WWF HK's 2015 "Big Bird Race"
Abdel, Mei-ling, and James at Nam Chung Yesterday, 17th January 2015, I drove the "Deadset Drongos" Team in Worldwide Fund for Nature's 31st Big Bird Race. The people doing the actual birding were...
View ArticleRelict Gull at Mai Po
Relict Gull (Larus relictus) enjoys a unique distinction among gulls of my acquaintance - it is almost romantic. Relict Gull - Larus relictus It was overlooked as a species until 1970, having been...
View ArticleBlack Kites over urban Hong Kong
Every winter Hong Kong is home to about 1200-1300 Black Kites (Milvus migrans lineatus). A few stay through our summer, but by April the majority will be heading back to Mongolia and southern Russia...
View ArticleMai Po in midwinter
A Short-eared Owl has been reported twice in the past few weeks at Mai Po. But it seems to have a very good idea of what "nocturnal" means, and despite several dusk and dawn visits, I haven't managed...
View ArticleSaunders's Gulls - coming into breeding plumage
Saunders's Gull Saunders's Gull Saunders's Gull At this time of the year the Saunders's Gulls (several dozen) here in HK are getting into their breeding plumage, while the more numerous (several...
View ArticleAdapting well - woodland birds
Scarlet Minivet - female During and after the Second World War (in the 1940s) the hills of hong Kong became very bare, with mass influxes of immigrants, wartime conditions and people gleaning the...
View ArticlePallas's Gulls at the boardwalk, Mai Po
Pallas's Gull (summer plumage) The weather is flat and grey at this season, but March is probably the best month of the year for gull-viewing in Hong Kong. And there are a few other winter visitors...
View ArticleThe Big Purple Swamp Creature
I recall seeing Purple Swamphen about twenty years ago at Mai Po, but the possibility of escapes in HK long clouded their status. Up to the beginning of 2015 it was determined that there were only...
View ArticleIjima's Warbler - a "First" for Hong Kong
Ijima's Warbler - P. ijimae Found by YAM Wing-yiu when he examined his photos of an unidentified phylloscopus warbler from a day out on Po Toi on Sunday 29th March. He thought it was "Ijima's.." and...
View ArticleA wet weekend in April - Mai Po
Oriental Plover-Charadrius veredus It’s been very dry this year, with hill fires in many places in Hong Kong over the first weekend in April. For migrating birds the fine weather must have been a...
View ArticleMaking a splash...Mai Po in the third week of April
Yesterday, the sun shone and the waders came close to the boardwalk hides at Mai Po This tangle of Curlew Sandpipers were disturbed by a Peregrine. Not "disturbed" really; - more like "terrified"....
View ArticleRed-necked Stints
A bright sunny day in mid-April. The tide is a lot lower than predicted, but the sun is shining and some of the the waders are close to the boardwalk hides at Mai Po Nature Reserve. Terek Sandpiper -...
View ArticleIzu Islands Pelagic
In spring 2013 we sailed between New Zealand and Papua New Guinea on the “Western Pacific Odyssey” (Heritage Expeditions). I blogged about that trip here:...
View ArticleOgasawara Islands Pelagic
Bonin Petrel The Ogasawara (formerly Bonin) Islands are named after Ogasawara Sadato, one of whose descendants claimed he had discovered them in 1593. Wikipedia has an interesting account of the...
View ArticleIwo (Volcano) Islands Pelagic
Bannerman's Shearwater Leaving the Ogasawara Islands behind us, we sailed 330 km south southwest to the Iwo (Volcano) Islands. The central island of the small chain, Iwo Jima, has one of those place...
View ArticleVoyage to Tokyo
A seabirding trip to the Izus, Ogasawaras and Iwo Islands must be an “out and back” expedition, unless everyone has the time and inclination to sail to or from the Marshall Islands, which we didn’t....
View ArticleChinese White Dolphins - Sousa chinensis
Hong Kong's western waters are part of the Pearl River delta, where there is a small and declining population of Sousa chinensis - the Chinese White Dolphin (CWD). Chinese White Dolphin - Sousa...
View Article99 Dragon Pools, northwest Yunnan, China
Grey-headed Bullfinch - Pyrrhula erythaca From 27th July to 4th August, as a short break from Hong Kong’s summer heat, we flew to Lijiang in northwest Yunnan Province. We were with Roger Muscroft, a...
View ArticleHong Kong: - Early morning, rising tide at the Mai Po boardwalk hides, 13th...
Well, that couldn't be more precise, could it ? With the Chinese calendar officially "Autumn" it seemed a good time to check out a rising tide at Mai Po Nature Reserve. For context, a couple of views...
View ArticleSeptember
Yellow Bittern - Ixobrychus sinensis It seems to have been a good breeding season for Yellow Bitterns, there are a lot around right now. Of course, like this juvenile, many of the birds on view could...
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