Field course day 5 - Coon Lake Bog

The first week of field course concluded at Coon Lake Bog and with the students being tested on their plant identification skills at a "secret" site.

In the morning, we first went to the Ecology Park in the city.

Lupine flowers in the park.

"Botanizing" for the last few days - Part 2

Part 1 here.

Tuesday morning, we went to Trent Nature Areas, as a potential new site for the class, and then we went to Mark S. Burnham Provincial Park (which I never been before) in the afternoon.

Dame's-rocket (Hesperis matronalis) in the Mustard (Brassicaceae) family.  The fragrance of the flowers is most evident at nighttime, where the origin of the genus name hesperos comes from, i.e. 'evening'.

Butterfly, Orchid, and Endoscope

Last Wednesday I tagged along our noise-bird assemblage project. Well, I was too tired these days to go again today. But in the morning, I did saw my friends hard at work again.

Before I arrive at work, I photographed a Peacock Pansy (Junonia almana) flying gracefully among flowers.

Junonia almana

Then there were these pretty Bamboo Orchids (Arundina graminifolia) standing tall waiting for me to photograph them.

Arundina graminifolia

For my PowerPoint presentation this Friday, I need photographs of our equipments, so here's our very very important (and sensitive) endoscope that allows us to see what's happening inside nests meters above our head. Who knows what we will do if we do have this trustworthy tool. The below photo shows the LCD bulbs and the small auto-focusing pin-point lens, and the top photo shows the entire endoscope about two meters tall.
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Visited C.K.S. Shilin Residence Park

On the second day of this long weekend, I visited the Chiang Kei-Shek Shilin Residence Park in Taipei City. It is the official residence of the former president, Chiang Kei-Shek, and it has been transformed into a park/garden/historical attraction. I would definitely recommend this place to visitors coming to Taipei City as it is a free park and offers plenty of photographic opportunities - people, wildlife, nature, landscape, architecture, etc.

I took many photos today, so I will just briefly comment on each photo.

Entrance of the park.

Views inside the park - ranging from trails in the mountains to well-cared gardens to an outdoor concert center.

There are plenty of Muller's Barbet in this park too.

Evident by the crowd hanging outside a barbet's nest - from curious visitors to serious photographers.

An unidentified skipper. It is a butterfly belonging to the family Hesperiidae, that's all I know for now.

A juvenile Malayan Night Heron (Gorsachius melanolophus). The juvenile has black and white spots with streaked underparts. Compare it to the adult at the end of this post.

One of the biggest attractions is the beautiful and colorful roses, orchids, and other flowers.

Three unknown beetles enjoying the sweetness of the flower.

There is a small ecological pond that attracts many insects, including this Ceylon Blue Glassy Tiger (Ideopsis similis).

Beside the nest of the barbet surrounded by people, I stumbled across this site all by myself and watched by no one. So exciting. In the bottom right photo, a preying matis was caught by the adult barbet.

An unidentified dragonfly.

An adult Malayan Night Heron (Gorsachius melanolophus).

A Common Tiger (Danaus genutia) - closely resembles the Monarch butterfly (D. plexippus) of the Americas.

Thank you, caretakers of the park, for maintaining this beautiful park!
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