wgeoff

First Week in December

A very quiet week this week with very little to report. The first Pale and Grey-backed Thrushes of the autumn (very late by previous years standards) and a single Chestnut Bunting, otherwise only the regular wintering species.

Here photos of the Chestnut Bunting and a very photogenic male Daurian Redstart which has been near the toilet block for several weeks now.




Autumn migration has now come to an end and we are just left with late or winter vagrants. But I will go to Po Toi next week for my last week of the season, the cold front this weekend shows an interesting Backwards Trajectory for Sunday.

PS There are now at least two wild pigs on Po Toi - I saw two together near the sister's cafe on Tuesday evening. I guess that means there may soon be more? They run away as you approach but make a scary snorting noise as they do so.

[ Last edited by wgeoff at 9/12/2011 11:52 ]

bittern

erm...do the wild pigs affect bird survival?
quite scary...hope they don't approach me.
By the way, how would they have gone there? Introduction? Or are they great swimmers?

wgeoff

They're not dangerous, they will run away from you.
I don't think they have any effect on the birds.

How did they get there? - most likely swam from the mainland. They are good swimmers and have been seen swimming offshore from Po Toi by local fishermen. I've seen them swimming across Aberdeen harbour.

wgeoff

My last week staying on Po Toi this year. An interesting week with four late autumn/early winter species, Two-barred Greenish Warbler, Radde's Warbler, Asian Brown Flycatcher and Asian Paradise Flycatcher. But no photos of any note.

The week was spoilt by the arrival of a large team of workers who started cutting the undergrowth on the hillsides just past the sister's cafe. This is mostly private land and the group were sent by the owner who no doubt has some development in mind. Most of the area is very rough and not accessible but it remains to be seen what will happen. I will go for the day next week to see what they have done.

A good time to review the year 2011 on Po Toi. Not the best by a long way, but not the worst also, with potentially three HK second records, Black Redstart, Rosy Pipit and a possible Plain-tailed Warbler.
Here my ten top picks for the year in date order. Black Redstart (5th to 13th April, photo by C W So), Fairy Pitta (5th May, call recording only, no photo), Rosy Pipit (10th May), Lesser Cuckoo (3rd to 6th September), Baillon's Crake (21st September, no photo), Drongo Cuckoo (1st to 16th October, photo by Herman Ip), possible Plain-tailed Warbler (16th October, photo by Allen Chan), Japanese Yellow Bunting (2nd November), one of 12 Blue-and-white Flycatchers (9th November) and Green-backed type Flycatcher (13th November, photo by Jason).



and the Fairy Pitta calling

http://www.geoffwelch46.com/PITTACALL10.mp3

See you next year

[ Last edited by wgeoff at 16/12/2011 08:13 ]

CWSO

Sorry Wgeoff, I forgot Your mail.

wgeoff

Thanks CW, I'll send you an email

John Holmes

Geoff,

Many Thanks for another year of my favorite serial !

John

brendank

29 Jan 2012

1 Radde's Warbler
1 Brown Shrike
4 Japanese Thrush
5 Black-faced Bunting
2 Red-flanked Bluetail (first I have seen this year!)
1 Rufus-tailed Robin

Tried seawatching a while in afternoon. A group of 20 or so Hueglin's Gulls was seen. Suppose these aren't migrants yet just wintering birds.

radde1.JPG (79.56 KB)

29/01/2012 19:51

radde2.JPG (112.77 KB)

29/01/2012 19:51

brendank

19 February 2012

1 Black-naped Monarch
1 Brown Shrike
12 Japanese Thrush
1 Red-flanked Bluetail
2 Rufus-tailed Robin

From the south penisula:
55 Hueglin's Gull
1 Black-tailed Gull

Going home on the ferry, I saw a phalarope which seems early for a migrant. It was quite dark at that point and didn't have my camera out so I didn't take a photo. I believe it was Red-necked Phalarope. The wingstrip was narrower than I have seen on Red Phalaropes before but I was thinking about that possibility.

monarch.JPG (47.24 KB)

19/02/2012 21:28

Ronaldo

21 February
a few Japanese Thrushes,
a White's Thrush seen by Geoff
1-2 Pale Thrushes seen by Jennifer and me
1 Red-flanked Bluetail female
1 Stubtail Warbler
1 Black-naped Monarch (heard and probably, briefly seen)
1 Grey-capped Greenfinch
a few Yellow-Browed and Pallas' Leaf Warblers
1 Daurian Redstart
1 Robin heard

from the boat back
a couple of heuglin's gulls, a possible vega gull and a black tailed gull.

brendank

26 Feb 2012

I reached south peninsula sea watch point at 1500. As soon as I set-up I spotted a very large group of gulls headed north in the channel. I was surprised to find they were all Black-tailed Gulls. From 1500-1600 I had 6 flocks of 20+ birds passing north. Interestingly after 1600 the big flocks stopped coming and it mostly small groups of 1-3 Black-tailed Gulls in the channel. Counted 172 Black-tailed Gulls but likely missed many before I arrived. 95% were 1st winter bird. Last Sunday I only saw 1 Black-tailed Gull, changes a lot in a week.

Also, had about 60 Heuglin's Gulls cruising up and down the channel. Those were about 95% adults.

Po Toi island itself was slow, just a few Japanese Thrush, a Grey-backed Thrush, some Black-faced Buntings, a Grey Wagtail, a Peregrine Falcon, and ringed and rather desperate looking racing pigeon.