Away with the Fairies
Fairy Pitta is a scarce passage migrant here in Hong Kong. Fairy Pitta - Pitta nympha One or two are seen each year by a lucky few birders. As it happens, I've only seen one once before, a spring...
View ArticleA morning at Mai Po (Sept 10th, 2015)
It's already a fortnight since I took these shots at Mai Po Nature Reserve, but my excuse is that I was distracted by a Fairy Pitta (see previous post) in between then and now. In the fig trees behind...
View ArticlePurple Swamphen
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 ArticleGoodness Gorsachius Me
Malayan Night Heron - Gorsachius melanolophus It was still very dark when I left the house. A morning in early September. The soon-to-be rising sun made a faint glow through patchy clouds. I had Long...
View ArticleTai Po Kau regulars
The other day I pottered around Tai Po Kau, doing the Red Walk and bits of the Blue Walk. Huet's Fulvetta - Alcippe hueti Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler - Pomatorhinus ruficollis Streak-breasted...
View ArticleIt's October ! - some autumn passage migrants
They're big, they're gaudy, and their modelling career probably peaked with the publication of "Hong Kong Birds" by Geoffrey Herklots in 1954 - but I still find Black-capped Kingfishers irresistible....
View ArticleEuropean Golden Plover - a "First" for Hong Kong
LAST Sunday things got off to a slow start. I missed the rising tide and settled for a couple of shots of a nice male Kestrel over the hills near Mai Po Nature Reserve. Eurasian Kestrel - Falco...
View ArticleNovember ! - autumn passage migrants, with a few residents too
There - the post title has given it all away. October began with a Typhoon called "Mujigae"....
View ArticleAmur Falcons - slightly off-course in Hong Kong
Amur Falcon is a bird that has only been known in Hong Kong for the past umpteen years. It's possible that some were overlooked as Eurasian Hobby (Falco subbuteo) in the past. They are autumn...
View Article"Pandas of the Sea.."
Commerson's dolphin (Cephalorhynchus commersonii) We’ve been away ! An Antarctic Cruise and several weeks in Patagonia. My first chapter of turgid travelogue is below. ****** TRELEW is a town on...
View ArticleUsh, Ush, and away...
Ushuaia bills itself as "Capital of the Malvinas", and the visitor - especially the visiting Inglese (Englishman) - needs to be aware that the Falklands/Malvinas issue is alive and well here. Still, a...
View ArticleSouth Georgia - Part I
This is a bit of a one-species post. South Georgia = King Penguins, King Penguins = South Georgia South Georgia has the biggest King Penguin colony on Planet Earth; - the are 150,000 pairs at St....
View ArticleSouth Georgia - Part II
Light-mantled Albatross - Phoebatria palpebrata Grytviken is the largest settlement on British-Administered South Georgia. It was founded as a whaling station at the turn of the 20th century, with the...
View ArticleSouth Shetland Islands, Antarctica
Chinstrap Penguin, Half Moon Island The South Shetland Islands form a chain north west of the Antarctic Peninsula Approaching from the north, first-timers like us gradually got that “Antarctica"...
View ArticleAntarctica - at last !
At around 02:00 I stuck my nose to the porthole and could see a clear pink light over the millpond-like waters of the Gerlache Strait. We were still heading south, with Anvers and Brabant Islands (of...
View ArticleWhales and seabirds at the "End of the World"
Snow Petrel seemed to embody the mystique of Antarctica for us.... Snow Petrel - Pagodroma nivea But there was plenty of other stuff to look at, too. Humpback Whale- Megaptera novaengliae Gentoo...
View ArticleBirds in flight at Nam Sang Wai
Well, a pause from all this South American exoticism for this blog be "what it says on the tin". Hong Kong birds, namely some BIFs from NSW. A few days ago I went down to the slipway at Nam Sang Wai....
View ArticleA Lamma Island “Twitch"
Red-throated Diver (Gavia stellata) There is plenty of bird news out there on the internet, but tuning into the stuff one wants to hear seems to get harder when we are spoiled for choice. Via a...
View ArticleWinter turns to Spring, but slowly.
Oriental Pratincole - Glareola maldivarum March should be the month when winter turns to spring. A few breaths of warm air, it seems, is all it takes start the breeding birds calling. But it was...
View ArticleFirst week of April at Mai Po
Asian Dowitcher, Great Knot and Grey Plover It’s April and the spring migration of many wader species is well underway. There's a fine variety of waders to be seen, if you can get the timing of tides...
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