Bramblings at Tataka National Park, Taiwan.

Here are some of the Brambling pictures which I took at Tataka National Park, Taiwan, in 2009. Tataka National Park is located next to Alishan, a popular tourist destination in Taiwan.

male Brambling

female Brambling

rare view of a male Brambling

Alishan is well known for the sunrise/sunset (日出/日落), clouds (雲海), forest and sacred tree (神木), and the unique hilly railway (阿里山火車). These are the must see natural scenes and must experience railway ride in Alishan, but I missed the railway, because at that time the railway was closed for repairing. 

Sunrise viewd from the peak of Yushan, the highest mountain in Taiwan, and East Asia.

Sunset viewed from Alishan

One of the sacred trees in Alishan and Tataka.

Currently, I'm living in Taiwan and will be here for many years, therefore, I won't be able to update my blog as usual, mainly due to the tight schedule of my laboratory work. Nevertheless, this blog will be only updated when I'm free from my lab work or when there is a rare bird sighted

Brown Hawk Owl in Penang.

A Brown Hawk Owl that I digiscoped tonight in Penang on 4 Sept. 2010.

Visit The Owl Pages to learn more about owls, or follow the links below to view the owls posted in this blog:

- Owls that I spotted in Penang

- Brown Wood Owls in Fraser's Hill

- Buffy Fish Owl in Sepilok, Sabah.

Many thanks to Terence, Eileen, Bee Cheng and Alan for the wonderful owling. Happy Owling.

Milky Stork at Chinese and Japanese Gardens, Singapore.

On 29th August, I decided to visit Chinese and Japanese Gardens of Singapore together with my nephew for the well known resident Milky Stork. Unfortunately, it's raining for the whole morning.

While waiting for the rain to stop at the entrance of the Chinese Garden, I spotted abundance of Coppersmith Barbets. The number of the barbets could be more than 10 on a single fruiting tree, it shows that the population of the barbet in the Chinese garden is very rich and healthy.

Before sunset, I saw a Milky Stork soaring around the Japanese Garden, it's an opportunity for me to challenge myself to digiscope a soaring bird. I got it at last, I learned the secret on how to digiscope a soaring bird.

I'm coming

The Milky Stork is a most majestic bird at the Japanese Garden, which intrigued me to spend an hour observing the behaviour of the bird. This individual could be part of the Breeding and Re-introduction Programme run by the Singapore National Park. It would be great if there is a pair of Milky Stork in the garden.

Milky Stork Mycteria cinerea is classified as a vulnerable species by BirdLife International. Counts from Malaysia falling consistently from over 100 individuals in 1984, to less than 10 birds in 2005. Click HERE to find out more about this species.

Let's take a closer look of the bird through these digscoped pictures.

perching on a pine tree

an adult with breeding plumage

comforting itself.

beautiful preening...

and ready for a catch...

fish?..

sunset.....

time to go home...

When the day was getting dark, I bid farewell to the stork with "sayonara, mata aimasyou (さようなら、また会いましょう)", with the hope to see the bird again in the future.

A beautiful floating Torii 鳥居 

Happy Birding..

Collared Kingfisher at Singapore Botanic Garden

I visited the garden on 27 August 2010, and it's a raining day. Therefore, not many birds I spotted in this visit, whereas it was still early for migratory birds sighting.

The only interesting bird I spotted was the Collared Kingfisher carrying a gecko in its beak, an indicator of successful nesting or fledging in the garden.

Visit my previous BLOG if you are interested to find out more about birding in Singapore Botanic Gardens.

Happy Birding.