All beautiful creatures to me & Typhoon before weekend trip

I came to work early today to check out if the nestlings are ready to fly or not. (By the end of today, the nestlings still had not left the nest yet - meaning overtime work for my co-workers who have to come in during the weekend to try and capture the fledgling barbets.)

Almost, but not yet.

Father Barbet waiting for his break once this clutch is over.

While preparing to go to the botanical garden in the morning to check on the status of the rat traps, a research assistant observing the barbet nest called us and said that a Crested Goshawk had just landed on the nest tree of the Muller's Barbets (just like last month). So I hurried and got to the garden to see the goshawk sunning itself in a majestic manner.

What a beautiful creature!

After awing over the beautiful raptor, we went to check out the traps. In the end, 7 out of 20 traps (just like I predicted) caught rodents - one Norway Rat (Rattus norvegicus) and six Asian House Shrews (Suncus murinus). This was my first time doing rodent survey in Taiwan, so even unimpressive results like this was still exciting to me. Although I was a bit surprised by the lack of squirrels caught by the traps.

Norway Rat (above photo) and Asian House Shrew (bottom photo).

We released the shrews on-site since we were able to identify them and their small body size won't able to tolerate being trapped in a cage for too long.

Shrew or not, I think they are quite beautiful too.

The Norway Rat was trickier to identify since there are other similar sized rodents in Taiwan, so we brought the rat back to the office for more identification.

In the end, it was definitely a Norway Rat because of the slender head and a blunt nose. Nevertheless, everyone in the office agreed that it is a charismatic rat.

A typhoon is heading towards Taiwan! Unfortunately, our internship program is arranging us to go on a weekend trip to Eastern Taiwan (where the typhoon is passing by) this week, I am still contemplating about going or not. Sigh, such a tough choice.

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Full day: Barbets, Japaluras, Moorhen, Kingfisher, and Bulbul & Rat-trapping

Today I was assigned to a nest tree where the adult barbets are in the stages of copulation, egg-laying, and incubation. The adults of this particular nest tree are in quite a strange situation because both of them has their own individual family before this clutch. However, for some unknown reason, their significant others disappeared and resulted in these two pairing up.

The female barbet incubating her egg(s). There are currently two eggs in this nest. The average number is 3, so we will be checking tomorrow to see if another egg has been laid.

Mother barbet taking a break from incubating inside the hot nest cavity.

As usual, beautiful images can be captured all around me if you're just patient and observant enough.

Swinhoe's Japalura

Common Moorhen

Common Kingfisher. I love Kingfishers!

There has been several cases in the botanical garden where strange things happen to nesting birds, including the nests, eggs, nestlings, and even the adults themselves. One primary suspect is humans, particulary bird-selling merchants. However, there has been no evidences to support this speculation. Other suspects include rodents (rats and squirrels), stray cats, lizards, and snakes.

Working on one suspect at a time, the research assistants and I decided to do a simple and short rodent survey in the botanical garden to see if there are presence of rats in the garden (because we already know the presence of squirrels and their impacts).

We set up 20 trapping cages baited with sweet yams covered with peanut butter along the boardwalks of TBG. We will be checking the cages tomorrow to see if there are any catches. I am quite excited to see the results tomorrow since I guessed 7 out of 20 will have something in it.

While placing the cages (which caused quite a curious crowd around us), the chief security guard informed us of another injured bird found in the garden. This time it is a Black Bulbul with an injured belly. We put some disinfectants on it and gave it some food for the night. We'll be contact the bird rescue society tomorrow regarding our newest find.

Black Bulbul
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Typical work day

Today was more or less the same as yesterday with morning spent barbet observing and afternoon doing data entry.

The barbet nestlings are getting more courageous facing the outside world. Pretty soon, you will be able to see at least half of its body and they will be leaving the nest by then.

While barbet-watching, a few things caught my attention. One was this unknown wasp dragging a dead spider across the ground right in front of me. The spider was larger than the wasp and carrrying it was quite difficult for the insect - especially with me being a nuisance and putting the spider right in front of me to photograph it more closely.

Eventually, I allowed the wasp to carry the spider away, and last time I saw them, the wasp was dragging the spider along a branch of a shrub.

Black-crowned Night Herons are a common sight in the botanical garden, especially at the area just right behind where I am looking at the birds.

This Red-bellied Tree Squirrel was eating some red fruit in front of me before finishing it off and dropping it on the ground.

Lastly, as my shift ended, a stray female cat was napping. The number of stray cats in the botanical garden is becoming quite serious that one of the research assistants in our department offered to catch the kittens, and bring them to the vet for physical check-up and neuteration, and placing them in a stray animal adoption agency (that she's familiar with).

Thank you.

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Hard-working Father Barbet & Handsome Night Heron

My new co-worker (who has taken over most of my outdoor works in the botanical garden) is in Hualien this week to assist a small mammal field survey, so I am back resuming my old jobs. Today, I observed the barbets in the morning and worked in the office in the afternoon. It is the morning job that is worth posting and mentioning about.

We are continuing to record the behaviours of the barbets in this nest. We believe the nestlings (two of them, to be exact) will be leaving nest near the end of the week since the nestling(s) is poking its head out of the nest quite frequently now (i.e. getting more interested and curious about the outside world).

Nevertheless, the nestlings (left photo) still have a lot of growing to do before it reaches the colorful plumage of its father (right photo).

Eat this cicada and grow stronger, my children. It's time for me to find more food for you.

While watching the male barbet feeding its children every 20 to 30 minutes or so, two very handsome Black-crowned Night Herons had captured my attention.

What a beautiful black head you have there, Mr. Night Heron.
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Natural Beauties

In the morning, while walking across the botanical garden to get to work, a Black-crowned Night Heron was resting.

For the rest of the morning, I spent my time in the office sorting data and typing up reports. Then in the afternoon, it was my shift to observe the barbets. This is the same nest as the one from last week, where we captured and leg-banded the parents and the nestlings were hungry during then.

Like last week, the nestlings were still hungry.

But this time, the father (with the pink and red bands on the right) was available to provide them with food. This time it is a cicada.

Ever since the leg-banding, the mother was rarely seen. So all the duties are performed by father now.

It drizzled a little bit in the afternoon, so a rare rainbow in Taipei City was observed!

Father barbet taking a rest.

A particular bird that searched for by photographers (and me) was the White-breasted Waterhen (Amaurornis phoenicurus). I kept hearing news about their appearances in the garden, but I have never come across them before. Finally, near the end of my shift, someone informed me about their appearance and so I was able to capture some images of this lifer! So beautiful-looking.

Back in the office, a co-worker had offered a home for this escaped Smooth Green Snake (Cyclophiops major) from a animal hospital. Is itn't a beauty!

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Hectic finishing of the 2nd week of internship (Friday Edition)

Today is Saturday (here in Taiwan) and the current temperature in Taipei City is probably more than 35-degrees Celsius. I live in an apartment (with my aunt) with no air conditioning, so I am half-naked right now with warm air blowing through the electric fan. Such is the life living on a tropic island.

Anyways, I think I will be working on "work stuff" this weekend, so I doubt I will have anything interesting worth posting this weekend. So below is yesterday's events.

Following Thursday's situation, I had to wake up extra extra early on Friday so that my co-worker and I could release the captured adult barbet as early as possible. The city is quite different (in a pleasant and quieter way) between 6am and 8am.

First time I came so early to the botanical garden.

After we released the adult barbet, all we could do now was to wait and prey the parent will come back and feed its nestlings. According to some photographers, the nestlings had been hungry and calling for food ever since morning.

The nestlings are so hungry that they poked their head out to see if the parents had arrived yet.

I kept watching and hoping the parents would not abandon the nest. However, after 10am (when I had to go back to the office), no parent had showed up yet.

Then in the afternoon, it was my shift (with another volunteer) to observe this particular nest tree (below) for three hours.

Since it was past noon and the entrance of the nest cavity was facing towards the afternoon sun, the parent barbet incubating the eggs poked its head out of the hole (with its beak wide open) every few minutes or so. Everytime it poked its head out, it also jumped onto a side branch outside the nest to cool down.

So hot!

The restless adult barbet

While on my shift, a beautiful Graphium sarpedon connectens butterfly came near me and allowed me to capture some nice moments.

After my shift, we had to use the endoscope to check on the status of the nest. Since my co-worker sprained his foot, it was my (first) shot to operate the endoscope on the nest cavity at least 17-m above ground. Initially, I was pretty nervous about climbing so high since I am a featherweight and I wonder if the strong wind can blow me off the ladder. But once I got up there, the surrounding view overpowered my nervousness and it was time to go to work. It took me several tries to get the endoscope into the nest because I was unable to see the nest entrance from where I was. With the help of people down below, I finally did it and was relieved to hear that one of the three eggs had hatched.

After this nest tree, I had to use the endoscope for another tall nest tree. What an amazing experience!

During this time, we heard the wonderful news that the male adult barbet (that we released in the morning) had came back to feed its nestlings! I am pretty sure all of us let out a huge sigh of relief when we heard the news.

What a beautiful day to be alive...
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Hectic finishing of the 2nd week of internship (Thursday Edition)

Yesterday was a pretty hectic day for me. First I had to show an elderly Australian birding couple around the TBG on barbet nest sites, then return to this tall Camphor nest tree to learn how to distinguish the male and female adult barbets [currently incubating three eggs - to be hatching in a day or two].

Afterwards, I could only envious watch my co-workers operating our custom-made barbet catching net (mist net wrapped around a metal loop, and then taped onto an extendable pole) to capture and tag the adults from another nest tree [currently feeding two nestlings - to be leaving nest in a week or two]. Then it was back to the office (for me) to analyze data.

My co-workers caught the female adult yesterday. So today, they focused on the male adult. Catching the male was pretty difficult since it feeds the nestlings from the hole entrance - so it was being cautious at all times. The best method is to wait until the parent barbet fully enters to nest cavity so that we can place the net right outside the hole to block their exit. Sadly, it didn't happen with this male.

After waiting for more than six hours, they finally had good news and brought the male back to the office for measurement and analyses. After finishing the measurements and bring it back to its capture site, the male adult seemed to be stressed and wasn't able to fly too well. During flight, it accidentally landed in the Lotus Pond and grabbed a Water Lily stem before falling into the water.

Wet Muller's Barbet.

Thinking that it might not be a good idea to leave a wet bird overnight, we decided to bring it back to the office, dry it, and release it back first thing in the morning. Therefore, I was in the office before 7:00-am this morning. Yawn. I will tell today's story tomorrow.
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