Much to my shame
I've not kept up with my blog posts for a considerable time. However, a recent
opportunity with work to visit our supplier in China gave me the opportunity to
do some birding in Hong Kong. I started searching for information on birding
sites and things I'd likely see in July (typically the worst month for birding)
and came across Matt Kwan's blog (http://matthewkwanbirding.blogspot.co.uk). I contacted Matt on the off-chance that he
could point me in the right direction and before I knew it he was suggesting an
afternoon's birding! Great! More of that later.
I had already made
enquiries about Mai Po, a place I'd read about and wanted to visit at sometime.
There was a lot of confusing information out there talking about annual
permits, scientific study etc but I eventually found the WWF site where you
could book a place on a tour. Unfortunately, there were none in English on the
day I had to visit but I also found the link to apply for a solo overseas visitor
permit (numbers are strictly limited!). I filled out the forms and scanned the relevant documents and sent it
off but hadn't heard anything for a week. Fortunately my ringing trainer,
Richard du Feu knew someone there through his wader ringing exploits and
emailing her certainly helped - they hadn't got my original application for
some reason - slightly worrying.
Across one of the Fish ponds towards Shenzen, China |
So after a week in
China, I arrived back in Hong Kong and the following day took a train to Yuen
Long and a taxi from there to Mai Po visitor centre where my permit was
waiting. It was very hot and humid so I knew that birding was going to be
difficult but I was there so I was going to make the most of it. The tides were
wrong for the Deep Bay Area so I contented myself with a walk around the main
part of the reserve which is like Leighton Moss on steroids.
Fortunately the paths had shelter from the sun! |
I got my permit
stamped at the warden's nicely air-conditioned chubby-hole and set out on the
paved path around the reserve. Azure-winged Magpies were rather showy as was a
Long-tailed Shrike with a juvenile. Amazingly there were NO nuisance insects
but plenty of butterflies and dragonflies.
Chinese Pond Herons,
Little Egrets and Great Egrets were very much in evidence wherever I went. To
complete the herons, there were a couple of Intermediate Egrets alongside
Eastern Cattle Egrets, Striated Heron, Black-crowned Night Heron, Grey Heron
and Yellow Bittern.
Black-collared
Starlings are very sizeable compared to the starlings I'm used to - they're
common around HK. White-shouldered Starlings were also evident. I didn't see
many small things other than Plain Prinia and Japenese White-eye but medium
sized birds were quite vocal if not all that easy to see. Asian Koel and
Greater Coucal showed reasonably well and there were a couple of flocks of
Masked Laughing-thrush making one hell of a racket!
View from one of the hides |
The first channel I
came to held a few waders on the muddy fringes of the mangroves - Green and
Common Sandpiper, Spotted and Common Redshank. There was also White-breasted
Waterhen darting back into cover. Further along I took the paths to the hides
which were oven-like I've got to say but in milder times would be spectacular.
Nothing much was on show other than the interesting looking local race of White
Wagtail but then a bird flew across my line of sight - Grey-headed Lapwing that
shouldn't have been here at this time of year.
Thankfully, the
paths were lined with trees that provided ample shade from the sun and there
was a breeze that was difficult to find but when I did, I remained there for
five minutes to try and cool down.
Meandering down
towards the border fence, the main open water area had plenty of Herons and a
flock of Avocets but the bird I really hoped but didn't expect to see was sat
in front of the furthest hide - in fact two non-breeding Black-faced
Spoonbills; a bird of extreme rarity! Marvellous!
Black-faced Spoonbills |
After some lunch I
continued back to the visitor centre picking up White-breasted and Eurasian
Kingfishers along the way together with Black Drongo and Crested Mynahs.
I only met one other
person on the whole of the walk - I must come back at a sensible time of year! A total of 45 species of which many were lifers of course. The centre ordered
me a taxi and the return trip to my hotel in Kowloon was simple. I finished off
the day with a trip on the Star Ferry across to HK Island for dinner.
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