July update - Trip through Four Corners, Grand Canyon, and Wyoming

Over a span of four days (July 12th to 16th), I traveled across five states and drove more than 2,400 km.

The trip began from Colorado and passed through Blue Mesa Lake again.

City Park, New Orleans - must visit!

In addition to doing a swamp tour, City Park in New Orleans is definitely a place I recommend visitors to check out, and riding the streetcars to City Park is definitely worth a try - for just $1.25 per trip!  After attending to a couple of presentations on Monday morning and making sure there weren't presentations in the afternoon that I was going to miss, I headed out to the City Park right afterwards.  Once again, this blogger also visited the City Park and she had a slightly different (positive) experience than mine.

City Park gate.

Visiting Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG)

In the morning, we had a quick introduction of all the participants - mostly graduate students from US (two from UK), two scientists from China, a apiary owner, etc, we went straight to learning about the zoological diversity of pollinators - ranging from springtails to giraffes!


 In the afternoon, we were given a quick tour of the Missouri Botanical Garden - the second largest botanical garden in the world (after Royal Botanic Gardens in UK).

Royal Ontario Museum & Toronto Zoo

My friend and I visited the Royal Ontario Museum two days ago. It's a great place to visit as a tourist, plus the building from the outside looks absolutley ridiculous, but keep in mind that it is quite impossible to tour the entire museum in one day, so pick your exhibits wisely.

One of the Chinese art pieces that I really like - from the 7th century, Three Kingdoms Period.

Yesterday, I visited the Toronto Zoo by myself. Having spent some time in Taipei Zoo and working behind the scene and along side zookeepers and vets, as well as taking care of animals this summer, I began to view the zoo from a different perspective. I no longer looked at it as a place of just animals in display, but looking at the behaviors of the captive animals, the enclosure set-ups, and sometimes peeking behind the back to see the work areas of the zookeepers.

As always, here are some photos to share. I tried avoiding taking them in their enclosures (omitting or cropping out the wires or fences) and focusing on the animal's behaviors or reactions in their captive environment. Yesterday's weather was nice and cool, with some downpours here and there, so the animals were either sheltering from the rain or taking a nap when the sun came out.

Polar Bear

Pretty Flowers and Grass Lizards in TBG

Today, while I was photographing these pretty flowers opening along the pathways in TBG, I spotted something squirming in the bushes.

It was a Formosan Grass Lizard! A very small one too, just a little over 10-cm.

But then I saw another lizard.

It was a larger one with green sides. It came to the smaller, browner one and stayed there for about 20 seconds before the other one crawled away.

Photographing the green Formosan Grass Lizard.

What an handsome animal!

I am not sure if I had mentioned this before or not (because I am having trouble searching it in my older posts), but many weeks ago, one of the Taiwan Barbet's resting cavity had been taken over by ants. Well, my friend today helped me identified it to be Crematogaster rogenhoferi fabricans, a common ant in homes. Pretty cool, I think.
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Animals of Yangmingshan National Park

As promised, here were the animals that I saw while hiking in Yangmingshan National Park last weekend. Some of them still remained unidentified, but most of them are known.

Heliophorus ila matsumurae

Unidentified green spider

Cicindela aurulenta

Cicindela aurulenta eating a fly

Argyreus hyperbius

Symbrenthia hypselis scatinia

Unidentified bee-like fly (Family Syrphidae)

Formosan Grass Lizard (Takydromus formosanus)

Elegant five-lined Skink (Eumeces elegans)

Elegant indeed

Unknown insect...
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Showing my mother around Taipei

Yesterday, I brought my mother to Taipei Botanical Garden and showed her around in my work areas and some special sights to to see. We saw many beautiful animals and plants, but it was too hot for my mother to cope with.

The first bird that we saw a Black-billed Magpie (Pica pica), which was pretty exciting to see since Chinese people call them Lucky Bird. What a way to start off the day! Sadly, it was too well hidden for me to take decent photographs. Nevertheless, it was a sight to see.

Afterwards, I showed my mother around to see some nests of Muller's Barbets and other nesting birds that I know, such as this relatively effortless nest by the Black Bulbul (Hypsipetes leucocephalus) made out of few grass straws.

My mother was pretty excited to see the beautiful Muller's Barbets, especially when they poked their heads out of the cavity hole and looked around. Near the Lotus Pond, we also saw this pair of Red-bellied Skimmers (Orthetrum pruinosum neglectum) mating and laying eggs on the water surface. We observed that while the female lays her eggs, the male flys above her to protect her.

Red-bellied Skimmers (Central Indian subspecies)

After we had lunch outside the garden, we headed to the college where my aunt teaches at. The college is located up on a small mountain so the view is quite nice. Over there, I saw quite a few of the common Formosan Grass Lizards (Takydromus formosanus) hiding in the roadside shrubs.

I hope I am right with my identification since there are a couple of lizards in the family Lacertidae found in Taiwan, and they all looked quite similar to me in the field guide. One main distinction is that T. formosanus has two pairs of inguinal pores, but I didn't want to stress and pick up this little fellow up to examine it more closely.

In another shrub, I saw this beautiful White-spotted Longicorn Beetle (Anoplophora macularia). They are about 24 to 35-mm in length, not including the super long antennae.

In their school garden, I also saw a couple of ladybugs, such as this Six-spotted Ladybird Beetle (Monochilus sexmaculatus).

Today is Sunday, and it is my mother's last day in Taipei. My mother, aunt, and I went shopping in the neighbourhood before we brought my mother to the train station to head back to Central Taiwan. I will not see my mother again for another three months, since she is heading back to Canada in a couple of days while I'm still staying for my volunteer work and internship. Sigh.

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