I had a whatsapp message from Nick Florent this afternoon, a bird on the beach, on Cheung Chau; there was a photo too – a red-footed booby!
This seabird is rare in Hong Kong, and even then seen pretty much only over waters well south of Hong Kong Island.
So, I promptly went out to look; and it turned out to be an exhausted, probably injured bird.
Three ladies were watching over it; one had called the police. When policemen arrived, the bird was way too confiding even for a booby [named by sailors as they could land on ships and be ridiculously “tame”]; mostly wanting to sleep.
It seemed to have a damaged wing. Eventually, SPCA confirmed by phone they were on their way to collect it, surely to take it to Kadoorie Farm, which has an expert team taking care of injured local wildlife. Hope they don’t decide it is too ill, needing euthanising, and can instead by helped, perhaps nursed back to a good condition so it can be re-released into the wild…
