Bird-watching at Sawmill Creek Constructed Wetland

I was debating where to spend some time outside this long weekend, especially because the public transit schedule is different every single day.  Looking at eBird, I realized there was a bird-watching spot very close to where I live called Sawmill Creek Constructed Wetland, so I searched for instructions on how to get there this morning and walked there right after.

The main purposes of this man-made wetland are to collect run-off water and de-silt the water before it flows into Sawmill Creek.

Hungry Black-crowned Night Heron looking for breakfast

Counting the days on the calendar, I realized that I will be leaving Taiwan in 53 days. A very sad small number I guess, although I had already stayed for 120 days.

Feeling gloomy aside, this Black-crowned Night Heron brightened my day a bit this morning by showing up.

Looking for food.

Changing to a new spot.

Looking around.


And looking ahead.

Still no fishes to be found? Time to change to another location again.

Let see if standing on top of the vegetation will give me a better view.

Nope. How about the fishes hiding underneath the vegetation?

I think I might go hungry this morning.

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End of August

Took a couple of photos of the nature of TBG before I went to work today.

Sleepy duck

Water Lily

Black-crowned Night Heron through the lily leaves.

Took this shot while having a break in the office. Good-bye August!
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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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Strange living places

Yesterday, a volunteer observer told me about a Black Drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus) nest at a metro station near where I live. So in the morning, I rode the train backwards one station to see it for myself. The nesting bird was indeed there, right across from the metro tracks. What a strange place to live.

Black Drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus) in the brooding stage. I love its tail!

Before arriving work early, I hang around the Lotus Pond in TBG and took some pretty nice photos.

Beautiful Water Lily

Black-crowned Night Heron fighting for bread crumbs that tourists are throwing to feed the fishes in the pond.

Common Moorhen had to join in on the action as well.

Afterwards, I headed back to office to start working on my paper report. Most of my morning consisted of analyzing and describing photos of nestling developments. During lunchtime, I came outside again to check out a new nest site that my co-workers have been monitoring for a while now. The nest site is located adjacent from the TBG, so it is not actually inside the garden. Nevertheless, the data will be worth having since this is a new nest tree with a new pair so that we can have a complete set of data of this particular nest.

While I was there, the male adult came close to the female and mounted her! What horny birds, according to my colleagues, because this pair has sex quite often.

Since I was just visiting I did not take part of the endoscopic observation. So I can finally photograph and show you how we do it.

The above photo is the nest entrance. As you can see, the nest is again inside a Camphor tree on a sidewalk of a busy street (second strange living places of the day). The below left photo shows one person handling the extended pole with the endoscopic equipments attached to it while another has a small screen attached to the camera and takes photographs of the latest nest status [the photograph showed 3 eggs already]. So why copulating again? The below right phot shows the camera (and LCD lights) extending into the nest cavity to record the status. Isn't it fun? This nest is relatively close to the ground so using the pole is enough. But imagine a nest at least 10 meters above the ground. That's when it gets dangerous and tricky.

Still the same...

TBG Attractions

I spent a part of the morning just walking around the botanical garden carrying equipements back and forth.

This is one of the Muller's Barbets that we were recording today. The below is the female adult, as identified by its whitish lower beak.

Muller's Barbet (Megalaima nuchalis)

From now on, one of my main tasks will be sorting and compiling literatures and writing my paper report; hence, my work will be taking place inside the office. Nevertheless, when I have the time and opportunity to go out to the botanical garden, I tried to enjoy every moment.

The beautiful male Black-naped Blue Monarch (Hypothymis azurea) standing on its nest with two new nestlings. This nest is becoming photographers' favorite subject to shot in the garden.

I still get arranged to observe barbets for three hours when we are short-handed, such as today. While watching for the parent barbets to come back and feed their nestlings (which was infrequent), a female Oriental Magpie Robin came just a few meters away from me.

Female Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis)

As some of you may already know, the botanical garden is also quite abundant in the stray cats inhabiting this area. They are also quite a favorite attraction among common tourists because no one can deny their cuteness and beauty.

Mama cat and baby kitten

Taking a nice nap...

While heading back to the office, we came across a Malay Night Heron standing on a grass field (and later scared onto a tree by a cat).

Malay Night Heron (Gorsachius melanolophus)

Not much seems to have progressed during the weekend.
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