May 17
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| Hen Harrier. Image |
Several days of grey skies and showers - it didn’t look promising, but for my sanity I had to get out of the office. Was well worth getting soaked for, some good birds found, suspect many more were hiding. The main focus of my escape was Shuangchun (not far from Beimen in northern Tainan County) - the pedestrian path area inside, and the roads on the west side.
Birds seen in and around Shuangcun, Beimen:
Moorhen, several Redshank, Long-tailed Shrike, Chinese Bulbul, Black Drongo, Magpie Robin, Swallow sp, Kentish (Snowy) Plover, Yellow Bittern, Various Egrets, Black-naped Night-Heron, Little Grebe, Greenshank, Black-winged Stilt, Sooty Tern, Hair-crested Drongo, Whimbrel.
Also, on the way north on #61, where it meets #173 (not far from the Black-faced Spoonbill reserve), I came upon a pond with mixed group of Whiskered and Black-winged Terns.
On the northern side of the Tsengwen river mouth, south of the BFS reserve, there was stunning Hen (Northern) Harrier. Near the #17 bridge was a Koel.
Near HSR Station May 11th
Between tedious trips to Tainan High Speed Rail (HSR) Station had time to look around some fields and scrub to the east of the station. A drainage ditch about 1km east held what I am pretty sure was an Japanese Night-Heron, makes me wonder how many of these endangered migratory birds are mistaken for Malayan Night-Herons (also top finds).
Sicao Tainan May 22nd
Slaty-breasted Rail on the way to coastal windbreak forest. Part of Taijiang Nat Park.
New birds.
Sooty Tern Onychoprion fuscatus
White-winged Tern Chlidonias leucopterus
Northern Harrier Circus cyaneus
Asian Koel Eudynamys scolopaceus
Japanese Night-Heron Gorsachius goisagi
Slaty-breasted Rail Gallirallus striatus Taiwan Endemic Subspecies (G. s. taiwanus)
