Chiba Koen

 It was a lovely day and now is the time for all sorts of flowers and blossoms 🌺🌼

and it's a very busy time for parent birds to bring up their little ones.

Even only a short stay in the park made me smile and feel extremely happy 😍

Taiwan 2024 - VII

The hotel we stayed in Taichung was right next to a large park - Taichung Park and of course we didn't miss an opportunity to go around and find some urban birds in Taiwan.

The first bird! a Spotted dove (kanokobatoカノコバト) on the path

They are a common urban bird a bit like Oriental turtle doves in Japan or Wood pigeons in Britain.

Most common ones are Light-vented bulbuls (shirogashiraシロガシラ), which we saw in every tree in the park! They are very vocal and colourful in the light.

Taiwan has a native myna called Crested myna but in urban environments, the introduced species, such as Common myna (Indo-hakkaインドハッカ) and Javan myna (Jawa-hakkaジャワハッカ), are the ones you see more often. 

Pallas's squirrels are common in the park as well.

We spotted unusual starling-like birds in a tree.

We showed the picture and asked Ko-san, who confirmed they are introduced and wide-spreading Chestnut-tailed starlings (Indo-komukudoriインドコムクドリ).

The starlings are pretty but I found a scary article in the Taipei Times saying they increased in number by 7,618% between the year 2009 and 2020! I wonder if they may have been having a big impact on native birds and natural environment in general.

a pond and a pavilion in the park

Black-crowned night heron (goisagiゴイサギ)

Little egret (kosagiコサギ)

Tree sparrows (suzumeスズメ)

We walked to another park with a large pond. 

I can't just not express my disappointment towards the shopping mall LaLaPort!😤

An Eastern cattle egret (amasagiアマサギ) was panting in the heat. so were we!

An Intermediate egret landed in the grass opposite from the cattle egret. We weren't sure if they were both cattle egrets, intermediate egrets or one of each. After examining the pictures and advice from Ko-san, the one on the island in the pond was a cattle egret and the other in the grass was an intermediate. Are we right? 

Our trip to Taichung came to an end but we will definitely come back to Taiwan in the near future. We also recommend all the birdwatchers to visit this wonderful island. 

Good-bye snack (douhua豆花) & Taiwan beer at the airport 😁👋

Feeding Frenzy

The unexpected heavy snowfall was a bit of blessing for me because if I put out little something for the birds in the garden, say, even an apple, it'd definitely attract common but lovely garden birds as feeding birds in gardens is not a popular practice in Japan. It is not just an apple from me though, of course!

the Guard of the Apple😄💂 - Brown-eared bulbul (Hiyodoriヒヨドリ)

what a flexible neck!

Dusky Thrush (Tsugumiツグミ)

I had thought a Dusky thrush would choose an apple but found out they prefer raisins - this one ignored a piece of apple on the ground and went for the raisins.

Don't worry, I cracked ice in the basin so that birds can have access to the water👍

 

Japanese white-eye (Mejiroメジロ)

This is actually a satsuma-shaped feeder 😁 a birthday present from my husband🎁

It has sometimes strawberry jam and at other times chopped-up apple cores in it.

Japanese tit (Shijukaraシジュウカラ) 

They are the same as the Great tit in Britain, who'd eat sunflower seeds, peanuts, dried mealworms and suet. Suet is almost impossible to get hold of in Japan, so, I make my own fat balls from beef fat, which is handed out free in supermarkets in Japan.

Oriental turtle dove (Kijitaboキジバト)

It was not the second day of Christmas🎄 but a pair often visit our garden for seeds.

Grey (White-cheeked) starling (Mukudoriムクドリ)

A starling came to our apples for a couple of days in a row before Christmas but we haven't seen any since then.

I'm hoping the snow will melt quickly so that birds and other wildlife can have a better chance to survive the winter.

Spain II - Doñana National Park

Doñana National Park is located on the southeastern coast of Spain between Gibraltar and the border with Portugal and has one of the largest wetlands in Europe in it, a very important site for wildlife. Vicent, our guide, is knowledgeable and explained a lot about the park.



the birds we saw in Doñana National Park and around

White Storks (Shubashikohシュバシコウ) 

White Storks - resident in Andalucía

Glossy Ibis (Buronzu(bronze)-tokiブロンズトキ)

Glossy Ibis - resident in Andalucía

Spotless Starlings (muji-hoshimukudoriムジホシムクドリ)

These were taken at the same place as the 3rd pic for the white stork.
Red-rumped Swallows seemed to be mending their nests inside the brick building, flying in and out. (no pic...)

They look quite similar to the summer plumage of the Common Starling.
Spotless Starlings - resident in Andalucía

Squacco Herons (Kammuri-sagiカンムリサギ)

Squacco Herons always look surprised:)
wish I could have taken a photo of his/her? back as well.

Squacco Herons - resident in Andalucía


Black-crowned Night Herons (Goi-sagiゴイサギ)

Certainly they are one of the most numerous of the heron family in the world!

Black-crowned Night Heron - resident in Andalucía

click here for Vicent's Doñana Wings

Murmuration

I saw a huge flock of White-cheeked(or Grey) Starlings (Mukudoriムクドリ) from a bus this week over an old woodland area where I had not thought to see them (in that number) and where I have not seen a single starling recently though they had used it for a roosting site for years. So, I decided to find where their new roosts were.

And it was not very hard...

When I was heading home from work by bike, I heard their familiar calls from somewhere close and of course I started to cycle towards the noises.

There they were. I was right under their murmuration!!

After a while, they started taking their pick of roosting locations and squabbling a lot!

What chaos! They did not settle down even after half an hour and it got too dark to film so unfortunately there is no picture or movie after this.

On the same evening, I came across each of the roosts for White Wagtails and Little Egrets. When birds begin getting together, autumn is really deepening...🍁

Inage Kaihin Park

Around the pond in the park, more than 25 Black-headed Gulls were peacefully preening and resting.

Some were lucky enough to be fed by passers-by with a piece of bread or something.

In a small stream between the ponds, a pair of Spot-billed Ducks (Karugamoカルガモ) were foraging.

Above them, a family of Azure-winged Magpies (Onagaオナガ) were loudly calling each other, chasing insects and eating berries.

Is there going to be some sort of fun event here?

Many Thick-billed Crows (Hashibutogarasuハシブトガラス) and Grey Starlings (Mukudoriムクドリ) were actually hunting insects on the grass.

Barn Swallows were swooping in the sky - summer is coming!