San Tin & Lok Ma Chau village on my birthday!

3/4/2023 - San Tin

What better to do to celebrate my birthday than birding? I decided to pay San Tin a visit after hearing that pratincoles have been spotted there

As I was walking along San Tin Tsuen Road, a massive flock of swallows & swifts were flying overhead. They have always been too fast for me to photograph in the air, simply impossible to track. However, I did manage to photograph a green sandpiper with a common sandpiper

Skittish white-eyes are ever-present

These little birds are always fun to photograph as they are such posers!

Green sandpiper (top) & common sandpiper (bottom)

As I was heading out to the fishponds, there was this other bird that skittishly followed along the trees beside me. I thought there might be a chance for it to be an interesting or rare warbler so I stopped and looked. The bird jumped from branch to branch from tree to tree and was eluding me

However, when it finally jumped out onto a branch without being covered, it revealed itself to be a great tit, what a disappointment!

However, the gorgeous photo that I took of it was definitely worth admiring

I gotta start memorising bird calls to not make a fool out of myself again :’)

I was determined to photograph a swallow, hence I started following the individuals to see if any would land. Followed a flock next to a pool, where one was resting indeed!

ISO was a bit too high and focus was a little off for this barn swallow unfortunately :(

Here’s a sneaky white-breasted waterhen

It was a rainy overcast day, with little to no interesting birds in sight. However, there were multiple common mynas littered everyone, I found one building a nest within an electricity pole.

Common myna with nesting material

Don’t think it was rather happy to see me staring lol

Closeup

Chinese pond heron in pretty breeding plumage from afar

Just like the common myna, the white-shouldered starling is also a migratory bird in Hong Kong and can be seen in large numbers from time to time

I decided to head over to Lok Ma Chau village after having little to nothing for me in San Tin, other than constant dog barking in my face

Painted snipes have been seen here, and that was what I was after in this small patch of farmland. After arriving and looking around for a bit, I saw a lone pipit wandering around in the fields. But the colours were wrong for it to be an olive-backed pipit

Upon inspection, it turned out to be a red-throated pipit!

The pipit made my trip worth it, despite it not being my original target, it was a lifer for me. The red-throated pipit and common myna sums up the lifer count today to 2

Although there were no snipes in sight, a little-ringed plover was present

I wanted a shot of the painted snipe in this exact setting, but got the ringed plover instead

Although common, it’s still one of my favourite waders, spent a good amount of time with it

Nothing too crazy on my birthday, but grateful with the photos I ended up with

Thanks for reading :)