Guandu Nature Park, Taipei

My final call in the Taipei area was a morning spent at Guandu nature park. This is another venue that can be reached using only the Metro. It is recovered wetland and mangrove run by the country's main birding NGO.  

I arrived early (at 8 am) to maximise my chances of seeing birds before the heat of the day. This turned out to be a mistake since the park doesn't open until 9 am!  This is good news for the birds and less good for the bird watcher.

sacred ibis flying

The viewer is kept a long distance away from the main part of the reserve and a spotting scope would have been useful given the distances involved between you and the main bird activity. Nevertheless one of the first birds I could make out was sacred ibis which was a lifer for me. It's numbers are increasing from an originally escaped population.  

It's also a bird on my remaining target list in Saudi Arabia. There is a similar escaped population which breeds in Bahrain which occasionally wanders across to the eastern province of Saudi Arabia.  And in the South west, a truly native population is present in the Jizan area at least in summer. I have failed so far to see either. 

mixed group of sacred ibis and cattle egret

Out in the wetland it was mixing with cattle egret.

grey heron

Some of the other water birds were more familiar. Several grey heron were spotted.

black crowned night heron

It was also the only place in Taipei where I meet up with black crowned night heron, both adult and juvenile. 

ruff

On the mudflat out at great distance I could make out several ruff and one other wader, a plover which I could identify nor photograph properly.

(eastern) cattle egret

The cattle egret were extraordinarily tame (like the Malayan night heron seen the day before in the Botanical Gardens) and is almost certainly a reflection of the Taiwanese attitude to birds. 

water buffalo wallowing

Like with the Botanical Gardens, part of the park was closed for maintenance following the typhoon two weeks before. I suspect this hampered my prospects for seeing new birds quite considerably and especially for land birds.

a lily pond

Nevertheless I did add to my Taiwan list in the gardens. I saw a few oriental turtle dove, a bird I first met in Japan last summer.  

Oriental turtle dove

My most satisfying bird of the whole visit was black naped (blue) monarch. Several of these flycatchers were observed in the shaded areas.

black naped monarch

I think this bird just pipped the sighting of a crested serpent eagle which despite seeing four birds of prey in Taiwan was the only one I positively identified.

Another bird of prey seen at the park was probably a goshawk but I can't be certain. It certainly scared the Himalayan black bulbul in the area as it flew through the bushes.
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Javan myna at the park

I believe I met my objective of gaining a basic understanding of the types of families of birds present in Taiwan. I never intended to go for as big a list as possible. 

My next series of blogs will be about Palau which is the next stop on my eastern tour. 

List of 39 species all seen in the Taipei area.

L= lifer
E= endemic

	TianMu (city)	Guandu (wetland)	Wulai (hills)	Botan. Gardens
White breasted Waterhen  (L)				x
Common Moorhen		x		x
House Swift  (L)			x
Malayan Night Heron (L)				x
Black crowned Night Heron		x
Little Egret	x		x
(eastern) Cattle Egret		x
Sacred Ibis (L)		x
Crested Serpent Eagle (L)		x
Ruff		x
Maroon Oriole (E,L)			x
Common Magpie	x
Taiwan Blue Magpie (E,L)	x		x
Grey Treepie  (L)	x		x	x
Large-billed Crow			x
Rock Dove	x		x
Spotted Dove	x
Oriental Turtle Dove		x
Barn Swallow	x	x
Pacific Swallow			x
Taiwan Barbet  (E,L)	x	x	x	x
Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker (L)			x
Chinese Bulbul  (L)	x	x	x	x
Himalayan Black Bulbul (L)	x	X	x	x
Taiwan Scimitar Babbler (E,L)			x
Grey-cheeked Fulvetta (L)			x
White-bellied Erpornis  (L)			x
Japanese White-eye	x	x	x	x
Taiwan Whistling Thrush (E,L)			x
Black naped Monarch (L)				x
Javan Myna (L)	x	x
Jungle Myna	x
Common Myna	x
Black Drongo	x
White Wagtail	x
Plumbeous Redstart (L)			x
Oriental Magpie Robin (L)				x
Eurasian Tree Sparrow	x	x	x	x
White Rumped Munia (L)	x

The botanical gardens, Taipei

On my third day in Taipei, I visited the botanical gardens in the morning. This was another place which is easy to visit using only the Metro.

It was smaller than usual because whole sectors were closed off presumably to deal with storm damage created by a typhoon that struck 10 days before. There were certainly plenty of broken branches around.

Adult and young white breasted waterhen

Nevertheless a few more species were added to my embryonic Taiwan list. First off was the sighting of a tame family of white breasted waterhen on the island in the centre of the main lily pond. 

young white breasted waterhen

This was a lifer for me. Indeed well over half the birds I expect to see on my tour should be lifers too.

moorhen

One that wasn't was common moorhen. I guessed it should be there but it was only after a second visit to the lily pond that I finally picked one up.

lily

The picture of the lily may be pretty but the pond was not. I suspect it is the wrong time of year. Most of the leaves were withered and brown.

part of the gardens

A bird I had been told to expect was Malayan night heron and it was duly present. I had also been told that it had adapted well to man and was very tame at least in Taiwan. Well, this certainly proved to be the case with the bird I saw which allowed me within 2 metres until I lost interest. It didn't fly off even then.

Malayan night heron

The main activity in the trees was provided by bulbuls: both Chinese bulbul and Himalayan black bulbul. However there were also Taiwan barbet present including a breeding pair that kept returning to a hole in a tree where I presume they had young.

Taiwan barbet

Mobile flocks of Japanese white eye were also present.

Japanese white eye

Speaking to Bruno the day before, I said that it didn't look like Taiwan has many garden birds. He agreed and thinks its will take time as part of an involving process of colonisation and of habituation.  After all the Malayan night heron used to be a shy bird.

Oriental magpie robin

One bird which is increasingly colonising gardens is oriental magpie robin. This used to be only a mainland bird. Most birders think it was introduced or escaped but the distance to the mainland isn't great and it could have come here naturally. Its still not common and I was pleased to see a couple in the botanical gardens.

local squirrel

In the next blog, I'll write about by morning visit to Guandu water fowl park. It can also be travelled to by Metro without much trouble.