TAIWAN II

 In my humble oppinion the greatest accolade that can be bestowed upon anyone is an invitation to visit someone’s home, which was the situation as we continue the

Taiwan Odyssey!

Vicky Cheng had already excelled and endeared herself to me, highlighted by the host of ‘goodies’ shown on last Sunday’s post, and now there were to be more!

Not a route march by any means but enough distance, through a heavily wooded area, where the day tally had shown a few birds and diverse countryside

leaving the

Hotel and Village

BLACK-THROATED TIT

the ubiquitous
TAIWAN BLUE MAGPIE
followed  by a 'rare' form of the same speicies only minutes later

a leaucistic individual with the pigment missing and Vicky only having seen c2 of the kind before!

Through virgin jungle with just occassional peeks of

CIVILISATION

PALLAS'S SQUIRREL

While along the course of the river

 a true delight not even considered on the Imaginary List

BROWN DIPPER

Local Temple
A lille further on to the flatlands and now getting
Far from the Madding Crowd

HOODED CRANE
any of the family group always a delight to add to the ever lengthening list'

Before Vicky spotted in quick succession both

PLAIN PRINIA

and the sharply contrasting

LONG-TAILED SHRIKE
before crossing the

RICKETY RACKETY BRIDGE
and her families

Place of Worship

before the vista opened up to mile upon mile of

RICE PADDIES 

her families stock-in-trade. We could have gone directly to her  home but our attention was caught by the sighting of a

PACIFIC GOLDEN PLOVER

something a 'mega' when found on UK turf but many dozens here followed by the Real Delight of the who day meeting the

CHENG FAMILY
with the only regret being the moment taking over the whole scene and no taking enough photos of a Warm - Warm - Welcome! Mum and Dad just beyound the stool and

UNCLE DJEONG
performing his party piece tying his ear lobes below his chin, sometimes you get to thinking you have

Seen It All?

Also across the paddies were a number of other  Wading Birds the highlight of which were many, many

LONG-TOED STINT

which was contender for if not THE

BIRD of the TRIP

in as much as not only a longed for 'Lifer' but the last of the c4 species of Stint in the World recorded
(the 2 images above have been 'borrowed' as all at the site kept their distance)
Just for your interest the other 3 family members all seen in Dorset are

Ferrybridge - 19/09/1976

RED-NECKED STINT

Ferrybridge - 27/08/2010
and

TEMMINCK'S STINT
Lodmoor - 16/05/1982

A huge wrench to pull myself away but there were other things to see and if we were going to follow Vicky's plan of attack we would have to seek higher ground - something of a plod until Lady Luck once again visited us. Not a mile up the hill yet there before us appeared the

ROAD CLEANERs

who agreed to take us to the place we wanted and then clean from top to bottom!
On the decent the delights included

GREY TREEPIE

CHASM

SPOTTED DOVE

WHITE-WHISKERED LAUGHING THRUSH

The only Moth of the trip and

TAIWAN SIBIA 

With still more to come, again we hope this is as enjoyable to view as it has been to cobble together!