Sarah Van Ingelgom, Little Egret eating little fish, Cheung Chau 2020
Missed the ferry? Great! This gives you about half an hour or so to try discover the birds near the ferry. In case you are in Cheung Chau, turn left towards the Welcome and keep going. Take a seat on a bench that faces the water, sit down, breath in and breath out.
Try to spot some of the birds that hang out by the boats. At first you might not see very much but give it some time to tune in. And yes, you should at least see a ‘little egret’, they hop on and off the boats and floating devices trying to catch fish. Once your eyes adjust you will start to see many more. In the meantime you will also start to notice the many different boats, old sampans, small and large fishing boats and the occasional very old wooden houseboat. When you look at it you will find its teeming with life, not just birds but also people organising their nets or cleaning their boat.
Sarah Van Ingelgom, Grey Heron, Cheung Chau 2019
The boats are very colourful in their dominant primary colours of green, red and blue. Keep looking, maybe a bit further in the distance you might see larger white birds, these are the ‘great egrets’. And near the rocks by your bench, you might spot a grey looking bird; the pacific reef heron, a lone hunter. If really lucky you might even spot a grey heron, a tall elegant bird with grey, white and blue plumage.
Nighttime is the right time for the black crowned night heron, a little stocky bird that loves to stare at the water for big lengths of time motionless with eyes wide open as if it had too much cappuccino. It prefers to hunt from dusk till dawn. When you sail out with the ferry, you will also see the black kites circling over the harbour, they love fishing too.
The act of bird watching is an act of observation. Too start seeing something, one needs to slow down and tune into its environment with all senses. It usually takes about 15 minutes just to let go if your inner chit chat and tune in with what's around you. But once you let go and just watch, a whole new world opens up to you. Just give it a try... It doesn't cost anything... You'd be surprised!
沒趕上渡船？沒關係，就用這半小時發掘一下港口附近的鳥類吧！若你身處長洲，看到惠康和麥當勞後請轉左直走，不久後一張面朝大海的長凳會出現在你眼前，請坐下來，深呼吸。 試觀察船隻附近的小鳥，起初它們未必很顯眼，但花點時間，你至少會看到跳躍船間捕獵的小白鷺，一旦眼睛更適應，你會看到更多。期間，你應該會留意到各式各樣的船隻、舢舨、漁船，甚至木製的船屋。這些船一般以綠、紅、藍為主色，非常鮮豔。而這一切，包括四周的小鳥和在船上埋頭苦幹的人，都充滿活力。 仰望遠方，你或會看見大白鷺，細看長凳附近的岩石，你或會發現一隻灰色的鳥——喜歡獨自狩獵的岩鷺。幸運的話，你甚至會看到一隻高大而優雅的鳥——身佈灰、藍、白色羽毛的蒼鷺。 晚刻是觀賞夜鷺的最佳時機，它們喜歡長守水旁，用圓大的眼睛凝視海面，好像喝了過多的卡布奇諾一樣。當你乘渡船離開，也有可能看到它們如風箏般在港口上空盤旋，準備捕魚。 漁民經常將廢物改造成船隻的專屬配件，而鳥類也會借這些新設計成為它們捕魚的輔助工具。漸漸鳥類習慣了與人類相伴，小船越多，鳥類便越多。所以比起小島另一側的自然景觀，它們似乎更喜歡港口的那一邊。 盡情賞鳥吧！你或會享受到刻意錯過下一班船呢！
Sarah Van Ingelgom, Spread your wings, (Pacific Reef Heron in flight), Cheung Chau 2019
Sarah Van Ingelgom, Little Egret on Hat, Cheung Chau 2019
Sarah Van Ingelgom, Balancing Act, (Juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron), Cheung Chau 2020
Sarah Van Ingelgom, Happy Feet (Little Egret), Cheung Chau, 2020
Sarah Van Ingelgom, Pacific Reef Heron eating little fish, Cheung Chau, 2020
In 2019 at the end of an emotional challenging year, Sarah, a resident of Cheung Chau decided to go for morning walks as way to calm her nerves and sooth her soul. At the same time she had bought her first canon dslr which she brought along. Her favourite walk is a 2 km loop over the Cheung Chau graveyard near Cheung Po Tsai cave which overlooks the ocean. It’s in this place of death she rediscovered life. The graveyard turns out to be a roosting spot for many black kites which can be easily found early in the morning in families perched on trees, very often accompanied by a troop of loud large billed crows. In winter they are joined by many winter visitors coming all the way from Siberia and Mongolia; tiny little things like warblers and daurian redstarts, the size of small hand that flew 1000’s of kilometres just to be here in Cheung Chau.
Sarah started to document and identify her findings. And slowly what started as a simple way to kick the blues became a new passion for birding. During this year of covid-19 where travel outside of Hong Kong became too complicated, exploring bird hot spot became a way to travel closer to home and rediscover Hong Kong, a place which Sarah called home for 17 years. E-bird lists about 160 bird hot spots from city parks to far flung islands. Sarah hopes in time to document about 100 hotspots and its birds in the form of a book.
2019是另人沮喪的一年，近年末時，居住長洲多年的Sarah決定帶上剛買的Canon單反相機早出散步，以撫慰自己的心情與靈魂。她最喜歡的步行路線是長寶仔洞附近的長洲墓地上的2公里環路。 就在這片死亡之地她發現了生命。原來墓地是許多黑鳶的主要棲息地，清晨時份它們會聚居樹上，而冬季時，來自西伯利亞和蒙古的鳴鶯和北紅尾鴝也會前來探訪。 Sarah便開始記錄她的發現，漸漸地，本是用作解憂的活動變成了一股觀鳥的熱誠。疫情期間難以出國旅行，因此探索香港的觀鳥熱點成為了一種近距離旅行並重新探索香港的方式。E-bird是觀鳥者常用的應用程式，它會列出了大約160個大大小小的觀鳥熱點。Sarah希望能集結約100個觀鳥熱點，並出版成相冊。
Follow her on Instagram @sarahgreenecheungchau
你可以在Instagram上關注她的旅程：sarahgreenecheungchau
This artist is represented by Blue Lotus Gallery, contact here if you are interested to know more about his work and wish to receive his artist catalogue.
Sarah Van Ingelgom, Little Egret, Tidy Cats, Cheung Chau, 2020
Sarah Van Ingelgom, Little Egret eating little fish, Cheung Chau, 2019
Sarah Van Ingelgom, Black Kite in flight, Cheung Chau, 2019
Sarah Van Ingelgom, Little Egret and Fisherman, Cheung Chau 2020
Sarah Van Ingelgom, Chinese Pond Heron on Green Boat, Cheung Chau 2019