Winged creatures at home in Hong Kong!

Chirping birds and greenery in the middle of the city!

 

What are you looking at?!

 

A more exotic bird looking equally even more

at home in the city!

 

A little less than two years ago, I moved from the apartment that I had lived in for some eight years to another apartment around just 10 minutes' walk away.  Since their buildings are pretty close to each other, I didn't expect that the surroundings would feel all that different.  But very early on, I got to realizing that the sounds I hear and have come to associate with each of these apartments do vary quite a bit!

 

After I moved into my old apartment, I realized that its location on a road along which buses (as well as minibuses, taxis, lorries and cars) go along meant that I would be hearing traffic going along it all day and night long.  And since my bedroom faced the road, I also would see shadows from the light of moving vehicles playing on its walls and ceiling.  (Yes, I could have pulled my curtains completely closed but I actually like waking up to natural sunlight flooding through the windows and into the room.)

 

Rather than disturb me, I actually got used to this state of affairs pretty quickly.  As strange as it may sound, I liked that I could sense that the city I had chosen to live in was (is) very much alive and pretty much constantly on the move.  And conversely, whenever things got quiet, that would be a signal that a typhoon was visiting town (since buses stop running after Typhoon Signal Number 8 gets raised!).      

 

Compared to my old apartment, it's generally quiet around my current apartment.  Whenever visibility gets on the low side in Victoria Harbour though , I can hear fog horns being sounded as I'm a couple of blocks closer to the harbor now then there previously!  Even more surprisingly, I often wake up these days to the sounds of birds singing (or, at least, chirping).  For even though I'm still living in the city, I've now got a bedroom that looks out on a (podium) garden whose trees quite a few birds appear to like hanging about in very much!

 

In view of how small it is and also how built up and densely populated a good chunk of it is, it can be pretty surprising to discover that more than 530 species of birds have been spotted in Hong Kong.  As things stand, one can expect to hear and also see some of these avian creatures when out hiking in one of the territory's country parks (and special areas).  And although one's chances of seeing the more unusual bird species are higher at the Mai Po Marshes Nature Reserve or Hong Kong Wetland Park (or, if you're fine with seeing them in a caged setting, Hong Kong Park's Edward Youde Aviary or the Kadoorie Farm and Botanical Garden), it's also the case that quite a few winged creatures appear to feel right at home right in the middle of the most urban parts of the city! ;b