Bird watching is something all of us appreciate very much, and we all enjoy spreading our hobbies to relatives and friends. Here, I share with readers an account of where I got friends to become involved in a bird watching trip. I hope they found their trip enjoyable and will develop an interest in bird watching.

I am a ninth grader at the Taipei American School. I was introduced to bird watching in the Wild Bird Society Taipei's (WBST) summer birding program, and began birding on my own in the March of 1994. Since then, along with insect collecting, birding has become one of my favorite pursuits. In joining many of the Wild Bird Society's trips, I met many friends who possess the same interests. I also came to know some T.A.S. teachers who were also birders. All six birding teachers of T.A.S. have become members of WBST. Not being able to understand or read Mandarin is a handicap to them as they could not participate in most of the activities; nevertheless, I do my best at translating and helping them join bird watching activities.

Of the six teachers, Mrs. Lois Blanks and Dr. George Blanks were the first teachers I met. Mrs. Blanks is a Middle School language arts and social studies teacher and Dr. Blanks is an Upper School science teacher. They travel all around the world in pursuit of birds to add to their list, already replete with infinite number of species. Dr. Robert Waltner, also an Upper School science teacher is well-known in the Wild Bird Society for the Hypercard stack he is composing on birds of Taiwan.

In school, I have tried sharing my interest with my friends through pointing out the birds present on campus. I gave them copies of brochures, activity schedules and other information concerning the Wild Bird Society. To my surprise, there were some who showed great interest. Before long, I was taking friends out on bird watching trips and introducing them to this fascinating hobby.

David Lee, a ninth grader, was the first to encounter a wild bird. During a short hike in the forest behind our school, I located a Muller's barbet on a branch of a bare tree. He was overwhelmed by how birds in the wild could have such attractive plumage. I consider David as one who has good "bird luck." On a rainy holiday, I took him to Doll Valley, Wulai. Although the weather was terrible, we were fortunate enough to get long, close views of Formosan Blue Magpies. We also stumbled upon Common Kingfishers, various babblers, Gray Wagtails, Plubmeous Water Redstarts, a Brown Dipper, and a flock of Gray-throated Minivets. The variety of birds there were to see awed him.

Another cool ninth grader, Willy Cheung, is who I call the "most unlucky birder." Since his first outing, the birds have never been active whenever he was present. The weather was extremely hot on our first trip to Mutsa, and the only worthy birds sighted were Crested Serpent Eagles, a Sulfur-crested Cockatoo and a Lesser Coucal. Afraid he might lose his interest, I quickly planned a trip for him to Yehliao. Again, a failure trip! Nothing more than Blue Rock Thrushes and a couple of Black Kites. Willy's younger brother, Victor, is especially interested in insects. Maybe because of Willy's presence, there were no insects to be found whenever I went insect collecting at night with him. Willy's luck brightened on November 19 when we recorded over thirty species of birds at Doll Valley and Wulai. We also encountered about twenty species of butterflies and a praying mantis. It was the first time I have seen so many Red-based Jezebels and Indian Leaf Butterflies at Doll Valley. Despite Willy's misfortunes, I did convince him to try a three-day birding trip to Alishan!
 

I signed up for the Wild Bird Society's trip to Alishan in November. I also enlisted Dr. Waltner, David, Willy and Victor, and my younger brother, William. Before the trip, I had already gone with both David and Willy to various locations to do some pre-birding, so they were familiar with a few common birds.

Upon our arrival at Alishan, we immediately set out bird watching. Before dinner, we trekked to the sacred tree and back. Not much was sighted, but there were huge flocks of Formosan Firecrests and a lot of Large-billed Crows. Later, during our nighttime hike, David and Willy, who were unwilling to admit they were afraid of the mountain darkness, turned back after a few steps on the road, intimidated by their own ghost stories. Victor and I continued on our way. We hiked to the plum garden and back, capturing moths here and there to terrify David once we returned. We went to sleep at about midnight, after watching Superman: Clark and Lois and Night of the Rose on television. David blurted some dream words in the middle of the night, and David and Willy exchanged silly groans. Other than that, the night proceeded peacefully.

The next morning we were up by six o'clock, David, Willy, and Victor unwillingly. Hampered by their uncooperative and sluggish attitude, we set off at six-thirty on our way to the plum garden. Along the way, flocks of tourists were already active. In spite of that, there were still birds to see. Formosan Firecrests, Green-backed and Coal Tits, and Steere's Babblers approached us at such a close range they were within our reach. The rest of the birding party took off after breakfast. By then, the swarm of tourists had really become unwieldy. Large-billed Crows and a Plumbeous Water Redstart were the only birds we saw during the morning hike.

After lunch, we packed and prepared to leave for Tung-pu. On our short stroll to the bus, we caught sight of a pair of Plumbeous Water Redstarts, some Green-backed Tits, and a bird we were surprised not to have seen earlier: the Formosan Yuhina. All through the morning, we were wondering what had happened; where have all the Yuhinas gone? At first, I blamed it on Willy's presence, but later I figured that it must have been the hordes of tourists that drove them away. Well, I said to myself, at least we saw them now!

I looked forward to our stop at Yushan. I remembered the Vinaceous Rosefinches, Formosan Laughing Thrushes, Wrens, and other birds I came across the last time I was there. I was not prepared for a disappointment. The tourists there were like ants on sugar! Not only couldn't the birds withstand it, I couldn't either! I saw some far-away Sibias and Dr. Waltner saw a Nutcracker, but that was it!

By the time we reached Tung-pu, it was already dark and we were only able to bird around our lodge. We, all six of us, were assigned a room on the fourth floor. We had some free time before dinner, in which an Ashy Wood Pigeon was discovered in the large tree outside our porch. After that, the sky was too dark to do any further birding. In our room, we entertained ourselves by turning on the television and enjoying Hot Shots 2 and Die Hard. Just then, we were suddenly surprised by a loud screech heard from outside, the call of a Formosan Whistling Thrush. I grabbed my binoculars and rushed onto the porch. I did not take the time to call David or Willy because I had a feeling they would not be enthusiastic about being called out in the midst of a movie to see some "damn old bird." I was able to spot the Whistling Thrush in the tree, but it was too dark to see any coloring; I gave up shortly and joined them in watching the movie.

At dinnertime, I asked Victor if he would like to go on a night hike again. He agreed when I promised him there were more insects to be found than yesterday. He became even more anxious to proceed when I captured an odd-looking praying mantis outside the cafeteria that had a long horn protruding out from the top of its head.

That night, we indeed captured more insects than the previous night, mostly katydids and moths. I also came up with an unexpected find. As I dug deeply into the leaves of a palm while tracing the calls of a katydid, I inadvertently came upon the empty pupa shell of a common palmfly, a type of butterfly. This unexpected discovery suddenly reminded me that the palm I was digging through was the food plant of the Common Palmfly. I searched through the leaves once more with a different objective: I was looking for the larvae of the Common Palmfly. I soon unearthed three eggs, two of which I brought home to raise.

Following our return and after viewing Super Sunday, we went to bed. Three beds were provided, so two people had to share each bed. David and Willy slept in one bed, I shared another with Victor, and the last bed belonged to Dr. Waltner and William. We later learned it was a risky arrangement.

The crisis of the night was sparked by David and Willy's quiet chatting. Annoyed by their incessant conversation, I turned on the flashlight and shined it on them. Taken by surprised, David hurled Willy's pillow at us, which we gladly accepted. Now, Willy, angry at David for confiscating his pillow, lunged at us with a nasty expression on his face. We were dismayed by his sudden aggression, and the pillow was unwittingly snatched back. Now we grew unhappy, and I tossed an object at them. David responded by uncovering his bag of M&M's and firing the chocolate bits at us. At first, I ignored the M&M's and hid under the blanket, threatening to throw chocolate chip cookies. During a few minutes of raining M&M's I thought my threat was a good plan to put into action. I quietly opened a bag of Mini Chips Ahoy! under my blanket, and without warning, chucked a couple of the cookies at the antagonists. Intrigued by our bizarre descent, the nightmare "World War III" broke out, with flying cookies and candy. The whimsical battle was finally terminated by the agreement of a verbal treaty of "no talking for the rest of the night."

I was woken up at five in the morning by the calls of the Water Redstart, Whistling Thrush, and Bamboo Partridge. Seeing that it was still dark, I sauntered around a bit outside. I was attracted to a Water Redstart on the roof of a building. It was too dark to make out any characteristics, but the rhythmic fanning of its tail could be clearly observed. On the stairs leading back to our room, I saw a dragonfly that seemed to have lost its ability to fly. I brought it into the room to assist me in getting the others out of bed. At six I entered the room and saw that Dr. Waltner was already up, and I woke everybody else up. David and Willy were more headstrong than yesterday, and even the dragonfly failed to get them out of bed. Frustrated with their poor birding spirit, Dr. Waltner and I left the room together.

Even though it was just twilight, some birders were also up, and we took the trail behind our inn towards a waterfall. Along the way, the birds were wonderful, even more plentiful than in Alishan. We heard a White-tailed Blue Robin, saw Black Bulbuls, Gray Treepies, Steere's Babblers, Formosan Yuhinas, Lesser Scimitar Babblers, and lots more. At seven, breakfast time, Dr. Waltner and I felt that with so many birds to see, it was worth missing breakfast, so we walked on. The flock of Green Pigeons, Gray-throated Minivets, Bronzed Drongos, White-eared Sibias, Fire-breasted Flowerpecker, and Little Forktail that we saw just about satisfied our hunger. We returned by seven-thirty to report our good news, and found that breakfast had been prepared for us by some thoughtful birders; we hadn't missed it after all.

When the birders who were not with us earlier in the morning heard the bird news we brought, they hopped onto the trail immediately. I felt sorry for not taking David, Willy and Victor this morning because of all the birds they missed, so I took the same trail and hoped I would be able to show them all the birds I saw in the morning. On this trip, the Collared Bulbul was a new bird added to the list. We saw most of what I had seen earlier this morning and I was quite satisfied; except for the fact that we saw only a single Minivet and the puny Flowerpecker was too far away. The only birds we did not meet the second time were Lesser Scimitar Babblers and Green Pigeons.

Dr. Waltner did not repeat the same trail, and went off by himself on a different route. He reported back at ten-forty with the Collared Pygmy Owl on his list and a smile on his face. Everyone was impressed by Dr. Waltner's thrilling discovery.

On the trip back to Taipei, prizes were handed out to those who had guessed the closest to the number of species of birds seen at Alishan and Tung-pu. Lucky Victor got a prize for Alishan and Dr. Waltner got a prize for Tung-pu. For the rest of the ride, we watched videos on birds and a portion of Jurassic Park.

Although many expected birds did not show up, we still had a great time on our trip to Alishan and Tung-pu. I am sure all of us learned a great deal on this trip, especially beginning birders like David, Willy, and Victor. Maybe we can plan similar travels in the future, but without the tourists and night-clashes!