Arthropods
Arthropods
On 4 October 1998, I found 14 recently dead adult Horseshoe crabs (possibly Tachypleus gigas) at Pak Shui Wan beach in Port Shelter. Full moon was on 5 October. At the subsequent full moon high tide there were no more crabs. I suspect that their presence at this beach is entirely involuntary, having floated over from Sai Kung fish market where they are on sale at HK$150 or so each.
John Mackay
On 21 October 1998 a second Hong Kong record of the libellulid dragonfly Macrodiplax cora was made, at Mai Po Marshes Nature Reserve. The species was first recorded at Lai Chi Wo in 1997.
Graham Reels
Fish
Lesser Snakehead
On 20 October 1998 at Sha Lo Tung Stream, Tai Po, Bosco Chan saw a Lesser Snakehead Channa asiatica. This species was "not seen in the wild" by Chong & Dudgeon, 1992 (Mem. H.K Nat. Hist. Soc., 19: 79-112). The young individual was observed clearly in a small stream pool. It is distinguished from C. maculatus, the common native species, by the lack of ventral fins and prominent dark round spot by the base of the tail. Market individuals are usually much bigger than the one seen.
Bosco Chan
Reptiles
TURTLES & TURTLE TRAPS
Green turtles Chelonia mydas are currently known to nest in Hong Kong only at Sham Wan, southern Lamma. However, during a recent interview, an elderly fisherman revealed that Hung Shing Ye, a gazetted beach on western Lamma was also used by nesting turtles "until twenty years ago", when increasing human habitation near the beach drove them away. Fishers also revealed they had caught a turtle the previous day (28 October 1998) at Luk Chau (to the east of Lamma) and released it.
Andy Cornish and Cheung Wai Lung
At Sha Lo Tung Stream on 20 October 1998 I found three newly set turtle traps with dead sea fish as baits. The traps were skillfully made and strategically covered by plant leaves on the stream edge. All three were destroyed and thrown away. Two middle-aged men were seen wading out from the stream a few minutes earlier on.
Bosco Chan
Snake sightings
Kwok Hon Kai found a dead Many-banded Krait Bungarus multicinctus in Ho Pui village (near Kam Tin) on 27 August 1998. It was probably killed by villagers.
A dead Greater Green Snake Cyclophiops major was found on Lam Kam Road near Pak Ngau Shek on 27 October 1998 by John Fellowes.
The following records were made at KFBG in September 1998. Taiwan Kukri Snake Oligodon formosanus (juvenile, 35-40 cm); Anderson's Stream Snake Ophisthotropis andersonii; King Cobra Ophiophagus hannnah; Chinese Cobra Naja astra.
Birds
Captain Wong reports seeing a Crested Kingfisher Megaceryle lugubris on 1 November 1998 at Lai Chi Wo fishponds in the northeast NT.
On 5 November 1998 I happened across a roosting site of a Eurasian Eagle Owl Bubo bubo whilst field surveying in a somewhat inaccessible area near Tseung Kwan O.
Charles Frew
On 29 August Paul Crow and Amanda Haig saw an Osprey Pandion haliaetus fishing over Plover Cove Reservoir at Tai Mei Tuk.
Kwok Hon Kai at Pak Nai
The following records were made at Ha Pak Nai (HPN) and Sheung Pak Nai (SPN) in the northwest NT in 1998: 2 Chinese Egrets Egretta eulophotes 30 April, HPN; 1 Chinese Egret 29 June, SPN; 7 Chinese Starling Sturnus sinensis 28 August, SPN; 1 Curlew Numenius arquata 17 September, HPN. 1 Curlew 21 September, SPN; 1 Osprey Pandion haliaetus 17 September, HPN. Kwok Hon Kai
Mammals
Guava Bats
On 16 December 1998 at 11:30 pm Graham Reels and Mony Chin saw a fruit bat (Cynopterus sphinx or Rousettus leschenaulti) flying from a guava tree in Wu Kau Tang, carrying a whole fruit in its feet.
Jacqui Weir spotted a Leopard Cat Prionailurus (Felis) bengalensis on the KARC access road, Shek Kong, at 12.45 am on 11 July 1998.
EVEN MORE PORCUPINES
Paul Harris encountered a Porcupine Hystrix brachyura walking down the road near the Tai Mo Shan Visitor Centre, central NT, at 8.30 PM on 24 September 1998.
A dead Porcupine was discovered by John Fellowes at ~250m in grassland on Cloudy Hill, Tai Po, on 22 October 1998.
Several Porcupine quills were noted along the footpath from Lai Chi Wo to Fan Shui Au, northeast NT, by Captain Wong on 1 November 1998.
A remote camera set up at a site on the KFBG hillside recorded a Masked Palm Civet Paguma larvata on 12 December and a Seven-banded Civet Viverricula indica on 13 December 1998.
P.16,17,23
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