Taiwan - Birding Reports (1 Viewer)

[SteveMM]

Personally, my favourite photo of this weekend: Male Blue-breasted Quail at Jia Dong, Pingtung.

 

[Dave 2x]

Personally, my favourite photo of this weekend: Male Blue-breasted Quail at Jia Dong, Pingtung.

Amazing.....that would have been a lifer for me! There was a lot of photos of Blue-breasted Quail taken by photographers last year. Turns out a farmer had trapped a pair and was charging people money to come and photograph them. This is of course much better!!

Enjoyed your Lanyu report as I still haven't been there yet....I am thinking next April might be a good time to go.

On Saturday 1 August, I went to Huajiang where a couple of Taiwan Hwamei have been showing up to feed on the fruiting trees. After waiting a couple of hours, one showed up and put on a show.

A couple of pics...

 

[SteveMM]

Amazing.....that would have been a lifer for me! There was a lot of photos of Blue-breasted Quail taken by photographers last year. Turns out a farmer had trapped a pair and was charging people money to come and photograph them. This is of course much better!!

Enjoyed your Lanyu report as I still haven't been there yet....I am thinking next April might be a good time to go.

On Saturday 1 August, I went to Huajiang where a couple of Taiwan Hwamei have been showing up to feed on the fruiting trees. After waiting a couple of hours, one showed up and put on a show.

A couple of pics...

Wow ... I would ordinarily say that nothing surprises me about the behaviour of photographers here, but that is beyond ridiculous! As far as I can see, there's no difference between this and taking pictures of one at a night market (where the farmer probably bought these birds in the first place, so at least some business acumen from him).

Lanyu is extremely limited bird-wise (a trip list this time of 22 species, 5 of which from the boat!), but April would introduce migrants into the equation I suppose. The big unknown for April is the sea, which has the potential at least to be quite exceptional from late month onwards. That said, Lanyu really cannot hold a candle to Dongyin for spring migrants!

 

[SteveMM]

Not too much to report down south in respect of the typhoon, the best birds being the four juvenile Sooty Terns which passed Qi Gu in the storms of Sunday morning. Otherwise, a couple of windblown terns (Bridled + Brown Noddy) were nice to photograph, as they normally remain well out of range of my cheapo camera setup!

 

[SteveMM]

Kinmen is always there for when the summer on Taiwan gets just too boring to handle (like this past weekend, for example), with easy Blue-tailed Bee-eaters and 'Swinhoe's' Plovers. Other regulars, like Collared Crows and Hoopoes, are there year-round, too. A few surprises this time round (not photographed or photographed poorly) were Germain's Swiftlets (perhaps not too big a surprise all things considered), Chestnut-winged Cuckoo, Plaintive Cuckoo and Asian Paradise Flycatcher.

 

[SteveMM]

A rather distant Collared Kingfisher was hanging around Sz Tsau, Tainan, albeit on and off this afternoon. My first decent bird of the autumn really.

 

[Dave 2x]

A rather distant Collared Kingfisher was hanging around Sz Tsau, Tainan, albeit on and off this afternoon. My first decent bird of the autumn really.

Nice find Steve...there was also one at Yilan recently but I regretfully didn't go and see it.

Birding has been relatively slow but picking up faster now. Some highlights from the last couple of weeks:

5 Sep - More than 100 Brown Boobies mixed with at least 4 species of Tern working the North Coast around Shimen. 5 Dollarbirds in the same area but staying too far from my lens for any good shots.
9 Sep - Collared Scops Owl in my local park in Nangang. Also found a lifer Many-banded Krait.
12 Sep - 46 Chinese Egrets at Yehliu. Other migrants included an Eastern-crowned Warbler, Asian Brown Flycatcher.
13 Sep - Only 4 Chinese Egrets left. Other migrants included 2 Asian Brown Flycatchers, an immature male Blue-and-white Flycatcher.

A few photos...

Cheers

Dave

 

[Dave 2x]

...and a few more photos.

Cheers

Dave

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

Love the flight shots of the eagle!

 

[Dave 2x]

Love the flight shots of the eagle!

Thanks Jeff, as you know these Eagles are very common in Taiwan but not usually so easy to photograph. I got lucky.

Here's a few more photos...Steve, please let me know if any of my Leaf-Warbler IDs are incorrect!

Cheers

Dave

 

[Dave 2x]

...and a few more photos.

Cheers

Dave

 

[SteveMM]

...and a few more photos.

Cheers

Dave

The Phylloscs are right, Dave, bar the Arctic-type which needs identifying by ear (so I've no idea which one you have there). That's a pretty healthy-sized flock of Chinese Egrets, by the way!

Qi Gu has a few odds and ends at the moment, but nothing too out of the ordinary. Asian Paradise Flycatcher, Ashy Drongo and Black-winged Cuckooshrike all showed up today.

 

[Dave 2x]

The Phylloscs are right, Dave, bar the Arctic-type which needs identifying by ear (so I've no idea which one you have there).

Thanks Steve....that strong yellow colour underneath the "Arctic"...made me label this one as a likely "Japanese" although as you say the call is the clincher! I hate this split as these birds never seem to call at this time of year.

On Saturday I returned to Yehliu...highlights were Japanese Paradise-Flycatchers (females so not 100% sure on the ID yet), Asian Brown Flycatcher, female Blue-and-white Flycatcher. Nothing too unusual. Yehliu has become more difficult now as they refuse entry before 7:30am unless you have a year pass.....year passes are now only available in January.

Thick-billed, Pale-legged, Two-barred Warblers had all been reported a couple of days earlier....but nothing unusual when we were there.

On Sunday rather than entering Yehliu with the coach loads of mainland Tourists I decided to stick to Huajiang. Best bird was a Temminck's Stint that refused to come close for a photo despite waiting 3 hours. Following that we visited the Taipei Botanical Gardens which was very quiet apart from a pair of Black-naped Monarchs and some Vinous-throated Parrotbills.

Cheers

Dave

 

[SteveMM]

Yehliu has become more difficult now as they refuse entry before 7:30am unless you have a year pass.....year passes are now only available in January.

What a shame! I can remember being so excited about going to Yeh Liu that I would typically roll up there at 4:00 in the morning, sleep on the end for a couple of hours, and then start birding. Quite a lot of birds actually leave there in the first hour of daylight (including a singing Chinese Leaf Warbler once).

I yelled at one of the security guards for long enough last year (or whenever it was that Fujian Niltava wintered) that he let me in whilst it was still dark, but I had to buy a year pass on the way out (and leave a kidney at reception to make sure they got their 50p).

 

[Dave 2x]

This weekend I returned to Yehliu on Saturday and Sunday....as expected we were refused entry before 7:30am. Birding was very slow and the only migrants of note were Siberian Blue Robin and Japanese Paradise-Flycatcher. Jinshan was also unnaturally quiet.

Other interesting sightings from the weekend:-
A presumed Himalayan Swiftlet - Yehliu on Sunday morning.
A Common Kingfisher that appeared to get blown in from the sea - Yehliu
Peregrine Falcons doubling up on a Spotted Dove but failing in the strong winds - Yehliu
Terek Sandpiper - Jinshan

Good to meet up with Steve, David and Richard on Saturday...have never seen so many English speaking birders in one place in Taiwan!

A correction to one of the previous posts (as it will not let me edit anymore)...3 of the "Chinese Egret" photos are actually an immature Little Egret. The other photos are Chinese Egrets.

A few photos...

 

[SteveMM]

Good to meet up with Steve, David and Richard on Saturday...have never seen so many English speaking birders in one place in Taiwan!

Yes, it was interesting for me to put faces to names by turning up at Yeh Liu last weekend. With the exception of the very occasional passing tour bus of western birders, there really are never any English speakers in Qi Gu!

Out of interest, I got two Aerodramus SP myself in Qi Gu early Friday morning (25/9). These were actively migrating and simply cruised through heading straight south, not really giving me any length of time to have much of a look at them.

I returned to Qi Gu on the holiday Monday, as there seemed to be no point staying in the north with the typhoon on a collision course with Yeh Liu/Tian Liao Yang/Ma Gang etc. It had a big effect on the south, too, and all I got locally was a (admittedly quite confiding) Sakalin/Pale-legged Leaf Warbler. Although the 'Arctic' Warblers may be hard (though I think that I can do them now), these two actually are impossible to tell apart!

 

[SteveMM]

Today (2/10) was simply wonderful in Qi Gu, with the stars for me being the two (2) Two-barred Warblers (which called occasionally) that I spent most of the day trying to photograph. Other birds were: Brown-chested Jungle Flycatcher, Blue-and-White Flycatcher, Japanese Paradise Flycatcher, Forest Wagtail, Pechora Pipit, Arctic Warbler, Yellow-browed Warbler, Yellow-browed Bunting, Black-winged Cuckooshrike, Northern Boobook and a single Cuckoo SP. Ace!

 

[SteveMM]

The recent weekend was much much quieter than Friday, with everything from that day having left overnight. A Eurasian Wryneck arrived on Saturday and a few Chestnut-cheeked Starlings came through on Sunday. I caught up with the Wryneck with my camera this morning (it was always distant Saturday/Sunday). That's quite a tongue it's got!

 

[Dave 2x]

Love the Wryneck...have seen this species a couple of times in Taiwan but so far failed to get photos. One day!

This last weekend I re-visited Yehliu which was yet again pretty quiet.

Highlights included:
2 male Blue-and-white Flycatchers that the photographers managed to get feeding on mealworms;
At least 1 Dark-sided Flycatcher
3 Chinese Egrets
Japanese Paradise-Flycatchers were there but I somehow missed them this time.
One lucky photographer also managed a blurry photograph of a female Siberian Thrush that never appeared again for anyone.

A few photos...

Cheers

Dave

 

[Dave 2x]

A few more photos from the weekend...

Cheers

Dave