Hsinchu Business Trip (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Hopkins]

I'm going to visiting Taiwan on a business trip to Hsinchu during the week of the 30th of July. I'm going to leave a day early and have time on the 29th for birding somewhere in northern Taiwan.

My current plan is to stay in Taipei on the night of the 28th, and spend the morning of the 29th birding at either Wulai or Yangmingshan, before catching a train down to Hsinchu in the afternoon. As an alternate, I could easily get to Hsinchu on the 28th and spend the day birding in the Hsinchu area if that makes more sense.

Also note that I'll be at the mercy of public transportation and taxis, so if I can't get to a site that way, I'll need to have a fellow birder take me there.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

TIA,

Jeff

 

[Mark Bruce]

Jeff, birding in and around Taipei over a weekend isn't going to be easy. Both Wulai and Yangmingshan will be busy. Areas in Taoyuan (Lalashan) and Hsinchu (Guanwu) will be busy and take quite a few hours to get to as they are up in the mountains. You could try head out to Wulai on the 28th and be ready to go birding early on the 29th before the crowds arrive.

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

I chose Yangmingshan.

But as you expected, I got there at about 6:30 and the trails were already full of people. With radios, and generators, and... well, you know Taiwan.

There was not much bird-wise on the trails. The most activity was around the fountain where I had a Muller's barbet and a couple black bulbuls and some swallows (and a flyover great egret!) among the more common birds.

The good news is I finally saw a blue magpie. Actually, I saw a family group of four - two adults and two immatures. The light wasn't great, but I'll take it.

This was why I picked Yangmingshan. I'd been to Taiwan 4 or 5 times since I started birding, and missed the magpie in suitable habitat the couple of times I tried previously. Now I can focus on getting back to the mountains for the endemics I'm still missing. Either that or a weekend at Kenting for raptor migration and the bulbul.

 

[Mark Bruce]

Good to hear you got a Blue Magpie.