WYKE BIRDING: TAIWAN - 19th February

Tuesday, 23 February 2016

TAIWAN - 19th February

Spent a few hours from first light with the nets open where we managed a few new birds including Collared Finchbill, Black-throated Tit and Rufous-faced Warbler while a little group of RUSTY LAUGHINGTHRUSHES moved along the edge of the forest; otherwise it was just the wintering birds up there including Little and Black-faced Buntings, Dusky and Pale Thrushes and Tree Pipits. After packing up all the stuff by mid-morning we drove down the valley to the Taroko NP Headquarters where we added a pair of genuine looking STYAN’S BULBULS and a high soaring CRESTED SERPENT-EAGLE with a Yellow-browed Warbler calling in the carpark.

We then drove north up the coast for a while until we reached Luodong where we had three hours birding around the rivers, rice paddies and estuary until dusk (not really sure where we went!) but I saw a good number of new birds for me including (in no particular order) a single adult VEGA GULL with an excellent flock of 90+ BLACK-TAILED GULLS of all ages at the river mouth, a female BULL-HEADED SHRIKE also near there (a rare winter visitor to Taiwan – there were a few twitchers watching it!), a few stunning LONG-TAILED SHRIKES dotted around, a few EASTERN SPOT-BILLED DUCKS on the river, a couple of WHITE-CHEEKED STARLINGS, many GREEN-HEADED YELLOW WAGTAILS all over the place, a few CRESTED MYNAS, a smart M. s. philippensis race BLUE ROCK THRUSH, a smart TAIWAN SCIMITAR-BABBLER also at the river mouth, a PLAIN PRINIA in a reedbed and a few GREY-THROATED MARTINS hawking over the river.

A good range of other birds were also seen adding to my mountainous based Taiwanese list including a few waders on the rice paddies with Little Ringed Plover (including an all-white leucistic bird), lots of Wood Sandpipers, Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Greenshank, Temminck’s Stint, Kentish Plover and a single Long-billed Plover (at the river mouth) with Grey Heron, Little Egret, Night Heron, Moorhen and White-breasted Waterhen also around the river, a Peregrine over the estuary along with a couple of Caspian Terns and some Red Collared Doves while at least 6 Dusky Thrushes were along the river.