White-bellied Sea Eagle could be seen in several spots in Lamma such as at the mountain ridges of Lo Tik Wan , Luk Chau ,Tai Tong , Lo So Shing etc.Three sea eagles flying together had been seen .They have a quite constant flying routes but sometimes they are disturbed by the black-eared kites and change direction .

Is a very recent photo judging by the light.

I've only seen 2 at one time although Neil thought he saw a third the other day.

Have noticed their flight pattern & seems to happen shortly before the Black-eared Kites start gathering in the evenings.
Have seen them flying together, but more often one of them flies through first & then if there is any sign of danger it circles until the second one appears about 5 minutes later and then continues on its way.

On Saturday there was a chap on the hills flying a glider [shown below], the WBSE circled round to check out the "danger" and the glider almost collided with the WBSE causing it to dodge out of the way to avoid being hit.

It obviously disturbed the WBSE because none of them appeared on Sunday....

A few shots from today. Light was terrible this afternoon.
One of them suddenly appeared above me & took me by suprise......., which is why I only have an outgoing shot......


After a while he/she came back past me looking for it's mate, but was a long way away. They both returned about 10 mins later, but were still fairly distant, so are pretty heavy crops & harshly sharpened............

Nice shot though the light was terrible today !
Where were you exactly ? I would like to try my luck one day when the sky is clear.

I also saw this kind of new species last Sunday.

Nice new species, Harry! Most unusual & brilliant colour for a Lamma bird!

But what did that guy there do behind the bird? Trying to catch it with that white apparatus?

How did the guy manage to get so extremely close?
I'm sure Guy would be most eager to learn how to get so close to any nerw species!

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The first shot was taken last year using a prosumer digital camera . Here a few shots were taken last week using a DSLR camera with a 300 mm f/4 manual focus len.Of course the shots were cropped because image size like that require 500mm or above telephoto lens .The birds may come very close to you when they follow the uplifting air from low altitude to higer altitude and at the time they soar arcoss the hills ,their view are blocked by the ridge and cannot see what is on the other side but they always intend to avoid human so that when they notice your present they will quickly turn away .Therefore you must catch the first few seconds to take your photos when the close encounter occur .Response should be very quick therefore shorter and lighter lens such as 300 mm f/4 to 400 mm f/5.6 lens have advantage in chasing the sudden appearing and moving objects in such circumstance .

Is only meant as a record shot.

The White-bellied Sea Eagle was hanging around over YSW harbour today, but was being harrassed by several Black-eared Kites.
In the end the WBSE moved on........


04/12/2005

Very nice shot - the sea eagle came down very close over the pier on Sunday morning while I was waiting for the SCMP to arrive.

It's good to see the comparison in your photo of the size of this powerful bird compared to the black kite and also the difference in the general shape of the wings and body as an aid to recognition