December had seen a great number of new birds and winter migrants, with a few rarities too! I tried for the goldcrest on Po Toi reported late last month, but before we got there we got a confiding pacific reef heron.
Pacific Reef Heron
Once we got to the island, we got great views of the goldcrest, which came within a few meters of me while foraging!
Goldcrest
Other birds in Po Toi includes a few red flanked bluetails and a out of season female narcissus flycatcher. There was also a migrating chestnut bulbul and a female daurian redstart.
Red Flanked Bluetail
Narcissus Flycatcher - female
Chestnut Bulbul
Daurian Redstart
Over at San Tin, barn swallow are really abundant, and you can usually find a few sand martins (bank swallows) mixed in with the flock. I was lucky to find a few.
Barn Swallow
Other confiding birds include oriental turtle dove, white throated kingfisher, white breasted waterhen, black headed gulls, red throated pipit and little grebes.
Oriental Turtle Dove
White throated Kingfisher
White breasted Waterhen
Red throated Pipit
Little Grebe - feeding
Keeping on the topic of grebes, near the end of the month an eared grebe showed up, we get this species only once in a few years, but for me was a lifer and a HK tick.
Eared Grebe - lifer
Other than the grebe, other birds of note include a pair of oriental storks which flew over us while we were observing the grebe.
Oriental Stork- soaring
Over at Mai Po, a pair of northern lapwings have been seen of late on the 8b pond, and in the sunlight, their colors really show.
Northern Lapwing
There has been a influx of eastern spot billed ducks at the 8b pond of late, with a personal high count of 12 birds in one pond.
Eastern Spot Billed Duck
Other birds on the same pond included a single oriental stork, black faced spoonbills, pied kingfisher, eastern marsh harrier, great bittern and a black crowned night heron.
Oriental Stork
Pied Kingfisher
Eastern Marsh Harrier
Black crowned Night Heron - juvenile
Great Bittern - record shot, bird on upper right
Near the education centre, I picked up a pair of greater scaups from the tufted ducks.
Greater Scaup
Another interesting find that I got was a flyover of a tundra bean goose. Thanks to Matthew Kwan who helped me identify and confirm the ID. This was the same bird originally from Long Valley last month, but I weirdly saw it fly over by the border fence.
Tundra Bean Goose - flyover
I paid a visit to Shan Pui River for the glossy ibis, which was a lifer and HK tick for me!
Glossy Ibis
Near the end of the month, I got a chance to hike Tai Lam Country Park, to try for the Japanese Robin report the previous week. Though I missed them I did get a compromise in the form of a lifer chestnut-flanked white eye mixed in a swinhoe's white eye flock!
Other than that, the other birds included a few velvet fronted nuthatches, pallas leaf warblers, inchochinese yuhina, brownish-flanked bush warbler and many more without photos.
Velvet-fronted Nuthatch
Pallas' Leaf Warbler
Brownish-flanked Bush Warbler
Indochinese Yuhina
The usually skulky ground birds on this hike were particularly friendly, with a pygmy cupwing approaching just 50 centimeters from my feet (I had to step away to fit it in my frame)! Other than that, I also got around half a dozen asian stubtails.
Asian Stubtail
