Taiwan part 2 still looking for blue

Still looking for blue

Two days later I went back to Wulai. I took another trail and got quite lucky. Before I headed towards the forest there was a Taiwan Blue Magpie, sitting on the side of the road, in front of the police box, directing traffic. Now, that's blue!

In the forest barbets, bulbuls and laughing thrushes were heard, as well as treepies and warblers in the thick greenery. Many trees bore fruit and others were blooming.

 

What are these flowers? Hibiscus? I had never seen them before. 

Once the path returned to the river I started to see more birds

A Taiwan Whistling Thrush looking for its mate from a riverside building.

A Plumbeous Water Redstart fanning its tail.

A pair of Grey-chinned Minivets came down from the canopy. Here the male, bright orange. The female is bright yellow.

Magpies! More to follow

Taiwan part 1, Looking for blue

Looking for blue.

On this trip I asked a birding pal to join me on the first day to the Wulai district, a mountainous area close to Taipei city, with a beautiful landscape of broadleaf forests and gorges with sparkling clear rivers. The first birds we saw were Water Redstart and Whistling Thrush, hustling around the banks.

  

Plumbeous Water Redstart male and female

The Taiwan Whistling Thrush was sitting quietly for several minutes, undisturbed by our presence.

    

We hiked to the Neidong waterfall were a Little Forktail flew in.

Fresh water shrimp

On the way we saw many small birds like Grey-cheeked Fulvelttas, White-bellied Erpornis (Yuhinas) and Plain Flowerpeckers in the foliage, moving too fast for me to photograph. I had never see Taiwan Blue Magpies and hoped to see some. We heard their call numerous times and finally saw them flying in the distance.

a skink on the side of the road  

Rhododendrons named after this place: Wulai

Old houses amongst hot spring hotels line the river at Wulai town.



Ainoshima's stray cats

鳥がない時猫は楽し

Many eye infections and several broken limbs, but all fat tummies and straight tails

  

Living among the fishermen in the village the life of these stray cats is not that bad.

  

Winner of the beauty contest

The lady at the ferry terminal introduced a very friendly stray she named KOEKIE!

Memories of our own old KOEKIE flooded back.

  

Koekie came onboard in 1993, sailed with us from New Zealand to Fukuoka in 1994-1995 and died in a traffic accident in 2002.

今日の勉強　猫　＝　cat

                犬　＝　dog

One sunny afternoon in March

お久し振りでミソサザエちゃんを会いました
ミヤマホオジロも見に来ました
シジュウカラが梅を好きみたいです

ミソサザエ　= Winter Wren

ミヤマホオジロ　= Yellow-throated Bunting

しじゅうから　= Great Tit

 

wakame diver in Hakata Bay

ホシハジロ，　Common Pochard

イソヒヨドリ，　Blue Rock Thrush

  

マミチャジナイ，　Eyebrowed Thrush

日の勉強　久し振り = hisashiburi

Ainoshima

Ainoshima is a small island in the Genkai Sea, just north of Hakata Bay.

A small ferry from Shingu takes pedestrians only, just 5 or 6 times a day. The people in the small fishing village are very friendly and welcoming to visitors, mostly sports fishermen and some birders.

Its a good place to see migrators.

Friends asked me to go with them on a late March Tuesday afternoon after receiving a message about a European Hoopoe. These birds make short stop-overs to eat and rest on their journey north. They sport a set of tall headfeathers that they raise in an impressive comb when getting angry or excited. I had never seen that and was eager to come along.

However, the bird didn't reveil itself. There were lots of  Kites, Redstarts and Yellow-throated Buntings frequenting the vege gardens and blossom trees around, but not much else. Too bad.

The next day Jaap had a job nearby and gave me a ride, so I returned to the island early in the morning. I waited and criss-crossed the west part of the island in the heat of the sun (in March!) for many hours. Finally the Hoopoe got hungry and went out for a feed and I got lucky.

八つガシラ、Eurasian Hoopoe

intruders!   ホオジロはくセキレイ，Amur White Wagtail

  

no problem, nothing to get excited about and no reason to raise any headfeathers...

keeping an eye out, but generally feeding peacefully. 優しい

おいしいよ！

ミヤマホジロ，Yellow-throated Bunting

ジョオビタキ，Daurian Redstart (fem) in a peach tree

今日の勉強　　優しい　=　yasashii

                          You can plan to go fishing, but you cannot plan to catch a fish