Spring passage migrants at Mount Davis
As David Diskin points out in his invaluable book 'Hong Kong Nature Walks: Kowloon, Hong Kong and Outlying Islands', Mount Davis is a strategic place to observe migrants, especially in the Spring. The reason is to be found on the map: at the western tip of Hong Kong Island, the green slopes of Mount Davis make an attractive landfall for birds crossing the South China Sea or hopping across the Pearl River on their way up the coast. Grey-faced Buzzards and Chinese Sparrowhawks, sometimes in large flocks, use the updrafts and thermals generated by the mountain to gain height. This morning a late Chinese Sparrowhawk passed overhead, most having passed through in late April (Geoff Smith recorded 20 over Lamma on April 26th). A Brown Shrike was hunting in the scrub area on the summit -- ideal shrike habitat, but often busy with visitors and the migrating Brown Shrikes are less habituated to people than the resident Long-tailed Shrikes. Among other spring migrants, a Pacific Swift was among the House Swifts overhead, and a Grey-streaked Flycatcher was in the garden of the deserted youth hostel.
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