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Long Valley Autumn 2013 塱原秋

A very nice birding day in LV on 9Oct, though we did not see many migrants. (and sorry for the late post.  Photos taken by Derek.)

Birding time 觀鳥時間: 0930-1300, 1400-1630
Weather 天氣: Sunny, still quite hot (26-31C)
Humidity 濕度: Relatively dry

Little Egret x2+
Great Egret x1+
Cattle Egret (many)
White Wagtail (many)
Yellow Wagtail (many, with at least one macronyx ssp)
Citrine Wagtail x1 (possibly 2, but one not sure)


White-bellied Sea Eagle x1 (immature, quite unexpected)


Black-eared Kite x1
Long-tailed Shrike x1
Black-winged Stilt (many)
Common Snipe x10+ (nearly all on HKBWS ponds)
Common Sandpiper x1+
Wood Sandpiper (many)
Little Ringed Plover x4+
White-breasted Waterhen x2
Eurasian Wryneck x1 (stayed quite a long time on poles and wires)


Japanese Quail x1 (flushed)
Zitting Cisticola x3+


Arctic Warbler x1


Spotted Dove (many)
Common Myna x2


Crested Myna (many)
Common Magpie x2
Plaintive Cuckoo x1 (not seen by me)


Greater Coucal x1
Asian Koel x1 (F)
Barn Swallow x1
House Swift x1
Eurasian Tree Sparrow (many)
Richard's Pipit (many)


Red-throated Pipit (many)


Olive-backed Pipit x1
Magpie Robin x1
Stejneger's Stonechat (many)
Yellow-bellied Prinia (few)
Plain Prinia x1
Oriental Reed Warbler x1 (not seen by me)


Common Tailorbird x1
Black Drongo (many)
Black-collared Starling (many)
Red-whiskered Bulbul (many)
Yellow-breasted Bunting x2+


Little Bunting x1


Scaly-breasted Munia (few)
White-rumped Munia (many)

[ Last edited by thinfor at 12/10/2013 15:09 ]
Manson Tsang
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Thanks for your comment, Jonathan.  I'm trying to get some more photos from my friends and hope a more in-depth ID study can be carried out.

Actually, I admit that I am not skillful enough to separate between Richard's and Blyth's pipit in wild field.  So usually I did not even attempt to do this unless there existed some photos like this one.

Please note that the bill might not be short enough as seen in the photo as you can see that the head was a bit pointing towards the camera so the bill might look apparently shorter.
Manson Tsang
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Birding date 觀鳥日子: 21Oct
Birding time 觀鳥時間: 0945-1300, 1330-1630
Weather 天氣: Sunny, still quite hot (25-29C)
Humidity 濕度: Relatively dry

Little Egret (few)
Great Egret (few)
Grey Heron x1
White Wagtail (many, 1 ocularis ssp seen)
Yellow Wagtail (many, with at least 2 macronyx ssp)
Black-eared Kite x1
Common Buzzard x1
Falcon sp x1
Long-tailed Shrike x2+
Brown Shrike x1
Black-winged Stilt (many)
Common Snipe (few)
Wood Sandpiper (many)
Little Ringed Plover (many)
Grey-headed Lapwing x1
Common Moorhen x10+
White-breasted Waterhen x2
Eurasian Wryneck x1
Zitting Cisticola x1
Spotted Dove (many)
Crested Myna (many)
Common Magpie x2
White-collared Crow x4+
Asian Koel x1 (M)
Barn Swallow x1
House Swift x1+
Eurasian Tree Sparrow (many)
Richard's Pipit (few)
Red-throated Pipit (few)
Magpie Robin (few)
Stejneger's Stonechat (many)
Yellow-bellied Prinia (few)
Plain Prinia (few)
Oriental Reed Warbler x2+
Common Tailorbird x1
Black Drongo (few)
Black-collared Starling (many)
White-cheeked Starling x52+ (perching together on a single wire)
Red-bill Starling x2+
Red-whiskered Bulbul (few)
Chinese Bulbul (few)
Yellow-breasted Bunting x1
Scaly-breasted Munia (few)
White-rumped Munia (many)

[ Last edited by thinfor at 23/10/2013 22:11 ]
Manson Tsang
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As requested, I post more photos further for the possible Blyth's pipit taken on 9Oct.  Again, thanks for my friend Derek for the photos.

Photo 1


Photo 2


Photo 3


Photo 4


Photo 5



Actually, more than one pipit was perching on the spot.  This should be another individual when compared with the median converts.  Any comments are welcome.
Photo 6


[ Last edited by thinfor at 28/10/2013 21:27 ]
Manson Tsang
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Birding date 觀鳥日子: 25Oct
Birding time 觀鳥時間: 1000-1330
Weather 天氣: Sunny and breezy(22-27C)
Humidity 濕度: Dry

Little Grebe x1
Little Egret (few)
Great Egret (few)
Grey Heron x2
White Wagtail (many)
Yellow Wagtail (many)
Common Buzzard x1
Falcon sp x1
Black-winged Stilt (many)
Common Snipe (many)
Common Sandpiper x1
Wood Sandpiper (many)
Little Ringed Plover 4+
Common Moorhen x9
Zitting Cisticola x1
Spotted Dove (many)
Crested Myna (many)
Common Magpie x2
Barn Swallow (few)
House Swift (few)
Eurasian Tree Sparrow (many)
Richard's Pipit x1+
Red-throated Pipit x1+
Magpie Robin (few)
Stejneger's Stonechat (many)
Yellow-bellied Prinia (heard)
Oriental Reed Warbler x1
Black Drongo x1
Black-collared Starling (many)
Red-whiskered Bulbul (few)
Chinese Bulbul (few)
Little Bunting x1
Scaly-breasted Munia (few)
White-rumped Munia (many)
Eurasian Skylark x3
Manson Tsang
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I would like to provide more information about the photos taken and hopefully this may help on the ID.  Please note that I have named those photos as 1-6 in the previous message.  For below, I will call the first photo as the original.  Actually there were more than 7 photos but those 6 photos were distinct enough.

All 7 photos were taken on the same day from time 14:56:19 to 14:58:42, according to the exif data from the photos.

They were fallen in 5 main time periods:
14:56:19 - 14:56:25 (when photos 1 and 2 were taken at 14:56:19 and 14:56:22 resp)
14:57:05 (when photo 3 was taken)
14:57:24 - 14:57:27 (when photos 4 and 5 were taken at 14:57:24 and 14:57:27 resp)
14:58:00 - 14:58:01 (when the original was taken)
14:58:42 (when photo 6 was taken)

From what I observed on that day, there were at least 3 pipits and they did change their perching positions while flying back and forth between the ground and the wire.  As such, there existed a chance that there might be 5 different birds among the photos.  

However, from comparing the individuals, I have the following conclusions:
(1) Photos 1 to 3 should be the same individual.  They looked like identical to me.  The exif data also quite supported it.
(2) Photos 4 and 5 should be the same individual as well, from the appearance and the exif data.
(3) Photos 6, for me, should be a typical Richard's pipit - relatively long tail, long hindclaw, bill shape, etc.
(4) The original, to me, looked like the same individual as that in Photos 1 to 3.

So: If the above are all true, the possible Blyth's was perching on the wire from 14:56:19 to 14:57:05 and 14:58:00 to 14:58:01.  However, please note that a pipit, the one in Photo 4 or 5, appeared as well at nearly exact location.  Since the time between the two periods was just 55 seconds, it's quite likely that the pipit in Photo 4 or 5 was also the same individual, pointing out that all photos excluding Photo 6 should be the same individual.

But, as an observer on that day, I observed those few pipits, so close that I didn't see it through binoculars, and was able to trace their movements.  There existed a possibility that the possible Blyth's left when we took its photos, flew away and perching position being occupied by another pipit.  Then Blyth's came back again.  I still remembered quite clearly they have had such kind of movements since they seemed to stay along with each other at that moment.

That's all for my information given to those interested.  I stop here for all your comments.  Thanks a lot and still feeling a bit unexpected to get a possible Blyth's pipit on a common birding day in LV!

[ Last edited by thinfor at 28/10/2013 22:38 ]
Manson Tsang
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Birding date 觀鳥日子: 4Nov
Birding time 觀鳥時間: 1000-1345
Weather 天氣: Cloudy with occasional shower (22-26C)
Humidity 濕度: Humid

Great Cormorant (few)
Little Egret (few)
Great Egret (few)
Grey Heron (few)
Chinese Pond Heron (many)
White Wagtail (many)
Yellow Wagtail (many)
Black-eared Kite x2
Common Buzzard x1
Long-tailed Shrike x2
Little Grebe x2
Common Teal (many)
Black-winged Stilt (many)
Common Snipe (few)
Painted Snipe x3+
Wood Sandpiper (many)
Little Ringed Plover (many)
Grey-headed Lapwing x1
Common Moorhen (many)
White-breasted Waterhen x1
Baillon's Crake x1
Common Kingfisher x1
White-throated Kingfisher x1
Zitting Cisticola x1
Spotted Dove (many)
Crested Myna (many)
Common Magpie x2
Asian Koel x1 (M)
Eurasian Tree Sparrow (many)
Red-throated Pipit x1
Olive-backed Pipit x1
Magpie Robin (few)
Stejneger's Stonechat (many)
Plain Prinia x2
Black Drongo x1
Black-collared Starling (many)
White-cheeked Starling x1
Red-whiskered Bulbul (few)
Chinese Bulbul (few)
Dusky Warbler (few)
Yellow-breasted Bunting x4+
Black-headed Bunting x2
Chestnut-eared Bunting x1 (not 100% sure)
Scaly-breasted Munia (few)
White-rumped Munia (many)
Masked Laughingthrush (few)

[ Last edited by thinfor at 4/11/2013 22:21 ]
Manson Tsang
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