Urban phalaropes at Shatin

The Shing Mun River running through Shatin is an artificially created channel, not very promising at first sight as a habitat. The only regular water birds here are egrets and herons. Once in a while, however, it becomes a refuge for migrating water birds. This April, a flock of Red-necked Phalaropes has been reported on the river, and on May 1st a few remained there to be counted in the City Nature Challenge. To be precise, three phalaropes were there, two adults and an immature presumably from 2020. An endearing feature of phalaropes is that they are 'confiding', often coming within point-blank range (but still not easy to photograph because they are constantly bobbing about).

Posted on May 1, 2021 10:35 AM by stephenmatthews