Japanese White-eye and other wildlife in TBG

Exactly one year ago, I was being interviewed for an internship at Fisheries Canada. Now, I am currently in the final weeks of my extended internship at Taiwan Forestry Research Institute. Both governmental organizations, two different countries, and deals with very different things. Funny how things played out in life.

There has been sightings of migrating Grey-streaked Flycatcher in Taipei Botanical Garden this week. So, I have been keeping an eye out for this potential lifer during my walks across the garden in the morning. Sadly, I still have not yet being able to find it yet.

Instead, I was photographing other wildlife that I came across.

Turtle

Japanese White-eye enjoying some sweets.

Grey Treepie cracking loudly on top of tree.

In the office today, I was calculating the hourly differences between male and female barbets in nestling feeding and nest cleaning, as well as editing my abstract.

In the afternoon, I headed up to the roof to photograph the setting sun and orange sky.

Orangy sky in Taipei.

Have a great weekend, everyone! I know I will...

365 days ago (2008-10-09) ...
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Outdoor work, yay!

After not doing any kind of field work in awhile, I am beginning to miss the greenaries, the sun, and the work-out of being in a natural sauna. Our research lab also has a project studying the relationship between noise and bird abundance, so today I woke up extra early to tag along the experiment inside TBG. I am not a part of this project, but I just enjoy being outdoors, especially in the morning when there're fewer people and more urban wildlife to be seen.

My co-workers working hard recording the noise levels and observing birds.

Meanwhile, I was just wondering around photographing anything I saw interesting.

Barringtonia racemosa flowers on the ground.

A juvenile Chinese Bulbul still lacking the white crown.

An interesting-lookinh Trema orientalis (L.) Blume tree. This species is quite useful in that the trunk can be built into oars and canoes, or made into ropes, and the leaves can become food for herbivores.

A beautiful Chilades pandava peripatria

Green Pond Frog - a common but suitable name.

Water Lily

Gray Treepie is a common bird in TBG. But its behaviour of hiding underneath canopies makes them very difficult to photograph (I remember my first time seeing them almost three months ago). Today, a young Treepie caught something and flew right above us to enjoy its meal.

Gray Treepie (Dendrocitta formosae formosae) enjoying an insect larvae or something.

Here's a site with some information on this interesting Corvids.

Colorful Plumeria rubra flower lying on Giant Elephant's Ear (Colocasia gigantea)

As the research came to an end, an all-black feline walked right in front of me. At first I thought it was a panther. Given it a second look, I realized it is a handsome stray black cat.

Black cat or not, I think today was a pretty lucky day for me.
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Wildlife viewing at Da Xing

Yesterday, I spent most of my day yesterday walking and biking at a more rural part of the town where my aunt works as the local kindergarten teacher. This was also the school that I went to when I was young, so it certaily brought back some precious memories. Of course, the wildlife was a bit more interesting since the surrounding areas are farms of green peppers, rice fields, poultry farms, etc.

On one of the abandoned lands, I saw many Chinese Bulbuls carrying praying mantises and other insects in their beaks.

Also observed were these bright Anomala expansa, also known as the Taiwanese Green Bronze Beetle (translated).

Beside the wild animals. Some include the domesticated free-range domesticated Muscovy Duck (Cairina moschata). What a face!

Near the farms, there are also plant-rearing centers, which attracted some pretty lovely insects, including this Ceylon Blue Glassy Tiger (Ideopsis similis).

Afterwards, I borrowed a bike from one of my aunt's friends, and I saw three lifer birds!

The first thing that I noticed about this particular bird was its harsh clucking sounds and its very long tail. It is a Gray Treepie (Dendrocitta formosae formosae), an endemic subspecies! Sadly, it waswary of my position and intention, and fly away whenever I got a little bit closer. The below photos were the best ones that I got. One was when it was perched far far away on a telephone pole, and one was when it was sheltering underneath the dark canopy and me hiding from being seen by the bird.

Along the narrow roads, I also saw a warbling Plain Prinia (Prinia inornata) - top photo. Another is the Nutmeg Mannikin (Lonchura punctulata) - bottom photo.

Overall, it was a very nice day with excellent birding results.
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