15FEB17: Thailand Day 0.5 - Hong Kong Airport

So we landed in Hong Kong after a 15+ hour flight.  This being my first time in Hong Kong, I was immediately amazed at the tall mountains surrounding the airport.  Nok, Rick, Bob, and I headed to our connecting gate but not before we pulled out our binoculars and me my camera.  While on our way, we spotted our first birds of the trip.  White Wagtail.  They were flitting along the cement, one clearly the black backed race.  Then we noticed some myna's.  A pair were checking out some areas at the end of a jetless boarding walkway.  I snapped some photos and Rick said we need check the undertails to make sure the ID was correct.  Boom!  Crested Myna.  Life bird for me (no Rick, not a lifer, not yet).  I was able to take a couple of pics that were half marginal in the early morning light through the thick airport glass.  Rick indicated that these would be tough to get in Thailand so we were pretty lucky.  Here ya go.

Crested Myna

Crested Myna

As we got to our gate, we settled in like every other birder would do and started scanning.  I was particularly interested in checking out the ridge line for raptors moving in the morning while Rick was scanning the ocean which was pretty far away.  I had squat but Rick called out raptor and it turned out to be an Osprey.  We then picked up some larids moving over the water towards a little island/peninsula but they were far too far to discern.

We continued our scanning and I picked up a flock of small birds.  There were 4 in the group and they turned out to be Eurasian Tree Sparrows.  Had seen one in Massachusetts before (providence questionable) as well as some on a business trip to Poland.  These eventually came in and landed on a jet way and I got some more marginal shots.

Eurasian Tree Sparrow

A little later on I picked up a small ground bird (pipit) way out on the tarmac but it was just too far for even the camera to do anything with.  It went unidentified.  We got called to board the plane for our three hour flight to Bangkok.  

The game was on!  Next up, Bangkok!