Mai Po Birdwatching

Camp Quality, as usual, does not fail to bring new and fun-filled experiences to both campers and companions alike.

Travelling by coach from Kowloon Tong KCRC Station (our favourite meeting point), we passed Man Kam To, one of the border crossing points, and arrived at Mai Po Nature Reserve just as we thought we were about to enter the Mainland.

Mai Po and Inner Deep Water Bay with an area of approximately 1,500 hectares is considered to be the 2nd largest wetlands in Asia and is protected by the World Wide Fund for Nature Hong Kong. Wetlands are crucial especially for the majority of migrating birds in transit from the cold winters of the north such as Siberia, heading for warmer climates in the south, and vice versa when it is cold in the southern hemisphere.

Visitors to Mai Po have to apply beforehand and daily numbers are restricted. Therefore we felt privileged to be there. We broke into small groups on arrival. Leo, our guide for the morning, gave us a tour of Mai Po stopping every now and then to brief us on the different species of birds, exotic trees, leaves, and plants we encountered. We saw mangroves and learned about the man-made islands replicating the natural habitat of the water birds. Some of us were lucky enough to spot a Black-faced Spoonbill as it took off. The Black-faced Spoonbills we were told are an endangered species.

The highlight of our morning was the dark wooden bird-watching house (similar to a tree-top house) where with the blistering cold and tranquility we felt truly in the midst of nature, far from urban Hong Kong. All we could see from the wooden slats were hundreds and hundreds of birds, of different species, lined on the tree tops, ducks and gulls in the waters and on the shores opposite. What a sight for birdwatchers. We could have easily been in the middle of Africa, but for the cold.

In the Mai Po Marshes Wildlife Education Centre, we learned about the villagers who traditionally made a living from shrimp pond farming in Mai Po and read about the various feathered visitors to and other forms of wildlife in the Reserve.

All in all we had an extremely enjoyable and educational Saturday morning, although it was frightfully cold. The outdoors, fresh air and cold helped work up our appetite and we finished the morning with a barbecue, outdoors! In Tai Po Kau.