Changing Seasons

Autumn trees at Wetlands Park.

I have always loved the changing of the seasons. When I was a child growing up in Scotland, I had a special fondness for spring when things start coming back to life after the long, cold, dark winter.

Here in Hong Kong, the seasons are really quite different. Take yesterday, for example, it was a really cold drab dull day. We've had some very cold weather here recently, by Hong Kong standards, and it's January, so, without a doubt it is winter. Yet when I was deciding what to do yesterday, I had to choose between going to see autumnal trees, as the short autumn foliage season will soon be over, or go and see spring blossoms, as the short spring season has arrived. So basically that's autumn, winter and spring all taking place at the same time. The only season missing is summer and it's actually the season that lasts the longest here.

Anyway I decided to go and see some autumnal colours before they are all gone. For the last two years I have enjoyed seeing the autumn colours in the woods in Tai Tong, at the Lau Shui Heung Reservoir and in Tsing Yi Park. This year I wanted to see them somewhere new, so I decided to go to Wetlands Park.

To get there I took the MTR to Tin Shui Wai Station, then followed the signs for the 705 light rail, which I took to Wetlands Park Station. From the station it's just a case of going up on the overhead walkway and following the signs. It costs HK$30 for an adult to go into the park, that's about three pounds in British money.

A lot of areas in the Northern New Territories are wetlands. They probably started out as flat marshy areas on the floodplains of several rivers. Then as people settled here and began to farm, these areas were deliberately flooded to form paddy fields for the cultivation of rice. When the farmers couldn't compete with overseas competition, they stopped growing rice and converted their fields into fishponds. This was successful for a while, but as Hong Kong became more industrialised, many people turned their backs on farming and went to work in factories instead.

Now many areas of wetlands are being built on and some are being made into nature parks in an attempt to conserve them. Wetlands Park is a sixty-one hectare area of conserved wetlands in northern Tin Sui Wai. It was first opened to the public in May 2006 and aims at providing a habitat for wildlife and educating the public about wetlands. Most of the park is actually wetlands, but there's also a visitor centre with exhibition galleries.

I think this was probably my third visit to Wetlands Park. I've been here before on school trips, accompanied by around ninety overexcited, noisy children. Hmmm, wonder why I haven't actually seen that much wildlife here. My earlier trips were in hot weather, but on this trip it was pretty cold.

Anyway yesterday was the first time I visited on my own. There are actually quite a few things to look at outside the park. There's an eco-maze to the left of the entrance. It's possible to walk right up to the top of the roof from here to get an overall view of the wetlands. Coming back down on the other side there was a beautiful blossoming rosy trumpet tree.

The eco-maze.

Overlooking the park.

Overlooking the park.

Rosy trumpet tree.

Rosy trumpet tree.

Around the entrance area there are sculptures and paintings and models of the animals it's possible to see inside.

Bird sculpture at the entrance to the park.

Bird sculpture and school group.

Painting at the entrance.

Frog model.

Blackfaced spoonbill model.

I decided to start my explorations at Pui Pui's house. Pui Pui is a female saltwater crocodile. Presumably someone had her as an illegal pet, then when she got rather big for their bathtub, released her into a river here. She was sighted several times and many attempts were made to capture her. These attempts involved bringing in experts from Australia and Mainland China, but Pui Pui always managed to escape until one fateful day in 2004, she was finally captured as she swam in the Shan Pui River. She now lives in Wetlands Park.

At first I couldn't find her in her tank at all, later I realised she was up the back right-hand side of her enclosure, lying completely still and looking exactly like a fallen tree trunk. It was impossible to photograph her due to the reflection from the glass. I must admit I really don't like crocodiles. They are so furtive and sneaky. Just thinking of Pui Pui out in the wilds of Hong Kong made me shudder.

Pui Pui's home.

I couldn't get a decent photo of the real thing, so I had to settle for this.

Then I set off on the stream walk. I found an area devoted to showing off the kinds of crops that can be grown in the wetlands. It mentioned that they grow rice, which can be harvested twice a year; water spinach, which is ready to eat in the summer; taro, which can be harvested in the winter; watercress which can be harvested all year round and Indian lotus.

Watercress growing in the pond.

Water spinach growing in the pond

Other crops growing in the pond.

Tall grasses.

This area also had a lilypond which in summer would be filled with dragonflies. There were a couple of waterlilies in bud, but it's too early for them to be opened up.

Waterlilies.

Waterlilies.

Waterlilies.

Dead lily pads.

I wandered over the bridge that crosses the pond.

View across the pond.

Waterlilies and bridge.

Bridge over the pond.

I then found the area with the autumnal trees. Actually there are not a lot of autumnal trees in Hong Kong, so people go crazy for visiting them and get quite excited about them. They were beautiful here, but the area they are situated in is out of bounds, so I couldn't get too close.

Autumn trees.

Closer up view.

Reflections in the pond.

Autumn trees.

Autumn trees.

Autumn trees.

Autumn trees along the river.

It felt like being out in the wilderness, yet if I looked the other way, I could see the high-rises of Tin Shui Wai.

Cityscape.

Urban and nature.

Next I wandered through the mangrove swamps with their tidal mudflats. It's possible to see mudskippers and fiddler crabs here at certain times. I guess it depends on the tide. Mud skippers are amphibious fish that can swim across on top of the mud flats at low tide. Male fiddler crabs have one huge claw and one small one, whereas the females have two claws that are the same size. I did see some fish in the water that may or may not have been mud skippers. I didn't see any fiddler crabs, so I had to rely on the models in the display rooms for my photos.

Mangrove boardwalk.

Mangroves.

Mangroves.

Pandanus tree by the water.

Pandanus.

Fish, maybe these are mudskippers at high tide.

Fish.

Shells.

Fiddler crabs.

Mud skippers.

After that I had a look in the bird hides. There are signs outside reminding people to keep quiet and displays to show the birds that can be found here.

Sign outside a bird hide.

One of the bird hides.

A second bird hide.

I did see blackfaced spoonbills.

I didn't see the kingfisher.

I did see ducks.

There are three different bird hides in Wetlands Park: Riverside Hide, Fishpond Hide and Mudflat Hide. It's possible to go inside these buildings, which are two or three stories high, and observe the wild birds through binoculars. I was able to see a black-winged stilt, which looks really funny when reflected in the water due to the perceived length of its legs and a pied avocet, which was hard to photograph as it constantly bent down looking for food.

Black-winged stilt.

Black-winged stilt.

Pied avocet.

Black-winged stilt and pied avocet.

I also had a wander around the Wildside Walk that crosses ponds and passes through woodlands. There are some lovely trees in the woodlands with tangled roots and aerial branches. There was also an area of flowers to attract butterflies.

Wildside Walk.

Wildside Walk.

Tall grasses.

Chiku tree.

Seed pods.

Seed pods.

Palm trees.

Trees.

Trees.

Flowers to attract butterflies.

Flowers in the butterfly section.

I wandered back to the main building where I took some photos of cormorants airing their huge black wings and blackfaced spoonbills searching for food.

Black faced spoonbills, though you can't really see their faces.

Cormorants.

Cormorants.

Cormorants and black-faced spoonbills.

There's a cafe and a play area for kids here. There were lots of kids around as several schools were visiting. I took a wander through the galleries. There were models of animals.

Tiger.

Caribou.

Then there were some fish swimming around sunken tree trunks.

These fish are real.

These fish are real.

There was also a swamp area to walk around with the sounds of the forest all around you.

Swampy forest.

Swampy forest.

Swampy forest.

Carnivorous plants.

I had intended to take the airport bus home, but I just missed one and they only run about once every thirty minutes so I took the light rail and MTR, going via Tung Chung to do some shopping.