Large owl of some sort spotted in South Lantau Road

A rather large owl of some sort decided to take flight from the trees at the side of the road as I came down from Nam Shan to Mui Wo on my motorbike last night.   It was brown, big and just seemed to cruise in front of me for a couple of seconds before disappearing into the trees on the other side of the road.    Great to see it but just too dark and quick to be able to get any detail.   Its back and tail feathers seemed quite light brown but that may have been the effects of the street lighting.  I guess t was either a fish owl, a brown wood owl or possible an eagle owl.

They call it stormy Monday but Tuesday's just as bad...

Check out this water spout that formed just in front of Man Kok Tsui today.
According to the observatory they are quite common.
Never seen on before though.
You can just see the outline of the hills behind Kowloon to the left while Hong Kong Island is hidden in the clouds and behind the island.

And here is the radar image

And here is the rainfall map 

New Territories Primary School Swimming Competition

This year was Arthur's last year at the primary schools competition as he moves on up to secondary school next term.   Despite breaking the Islands District 50m record in 2014 and 2015, the elusive New Territories record remained just out of his reach.   Matthew on the other hand has two more years to beat his brother's records. 

Here they are with the New Territories regional combined points trophy for fourth place (just squeezed out of third by one point)   Not bad for a very small district with only 12 schools when competing against other districts with 50 or more schools to select a team from.

 

This video is the 50m final, Arthur is in lane 2.   A great race but with less than 0.5 seconds between 3rd and 5th places, I reckon for the next big competition he needs to let his nails grow longer.  

50m Freestyle winners (Arthur 4th)

4 x 50m Freestyle winners (3rd place)

Districts' combined points winners  (4th place)

Well done boys and well done Islands' District too.

Our new toy for the summer

20 feet of fun.    A rather elderly Flying Fifteen, FFurious FForties, sail number HKG 3469.
All we have to do is patch up some collision damage on the deck and then sail it through the harbour from Causeway Bay and across to Lantau.   Now that is going to be an interesting trip.    Will need to time the journey to maximise the tides so they push from right to left to get me out of the harbour quickly and then hopefully a reach all the way over.  

Hong Kong tidal atlas

As soon as I am over the shipping lanes and long as I keep heading West the route is relatively safe.    There a few pictures below that I have found on the internet.

How to get rid of a typhoon.

Hong Kong met office decides we cannot have a typhoon visiting Hong Kong and sets its force fields to deflect.

And amazingly the secret weapon seems to have worked....

And the accuracy of the predictions seem pretty spot on too.

Nesting blue throat in pot plant

We discovered this little bird in a nest by our hotel room door in Phuket.   

Feeding time

Not sure what these fish are called but they seem to enjoy cheese on toes.

Holiday time

First in five years.  Mmmmmmmm.

And where are these likely lads off to I wonder?   To sit in the shade, I don't think so.

Night fishing

What a whopper of a moon but no fish biting yet

Happy Easter

The joys of the doctor's clinic queue

I paid a visit to the doctor today but was told I had to wear a face mask on order to get seen.   I told the receptionist I was not unwell and therefore posed no danger to anyone.   She told me all patients must wear a mask to which I replied that surely only those who have some sort of communicable respiratory problem should cover up?  She paused to think through my logic and then replied but it's best to wear one as they do not work.  Yep, I was being told to wear a paper face mask because they do not work...

Another consignment of STUFF

One tennis court sized, antique Chinese bed plus enough crockery to host a wedding plus boxes of pictures and ornaments and stuff delivered by sampan  and now ensconced in our little kingdom.    As an added bonus the papaya trees were bulging with huge juicy fruits.  Must have been 40 kilos of fruit

Arthur impersonates Ray Clemence

Happy birthday Arthur.

 That's a mighty fine pair of oven mitts!

Kingfisher fishing

Matthew and me made a detour around the river Silver estuary and were rewarded with watching a brilliantly coloured male kingfisher snatch a fish from the river.  Here comes springtime.    We waited to see if he would return again but he had disappeared over the wall to the Yuen ancestral home.    Instead a rather moody looking grey heron cruised onto the scene and was just about to land when it saw us and flew off further down stream but not without a good screech, which presumably was directed at us having spoiled his fishing spot.

Japanese White Eye

Matthew and I found this poor little Japanese White Eye this morning.    Not sure what happened to him but it seems today was not his day.  

School Sports day

Matthew hits the podium for the sixty metre sprint.   He wins his heat but is just beaten by Elijah, his best buddy and arch rival too.   Well done boys.  

The trusty but rather noisy steed.

Beasts

The herd is upto 20 now with four born recently.   There are few other cows that look like they will soon be giving birth too.

African Spurred Tortoises in Mui Wo

Nine thirty at night and I am strolling past the bank in Mui Wo and these two are outside casing the joint.   Got to be the easiest pets to take for a walk....

5 years old apparently, one male and one female.   No hanky pinky expected until they are at least 7.
Male weighs in at about ten kilos and the female slightly less.   If I remember rightly the female is the darker coloured one.

Down in the dumps

The big fellah's got appendicitis.  Get well soon Arthur.  No fun without your smile.

Crested Goshawk preying on cockatiels in Tai Mei Tuk

Actual photo of the guilty bird

Crested Goshawk (stock photo)

This hungry but magnificent Crested Goshawk was photographed by a friend who lives in Tai Mei Tuk near Tai Po in the New Territories.      The bird has so far throttled two cockatiels and a love bird that were being kept in cages outside.   The cages were each hung under a car port and were covered on three sides by the usual cotton cloth covers.    It may be the goshawk is either a resident or a passage migrant and will soon move on but only time will tell.  Guess the goshawk heard them singing and hunted them down.   Presumably it flew upto the cages, pushed a foot through and grabbed the bird inside but could not drag it through the bars.   It is fantastic to have such real wildlife on the doorstep but not so good for tweety pie and his pals.

Parent's bragging rights apply. Well done boys

A whole heap of medals won.    Well done boys.   Swimming, football, duathlon, athletics and fin swimming.   One Hong Kong record broken for swimming and three medals when racing for Hong Kong too.  Big smiles from Mum and Dad.

Hammerhead Worm

Never even knew such a thing exists.   A nocturnal carnivorous worm.   About eight inches long apparently.   Found on footpath in Wang Tong by Cavan.   Urghh

Peng Chau

Peng Chau, picture perfect clear skies and a few pictures of how Hong Kong can be when you strip away all the greed and overcrowding.