The Un-countables

Started the day finishing a prolonged week of nightshift - the 06:15 stop-off at Arcot produced nothing new for the year, only a calling and drumming green woodpecker and woodcock (that flushed from the roadside hedge).

Thoughts of what to do later in the day were assisted by Tim Sexton and his post of blue-headed wagtail at Whitley Bay. Nice sunshine (albeit cold temperatures) and more importantly, a defined short walk from the car park saw me there late afternoon, just as the tide was getting a wee bit high.

The wagtail flock was impressive - may be a dozen white variants, a few pied and the apparent blue-headed. I say apparent - I did wonder about the paleness of the "blue"... however a quick skim through the Birding World article (Volume 20 Number 3) perhaps supports this bird being blue-headed rather than a  "channel" variant - the darker ear-coverts may add to the weight of "bh" argument.

Whatever - a bonny bird nonetheless. The other uncountable was also photographed, perhaps a little less vigorously - so a pic for the blog with a nice nit of litter in the background will suffice.

In addition to the wagtails the beach contained plenty of rock pipit, a wheatear or two, many sanderling and redshank. Loads of swallow moving north.

News of a great white egret saw me heading Prestwick bound, but news from the site suggested otherwise. And that ended that sortie.

Birding Hong Kong: Part 1 of 2

Birding in Hong Kong was very limited for the 'sometimes crew... Four sites were birded during the week stay - Kowloon Park, Hong Kong Park, Hong Kong Botanical/Zoological Gardens and Hong Kong Wetlands, near Tin Shui Wai to the north-west of Hong Kong.

The masked laughingthrush (above) was photographed in Kowloon Park ~ tribes of this species roamed the hedge-rows and were quite bold. Kowloon Park also held a small flock of breeding alexandarine parakeet (we had a minimum of 11 one morning), black-necked starling, a large residence of black-crowned night heron, a pair of crested goshawk, while yellow-browed warbler and pallas's warbler felt more familiar. The first of several grey form (commixtus) great tit were also present, none of which were photographable as they fed in dense cover.

Hong Kong Park added black-throated laughingthrush to the holiday list (tho these birds are descended from captive birds) and fork-tailed sunbird were present in the canopy. None of the hoped for siberian rubythroat, rufous-tailed robin etc could be found...

The bulk of the birding was at the wetland reserve - an impressive visitor centre marks the reserve entrance, and conveniently it contains a decent cafe too!

Very popular with families when we visited on January 1st, the site is clearly popular... though most were there for a day out rather than specifically the birds.

Bulbuls were evident near the visitor centre, with red-whiskered (crested), sooty-headed and, above, chinese loafing about. On the water, moorhen, great cormorant, teal, pintail, shoveler and grey heron were very familiar...

Daurian redstart were abundant, this confiding bird was near the river hide. At one point it shared a bush with a yellow-browed warbler and siberian stonechat! On the river there were more of the familiar waterbirds that have already been mentioned, but a black-capped kingfisher was new for me.

The grey-backed thrush (above) was photographed near the mudflat hide - this is a female - quite a stunner!

The star(s) of the show were on the mudflats - viewed distantly from the hide were a group of 16 black-faced spoonbill. In typical spoonbill fashion, they remained mostly asleep! Bit odd seeing them with so many grey heron... A few great egret and little egret were also present, while waders included greenshank, common sandpiper, marsh sandpiper and impressive little-ringed plover numbers. White wagtail fed on the shore and in cut grass, and appeared to be of the leucopsis race.

WAGtales

A text from Mark stating that he was able to head to Cresswell this afternoon was (again) too much of a temptation to resist... The black-headed wagtail was immediatley on view and it continues to be watched by a steady crowd of observers. Despite good light he never came as close as the other wagtails, so it was another black-less photo session. The other wagtails were more accomodating, with the "channel", white and yellow continuing to provide entertainment. Debate increases on which wagtail is the most appealing...

"Channel" Wagtail

White Wagtail

Yellow Wagtail

Click the images for a sharper version...

Wagtails continue to show at Cresswell...

Poor image of "channel" (blue-headed x yellow hybrid) wagtail at Cresswell, photographed at sunset... the only time it came within decent range!

 Part of a great wagtail afternoon, with the black-headed still present (until 17:00), minimum seven yellow, a mixed flock of 11+ white and pied. Good stuff.

Black-headed Wagtail...

A quite afternoon editing grasshopper warbler images was shattered by a pager message not long after 11:20 - there was a male black-headed wagtail at Cresswell!! Naturally I calmly headed north to try and see this county third (and first twitchable individual), and by about 11:45 I was watching this beauty feeding in the field just north of the causeway. A stunning bird accompanied by one white wagtail and up to six flavissima.

In the two hours or so that I spent with the bird the sunny sky was replaced by thick dark clouds and for the last hour it poured with cold rain. Luckily for us the wagtail continued to feed allowing some reasonable record images to be taken. As with all images here, click the pictures to see a bigger sharper version. A heap of images were taken, and when time permits I'll trawl through them and post (hopefully) better images.

I guess there will be some discussion on the racial id, and as it stands I have no contribution to make as I simply do not know the ins and outs of yellow wagtail taxonomy!! I'll let the debate commence and watch politley from the side...