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“Do you have Conservation in Hong Kong ?"
I was asked this while overseas a couple of years ago, and was a bit taken aback. The Hong Kong Bird Watching Society was founded in 1957 - it has lobbied Government ever since - and persuaded the...
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Two early Spring woodland “Twitches"
It took three visits to Mount Davis on Hong Kong Island before we successfully “twitched” HK’s first Ryukyu Minivet. After a few East China records this past winter, this species was seen first at the...
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Lesser Frigatebird (Fregata ariel) at the Mai Po boardwalk
Lesser Frigatebird (Fregata ariel) From the most recent Hong Kong Bird Report - “Scarce spring visitor with other isolated records and some long-staying individuals; most records are of immatures and...
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Black-faced Spoonbills - all dressed up and somewhere to go
At the Mai Po boardwalk yesterday, most of the remaining Black-faced Spoonbills (Platalea minor) were in breeding plumage and feeding actively before they departed for their Korean breeding grounds....
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Four Glossy Ibis at Mai Po Nature Reserve, 30th March 2021
I was out at one of Mai Po's boardwalk hides - where mobile coverage can be intermittent - when I got "pinged" on the phone with some "hot" bird news that there were four Glossy Ibis (Plegadis...
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Egretta eulophotes - Chinese Egret
This species was chosen as a symbol for the HKBWS when it was founded. A sketch by Mike Roser was used for the Society’s first thirty-or-so years, superseded by David Bakewell’s more realistic version...
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At the Mai Po boardwalk hides, 20th April 2021
Out at the Mai Po Nature Reserve boardwalk hides today there was a fine selection of migrating birds.. None of them announced themselves as they approached within camera range, so, like me, you can...
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Hong Kong Southern Waters 25th April 2021 - a seabird trip
A suitably-distanced masked, precautionary boat trip led us to a regular stream of Terns, eight species heading northeastwards included Little, Aleutian,Bridled,Black-naped,Common,Gull-billed, Greater...
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Oriental Cuckoo (Cuculus optatus) and birds of passage, mostly
A year ago in May we had a Twitch for Common Cuckoo, but the attraction this morning was an Oriental Cuckoo, catching caterpillars in the banyans at the entrance to Mai Po. A "scarce passage...
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Here comes Summer...
"school is out, oh happy day..." Mai Po's wader passage peaked in April, but the later passage birds are usually in fine breeding plumage. Spring 2021's only Spoon-billed Sandpiper, a non-breeder...
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Hong Kong’s Breeding Terns
Hong Kong has three species of breeding tern, - Bridled, Black-naped and Roseate - and the rocks near Tap Mun Chau (Grassy Island) in the northeast New Territories are a stronghold for them. There are...
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More Ferry Good Birding
Hong Kong’s first Brown Noddy was photographed off Po Toi Island by Geoff Welch umpteen years ago. The second bird was seen near Po Toi last year during a typhoon. BUT in July 2021 we now appear to...
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End of August 2021 - Two “Hong Kong Ticks” at sea
On 29th August we joined umpteen other birders in a suitably masked, socially-distanced boat trip into Hong Kong’s southern waters, the general area being between Po Toi Island (HK) and the not-HK...
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Hong Kong Southern Waters, 12th Sept 2021
The little bit of success seabirding on 29th August proved encouraging. So, on Sunday 12th September 2021 many of the seabirders from two weeks before turned out again at Aberdeen Public Pier at...
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Mai Po - late afternoon in Hide 3, - 27th Sept 2021
A hazy day, with pollution brought to HK by a northerly airstream from the much-vaunted “Greater Bay Area”. Recent record high temperatures meant that I had worked up a good lather by the time I got...
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Tail end of a long, hot summer
Still very warm - It’s official, the Hong Kong Observatory has declared Sept 2021 to have been the hottest September on record.An autumn bird but not in autumnal conditions then, here are three shots...
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As seen on TV...Lapland Longspur
Hong Kong’s second-ever Lapland Longspur was trapped and ringed at Long Valley last week.The first, three years ago, to quote the HKBWS records committee "Lapland Longspur Calcarius lapponicus. One...
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Finally, some cooler weather !
A cold front arrived with clouds and flurries of rain on November 22nd. The temperature in the New Territories was a nippy-for-us thirteen degrees centigrade.Japanese QuailJemi and I met up with...
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2nd Dec 2021 - A clear winter morning at the Mai Po boardwalk.
A clear cold morning, and the tide came higher than predicted. I didn’t find anything unusual, but some typical early winter birds presented some photo opportunitiesGrey Heron - Ardea cinereaDunlin -...
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Outer Island Birding, Hong Kong
View from the Pier, Kat OWith overseas options closed off by the prospect of a 21-day quarantine on return to Hong Kong, like everyone else we’ve been exploring corners of HK we haven’t seen much of...
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