Wildlife at Mud Lake

Before checking out the blossoms at Lincoln Fields today, I was at Mud Lake watching birds.  One of the first birds I saw was this singing Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus), which I think is a lifer for me.

Egret and deer at Sawmill Creek

I went for a bike ride around Sawmill Creek Constructed Wetland this afternoon.  While scanning the edge of the wetland for birds, I first saw an egret!

This is the first time I seen a Great Egret (Ardea alba) in Canada, even though I had seen it before in Taiwan and New Orleans.  According to members in the Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club Facebook page, egrets can be seen along the Ottawa River and sometimes a bit inland (such as here) as well.

Audubon Park, New Orleans

This is will the final post from my New Orleans trip.  I presented my research on Wednesday (July 31) afternoon and we left New Orleans the following morning, so Tuesday was my last opportunity to explore New Orleans.

Based on the recommendation from one of my supervisors, I woke up extra early on Tuesday morning and took the streetcar through the famous Garden District and arrived at Audubon Park to do some wildlife-watching.

The first thing I saw at the park was this beautiful garden and fountain.  There were some Monarch butterflies visiting the flowers and I was planning on taking some photos, but there was a strange individual talking to himself so I gave up on that idea.

Honey Island Swamp Tour in Louisiana

On my second day in New Orleans (July 28), my lab-mate and I signed up for a swamp tour at Honey Island Swamp near Slidell, i.e., a chance to see American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) in the "wild".

American alligator is endemic to southeastern US and is the official state reptile of Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi.  It and the Chinese alligator are the only two living species in the genus Alligator.  Alligators belong to the family Alligatoridae, and crocodiles belong to the family Crocodylidae (and both families belong to the reptilian order Crocodylia).  They are real "living dinosaurs" because their lineage goes back to about 240 million years ago, and they are still surviving and thriving in the present (way beyond the extinct dinosaurs).

One common question from most people is what are the differences between alligators and crocodiles.  Basically, alligators have a wider snout and expose only the upper jaw teeth when the mouth is closed.  Meanwhile, crocodiles have a long and narrow snout, and upper and lower teeth are both exposed when the mouth is closed.

To get to Slidell from New Orleans, we drove across Lake Pontchartrain on the Causeway which is the second longest bridge in the world.  Pretty awesome.

Arriving at St. Louis & Visiting Cahokia

After a long drive yesterday, we were only about four hours away from St. Louis by nighttime.  We decided to spent a night in Pontiac, Illinois.  Nothing too impressive about the city from our hotel close to the highway.

Agriculture lands next to the hotel.

Holiday Inn.

Happy Taiwan Day & Sad Farewell Party

Today is Taiwan National Day (10/10), and my supervisor invited me and fellow co-workers and friends to her house for a party.

Dahu Park MRT Station

Dahu Park

My co-workers and I met at the MRT station first and strolled around in Dahu Park before we headed to the host's home.

Little Egret with an injured leg.

There were some fishermen in the fishing area. Near the fishermen were Intermediate and Little Egrets waiting for get little fishes that the fishermen do not want.

Intermediate Egret


Intermediate Egret preparing to take off when we got too close.

Afterwards, we walked to our supervisor's home, where we had a great feast and wonderful time together. They even presented me with a surprise gift. After a wonderful lunch and a satisfied belly, we hiked to a mountain trail behind the house and headed towards a waterfall promised to be a wonderful scenic view. And indeed it was.

Liyu Mountain

Pretty little stream along the trail


While crossing the (above) bridge, we saw a Formosan Gossamerwing.

Large banana flower!

Loyal dog guarding its owner's home.

Preparing to go into the mountain.




What a beautiful habitat!

The beautiful (unnamed) waterfall as promised! I think I will call it Waterfall of Good Memories!

365 Days ago (2008-10-10) ...
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Seeing the beautiful Oriental Magpie Robin and Little Egret

Yesterday, I had dinner with a co-worker/friend and by the time I got home it was already midnight. So sorry for the late post.

Yesterday's work was more or less the same as the past few days: observing and trying to catch barbets. We spent almost the entire day trying to catch the other barbet, but it was unsuccessful. Observing the other barbet pair was fairly simple as they are in the incubation stage so the parents stayed inside the cavity for an extended amount of time and poked their heads out every ten minutes or so. The cavity allows only one parent inside at one time, so the two alternate every hour or so.

Above is the male bird. He can be identified by the two spots on the upper left side of his face (one dark spot just in front of its eyes and one spot on his beak). The bottom is the female and she does not have the spots.

While observing the barbets, a beautiful male Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis) flew just a few meters away from me! Definitely a worthy moment to remember.

Even though it's named a "robin", it belongs in the Family Muscicapidae (not the thrush family Turdidae).

While trying to catch the other barbets. A Little Egret flew onto the tree where the barbet nest is in.

Little Egret preening.

Maginificent looking bird.

Little Egret taking off!

This is the latest stage of the caterpillar and the parasitic eggs.

Today I will be staying home and trying to get started on my research paper. So I doubt I will have anything interesting to post about today. Laters.
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Stag Beetle & Little Egret in TBG

Another tiring day today. I spent most of the day in the botanical garden observing barbets and trying to catch them. Fortunately, at the end of the day, our modified (several times) mist net trap finally worked and caught an adult!

Other than watching barbets, I still found time to find and photograph these cool creatures!

Dorcus titanus sika is a beetle of the family Lucanidae. This is one of the most common stag beetles in Taiwan, and the males are about 24 to 72-mm in length, while the females are 24 to 42-mm in length. This individual is quite small and is about 25-mm long only.

The observation station today was the same as yesterday. So I checked to see if the mushroom is still there or not. Surprisingly, it had changed! [I am still working on identifying it.]

Near where we were trying to catch the parent barbets, a Little Egret was trying to catch fishes.

Walking along the wooden columns and catching fish

Quite an elegant and graceful looking bird, no?

This is today's status on the caterpillar and the parasites.
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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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Watching Speaker Cup 2009 (Dragonboat race)

Today is the first of the four-day long weekend here in Taiwan, and Taiwanese people celebrate it by eating rice wrapped by bamboo leaves and watching dragonboat races. My friend from my internship last year is part of a dragonboat race team and so today I headed out to Bitan (in Taipei County) to cheer him and his team on.


It is quite a serious competition as this is the 17th year and the total prize money is 1 million dollars NTD. The competing teams range from firefighters (who won nine years in a row), soldiers, student atheletes, First Nation tribes, companies, and so forth. So the atmosphere is intense and exciting. But it is easy to separate the good teams from the bad in the prilimnary rounds as the well-trained and discipline teams leave the unprepared and poorly trained teams far behind.

My friend's team - made up of enthusiastic swimmers. The oldest member of the team is over 80 years old, and you can see him in front of the boat ready to snatch up the flag (first team to snatch the flag in their lane wins the race).

Exciting times arises when well-matched team go head-to-head at the very last moment!

Today is elimination rounds, and tomorrow will be even better as good teams compete with each other and fight for a spot in the final round.

Besides the dragonboat race competition, there are many tents and vendors set up for food, entertainment, shows, and games (a typical part of Taiwan's outdoor events). One that caught my attention was set up by Taiwan's scouts - showing the different caterpillars and pupae of the butterflies of Taiwan.

I don't know the identity of them all, but aren't they amazing looking!?


After the race, I continued to walk around the river, and below the bridges I saw many Small Egrets (Egretta garzetta) and Black-crowned Night Heron resting and fishing.

That's all for today. I haven't post a sky-watch photo in a long time as the skies in Taipei are normally gray and thick (or maybe it is the pollutions?).

But the sky finally cleared a little for me to take a picture of it while riding the MRT.
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