Sea gulls prefer a temperate climate (or colder) - most of the seagull-like birds in Hong Kong waters are terns, which are slimmer, and dive into the water to catch fish. There are quite a few breeding here, but mainly in the north-east in Mirs Bay. And there are thousands of cormorants (and some large gulls like herring gulls, vega gulls and black-headed gulls) in Deep Bay - a visit to Mai Po in winter can be a spectacular sight. There are even the occasional pelicans and storks and of course the famous black-faced spoonbills, representing a sizeable chunk of the world’s population of this endangered bird. In addition Maipo has thousands of migrating waders - I was once lucky enough to see a flock af around 800 avocets. That's the place to go if you want to see large flocks of such species.
In spite of over-fishing, there are still fish in the sea - I’ve been swimming at Hung Shing Yeh about ten times in the last month and on nearly every occasion I see small groups of fish jumping out of the water, presumably being chased by a larger predator. I even caught one with my hands near the shark net. There is often a reef egret walking along the top of the shark barrier, and they are frequently seen spearing a fish and swallowing it. And there are reasonable numbers of little egrets and black-capped night herons around Lamma - they too seem to make a living out of what they can find.
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