Formosa Birding - 黃金港埠 - Enkhuizen, the Netherlands

Formosa Birding - 黃金港埠 - Enkhuizen, the Netherlands: "口藍黃相間的美麗景緻, 這年頭整"

Great Cormorant at Au-Ku wetland

TheGreat Cormorant

Remember last winter at Kinmen, the inbound Great Cormorant lined up as a "V" shape, then landed on the Tze lake and the famous "bird tree". It's really beautiful scenery in the dawn.





I went to Au-Ku wetland last weekend, where I seldom had some surprise over there. It's a great day before the cold winter coming, and I found that there's lots of great Cormorant that day,
and I took tons of shot with this black and not-so-beautiful Cormorant this time.



Whole bunch of Cormorants fly in





They love to fly beneath the water like they are hiding the redar detection











Great Cormorant prefer to land on the lone branch for some sun bath, but there's alway less places for all of them.









So sometime they have to fight for the comfort place







At last, you can find some funny behaviors that I took from those Cormorant.....











end

Every September, in the water area named Kwan-Shin, where is a small village on the way to Wu-Lai, you will no doubt find the circling Osprey around that area.

We'd like to recording as much as we can of the Osprey that living in that area, no matter it's stay there over years or just migrated here for cold winter up north. The newly built water-side trail let us have the better chances to watch it diving for fish, and get clearer photos, it would be a great place for a easy weekend journey for birding in the outskirts of the city.















Well, most of my friends from my hometown like those photos with green or water background than the circling one up from the sky, how do you think of that?

If you would like to visit those Osprey, just take the route to Wu-Lai and make a right turn once you find a gas station on your right, where you will find a bridge across the green river, that's where people call it "swallow lake", even it's not really a lake. Anyway, follow the road sign that marked " club 3" while you across the bridge, or just go right all the way.....you will find this unique and wonderful Osprey sky.

Gray-faced buzzard Eagle -Kenting

Gray-faced buzzard Eagle

It's really good to have a long vacation -- 5 days should be very easy and relax in birding and photographing the migration in this season.

I always love this place becasue of the blue ocean, and the green grren grass lay by the seaside, no matter a 1,400 KM round-trip drive, I still look forward to go back there, to enjoy the relaxation and join the eagles' migration every year.

The best place to birding is Mong-Chou area, you can join with lots of birders and take a good look at how those eagles stopby in the sky, gathering and circling like a tornado....we call that eagle column, and diving to the comfrot spots they found for a long-light rests. Anyway, just visit there next year and you will really exciting of what you see with great pleasants.














Here are some different style of photographing of those lovely eagles~~













With the assistance of Hugo, I got those shots below~~









The Mang-Chou town map borrowed fromWandering Kenting website for your reference.

Eagle migration eve

Every September, Chinese Sparrow Hawk starts the migration move, I missed the migration last year becuase I have a business trip to go, so I go Kenting earlier this year in order to get my shots before i fly out to Vegas(if any interesting..Vegas photos this year at here ).

Chinese Sparrow Hawk
















The grassland nearby the backdoor of the Kenting National Park also a good place to go, where you can find some birds surprising you.........

L.a.lucionensis



Marsh Harrier



Black Jimny dorve byI-yun looks kind of cowbody on grassland...




Everybody get tired after the shots of the whole bunch of hawks fly by. OK, don;t forget to get together again at Kenting this weekend to meet the biggest migration of the Gray-faced Buzzard Eagle, I'll see you there.~~

Da-Yuan.....It's been a long time no see

I went to Da-yuan in the last short weekend I had, where nearby to the CKS international airport in Taoyuan county, it's an plain area near the rive and sea jounction that full of immargrant birds during Spring and Autumn times.

Comfortable temperture in the cloudy autumn, it should be a good weather for birding in the car.

Why I said "in the car"? It's quite strange that birds fly when you walk out the car, or just stalk by foots, which is very typtical in Da-yuan area. So most of the birders came here on their vechiles, with camera & lens mounted in the front seat, you will have to try once so that you will konw what it is all about.

OK, let't birding on the blog ~~

Greenshank, whose fmaily members are very difficult to be recongnized, to me at least.

Look at the Common Myna at the green background, look a bit nicer than it outfit.

Here's one Common Myna - chick

Short-tail Black Drongo -----It should be a Juvenile

Oriental Great Reed Warbler

The "little-white" are definitely the members in the field, I took the shot differently and maybe it's better than the usual way of shooting.

Little Egret~s

Ugly Moorhen -chick

All five of them together awaiting their monther back to feed them.

There's whole bunch of Nutmeg Mannikin busy in filled out their sotmatch.

Nutmeg Mannikin - Juvenile

Sudden land down Painted Snipe in a far distance.

Naunty Twany-flanked Prinia alway jumps out the bush without further notice.

Beautiful Black-winged Stilt is one of my favorite lady, they alway look so easy and elegant .

Tree Sparrow jumped up to a branch becasue of the sudden rains, no matter how near I am to him.

L.a.lucionensis, same fmaily as Brown Shrike but in different clor of feathers. she happened to doing some tricky hing while I took those shots是

Ready to go~~

Aaa..Wooo~~~

Harder~~~

KoooOOooowww~~~

Feel better~~~

Haaaa~~~

For birds photographing in couple of years, I usually ignored the common birds around me, which often surprising us in some way of their lives, maybe I should pay more attention to the things that close to me...

Mountain ．Ocean

End of summer times....Ted,whom let me be blamed lately because his didn't keep his promise to protect a breeding nest, invitedDL,Stuartand me,

In excuse in trying Ted's newVolvo XC90,we then started a mountain-ocean driving trip.

Although that I'm not quite good at car. but Volvo XC90 is really a garde "A", If money's not a problem, eally should have to get one it. Anyway, this car has been booked bu Donald, while Ted's going to replace it with better car couples of years later!

Back to the trip, we departure 03:30 that marning while most of peoples are still in sweet dream,we headed to La-la mountianthe aborigial people call it a beautiful mountain, and it sure is the most beautiful mountian are in northern Taiwan, with beautiful views and cool air to beat the summer heat.

Sorry that I didn't have any photographs because I can't control Ted to stop and enjoy the beautiful view, and the worst thing is, we didn't find lots of birds in nountain area......

so....

Shy Vivid Niltava (juvenile)



Lone Green-backed Tit



Far-away Yellow-throated Minivet



these three birds wer our only capture in the mountain area....

With this platform but without the birds up there, I guess we ahve to wait until next winter season.



We drove alone at route# 17A, heading to Ming-Tsu, a beautiful pond in mountian area. I'm kinda look forward to see it but no fortune this time, too. They didn't woke me up until they found a bunch of Taiwan Yuhina.







Wihile we were focus in photographingt those lovely birds, the nest with three chicks have fallen out from the tree, we stop and try out best to set it back before they starved to death, their parents seen to know and wait nearby until we lft that area, hopefully they are all fine and OK.



On the way home, we stopped by at I-lan and agin visited the so call Big-C fish port...to try our luck to see if we could find some sea gulls, but sitll, we didn't find much of birs over there, only one Lesser frigate over there, and it's so near us, some of our following pictures couldn't have it all in!!











OK, these were all we got in our mountian-ocean trip that days, I guess the Volvo XC90 will be the only one who's very happy in this trip becasue it have a big run-in in this trip ^^

Formosan Blue Magpie - chick

I don't remember who told me that there's no birds in July~August.



Formosan Blue Magpiehas another very beautiful name in Chinese -- 長尾山娘, describe it as a beautiful long-tailed village girl....Haha, not sure if I put it in better translation.


This is the first time I met their chicks, wiht no beautiful long-tailed, jumped like a big frog everywhere looked for their mom for foods, you just can't image that the little chicks will grown up as a beautiful one.















I risked been attacked by thier mom and dad to get these photos, and it's really cute and amazing that these ugly one will become such a beautiful creatures, hope you enjoy it, too.
~~End.

Greater Crested Tern @ I-lan

This is a very small fish port at I-lan area,you can find the fishing boats lined up and back into the harbour, with the fresh fish/shrip catch and of course, a bunch of sea gull followed them back for foods, that's when I got the opportunity to take some shots of them.


Greater Crested Tern








Look at them, happy and ....













Do go visit there before summer ends, enjoy this beautiful crowded fish port.


Here some info of Ta-she fish port

Collared Scops Owl

Woo~~Woo~~~this is the sounds that remind me not to just sitting in front of my TV or computer!!










Collared Scops Owl, sized about 25 centimeter, with the big red eyes and the creeping calling sound, you might probably run all your strength to get away from it in the middle of nowhere at night times.


I’ve had a close touch with this cute little owl couple of years ago when I visited one of the tourist farm in middle Taiwan, its weight about 1~2 kilograms, it’s so lovely and sp cute that you just don’t want to send it back to the owner.

By the way, it’s illegal to raise it and we’ve report it to the authority to urge the owner to release it to the nature, hope we can meet him sometime, somewhere in the summer night.

Mt. Hehuan

Remember the first time I’ve been to Mt. Hehuan, it’s snow white and below-zero temperature.



This time, no way, I told my friends in the very beginning, but who can reject the beautiful birds up there anyway. In fact, I really enjoyed the deep-blue sky and the green mountains, it’s a place you can leave all the unpleasant things behind and really merge yourself into all those beautiful scenery.

I also love to take some scenery shots but really lack of practice in this area, but who care, just enjoy the photos here I took.











OK, back to our targets this trip,


Alpine Accentor










Wren










We took these shots easily because it’s their breeding seasons, and you just stay put until they fly over to get a mouthful of moths for their chicks..



I sincerely recommending you guys pay a visit to this highest route 14A in Mt. Hehuan, which is highest road in Asia and enjoy the fresh air and beautiful scenery up there.

Some useful links :




Mt. Ho-huan-shan Forest Recreation Area introduction



WebCam of Mr. Hehaun


Ho-huan village, where you can stay over night

White-backed Woodpecker

"There!
Over there!
There's a Woodpecker!"








There were only some Taiwan Sibia & Taiwan Yuhina early morning in Sunlinksea area, and I guess
that I won’t have the chance to find the target birds this morning.


And I have to say thanks to Summer, who has the very sharp-eyes to found this rear White-backed Woodpecker on the cliff-side dead wood, which was 30 meters away from us.


I only took couple of shots before it flown away within the few seconds we found it, and call our friends to confirm that’s the White-backed Woodpecker wee took. Yes, we got luck today!!











This male White-backed Woodpecker is look like the Gray-headed Pygmy Woodpecker, except it have bigger size and red feathers on crown and under-tailed covert.
Four hours of waiting this morning would be worth a while when we met this Woodpecker accidentally.


In Taiwan Bird guide, we got 4 different kinds of Woodpecker, which are Wryneck, Gray-headed Green Woodpecker, White-backed Woodpecker and Gray-headed Pygmy Woodpecker, I’ve listed three of them that taken by myself for your reference:


Wryneck








This records were took at this April, while it took a short break in Da-Yuan area before it heading north again, an over 30 meters photo records.


Gray-headed Pygmy Woodpecker








This cute Gray-headed climbed up and down the tree and pretty difficult to predict where would he stayed, recorded in Wu-Lin Farm.


As to the Gray-headed Green Woodpecker, well, I guess I ‘d need some lucks this winter in Wu-Lin Frarm.

Black-naped Blue Monarch

It’s my first time to get the opportunity to get close to the Black-naped Blue Monarch, with breeding of her two chicks. We couldn’t get the clean background in middle of woods but try hard to get an good angle to prevent any disturbance of the breeding section of it.

The mother bird was busy breeding back and forth that day with those two open-mouth chicks, you could even found that chicks longer their slim neck to try to get the first big meal from their parents.

This is a wonderful experience for me, and I hope you all like it, too.

2610 Tataka

TATAKA -
The Tsao aboriginal language to describe this flat prairie at the Jade mountain saddle area, which also my sanatorium in summer times.



Met lots of birders over there last weekend, ren, I-Yun, Simon, Jo Ann, Peter….etc.



Tawny Owl is the target bird in every summer night in this area, but unfortunately I didn’t catch it well in last weekend.:

Just chat with the guys on MSN, mentioned that I-Yuntook the day-time shots of the Tawny Owl, which inspired us with two main issues to play with Tawny Owl:

a. Never go bath.

b. Never go toilet.

These two main issues really a big jokes because the Tawny Owl shown in the middle of the road while everybody’s not in the camp site doing the above mentioned two main issues.


By the way, thanks to Eric'sgirl friend and I-Yun wife to hold the spot lights for us during the night hours.

I planned to take shots of those beautiful starry night sky but once again I’ve been knocked off by the freeze night air and downward eyelids, the only thing I can do was laid there watch it with occasionally passed by falling star..


But I did took some marvelous morning scenery shots here. ~








Coal Titat theTataka tourist centerstill so friendly but I guessed that I got there too late to have the good light condition in those shots.













We’ve collected oneVerreaux Bush Warblerchick from the tourist, who found it on the road side. I tried to relocating it’s nest position but found it very difficult, which probably the tourist gave us the wrong position. Anyway, . Hugowill brought it to the TESRI on his way back home, where they can took care of it properly.





Below with some photo records I took in this trip:


Green-backed Tit









Streak-throated Fulvetta








Collared Bush Robin








Beavan's Bullfinch







And this Formosan stripped squirrel








Last of all, I've listed some useful links for you guys:


Taiwan Endemic Species Research Institute


Tataka tourist center


Web Cam of Tataka

Black-naped Oriole

Looking forward to seeBlack-naped Oriole for several times this year but just always not in the right timing.



Finally, sometime in June I heard them nesting in Pin-Tung, and it’s really a beautiful “yellow” bird with
Black eye-mask on its head, looks quite cute to me in this “clothes”. Anyway, let’s see what I got from it.





























Failure capture of the flying ones~~













Local friends told me they have already failed for two nesting this season here and don’t know the actual reason why those birds dropped their nests.

While I visited this time, the 3rd nest have been established and adults began to breeding their babies, we didn’t know how many chicks in the nest but really hope they can eventually grow up and leave their nest safely.

Latest update: the chicks disappeared after the first typhoon this summer, not sure if they left safely but only pray it is.

Kinmen ~ Kinmen ~

It's damn hot in Kinmen aound this season,the only thing you can do is fina a shelter without shunshine.


First of all, Thanks to one of our friends - Great, with his help we have a very plaesant times in Kinmen this time.




We headed out to an abandoned bunker at the seaside after we got off the airplane, looking for the long-waiting Eurasian Oystercatcher.



















Take a look at how Andy hide over there^^







the rest of the photos here





We have the best Kinmen Kaoliang Liquorthat night and it's really tough for me to get over it~~



This was the "big boat we took next day and it seem that everybody's OK with the liqor last night.






OK, back to the boating day. This ismy 2nd experiences to photographing on a boat, I remember I took a lot of beautiful sea gull at the first time travel to New Zealand, you just have to keep stable while took your shots of those lovely birds.


We got three different kind of sea gulls here, but most of the photos were blur or out of foucs wither way, took me whole night to checked all ot them....




Roseate Tern
















Black-naped Tern













Bridled Tern










We still waving even after we've back to the pier, maybe we were still in the moods with those lovely sea gulls. After a big beef noodle we back to our ways to next destination, with a jumbo cup of iced drink for everybody to cool us down a bit in that 35 degree of temperture of course.




AOspreyflow over our head from nowhere.










This lovely babyOriental Magpie RobinAndy found while we filled our cars at the gas station.










Ron lake is a palce full of different species,you could find Moorhen,White-browed Rail,ducks,Black-crowned Night Heron,Chinese Pond Heron,Chinese Little Bittern...This was Greater Coucal after I found the flown by....










We then wandering around the farm lands nearby, and we found Pied Kingfisher(Reference photos here)andBlack-winged Kiteflwon by, we didn't have time to get them, but it's still cheered us up when you could saw those rare birds here.


I led our friends to the Blue-tailed Bee eater colony befroe the night came, let everybody got used to what they will have tomorrow to prevent any problems the next day.




The last day in Kinmen, let's have a look at the "jet" like Blue-tailed Bee Eater...
















Almost forget this fly-byBlack-winged Kite










It's definitely a best trip I have to that small isalnd.
Kinmen ~ Kinmen ~ We should see next time^^

Little Tern at Changpin industrial zone

I went to the almost-abandoned Changpin industrial zone last Sunday,
where should be a very nice area for birds to rest and breeding all year around.






Unfortunately, local government's develop blue-print have it as an industrial area to attracting lcoal/foreign investments in late 80s.


Nowadays, Taiwan lost their competetion to China, which is why I say it's almost-abandoned becuase there're only few factories built up and it seems it's a good timing for local government to re-plan the use of this area.


Don't remember since when government is kind of interestingin the wind turbine, you can find it line-up along the beach.





See the scale of the wind turbine with my little jeep.





OK, let's have a look at the target bird that I was looking for - Little Tern














Not sure if these the eggs of Little Tern.




There are lots of Kentish Plover but not one of them were so friendly with my lens....





Migration Black-winged Stilt but now some of them are stay at this island














It's almost 37F that day while I took those shots, and it's all I can do before I got deep-fried by the sun ~~

Blue-tailed Bee-eater in Kinmen

Weather's not stable in May, we forced to delay our schedule becuase of the first typhoon this summer. At the last of the trip

only Michael and I heading to Kinmen, instead of 7 members in the very beginning.


Michael Roy, one of our friends from LA, have long-planned to have this trip to Kinmen, our target bird is Blue-tailed Bee-eater.












































More photos here


Ring-necked Pheasant~~





dark morph Long-tailed shrike~~











More Kinmen birds info can be found at WILD BIRD SOCIETY OF KINMEN .

Fairy Pitta @ Huben, Taiwan

End of June at Huben -
Try again to see if I could have encounter with Fairy Pitta again.



The day before my visit to Huben, a friend of mine informed me that the chicks have left their nest. I'm pretty happy to heard that one antoher nesting success but which is mean that I barely have the chance to meet their chicks. Anyway,hope I can get the chances next year.












Sunshine on him.....









Way to close to my position....









Can you find out the eight differnet colors on it?

Pheasant-tailed Jacana

There are only eight different Jacanas around the world, and the only one with the beautiful long-tail is Pheasant-tailed Jacana, where you can find it here in Taiwan.



Jacana - A small tropical wading birds with greatly elongated toes and claws that enable it to walk on the floating vegatation, also call Lily Trotter.





























I took these photos at the reservation area here at Taiana, and it's very difficult to get the fly shots, hope you enjoy it!!