan

subbuteo

13 June 2013

Hodgson's Hawk Cuckoo 1
Chestnut-winged Cuckoo 1
Plaintive Cuckoo 2
White-browed Laughing Thrush 2
Hair-crested Drongo 6
Common Kingfisher 1

Dylan

subbuteo

Wednesday 19 June 2013

In my continuing quest to annoy Mike Kilburn,I seem to have a Malay Night Heron calling near Pak Tin Kong/ Ping Long within earshot of his old home in the valley.  Sorry, Mike!

The call was initially in groups of three/four, spaced about a second apart and them became monotonous evenly spaced, oom-oom-oom-oom-oom-oom... with occasional breaks.  Overall it called for about ten minutes at dusk (7.30pm).  The call was deep and sounded like it was carrying from some distance.

Initial call pattern was similar to the last recording on the xeno canto page.  Then into the pattern of SEOW BOON EU's recording.

I tried to track closer to the call and record it but failed.  As compensation, I did flush a Savanna Nightjar off the road for the first time.  In Lam Tsuen, I have only ever seen them in flight or heard them calling.  Also found my first Chinese bullfrog- unfortunately squashed.

Dylan

kmike

Great work Dylan!

Malayan Night Heron is has been on my Lam Tsuen "Most Wanted" List ever since the breeding birds appeared just over the hill in Kwok Jai's village, so I'm thoroughly gripped!

Also, I never saw a nightjar in Lam Tsuen although I did hear Savanna several times.

The fact that I have seen live Chinese Bullfrog there is pretty small compensation right now!

Cheers
Mike

subbuteo

I do feel bad but you have many more birds on your valley list that I would love to see.  

I was out tonight for half an hour at dusk and no luck, only significant bird was a calling Hodgson's Hawk Cuckoo,  

Black-crowned Night Heron 2
Hodgson's Hawk Cuckoo 1
Collared Scops Owl a single call
Hwamei 2
White-cheeked Laughing Thrush 2
Plaintive Cuckoo 1
Greater Coucal 1

I will try to get out the next few evenings and see if I can locate it again.

Dylan

[ Last edited by subbuteo at 20/06/2013 21:27 ]

subbuteo

Attached is a short clip of what I think is a Malayan Night Heron calling.  Any other possibilities?

The call is amplified so slightly distorted, again it was some distance off and seemed to be a different location.  It called for a couple of minutes at dusk.

Also:

Chestnut-winged Cuckoo 1
Hodgson's Hawk Cuckoo 1
Brown Wood Owl 1 (and possibly a second as I heard another call from a quite separate location but about ten minutes later so can't rule out the possibility that the first one moved!)

Dylan

PS I just tried playing it back- the call is very faint over the insects, sorry.  There are three calls about one second apart in this clip.  I can email the longer original clip to anyone interested.

[ Last edited by subbuteo at 23/06/2013 21:47 ]

wgeoff

MNH clip - sounds good for Malayan Night Heron, compared to Xeno-canto recordings. Here is the clip with some of the insect noise removed

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

Also the frequency is correct at 0.5 kHz - see the bottom part of this sonogram of the MNH clip



I'll submit the record for Records Committee assessment

[ Last edited by wgeoff at 24/06/2013 07:52 ]

subbuteo

Thanks, Geoff!  What software do you use?  I had a go with Audacity but the results weren't great.

Dylan

kmike

This one I could hear Dylan - no argument about MNH from me!

Cheers
Mike

wgeoff

I use WavePad to edit and Raven Lite to produce sonograms

subbuteo

All rather quiet in Lam Tsuen just now.

A short morning walk only produced the following:

White-breasted Waterhen  1
Spotted Dove   2
Lesser Coucal   1
House Swift  1
Barn Swallow   3
Red-whiskered Bulbul   3
Common Tailorbird  1
Yellow-bellied Prinia  1
Japanese White-eye   2
Black-throated Laughingthrush   3
Rufous-capped Babbler   3
Oriental Magpie-Robin  1
Crested Myna   6
Black-collared Starling   2
Tree Sparrow   2

Looking forward to things picking up in the next few weeks!

Dylan

ajohn

I saw a Grey Wagtail this morning at Ng Tung Chai, which is hopefully a sign that some birds are starting to move.
Also a big surprise was a Eurasian Hobby early morning one day last week.

But otherwise, I agree it's very quiet at the moment.

subbuteo

An unusual call tonight- possibly a black-crowned night heron, really not sure of other options.  Recorded from about 150-200 metres away.  I walked closer to make sure there wasn't a child with a toy trumpet or such like!  It was coming from fung shui wood on the valley edge near Pak Tin Kong.  Called irregularly for about five minutes then moved off.

Dylan

subbuteo

Is anyone familiar with female Eagle Owl calls in HK?  These recordings are all from Sweden/Germany but similar to what I heard (except no male back up call).

http://www.xeno-canto.org/31077
http://www.xeno-canto.org/31076
http://www.xeno-canto.org/121579

Thanks,

Dylan

lrichard

Dylan, could it be a Barking Deer? Richard

fatchun

Quote:

Original posted by subbuteo at 8/08/2013 21:33
An unusual call tonight- possibly a black-crowned night heron, really not sure of other options.  Recorded from about 150-200 metres away.  I walked closer to make sure there wasn't a child with a toy ...

For me, it seems not an Eurasian Eagle Owl call. As I had a chance to care captive EEO, they did call like this pattern, but they call much hoarsely.

subbuteo

I was wondering about barking deer too but it didn't sound right for them- I hear them quite often.  It certainly could be.  

Thanks, fatchun, I couldn't find a matching call on xeno-canto, eagle owl was as close as I could find.

Definitely an odd call- any other suggestions?  I have a longer recording  if anyone wants to hear it (apologies for flip flops and muttering)

Dylan

(Another recording here)

[ Last edited by subbuteo at 9/08/2013 10:28 ]

subbuteo

Just heard from Paul Crow (KFBG) and it definitely is a Barking Deer, up close!  

Eagle Owl yet to be heard in Lam Tsuen...

Dylan

subbuteo

Still not much happening in the valley.  I have added a few birds to August's list but only locally common birds such as White-cheeked Laughing Thrush and Blue Whistling Thrush.

I saw a pair of crows perched on lamp posts on the Tolo Highway by the Hong Lok Yuen roundabout today.  Normally I would assume collared crow as they are frequently seen there.  Today I was in a traffic jam and able to look closer and couldn't see any white on the neck.  The bill was not large which eliminates Large-billed Crow (unless juveniles have a small bill?).  So either Collared Crow or House Crow.  Are juvenile Collared Crows all black?  Or have House Crows moved up into the New Territories?  I had suspected House Crows in Shatin by the river but never had a proper look.

Does anyone know?

Thanks,

Dylan

[ Last edited by subbuteo at 16/08/2013 20:20 ]

ajohn

Juvenile Collared Crows have the white collar (although sometimes greyer/browner than adults), so if they lacked the white collar they weren't Collared Crow.

I have seen House Crow at Mai Po and Pak Nai in the NT, but they are unusual. They typically look structurally like Large-billed though, including the bill shape. On a good view you may be able to see the greyer body, and they often also look noticeably small compared to Large-billed/Collared.

I think it's most likely that your birds were juvenile Large-billed (which can look slightly smaller-billed than adults) but House Crow may still be a possibility.

subbuteo

Thanks, John.  I'll hope for a traffic jam again on Monday for another look!

Dylan

ajohn

A surprise today at Ng Tung Chai was a couple of Black Bulbuls - one seen and another heard calling. They were with another bird which may have been a juvenile Mountain Bulbul but I didn't see well.

Also 12 Red-billed Leiothrix along the trail and a Grey Wagtail near the village, but otherwise fairly quiet.

subbuteo

That's excellent!  I saw a grey wagtail yesterday on the mid-section of the Lam Tsuen river and have heard collared scops owl and barred owlet around my village over the weekend.  The mid-section of the river is looking inviting for plumbeous redstart, with a good amount of water flow and rocks for perching.  To me it looks like they have done a significantly better job than the usual concrete nullah.  I hope it lives up to my always high expectations- a dipper would be nice.

Dylan

subbuteo

Another migrant this afternoon, my daughter noticed a "cool bird" in a tree- an Asian Paradise Flycatcher.  I assume an immature as the beak was pinkish and it had no blue eye-ring.  It opened it's beak to reveal a vivid  bright yellow colour.

The bird was seen at the Golden Triangle.

Dylan

[ Last edited by subbuteo at 22/08/2013 12:34 ]

subbuteo

Same Asian Paradise Flycatcher in the same tree again today.

Dylan