Amur Falcon September Expected additions to the list in September included Swinhoe’s Snipe, Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler, Yellow-rumped Flycatcher and Dark-sided Flycatcher. But September is also the month when a handful of rare and difficult migrants are possible. The key site here is the wooded parkland at Ho Man Tin which, mainly through the efforts of John Chow, has become identified as an oasis for migrants in urban Kowloon. I was in luck. There, I saw Brown-chested Jungle Flycatcher on 2nd, Tiger shrike on 11th (and again on 15th), Siberian Blue Robin on 14th, and Fairy Pitta on 16th ..read more

Ryukyu Scops Owl May I picked up a small number of good birds during this month. Resident Category IIB species included Vinous-throated Parrotbill on top of Tai Mo Shan, and breeding Chestnut-tailed Starlings in Kowloon Tsai Park (with thanks to Lo Chun Fai for directions to the starlings). I went to Po Toi on 12 May to look for the Roseate Terns that nest with Bridled and Black-naped Terns on Castle Rock near the island. The Roseates don’t usually arrive until May and I spent some time near the Tin Hau temple watching several fishing at the entrance to the harbour. Elsewhere, I also managed ..read more

Brown Fish Owl - young bird at nest 385 species recorded  There is not a strong emphasis on the Big Year in Hong Kong. The two cases I am aware of involve Richard Lewthwaite who saw 328 species in 1995 and Graham Talbot’s record of 350 species in 2006 - see Graham's account in HKBWS Bullletin number 207, Spring 2008  at: https://www.hkbws.org.hk/cms/en/resource/publication/bulletin?start=40 . I am not a great twitcher or lister. Even now, it surprises me that I began a Big Year in the first place and, perhaps more so, that I managed to see it through to the end of December. I cert ..read more

Rock Isle Lake, Sunshine Meadows, 29 July 2019 On 29th July, we visited Sunshine Meadows, an alpine area 2159 metres asl a few miles west of Banff. The meadows are  accessed by cable-car  and at the top there are a number of possible hikes. We walked a seven km circular trail, taking in Rock Isle Lake and Monarch Viewpoint. As in all of the places we’d visited since leaving Red Deer, bird density was relatively low but we did encounter a number of interesting species including Mountain  Bluebird, White-crowned Sparrow, Gray-crowned Rosy-finch, Clark’s Nutcracker, American Pipi ..read more

Black Bear, Bow Valley Parkway, 28 July 2019 On 26 July, we drove west into  the Rocky Mountains. Before we reached Banff National Park, we spotted a Black Bear walking on the flower-covered verge beside the road. We quickly pulled up but I was unprepared and managed only a few inadequate shots with my camera before the bear walked up an incline into the forest and disappeared from view.   Our base for the next four nights was Banff town, a busy and expensive tourist centre that caters for skiing enthusiasts in winter and for sightseers from all over the world in summer. In spite o ..read more

Along Siffleur Falls trail, 22 July 2019 On 21st July, we drove to Nordegg, 173 kilometres west of Red Deer. En route, we stopped at Rocky Mountain House to pick up a few supplies, including a canister of bear spray –we were entering bear country - which you wear in a holster on your belt.   Nordegg itself is a hamlet with a motel, a golf course, a couple of general stores, a small  museum and a small cemetery. About 90 people reside here, but back in the mid-1990s it was home to a population of 3,000. They were there because of the local coal mine which flourished from 1911 onward ..read more

 Think I'll go out to Alberta...      Ian Tyson Glacier at Lake Louise, 28 July ​My wife and I went to Alberta. We flew from Hong Kong to Calgary via Vancouver on 18th July. On the 19th, we picked up a hire car and drove through flat pasture land to the town of Red Deer, 137 kilometres to the north.   Although it was mid-July, the temperature was around 9 degrees Celsius and there was driving rain. Just outside of Red Deer we stopped in a small muddy car park beside Slack Slough – a well-known wetland area. Unfortunately, because of  the awful weather we did not ..read more

View from Erlangshan, 11 June In the late afternoon of 10 June, we headed on to our next destination, arriving at the modern town of Luding at 7.30 pm. We set out at 5.00 am the next day for Erlangshan, a short distance away. However, it was a relatively slow journey as one side of the road was under repair and we were driving against convoys of lorries heading in the opposite direction to us. We turned off onto the old Erlangshan road at 6.40 am and began birding.  We had a number of good birds along the road including Rufous-tailed Babbler, Spotted  Nutcracker, Chinese Thrush, Sh ..read more

Sambar Deer at Labahe, 9 June On the morning of 9 June, we drove east back towards Chengdu, but then diverged south towards the montane sites of Labahe, Erlangshan and Longcanggou.   Labahe is a scenic area that has fairly recently re-opened to the public after being off-limits for several years. There is a fine four-star hotel beside a river and a road up the mountain accessible by park bus. After lunch, we took the bus to the top of the mountain, and then got the cable-car even higher – up to 3500 metres. Unfortunately, the peak was covered in a rain cloud; it was cold and wet and vis ..read more

Snow-covered mountains at Mengbishan, 5 June Herders' buildings above the treeline at Mengbishan, 5 June Yaks at Mengbishan, 5 June Giant Laughingthrush at Mengbishan, 5 June Crimson-browed Finches at Mengbishan, 5 June Three-banded Rosefinch at Mengbishan, 5 June Just after dawn on 5 June we were above the treeline at Mengbishan. Yaks were feeding on the scrubby slopes where newly-fallen snow covered the tops. Our immediate target bird was Verreaux’s Monal (aka Chestnut-throated Partridge),  a large gamebird endemic to the mountains of central China. Birds were calling loudly ..read more