Hong Kong Layover Birding

After a fun trip to California and a nice (albeit mostly birdless) Christmas with my parents and sister in Oregon, the remainder of my 2019 and the first part of 2020 was spent in Asia. Traveling from Washington DC to California to Oregon to the Philippines to Malaysia to the Philippines and back to DC seemed like a bit of a stretch for just my holiday break, but now sitting in quarantine with the prospects of any kind of travel in the near future growing ever dimmer, it's a decision I'm very glad I made. If nothing else it gives me things to reminisce on while trying to make the most of quarantine in Michigan. 

Of course, as the title suggests I had stops along the way- the cheapest flight to the Philippines conveniently happened to include a 10-hour morning layover in Hong Kong. HK is one of my favorite cities in the world, and it's still a great place to visit despite the best intentions of some particular authoritarian world leaders. I didn't have much time there around, but I decided to try and do a quick birding outing nonetheless, as winter is the best time to bird Hong Kong, and I was there in the morning anyway. My initial plan was to bird the Tai Lam Country Park, which seemed to be the place to be at that time for good forest birds. However, as I arrived in the airport early in the morning and searched the internet to try and find directions, I realized that I had no idea where it actually was, and Google Maps was no help either. I ultimately decided to visit the Pat Heung Catchwater instead, as that at least showed up on the map.

It took longer than expected to get through customs and figure out a local SIM card and getting out of the airport, and it was after 9 in the morning when I finally got on a bus headed to northwest Hong Kong- not quite the early morning start I was hoping for. Things didn't quite go smoothly from there either; I realized to my chagrin that airport buses do not, in fact, stop at all of their stops unless you tell them to, and thus went speeding by the nearest bus stop and ended up several kilometers down the road. I instead had to hail an Uber, and while my driver was very friendly they had no idea where they were going, and I ended up getting off in a remote suburb of Hong Kong. Thankfully, there was a foot path going up the hill to the catchment area road, so it was only a slight detour. Nonetheless, I started my birding after 10 AM, not exactly peak wildlife hours and without a huge amount of time left before I had to head back to the airport. 

Red-based Jezebel seen at the airport bus waiting area

It was December, but still a warm day in Hong Kong, and the birds weren't terribly active as I walked toward the reservoir. Winter is phylloscopus season in Hong Kong, and there were many of those around, mostly Yellow-browed Warblers. 

Yellow-browed Warbler

The Pat Heung Catchwater was itself quite pretty- a nice area of forest with a small reservoir, with a dramatic view overlooking northern Hong Kong. Inside the catchment area things were mostly quiet once again, but I did come across a Two-barred Warbler, one of the less-common winter leaf warblers. The pond held a couple of Little Grebes and Little Egrets, as well as a distant Common Kingfisher and flyovers from several Large-billed Crows and a Black Kite, the ever-present raptor mascot of Hong Kong. I encountered more phylloscs in the form of a Pallas's Leaf-warbler and another Yellow-browed Warbler.

Two-barred Warbler

Pallas's Leaf-warbler

The only thing that saved the day from being a complete birding bust was an active mixed flock of passerines I encountered on my walk down from the reservoir, including Velvet-fronted Nuthatches, Indochinese Yuhinas, Japanese Tits, a very cute Rufous-capped Babbler, and many Swinhoe's White-eyes. 

Japanese Tit

Rufous-capped Babbler

Swinhoe's White-eye

Velvet-fronted Nuthatch

Indochinese Yuhina

I would have spent more time at the catchwater, despite the fact I was dressed for much cooler weather, but I had a flight that afternoon and it would have been very embarrassing to miss it and be stuck in Hong Kong. On the exit road, I came across a pair of delightful (and difficult-to-photograph) Fork-tailed Sunbirds, some Daurian Redstarts, a small flock of Scarlet Minivets, and my final lifer of the day, a distant Chestnut Bulbul. There were lots of butterflies and some other insects as well, which made some good additions to my list of Asian lepidoptera.

Male Fork-tailed Sunbird

Female Fork-tailed Sunbird

Daurian Redstart

Female Scarlet Minivet

Transparent Six-line Blue (Nacaduba kurava)

Plum Judy (Abisara echerius)

Rustic (Cupha erymanthus)

Chondacris rosea, the biggest grasshopper I've ever seen

My quick birding outing in Hong Kong ended far too quickly, and it was back to the airport to catch my flight to the Philippines. Still, as places for a layover birding outing go, Hong Kong is certainly one of the best.