The Taiwan Raptor Research Group have been satellite tracking the migration routes of 5 Grey-faced Buzzards fitted with satellite tracking devices in Taiwan last autumn.
The track of one particular bird is revealing, and shows how these birds can arrive in Hong Kong in spring
My chinese is not good enough to understand all the details, but it seems this bird arrived to the west of Hong Kong on 15th April 2009, according to markings on the map.
The satellite track shows how birds migrating from Philippines through Taiwan to north China and Japan can arrive in Hong Kong. 15th April was a day after a cold front passed through - here is the weather chart for 14th April
These birds would normally fly directly north in spring from Philippines to Taiwan, as you can see from the other tracks on their website. In this case, the front forced the bird to fly west into south China.
As it happens, I saw a Grey-faced Buzzard on Po Toi on 15th April - this is the photo of the bird I posted on our website that week. It doesn't seem to have a transmitter strapped around it but I'm not sure you could see it from underneath.
I'm not suggesting this is the same bird as the satellite bird - there were probably several hundred Grey-faced Buzzards making land in the south China area on 15th April.
The website is
www.raptor.org.tw
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Last edited by wgeoff at 21/09/2010 18:12 ]
