Working indoors most of the day...

Almost the entire day today was spent indoors organizing and analyzing last year's data, including incubation time, brooding time, feeding time, and cleaning time. All part of the necessary work to achieve quality work. Sigh.

So when I had the chance to go outside and helped out a little, I was more than glad to contribute.

The sidewalk Camphor tree again. The barbet photographed is the male adult. It has a much cleaner and brighter plumage than the female, and when we checked again in the afternoon, there were still three eggs.

But after being outside for less than fifteen minutes, co-workers at another nest site had successfully captured the female adult and required assistance back in the office for physical measurements and leg-banding. So back to the office again.

Before leaving work in the afternoon, I photographed the caterpillar again. Initially, the situation looked the same as usual until I noticed a few small insects inside the container as well.

There were tens of these tiny (about 2-mm in length) wasp-looking insects. It's very likely that they hatched from the cocoons on the poor caterpillar. I saw some of these insects on the dead caterpillar, possibly feeding on it. I wonder if they will get any larger.

Hopefully, I will have the chance to watch my co-workers catch the second of the barbet adult pair tomorrow.

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Back working...

Back to work again today. Last Wednesday, we set up a recorder outside the nest to record one of the nests inside a Camphor (Cinnamomum camphora) tree. Sadly, there were some problems with the connections so we got over 5GB of black photos over the holiday. Nevertheless, the problem has been fixed today. Today, we shifted to the site where the recorder was set up.

Since today was the first time anybody spent observing this pair, confusions arise when we try to distinguish the adult male from the adult female. In the end, the main identification difference between the two (of this particular pair) was the black-brow. The male (below) has a hook at the end of its left black brow towards the nape of his head.

The female's brows, on the other hand, are thicker and straighter.

One of the benefits of working at Botanical Garden is getting the most updated information about the birds living in it. Today, I learned the nest location of this Black-naped Blue Monarch. What a beauty!

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Visiting Zhishan

On the last day of this long holiday break, I decided to go check out a Zhishan Cultural and Ecological Garden mentioned in the traveling guides. However, the place was harder to find than I expected. But I still managed to find this pretty interesting geological landmark in the Zhishan Park, and it offers a pretty nice view of the city at its highest point of 52.8-m above sea level.

On the other side of the mountain is this nice-looking temple.

Along the way, there was this large Cinnamomum camphora tree more than three hundred years old! It is the oldest tree in Taipei City - the reasons why it has not chopped down during all of this time were: the entire mountain was a military base during the takeover by the Japanese government of the island, and the fong shui is excellent on this mountain so that nothing was disturbed.

Afterwards, I finally found the way to the garden that I was looking for. I came across another large tree along the way.

Near the entrance of the garden, several of these crawling bright red Leptocoris abdominalis were found all over their dead friends.

Finally, I had arrived.

Now, to tell you the truth, I don't think I would visit this place again as it was poorly run and very small. The entrance fee is less than $1 CDN, so it's not a big concern. The only thing I can justify for visiting this garden is its Wild Bird Rehabilitation Center which houses several injuried and sick birds.

I finally got a decent photo of an Intermediate Egret here in Taiwan!

When you first enter, you will cross over a small pond on a bridge. The first thing I saw was this King Ratsnake (Elaphe carinata) over 1-m long. It was very cool. It was looking for food and swam across the pond.

The Wild Bird Rehabilitation Center. In it includes several Magpies, Egrests, Herons, Owls, Doves, Pigeons, etc.

An injuried Black-crowned Night Heron.

An injuried but graceful-looking Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis).

Outside the cages was this wandering Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis).

Touring the entire garden took less than 30 minutes as there was not a whole lot to see and learn. So sad. I hope this place will improve in the future.

Finally, back to work tomorrow!
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