Some letters were entrusted by a swallow to a kingfisher travelling from place to place. Its mission is to make sure the letters safely arrive at the habitats which accommodate various sorts of wildlife. Is it real? Or is it just a story?
You are right. Hong Kong illustrator, Carmen Ng, joined hand with Hong Kong Bird Watching Society and contributed a lot of attractive pictures, fascinating both adults and children. Her drawings and stories are so heartwarming that I imagine I would be one of the children reading the story.
I could not remember my last visit to Long Valley. As an undergraduate, I used to go there frequently. The landscape has changed considerably. Wire fence has been erected around some of the rice fields.
We encounter some Black Drongos.
Upon leaving, we met a mother and her daughter. To my knowledge horse-riding is not common among the fields in Long Valley. It is an ex-racehorse, as suggested by its muscular hind legs. The horse walked behind us. Despite its tameness, leading the way while hearing the regular galloping was quite an experience. We exchanged contacts so we can e-mail the photos to them later.
Red kapok (Bombax ceiba, 木棉) is known as the cotton tree or kapok tree. It is a common landscape tree in the tropical region of Asia. Although it has been widely planted in Hong Kong, I believe that it is not a native species to Hong Kong. The straight trunk has earned the name "heroic tree" in the Guangzhou region. There is even a song composed to glorify the kapok trees in full bloom by a Hong Kong Canto-pop singer Roman Tam.
Every spring, the bright red flowers creates a unique scenery. Along many streets of Hong Kong, kapok trees have been planted in rows. The flowers lays a carpet to welcome every city dweller to take a glance of the glamorous tree. The nectar from the red flowers would feed a lot of birds.They gather around flowering kapok trees. I observed that most birds feed in groups on the kapok trees. Various birds have their own strategies to taste the precious nectar which is available only once in a year.
Numerous Japanese white-eye (Zosterops japonicus) feed on the kapok tree in groups. They are small birds next to the kapok flowers. Being smaller than a single petal of the flower, they have to elongate their necks and peck among the filaments. Other small birds include Cinereous tit (Parus cinereus).
It is spring now. It is easy to birds flying around in pairs, so are the Red-whiskered bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus). They obtain nutrients from the flowers. They often sit on branches, close to the receptacle of nearby flowers.
Red-billed blue magpie (Urocissa erythroryncha) seems to be the largest bird feeding on kapok tree. They attempted catching the bees around the flowers, but with low rate of success. They are opportunists and feed on everything. Smaller birds will keep a distance from the blue magpies whose presence implied possible danger.
However, in recent years, there is a phenomenon that both green and yellow leaves are observed concurrently with the red flowers. Reportedly, each Red kapok tree seems to bear fewer and fewer flowers. A possible cause is the local effects of the global climate change. The growth cycle of vegetation follows the signal of the weather. But when climate change sets in, the anomalies in the climatic environment faced by the trees disrupt the regularity in the growth cycle. Finally, I made a video with the birds seen on the kapok tree. Please take a look!
Thanks to blogging, on Monday I was able to meet Ton Yeh, a bright youngster who will embark on his study in Oxford. I gave him a tour in Lung Fu Shan Country Park. Unfortunately, only a few common forest residents turned up that day. Still, I introduced some spots where some of the most exciting records were registered.
A day has passed and I tried my luck again. I was in good mood because a reputable academic journal has accepted my article. The afternoon birding doubled the joy. The first bird greeting me was the Asian Brown Flycatcher (Muscicapa dauurica).
But it soon flew as it was disturbed by a giant in its eyes, a Yellow-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea). It was scrapping the wood of a dead tree, perhaps grinding its ever-growing beak. I seldom see them in the relatively denser part of the forest as they usually travel along the verge between the urban and the woodland. Is it a sign that the urban community has grown to a size that some of them have to utilized the more natural wooded area?
I walked the trail surrounding the derelict Pinewood Battery. But there were only common birds such as bulbuls, white-eyes and tailorbirds. Surprisingly, a flock of Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush es (Garrulax pectoralis) was chatting in front of me on the way back. Some of them are juveniles! They were attempting to go across a hiking trail. But the leading bird jumped back and forth indecisively after crossing. The remaining flock waited quietly. Finally the leader returned to the origin and retreated into the bamboos. Fortunately, one of them preened for quite a bit of time inside the woods. It cleaned itself thoroughly and stayed long enough for me to take some decent footage.
Near the end of the relaxing walk, some gregarious Red-billed Blue Magpies (Urocissa erythroryncha) appeared. It is easy to tell that some birds in the flock are still young. Full-grown adults are characterized by a well-defined white crown on a black helmet.
But these clever lads, from the crow family, learn quickly as this one is able to chip away the bark of a branch and pull a larvae out.
After the Blue Magpies moved on, a rather large flock of Silver-eared Mesia (Leiothrix argentauris) revealed themselves in low shrubs. Perhaps they kept silent when the much larger Blue Magpies were nearby. After the colourful critters headed back to their roosting place, I enjoyed a concert by a Blue Whistling Thrush (Myophonus caeruleus). The hike ended with another Asian Brown Flycatcher.
Not only does September mark the commencement of the first semester, but also the birding season. A Hoopoe popped up in Lai Chi Kok Park but quickly left. But the urge for specialties kept going inside me.
Cheung Chau is famous of its delicious food and the annual Bun Festival. Recently, Brown Fish Owls (Bubo zeylonensis) have turned up in the harbour. I took the ferry departing at 6:00 pm in Central and arrived at around 7:00 pm. Some photographers had taken their positions already. But the target remained hidden for about an hour. Typhoons are approaching. So some fishing boats returned to the harbour. The fishermen were busying maintaining their fishing nets.
Out of a sudden, everyone was in awe when owl was seen on the rails of a distant boat. Nighttime photography really pushed the camera to its limits. Slow shutter speed and high ISO value nullified many of the photos. And I had to rely on manual focus. Still, there were some acceptable photos.
It caught a fish but did not eat it. Instead, it carried away the fish and vamished into the woods nearby.
