Birdwatchers in 1960s Hong Kong, in the words of my mother ‘would have looked at you gone out’ had you suggested that thirty years later a major site to see migratory birds was to be found in Hong Kong waters. It wasn’t until the late 1990s that the island of Po Toi was found to be a major stop-off point during the spring and autumn migrations. Since then ferryloads of birders have visited the island frequently in those seasons. Once off the ferry they only need walk a few yards to an old feng shui wood and surrounding scrub of the largely deserted village to see—on a good day—a host of birds. It helps that only a handful of people now live there, the main population having moved to Aberdeen on Hong Kong island, taking everything including the contents of most graves. Indeed it is very easy in the thick grassland to put more than one foot in am empty grave.
However, this post is not about Po Toi itself but a rocky islet lying between the island and Stanley peninsula on Hong Kong island—Castle Rock. Terns are regularly seen and try to breed there but disturbance by boaty types landing on the rock is, literally, a disturbing problem. The ferry. bringing hikers and those arriving to lunch in the restaurants by the shore, passes close to Castle Rock and terns may—or may not—be seen. AJP saw these Black-naped Terns (Sterna sumatrana) on the islet and over surrounding waters in early May but very little in the bird line once on Poi Toi.
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