Monday 30 November 2009
Temminck's stint
This is a delightful bird, photographed at Mai Po this morning.
They scuttle around on the mudflats, rarely coming very close to the hides. Occasionally they move away from the vegetation and pause briefly in the sun. This one has been probing for inverts in the slime and has a rather grubby bill.The yellowish green legs are distinctive but often hard to see because of the coating of mud.
They scuttle around on the mudflats, rarely coming very close to the hides. Occasionally they move away from the vegetation and pause briefly in the sun. This one has been probing for inverts in the slime and has a rather grubby bill.The yellowish green legs are distinctive but often hard to see because of the coating of mud.
Saturday 28 November 2009
Thursday 26 November 2009
Bombay
It is November 26th. I am in Bombay / Mumbai. Staying at the Trident adjacent the Oberoi. 12 months ago today was the terrorist attack. A real sense of reflection and sadness here. Had lunch in the Taj on Monday - still not fully restored and refurbed. Likewise the Oberoi. Not a day for silly puns.
Tuesday 17 November 2009
And the North wind shall blow
Well of course it is mid November but still, a cold weather warning (it is a bitterly warm 13 deg C) so soon after a hot weather warning is something of a shock. So much so that it is very much a case of winter draws on. This is a rare early opportunity for the locals to besport themselves in their winter gladrags.
With a rare morning free I decided to wander further up the road behind the new house. Mid-morning is rarely birdy and so it proved today. I had excellent views of Scarlet-backed flowerpecker, a Grey wagtail was in the middle of the road and a White wagtail flew over the house. Best bird was a female or immature Red-flanked bluetail. If that turned up in Bishop's Stortford it would cause something of a twitch as would the next bird, sadly only heard, a Siberian rubythroat. A couple of late Barn swallows flew over.
After the initial steep section the road is quite easy. I followed the Maclehose trail a short distance to the Wong Chuk Yeung fire look out - a most unimposing edifice - and occasionally there are breaks in the vegetation and the viewer is rewarded with sweeping views around the area,all the way out to High Island reservoir. I have quickly worked out which islands are this side of the golfing paradise of Kau Sai Chau, the main ones being Kiu Tsui Chau, Pak Sha Chau, Tai Tsan Chau and its smaller sister Siu Tsan Chau and finally Cham Tau Chau.
Other than the ubiquitous kites there were no raptors to be seen this morning. However at the current house I yesterday saw one of the Sai Kung White-bellied sea-eagles hurtling around the Bayside Beach area. With a strong North-East monsoon blowing the birds are having a whale of a time (do whales have a bird of a time?) and there is pure adrenalin seemingly driving some of the spectacular wheels and dives.
Photography isn't really a great option at present. As the weather girls tell us, the UV reading is forecast to be about 3 today. That means grey skies and poor light. Bum is the word. Not "Grease".
If you have even the remotest interest in Hong Kong's birds I commend to you the works of Geoffrey Herklots. His book, Hong Kong Birds has some lovely plates (as illustrated) and is just generally a good browse. Ditto "The Hong Kong Countryside". You can pick up reasonable copies of these for under a tenner (GBP) at somewhere like www.abebooks.co.uk or you can buy a copy in very good condition with a dust jacket for rather more. I tend to use Picture This (Galleria or Princes Building) when I want copies to give as gifts. Chris Bailey will always have a decent copy in stock in my experience, even if not on display.
With a rare morning free I decided to wander further up the road behind the new house. Mid-morning is rarely birdy and so it proved today. I had excellent views of Scarlet-backed flowerpecker, a Grey wagtail was in the middle of the road and a White wagtail flew over the house. Best bird was a female or immature Red-flanked bluetail. If that turned up in Bishop's Stortford it would cause something of a twitch as would the next bird, sadly only heard, a Siberian rubythroat. A couple of late Barn swallows flew over.
After the initial steep section the road is quite easy. I followed the Maclehose trail a short distance to the Wong Chuk Yeung fire look out - a most unimposing edifice - and occasionally there are breaks in the vegetation and the viewer is rewarded with sweeping views around the area,all the way out to High Island reservoir. I have quickly worked out which islands are this side of the golfing paradise of Kau Sai Chau, the main ones being Kiu Tsui Chau, Pak Sha Chau, Tai Tsan Chau and its smaller sister Siu Tsan Chau and finally Cham Tau Chau.
Other than the ubiquitous kites there were no raptors to be seen this morning. However at the current house I yesterday saw one of the Sai Kung White-bellied sea-eagles hurtling around the Bayside Beach area. With a strong North-East monsoon blowing the birds are having a whale of a time (do whales have a bird of a time?) and there is pure adrenalin seemingly driving some of the spectacular wheels and dives.
Photography isn't really a great option at present. As the weather girls tell us, the UV reading is forecast to be about 3 today. That means grey skies and poor light. Bum is the word. Not "Grease".
If you have even the remotest interest in Hong Kong's birds I commend to you the works of Geoffrey Herklots. His book, Hong Kong Birds has some lovely plates (as illustrated) and is just generally a good browse. Ditto "The Hong Kong Countryside". You can pick up reasonable copies of these for under a tenner (GBP) at somewhere like www.abebooks.co.uk or you can buy a copy in very good condition with a dust jacket for rather more. I tend to use Picture This (Galleria or Princes Building) when I want copies to give as gifts. Chris Bailey will always have a decent copy in stock in my experience, even if not on display.
Sunday 8 November 2009
The New View
So this is it..... the view we will wake up to each day when we finally move in :-)
The little island on the right, almost hidden behind the boat, is rather cutely called lap sap chau!
In the beginning was the the word. And the word was Deilephila elpenor
Ok, so it is actually two words. Why are they so important to me? This is why.
This is what started my interest in moths. I found the picture amongst the slides I had scanned recently. It is the very first time I had any desire to find out "what is that caterpillar?". Like all children we used to find caterpillars on the vegetables in the garden - yellow and black stripey ones were common as I recall - but that was it. They were caterpillars. This was a monster. I asked a few bird people and they referred me to Colin Plant, the moth recorder for VC 20, Herts. He stimulated my interest further and I bought a Heath trap.
He explained this was the Elephant Hawkmoth and that its larval foodplant was usually rosebay willowherb (Epilobium angustifolium). So I had discovered another new term - larval foodplant or LFP. And a caterpillar is a larva! I also discovered that the moth itself is called an imago, i.e. the adult form of the insect. Wow. This was better than the biology lessons we used to endure. Those consisted of looking at bulls eyes or cutting up frogs into little bits. I dropped biology like a stone as soon as I had the chance to choose my O'levels and ended up doing French, German, Latin & later Russian with barely a science to be seen. I was only marginally more interested in biology than I was in woodwork, at which I was, not to put too fine a point on it, crap. This shamed my father, who was a qualified engineer and could do everything from build our first TV to make his own HiFi from the bits supplied by a firm called Heathkit (I think), to service the car (a rather aged Wolsey 1500, "504 ATX" she was called, to build or repair just about everything around the house. Ah, but he couldn't conjugate Latin verbs and he didn't know which 9 prepositions in German only ever take the accusative case (FUDGEBOW). Which of us do you think has got more use out of our skills over the years?
So that was it. The heffalump hawkmoth started me "into" moths. About 10 years ago now. Wonderful things. Next year when Roger Kendrick runs HK's National Moth Night I highly recommend you go along and see just what might be lurking in the undergrowth near you.
This is what started my interest in moths. I found the picture amongst the slides I had scanned recently. It is the very first time I had any desire to find out "what is that caterpillar?". Like all children we used to find caterpillars on the vegetables in the garden - yellow and black stripey ones were common as I recall - but that was it. They were caterpillars. This was a monster. I asked a few bird people and they referred me to Colin Plant, the moth recorder for VC 20, Herts. He stimulated my interest further and I bought a Heath trap.
He explained this was the Elephant Hawkmoth and that its larval foodplant was usually rosebay willowherb (Epilobium angustifolium). So I had discovered another new term - larval foodplant or LFP. And a caterpillar is a larva! I also discovered that the moth itself is called an imago, i.e. the adult form of the insect. Wow. This was better than the biology lessons we used to endure. Those consisted of looking at bulls eyes or cutting up frogs into little bits. I dropped biology like a stone as soon as I had the chance to choose my O'levels and ended up doing French, German, Latin & later Russian with barely a science to be seen. I was only marginally more interested in biology than I was in woodwork, at which I was, not to put too fine a point on it, crap. This shamed my father, who was a qualified engineer and could do everything from build our first TV to make his own HiFi from the bits supplied by a firm called Heathkit (I think), to service the car (a rather aged Wolsey 1500, "504 ATX" she was called, to build or repair just about everything around the house. Ah, but he couldn't conjugate Latin verbs and he didn't know which 9 prepositions in German only ever take the accusative case (FUDGEBOW). Which of us do you think has got more use out of our skills over the years?
So that was it. The heffalump hawkmoth started me "into" moths. About 10 years ago now. Wonderful things. Next year when Roger Kendrick runs HK's National Moth Night I highly recommend you go along and see just what might be lurking in the undergrowth near you.
Monday 2 November 2009
The new list
The new house has already produced some fantastic treats. Yesterday pm 3 adult White-bellied sea eagles flew overhead. Two were rolling and almost touching talons - presumably a breeding pair. All three were calling with a loud honking noise, rather like geese. They were overhead for maybe ten minutes before flying off inland. These are big birds that fly with their wings in a V and they are very distinctive. I saw them at about 17.30 so if you are on the front at Sai Kung as dusk approaches keep your eyes open.
In the bushes in the communal garden just across the private road I saw a fresh plumaged Dusky warbler, a Yellow-browed warbler as well as the usual suspects such as Chinese bulbul, Tailorbird, Japanese white-eye............ and just up the road a Black-throated laughing-thrush was a good tick. I didn't have my camera gear with me but I shall have to take it next time. All I need now is some birds in the back garden.
Update 7th November
the first true garden bird was, not surprisingly, Magpie robin. 3 Grey herons fooled me very briefly into thinking the WBSEs were back. Instead they wheeled around, stately as galleons, and landed on a wooded patch below the house. I guess they will roost there. One adult WBSE did appear but didn't come close, flying over instead towards Tai Mong Tsai Road and then back towards Sai Kung. Red-whiskered bulbul added itself to the list. Finally a Common buzzard was a nice addition,hovering imperiously over the trees. NB: kites very rarely hover but I have seen them do so after a fashion this is not a clincher. I heard Scarlet-backed flowerpecker but could not see it.
In the bushes in the communal garden just across the private road I saw a fresh plumaged Dusky warbler, a Yellow-browed warbler as well as the usual suspects such as Chinese bulbul, Tailorbird, Japanese white-eye............ and just up the road a Black-throated laughing-thrush was a good tick. I didn't have my camera gear with me but I shall have to take it next time. All I need now is some birds in the back garden.
Update 7th November
the first true garden bird was, not surprisingly, Magpie robin. 3 Grey herons fooled me very briefly into thinking the WBSEs were back. Instead they wheeled around, stately as galleons, and landed on a wooded patch below the house. I guess they will roost there. One adult WBSE did appear but didn't come close, flying over instead towards Tai Mong Tsai Road and then back towards Sai Kung. Red-whiskered bulbul added itself to the list. Finally a Common buzzard was a nice addition,hovering imperiously over the trees. NB: kites very rarely hover but I have seen them do so after a fashion this is not a clincher. I heard Scarlet-backed flowerpecker but could not see it.
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