The aftermath of Typhoon Morakot in TBG & Watching UP with friends

Today, in the morning, one of the first things we heard in the office was that two of the nest sites had fallen during the weekend after the strong wind and rain of typhoon Morakot! [Edit: Morakot had brought destruction to many parts of Taiwan - see here.] One nest was still hanging by the bark, so we had to go quickly to salvage it before the garden maintainence tam cut it down and throw it into the junkyard. The other, however, was already in the junkyard and needed us to go and find it in a whole bunch of wasted plant matters from the typhoon.

TBG maintaince team hard at work all weekend and Monday. The second photo shows our nest tree - the branch had snapped just below where the nest entrance is.

The maintaince team removing the branch.

Piece by piece.

The broken nest site still attached to the tree (left), and inside the nest cavity (right)

The effects of the typhoon are not just broken branches or trees. The super wet weekend had sprouted mushrooms on a (dead) nest treee. According to a mushroom expert at TFRI, the mushroom species is Coprinus disseminatus (a.k.a. Little Helmet or Fairy Bonnet). We wonder if there some symbiotic relationship between these mushrooms and barbets?

After work, everyone in the office packed up and went to watch the movie "Up" in 3-D. I have to say it was one of the best cartoon movies I have seen in awhile, and I am glad to have done it with such a close group of co-wokers and friends!
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