HKBWS BBS 香港觀鳥會新聞組


    
      
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        Discussion Area 討論區 >> Birding Reports & Tips 觀鳥報告及心得 >>  Waders at Mai Po 米埔的水鳥
        
(Message started by: CK on Jul 25^th, 2004, 11:27pm)

Title: Waders at Mai Po 米埔的水鳥
Post by CK on Jul 25^th, 2004, 11:27pm

Although I could not join the Society's activity of Tern Survey today as I had other thing to do in the morning, I decided to make use of the few hours of free time in the late afternoon to visit Mai Po to see what was going on with the Painted Snipes and their chicks which I saw two weeks ago.

I reached Pond 16 & 17 at about 4:30 p.m. and could not find the Painted Snipes and their chicks. Perhaps the chicks had grown up and had left with their parents.

However, to my surprise, I found about one hundred waders (excluding the egrets, herons and Black-winged Stilts) wandering, standing or resting in pond 16 & 17.

Most of them were Green Shanks, Red Shanks or Spotted Red Shanks. The Spotted Red Shanks were not in breeding plumage. In addition, there were :

(a) 8 Greater Sandpovers (non-breeding plumage, short bill, no white collar, yellowish legs)
(b) 9 Oriental Pratincole (1 adult and 8 juveniles, walking and resting on one of the small islands, sometimes walk into the water to drink or wash their head, disappeared at about 5:15 p.m., after the waders were disturbed and resettled down)
(c) 5 Curlew Sandpipers (breeding plumage)
(d) 1 Bar-tailed Godwit (non-breeding plumage, the bar tailed was seen while it was tidying its feather)
(e) 1 Grey-headed Lapwing (standing, walking and sometimes sitting on one of the small island). I noted from the Avifauna of Hong Kong that it was uncommon to have this in Hong Kong in this time of the year.

Isn't it uncommon to have so many waders in Mai Po at this time of the year ?