28/03/2016

Spring migrants in April

Four holidays made it an official long weekend. My girlfriend and I made a visit to Long Valley. Just after arrival, I met an old friend there. He is a retired man. We have met each other in famous birding spots like Tai Po Kau and Long Valley. However, because I went birding less frequently last year. We have not seen each other for quite a long time. I call it a reunion.

The target bird is the Oriental Pratincole. The facial pattern is special. This year, more than 10 individuals have been recorded in Long Valley. They concentrated around the fields near Shek Sheung River. The individuals we saw today were mostly roaming on plowed soil, looking for insects. Some of them were resting. They are not particularly afraid of human. Some of them even walked towards the photographers. What a nice scene to see that both the birds and human are co-existing there!




Four Greater Painted Snipes were seen standing completely still. They stand on the verge of some vegetation, giving everybody a clear view. A dozen of photographers waited there, hoping the Snipes will move around. This time, waiting is the real challenge. But the waiting seemed to be futile as the Snipes remained motionless in the whole afternoon.



On the adjacent pond, a secretive Eastern Water Rail have been seen since February. This is a contrasting situation to the Greater Painted Snipes. The Water Rail only made two appearances, moving extremely fast between the dense vegetation.

18/03/2016

Venturing into the Lamma

It's a cloudy day. The sun is hiding behind the clouds. Yesterday a Red-throated Loon was sighted in Lamma Island. I was hesitating whether I should take photos of it. The coming and going of migrants can be erratic. Several years ago, a Pheasant-tailed Jacana spent less than 24 hours in Shing Mun Valley Park. It is possible that many migrants have been missed this way. Is there an association between the observer frequency and the count of migrants?

There were several things on my desk.
1. An abstract to be refined in order to make an oral presentation in a conference.
2. Three journal articles to be read.
3. A paper to be finished soon for application for publication.

Finally I decided to put them aside and went for the bird. At some moments I feel that I am Walter in the movie "The secret life of Walter Mitty". Bird photography is a risk-taking behaviour for today as the work to be done is overwhelming. The "why don't you finish the work first?" mentality was not applicable. The ferry to Lamma took less than 30 minutes. If you want to go there, make sure you check the schedule beforehand. The bird was not seen when I arrived Yung Shue Wan pier. After setting up my tripod, I located it between some Sampans. Having found a comfortable position, taking photos of it became easier. The overcast and misty weather slows down the shutter speed. A great deal of the photos suffer from motion blur. Nevertheless, some are quite good. According to Guy Miller, the Red-throated Loon swam near the shoreline and was as close as 15 feet to us. He even took a picture of me concentrating on photographing the bird! Some time was spent on Photoshop to make the photos more beautiful.








Hong Kong is such a convenient place. I left HKU at 2:00pm and returned at 5:00pm. Feeling hungry, I reward myself with toast and horlicks. This Red-throated Loon is one of the few ever recorded in Hong Kong. As I mentioned, some individuals may be missed simply because observers do not visit those remote outlying islands.