Week of birding

Juvenile Herring Gull on Port Meadow - amazing light that evening

I've been able to get out birding most days this week and I feel that enough has happened to warrant another blog post. The weekend of 23-24th November I was at Portland and happened to coincide with the arrival of Storm Bert - absolutely fearsome conditions! Seawatching yielded a few Sooty, Balearic and Manx Shearwaters (good records this late in the season), Great Skua, Eider, Common Scoter, and all three Divers, but not the hoped-for Leaches' Petrel. As expected there were very few passerines on the land, with a Blackcap in the obs garden being the only thing worth noting.

Common Scoter passing the Bill, some massive waves

2cy Herring Gull - I'm guessing this is an argentatus with those little P10 mirrors

Sooty Shearwater - actually taken from inside the obs!

Caspian Gull in the harbour - still a fairly uncommon bird on Portland, the second I've found there

Returning to Oxford on 25th November I was quite surprised to see that the effects of Storm Bert had extended far inland, with flooding all around the city and Port Meadow having returned to "lake mode".

The calm after the storm - can never get enough of Port Meadow sunsets

There was quite a large gull roost that evening although viewing was tricky from the riverbank, with most of the birds very distant. I had a nice 1cy Caspian Gull (the second of the winter) but my attention was quickly diverted to an interesting looking 1cy Common Gull that I picked up flying in to the roost from the south. It offered fairly prolonged views as it flew around and displayed several really interesting features - notably a white, quite contrasty underwing with a seemingly dark secondary bar, unpatterned white uppertail coverts and a white head with a little boa of neck streaking. It almost looked like a mini Caspian Gull - I don't think I've ever seen one before that has displayed all these features at this time of year. Most canus Common Gulls are quite heavily streaked in November, and my immediate thought was that this could be a candidate for Russian Common Gull, i.e. subspecies heinei.

Unfortunately I didn't have the camera with me so I was only able to take some digiscoped photos when it had already settled quite far away. I'm not sure if the bill base is pink, which is the other identification feature to look out for, but it certainly seems quite bright and saturated from the photo compared with the insipid greyish-green of most 1cy canus. A record like this, at this distance, can never be proved, and this is actually the second heinei candidate I've had on the meadow - the other was a 3cy in January that I previously wrote about here. My hope is that later in winter, when the floods are a bit smaller, I'll get more chances to scrutinise the Common Gulls more closely and get some photos of the diagnostic primary pattern of 2nd-year and adult birds.

A bit of imagination required here - the photo really doesn't convey how striking this looked in the field!

On 27th November I had an unusually twitchy day, which started when a Black Redstart was reported in Christ Church Meadow. I have a bit of a soft spot for Black Redstarts, and indeed the location, as I found one there myself as an undergraduate in 2019. I had only brief views of the bird in flight but saw that it had a fairly prominent wing panel and was therefore a male.

After this excitement I wasn't prepared for another gripping message to the Oxon birding WhatsApp group - news of a Snow Bunting found by Dai John on the Farmoor causeway! This would be a county tick for me and I was very keen to see it. The journey to Farmoor was long and torturous as for various reasons I had driven into town that day rather than take the bike, so to get back to the car quickly I decided to take one of the Voi e-scooters (I reserve this for desperate occasions only), drove half an hour to Farmoor and then shamelessly sprinted down the causeway as of course it was at the furthest end away from the car park. I have not run for a bird for a very long time!

There has been some discussion surrounding the bird's age - initially suggested as a 1cy male nivalis, I noticed that it seemed to have adult-shaped tail feathers in the field and Ben Sheldon also pointed out that the pattern of the scapular feathers are a better match for a female than a male. Some close scrutiny of the photos indicates that despite the appearance of solidly white greater coverts, these are actually just the tips/fringes of the feathers, which are tightly folded and partially covered by the scapulars. Overall the pattern of the visible coverts is also a better fit for female. I'm still struggling to rule out the possibility of a 1cy female but I think an adult is most likely. There was no sign of the bird the following morning.

Adam, Ewan, Jason and Roger on the causeway at the Snow Bunting twitch - a bit of "accidental Renaissance" in the composition of this photo...

On 30th November I went back to have another go at the 1cy Black Redstart, being rather unsatisfied with my experience earlier in the week - I decided to go very early in the morning to avoid disturbance by all the tourists. Upon arrival the bird was nowhere to be seen, but I remembered that the one I found had had a habit of roosting in a bush behind a set of wheelie bins next to the wall of Christ Church. This hunch proved correct as the bird soon emerged and posed up nicely, first on the bins and then on a small parapet. I was hoping to photograph it flitting around on the vines growing on the wall, as this would offer some aesthetic compositions and chance to get it with spread tail, but no luck today. 

Greater covert break clearly visible in this photo - some 1cy males develop a black mask and chest as part of their postjuvenile moult whilst others remain looking like female/juvenile types over the winter

These images were taken at 10000 and 5000 ISO respectively so were very noisy out of camera - luckily, the RAW files from the OM1 respond well to denoising. Still, I'd like to get some photos in better light, which should be possible if it hangs around for a while.

Mid morning I attempted to twitch a pair of Bearded Tits which had been reported at Radley Lakes - I cycled down with Ben Sheldon which was my first slightly longer ride since crashing my road bike just before going to Hong Kong. No sign of the target birds although minor consolation with a Brambling calling over the pits and lots of Chiffchaffs in the reeds. In the evening I did the Port Meadow roost and had a nice 2cy Caspian Gull along with a couple of Yellow-legged Gulls.

Always tricky to decide whether to digiscope distant birds or try and do some sort of mega-crop using the camera - in this instance the latter worked out well as I managed to capture a wing flap, revealing the diagnostic primary pattern of 2cy Caspian Gull

On 1st December I had another morning dipping the Bearded Tits before heading to Port Meadow in the afternoon. I had mentioned to Ben the previous day that it was about time for the first wintering Siberian Chiffchaffs to turn up in Oxford so I had this in mind as I walked down towards Burgess Field gate. A few colybitta Chiffchaffs were flycatching and flitting around in the bushes just inside Burgess Field so I began pishing a bit to draw more out and almost immediately I noticed a pale bird quite low down and partially obscured by branches. Getting bins on it I saw that not only was it an obvious tristis, but also that it was ringed! We have only ever ringed one Siberian Chiffchaff at this site, last winter, although there were also two other unringed tristis overwintering - therefore, it was an exciting thought that this might be a chance to confirm the presence of a returning bird.

However, it quickly melted away into the bush and the following fifteen minutes of trying to get a photo of the ring were incredibly frustrating! I eventually resorted to tape luring the bird using a recording of tristis song in order to get it to come out in the open and sit still for a moment. This is not something that I would usually do just to get a photo (despite tape luring being a routine part of catching birds for ringing), but I felt that in this instance it was justified in order to record the ring number - which, after all, was literally the whole point of ringing the bird in the first place. I managed get one "record shot" and another which is slightly more artistic in terms of the composition, although both are a bit washed out in places due to all the foliage in front of the bird.

Examining the photos on the back of the camera I could see that it was definitely a BTO ring (bearing the word "London") and that the first letter was "P", so I knew that it was highly likely that to be one of our ring strings. Squinting a bit more it seemed that the last digit was either a 6 or an 8 so I texted a couple members of the ringing group asking them to look up the ring number of the tristis we had previously ringed on DemOn and they quickly responded to confirm that it was PHX356 - this had to be our bird!

I have included below the edited closeups that show that the ring is PH---6 and thus almost certain to be PHX356. The bird also looks identical to previous winters and behaves in the same way - being rather tame (it once almost landed on a Port Meadow regular!) and favouring the ditch next to Burgess Field gate. It is a weirdly quiet individual, barely if ever calling, although it has previously been heard singing a bit in late March/early April.

The bird was ringed on 29/11/2023 along with nine colybitta Chiffchaffs at the northwest end of Burgess Field, as part of our long-term winter Chiffchaff project. We didn't give the bird a definite age in the hand although speculated that it could be an adult due to the large and pristine white primary tips. Indeed, the year before a Siberian Chiffchaff similarly wintered in this exact spot (it was actually the first record for Port Meadow) and we did think that we could well have caught that same returning bird - so this could be its third winter here.

PHX356 immediately after being ringed last year

It is amazing to think that this individual has probably made the journey from its breeding grounds in Siberia to winter in Port Meadow at least twice and really shows that Siberian Chiffchaffs have established a regular migration route that includes wintering in the UK. I am not sure how common year-on-year recoveries of birds are, but would be interested to see how much evidence there is for returning birds (vital for the establishment of a novel migration strategy) and also to compare with Yellow-browed Warbler.

Later in the afternoon I had the 2cy Caspian Gull in the roost again and was also pleased to see a Knot - this had been reported the day before whilst I was dipping the Bearded Tits and I was pretty gripped as it was a long overdue patch tick for me (number 157 on the list). It stayed quite distant with the Lapwing flock for most of the time but at dusk it did a fly around and I managed to get a couple of record shots.

The best viewing spot I could find with the floods being so massive

Another scenic Burgess Field sky

Overall a very pleasant week with lots of birds, albeit nothing much in terms of personal finds. Since the  weather has generally been okay for photography I've been able to keep up practising with the camera - so I'll end with a few miscellaneous photos from the patch that I'm happy with.

Great White Egret with church in the background

Mistle Thrush

One of the overwintering Stonechats

Hong Kong Trip Report

Hong Kong - 8-17th November 2024

Dusky Warbler

A family holiday combined with a birding trip, with the aim to get experience with some of the Eastern Palearctic specialities that occur as vagrants in Britain. This was my second time birding in Hong Kong, although my previous trip in 2018 was merely a precursor to ten days spent at Danum Valley in Borneo on the undergraduate Biology Field Course, so I wasn't birding intensively during the stopover - it was also in mid-summer so I didn't see a great deal. I tried to schedule this trip to get a mixture of the tail-end of autumn migration and also some of the winter visitors, as well as fitting it around the start of a new job as a postdoc.

I had arranged to meet up with a friend I knew from Oxford, Ton Yeh, who lives in Hong Kong and had offered to take me round a few sites, as well as let me know the latest bird news from the local WhatsApp chats - his help was greatly appreciated in seeing some of the key species.

Since I visited some of the locations multiple times I thought that rather than structure this blog post in chronological order in terms of what I did on a day-by-day basis, I would split it up into the different locations - the result is a sort of photo essay, rather than an exhaustive list of what I saw. Most of the focus is on two main sites, Long Valley and Mai Po, and I have only briefly gone over what I saw at Kam Tin, Tai Po Kau and Lion's Nature Park.

As always, please click on the photos to view them at full resolution - the Blogger website shows a compressed version in line with the text.

Long Valley

Black-winged Stilts were everywhere in the ponds - and unlike in Britain at point blank range

Long Valley is an area of paddyfields and mixed agricultural land situated in the Northern Territories - it is the largest manmade freshwater wetland in Hong Kong. I had visited during my 2018 trip but saw very little other than Long-tailed Shrike. Since then, it has been closed for a couple of years to allow development into a nature reserve so I was very lucky that it reopened to birders literally on the weekend that I arrived in Hong Kong. It is situated only 15 minutes walk from my accommodation in Sheung Shui village so I visited almost every day - it became a sort of "patch" for the trip. 

Long Valley is famous in autumn and winter for wader, pipit and bunting passage and the birding is quite easy - compared to Britain, the birds are very close and for this reason I concentrated most of my photographic efforts at this site. Resident birds include large numbers of egrets, herons, ducks and waterfowl, as well as passerines such as bulbuls and munias.

In Britain, I very much enjoy searching through pipits and wagtails and several gripping species in a Western Palearctic context showed very well here - including Red-throated Pipit, Olive-backed Pipit, Richard's Pipit, Eastern Yellow Wagtail and leucopsis White Wagtail.

Red-throated Pipits

Olive-backed Pipit

Eastern Yellow Wagtail (subspecies taivana)

A species that was high on my target list was Siberian Pipit, which would be a lifer for me. They are an uncommon passage migrant through Hong Kong in autumn, largely at wetland sites. Recently elevated to full species status from Buff-bellied Pipit, they look substantially different to the American Pipits that have occurred as vagrants in Britain.

A Siberian Pipit had been reported sporadically at Long Valley and I soon encountered a candidate bird wandering around with some White Wagtails. To be honest I didn't look at it too closely other than to verify that I wasn't one of the more commonly occurring pipit species, took a couple of photos and was largely satisfied that it was the Siberian Pipit after a quick look online for some comparison photos. I later included these photos when submitting my eBird checklist for that visit.

It was therefore rather shocking to receive a message from Ton a few hours later saying "People are asking if the Siberian Pipit picture is actually Water Pipit" on the local rarities WhatsApp group. I initially thought that I'd overlooked the status of Water Pipit in Hong Kong and that I'd suggested that a common species was something rarer. Upon checking that Water Pipit was actually something of a mega in Hong Kong (with only 6 previous records), I realised that my mistake was the other way round and slight panic set in - neither Ton nor of course I knew the local birders well enough to enquire as to whether they thought the identification was certain or the features that they were looking at to separate these species. 

After madly trying to search for ID articles and pictures of both species online I realised that I actually knew very little about any of this and that I had better ask some people for help - therefore I sent the images to Ian Lewington and Ben Sheldon and awaited their response. By this point however, I could see that the suggestion of the HK birders was almost certainly correct, mostly because my bird had such dark legs, compared to the pinkish legs shown by most Siberian Pipits (why did I not think to check this feature before uploading the photos!!!). I was unsure however if any of the other features on my bird (reduced flank streaking for instance) were within the range of variation for Siberian Pipit.

Embedded here is an image of a Siberian Pipit taken at Long Valley in November from the Macaulay Library for comparison purposes - I had hoped to take some similar photos of this species myself!

The Asian subspecies of Water Pipit (Anthus spinoletta blakistoni) looks significantly different to the Water Pipits that we get in Britain, not that I regularly get a good look at them here anyway. It's therefore been a bit of a learning experience in their identification and I've summarised the main points below - thanks to Ben, Ian and also Per Alström for their comments.

Identification features for blakistoni Water Pipit versus Siberian Pipit:

1. Reduced flank streaking.

2. Paler brown mantle and rump.

3. Different face pattern - slightly less prominent moustachial stripe.

4. Heavier/different pattern of mantle streaking.

5. Dark legs.

6. Structural differences - slightly rangier, different head shape.

It is worth noting that this seems to be a particularly heavily marked Water Pipit (thanks to Grahame Walbridge for backing me up on this!), with a very dark, solid malar patch inviting confusion with Siberian Pipit. Lesson here though is that you should scrutinise everything completely, even in an unfamiliar context, and don't just assume!

Another group that I was particularly keen to see were the eastern buntings which occur as vagrants in Britain, and over the course of my visits was pleased to see Little Bunting, Chestnut-eared Bunting, Rustic Bunting (pleased to find three myself as it's a scarcity here), Black-faced Bunting and Yellow-breasted Bunting (a real speciality of the site). I also managed to twitch Common Reed Bunting, a Hong Kong rarity.

Chestnut-eared Bunting with spider orb-web in the background - rarely do my hobby and research work unite so well in one picture!

Male Rustic Bunting in a dappled evening light

Yellow-breasted Bunting

Common Reed Bunting, a different subspecies to the one we get in the UK (presumably pyrrhulina) - definitely looked a bit paler

As well as the buntings, the low bushes and scrubby areas held large numbers of Dusky Warblers and Yellow-browed Warblers. Being Phylloscopus warblers they were a real pain to photograph, but a small pond full of lily pads allowed very close views, and I lucked out massively when a Dusky Warbler chose to briefly perch up only about 1.5m away from me (please click!).

Easily the best views I've ever had of this species

Despite this bird being partially obscured I quite like the composition of the photo

Sadly didn't manage to improve on this Yellow-browed Warbler image!

Greater Painted Snipe is another Long Valley speciality and after some frustratingly brief flight views I wanted to get some shots on the deck - after a lot of searching I managed to locate the scrape which seemed to be their main roosting area.

Superb cryptic posture

Some of the other waders present included Common Snipe, Avocet, Black-winged Stilt, Wood, Green and Common Sandpipers, Greenshank, Marsh Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plover and an extremely confiding Spotted Redshank.

Spotted Redshank - could literally get to within two metres of this bird

Marsh Sandpiper

I also had a few raptors drift overhead - Peregrine, Common Kestrel, Besra, Eastern Buzzard, Black-winged Kite and the omnipresent Black Kites.

Eastern Buzzard - very different jizz to Common Buzzard, reminded me more of Rough-legged Buzzard

Male Besra

I also managed to jam in on a twitch for Tundra Bean Goose - again less than ten records for Hong Kong. Extraordinary that this site had two megas and a whole host of rare/scarce species in under a week - does anywhere in the UK even come close?

A very confiding bird - there also seemed to be some initial confusion over its identity re. Tundra versus Taiga Bean Goose

Goose twitch

Other inhabitants of the paddyfields included Zitting Cisticola, Scaly-breasted and White-rumped Munias, Light-vented and Red-whiskered Bulbuls, Plain and Yellow-bellied Prinias, Oriental Magpie-Robin, Black-browed Reed Warbler, Oriental Reed Warbler, Stejneger's Stonechat and Long-tailed Shrike.

Zitting Cisticola

Oriental Reed Warbler - very pleased to see this rather magnificent Acro as I thought it might be a bit too late in the season

Plain Prinia - a very common species but always good value and relatively easy to photograph

Yellow-bellied Prinia - I found these to be a bit more skulking

Long-tailed Shrike - they clearly do a lot of ringing around here as the next photo also demonstrates

Stejneger's Stonechat

Overall this is just an absolutely fantastic site and I would no doubt be extremely satisfied patch working it, although avoiding all the toggers might get a bit challenging!

Brambling twitch at Long Valley

Mai Po

Olive-backed Pipit on a lovely bed of leaves along the entrance path

Mai Po is a WWF-managed reserve on the Southern side of the Deep Bay that is internationally famous for its waders (especially as a site for Spoon-billed Sandpiper in spring). I was very keen to do some birding at this reserve despite a rather complicated application process for international visitors - I had to send in my BTO ringing permit as proof that I was interested enough in birds to warrant entry... The tickets were very expensive and the fact that I had to arrange my visit well in advance also meant that I would only be able to go there on one pre-booked day.

It was therefore sod's law that tropical cyclone Toraji ended up hitting exactly on the night before/morning of my visit - I had been anxiously watching the weather forecast during the week and a Typhoon 8 warning was put in place, which meant that all public transport was shut down and people were told to stay at home. Luckily, the warning was lifted at about 10:20am as the weather died down so I hurriedly got a taxi to the reserve - unfortunately I knew that this delay meant that I would have missed the optimal tide window for viewing the mudflats.

After hurriedly collecting my permit from the WWF centre I began birding from the three-floor hide overlooking the pools near the entrance, which were covered in ducks and egrets. Eurasian Teal, Wigeon, Shoveler, Pintail and Garganey were all present, although I was disappointed not to connect with Spot-billed Duck or the reported Baikal Teal. Both Black-faced and Eurasian Spoonbill were associated with the herons and egrets on the scrape, and I also got good views of Eurasian Bittern perched in the reeds.

Probably the nicest hide I have ever been in

Purple Heron in flight over the reedbed

The height of the hide meant that I could see most of the reserve from the top floor, and I was pleased to pick out two Eastern Marsh Harriers associating over the reedbed. They offered some fantastic photo opportunities against the distant skyscrapers of Shenzhen across the bay. Ospreys and Black Kites were also present.

Adult female Eastern Marsh Harrier

Interaction between the adult female and a juvenile Eastern Marsh Harrier

Black Kite (subspecies lineatus) - uniquitous in Hong Kong, but good to photograph them at eye level

The walk to the mudflats passed along a path lined with trees - a few winter passerines were present, including a couple of Daurian Redstarts and four Black-faced Buntings.

Male Daurian Redstart - a common winter visitor to Hong Kong

I completely failed to get any usable photographs of Black-faced Bunting on this trip so a sound recording will have to suffice - a really distinctive call, much like a Song Thrush.

Viewing the mudflats involved accessing the floating hides by walking along an intricate system of floating boardwalks leading through the mangroves - really amazing.

Upon entering the hide I was dismayed to find that, as expected, everything was miles away - a real challenge just to identify lots of the waders, let alone attempt to photograph them. I set up the scope and began squinting at the shoreline. Kentish Plover, Whimbrel, Curlew, Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwit and Grey Plover were all new for the trip, and I was very pleased to pick out a couple of Greater Sand Plover, which were a lifer for me. A single Caspian Tern was present with Black-headed Gulls but I sadly failed to see any other wintering gulls or terns.

Black-faced Spoonbill, a real speciality of the Deep Bay area

The mudskippers provided quite a lot of entertainment, but tricky to time the shot to get them with their fin extended

In the hide with me was a photographer who was quite intently waiting for something - actually the only other birder I saw all day! I assumed that he wasn't here just to photograph fiddler crabs and Chinese Pond Herons and sure enough, after a while the target bird appeared - a stunning Black-capped Kingfisher, which was territorial towards a nearby White-throated Kingfisher and later caught a couple of fiddler crabs.

Really demonstrating the autofocus tracking capabilities of the OM1 to be able to follow this speedy bird over a cluttered background!

I had to rush back after only a couple of hours in the hide in order to make it out of the reserve by the 5pm closure time. Overall a pleasant if disrupted experience - it was also bizarre to see so few birders at Hong Kong's flagship reserve, compared to the huge numbers at Long Valley.

Kam Tin

Not the most scenic location

A quick visit to Kam Tin mainly to see the wintering flock of Grey-headed Lapwing and other common waders on the river. The trees along the path also yielded the only Taiga Flycatcher of the trip.

Grey-headed Lapwing and Wood Sandpiper

Greenshank

Marsh Sandpiper in flight

Tai Po Kau

We spent one morning in Tai Po Kau for a bit of forest birding but it was hard going and even worse from a photographic perspective. Managed to see three of the skulkers - Pygmy Cupwing, Lesser Shortwing and Rufous-tailed Robin, as well as some common forest species but didn't encounter any large bird waves nor the hoped-for wintering thrushes. Also got bitten by ants which was a first for me!

Chestnut Bulbul - a really attractive and vocal species

Lesser Shortwing - totally messed up the exposure of this photo in the gloom of the forest understory and realistically no amount of AI denoising was going to save it, but included here for completeness

This giant centipede (Scolopendra) spent a while slowly descending a tree trunk and was fantastic to see

Lion's Nature Park

An afternoon visit to Lion's Nature Park on quite a rainy day yielded a Two-barred Warbler and a Verditer Flycatcher but again no wintering thrushes. It was great to see the Two-barred alongside Yellow-browed Warblers and to hear it call - surprisingly different to the Greenish Warblers I've heard in Lithuania. A Black-winged Cuckooshrike was also new for the trip.

Two-barred Warbler - very much a record shot of this bird, but shows the massive pale bill quite well

Summary

To be honest I was slightly blown away by the experience of birding in Hong Kong - I never expected to go to another country and immediately be involved in finding rare and scarce birds. The quantity of migrants passing through some of these sites is absolutely unbelievable compared to Britain, and it must be incredible to live here and be able to patch them regularly. The small size of Hong Kong also means that transport is easy and quick and it's possible to actually go around twitching everything if you were so inclined. Overall can't recommend it enough - I'm tempted to go back in April/May for peak wader passage.

Trip List