Fushan Botanical Garden is a treasure chest for studying the lowland forest ecosystem of Taiwan. The garden is adjacent to the Ha-Pen Reserve, which is probably the last intact forest at such elevations in northern Taiwan. Fushan and Ha-Pen are protected areas located on the boundary of Taipei and Ilan county. In November, 1987, The Fushan Botanical Garden was created and opened to the public. However, strict regulations still apply in the area. Mountain permits must be obtained about a month beforehand, no more than 300 people are allowed in the garden per day, tourists may only visit between 9 AM and 4 PM, and many of the trails are off limits to the general public. Furthermore, the garden is closed on every Monday, a number of holidays, and the entire month of March. The purpose was to keep human disturbance to the area at a minimum. The tactic was successful, as wild animals rare elsewhere in Taiwan could now easily be seen roaming the park. A number of unique birds are also found in the area, including the Indian Black Eagle, Hodgson's Hawk Eagle, Tawny Fish-Owl, Brown Wood Owl, Mandarin Duck, Swinhoe's Pheasant, Maroon Oriole, and Large Cuckoo Shrike. Needless to say, other forest birds are also abundant. This place is one of the wettest forest I've seen; all the trees are have a dense cover of epiphytes on their trunks. I have been warned about leeches although I did not encounter any on this trip. We were lucky, though, since it did not rain until the day we left the park.

I was fortunate to know a birder who worked with the National Taiwan University and has been banding birds at Fushan for over four years. This is the last year the banding study will be conducted, and I was invited to come along on their second to last banding trip. This is just one of numerous research projects going on in the reserve, and I was able to spend three days at Fushan because the National Taiwan University has been granted a research permit in the area. Being able to spend both day and night at Fushan was a great advantage on this trip. During the hours when tourists are permitted in the park, the height of bird activity has usually passed and most of the mammals have gone back to hiding.
 

Dec. 25, Friday

I woke up early dawn to explore the place. Since I did not have a map, I randomly walked up the paved road and followed the slippery steps it lead to. I could hear FORMOSAN BLUE MAGPIES calling in a distance, so I decided to head towards that direction. As I walked down the steps, I heard a loud bark in the forest nearby. I reached the forest edge and saw a Chinese muntjac as it fled into the forest. It continued to bark as I walked past the visitors center, where I startled a PALE THRUSH. I ended up back at the paved road, and I followed it towards the botanical garden. Birds were active in the forest, and I saw flocks of GRAY-CHEEKED and GOULD'S FULVETTAS, RED-HEADED TREE BABBLERS, LESSER SCIMITAR BABBLERS, FORMOSAN BLUE MAGPIES, PALE THRUSHES, and a female SIBERIAN BLUETAIL. I also heard RUSTY-CHEEKED SCIMITAR BABBLERS and FORMOSAN HILL PARTRIDGES. Since I wasn't sure what time we were supposed to begin setting up nets, I decided to head back. There were many piles of animal dropping on the road, probably from some nocturnal mammal.

When I got back, it turned out that most people were still asleep, so another birder and I drove to the botanical garden to search for muntjacs. In the pond by the entrance to the garden, I saw a pair of MANDARIN DUCKS swimming gracefully in the still waters. What a lovely life bird! We drove into the garden area, where I had my first good look at a Chinese muntjac feeding on the grass under the trees. I took a picture of one using my ordinary camera; too bad I did not bring my better camera with telephoto lens on this trip. We saw about ten muntjacs feeding on the grass. Most of them were aware of our presence, but they were not as skittish as I expected them to be; many of them continued to munch on leaves as we watched through the open car window. Supposedly, this is the only place in Taiwan where the mammals could be seen out in the open like this. This must be the result of the intensive conservation efforts and strict regulations in the area. Also on the grass was a flock of ORIENTAL TREE-PIPITS. We took a short walk in a densely forested trail hoping to come across Swinhoe's Pheasants. No luck. As we returned, I stopped at the pond again. I discovered that there was not one, but five pairs of MANDARIN DUCKS in the pond! This is the most reliable place in Taiwan to see Mandarin Ducks in Taiwan. Apparently, these ducks are the rare resident population and have become quite accustomed to human presence since the creation of the pond when the botanical garden was built. Interestingly, these males appear to keep their breeding plumage year-round. Also in the pond were three LITTLE GREBES in winter plumage and a WHITE-BREASTED WATERHEN.

As we left the parking lot, we saw a female Formosan macaque, or the Formosan rock-monkey, with a baby clinging to her chest. I also saw a small mammal on the side of the road that ran into the forest as soon as we approached; it was probably a young muntjac.

We returned to the cabin, where I saw a large mixed flock of GRAY-CHEEKED FULVETTAS, LESSER SCIMITAR BABBLERS, BRONZED DRONGOS, and a GRAY-HEADED PYGMY WOODPECKER. After splitting into small groups, we headed into a trail to set up the mist nets. We continued to pass by more flocks of GRAY-CHEEKED FULVETTAS, and I came upon about thirty to forty GRAY-SIDED LAUGHING THRUSH crossing our path. After setting up a couple nets by a small stream, I saw the same flock of GRAY-SIDED LAUGHING THRUSH again and watched them at close range for a while. We continued to set up mist nets along the trail for the rest of the morning. I noticed a large number of tunnels on the side of the trail dug by the Formosan pangolin, also known as the scaly anteater, a nocturnal and secretive mammal that spends most of its time underground. The scales of this creatures used to be common in Chinese medicine, so the creature had become extremely rare in Taiwan. Near noon, after setting up all the nets, I was ahead of everyone else as we walked out of the trail. About twenty meters before we were back onto the paved road, I noticed a small animal slowly strolling towards me in the middle of the trail. A partridge? Squirrel? No! It was a pangolin! I watched it through my binoculars for a while. Since it appeared to be unaware of my presence, I quickly fumbled in my backpack for my camera. The pangolin must have heard the noise I made because it raised its head, looked at me, and began to head into the forest. I managed to take a picture of its tail before it disappeared from sight, just as the others caught up. When I told them of my find, all of them were jealous because they have all been here many times but none of them have ever seen a pangolin!

We were free after lunch, so I hiked up a trail leading to the a stream, the main water source for the area. The forest was fairly mature secondary growth, but not many birds were active even though the weather was cloudy. Besides hundreds of GRAY-CHEEKED FULVETTA, I also saw a WHITE-BACKED WOODPECKER. The trail ended at a rapid stream, where a buried pipe directed water towards the lodges. I took a short break, and I saw a STRIATED HERON catching fish in the stream. As I returned, I saw a dead white-faced flying squirrel lying on the side of the trail. It was not there when I went into the trail, and its eyes were still open, so it must have died less than a couple hours ago. The body looked fresh and complete, no signs of how the animal died. I returned to the cabin right before dinner time and told the others about my find. They told me that someone was studying flying squirrels in the area and would probably want the specimen for dissection. Therefore I lead a couple people back to where I found the flying squirrel to retrieve the body. As we walked back in the dark, fireflies were abundant all along the trail, illuminating the trail with eerie flashes of green.

After dinner and a short break, I headed again to the botanical garden hoping to see more mammals or owls in the dark. Lots of frogs were calling from the drainage ditches, and an occasional flying squirrel would call from the trees nearby. However, I did not hear any owls. When I reached the parking lot of the botanical garden, two round eyes on the grass reflected the light from my flashlight: a Chinese muntjac! Soon I noticed that there were many more of them feeding on the grassy slope, and they let us approach to a surprisingly close range. They only appeared to be slightly disturbed by our bright lights. Inside the garden, I saw about a dozen more muntjacs, but no other mammals. I rested in one of the pavilions for a while, where I almost fell asleep in the cool night breeze and listening to the chorus of frogs and flying squirrels. When I finally walked back to the cabin, a flying squirrel glided over my head and crashed into the trees across the road, probably a Formosan giant flying squirrel.

Dec. 26, Saturday

We walked through the trail before dawn and spread out all of the mist nets. I then continued walking down the trail that led to the botanical garden. I saw flocks of GRAY-CHEEKED FULVETTAS, FORMOSAN YUHINAS, STEERE'S LIOCICHLAS, LESSER SCIMITAR BABBLERS, and GRAY-SIDED LAUGHING THRUSHES. The flock of GRAY-SIDED LAUGHING THRUSHES seemed even larger than the one I saw the previous day. There were at least fifty, but maybe up to a hundred birds in the flock. I cannot think of a better way to describe the forest at that moment except that it was overrun by GRAY-SIDED LAUGHING THRUSHES! For at least fifteen minutes (and even longer if I stayed), the trees around me teemed with these large rufous birds. The whole hillside echoed with their calls, and they were crossing my path by the dozens. They liked to feed on the ground, picking through the leaf litter like a thrush. Like woodpeckers, they pecked through rotting stumps looking for insects, and they also hammered hard fruits until they exposed the soft flesh. At times I had ten birds or so within the field of view of my binoculars! Beautiful! By the time I reached the botanical garden, I had already heard lots of muntjac barks. I then saw more muntjacs as I entered the garden. Only seven MANDARIN DUCKS were in the pond this day, three males and four females. There were also four LITTLE GREBES and two WHITE-BREASTED WATERHEN. After a walk around the garden, I went back into the trail and returned to the nets, seeing a large flock of WHITE-THROATED FLYCATCHER-WARBLERS along the way.

I heard the cry of the GRAY-SIDED LAUGHING THRUSH as I reached the pavilion where we banded the captured birds. A large flock of GRAY-SIDED LAUGHING THRUSH had passed through an area where we had set up a net. Five had hit the net, but only two were caught. My guess is that these birds came from the same flock I was watching earlier. People began bringing more birds back from the nets: GRAY-CHEEKED and GOULD'S FULVETTAS, WHITE-BELLIED and FORMOSAN YUHINAS, and STEERE'S LIOCICHLAS. Near noon, as I set out to wrap up the nets, I met a large mixed flock extremely close to where we had two nets set up. I waited silently and was delighted to see the flock fly directly into the nets. At least ten birds were trapped: FORMOSAN YUHINAS, GRAY-CHEEKED FULVETTAS, a GOULD'S FULVETTA, a WHITE-BELLIED YUHINA, and a RED-HEADED TREE BABBLER. Thus our lunch time was further delayed as we got to work taking measurements and banding these birds. Our group banded a total of twenty-four birds (one died), and the total for all three groups was ninety-seven birds.

After lunch, I fell asleep and did not wake up until late afternoon. For the last hour after dark, I walked along the paved road, enjoying the beauty of the forest and stream, though the only birds I saw were six FORMOSAN BLUE MAGPIES and some BRONZED DRONGOS. I did not venture out that night, even though I heard some flying squirrels and a COLLARED SCOPS OWL. Somebody had vandalized one of our nets, and the group spent the night repairing it.

Dec. 27, Sunday

Today we again set out in the dark to spread the nets. The weather was cool and cloudy, and it looked like it might begin to rain soon. After doing so, I ventured into the last trail around our cabin that I haven't explored yet. Supposedly, this was not a difficult trail that should lead to the parking lot of the botanical garden. The first part of the trail was indeed quite flat along the valley, though I didn't see many birds through the dense forest, only a couple flocks of GRAY-CHEEKED FULVETTAS and WHITE-BELLIED YUHINAS. Soon, however, the trail turned into a steep ascent up to the mountain ridge. The wet leaves and mossy stones made the trail incredibly slippery, and invisible spider webs built across the path were exceedingly annoying. Ample evidence of wild boars foraging in the area made me even more uneasy. As I climbed the strenuous trail, I thought to myself, "I'm glad this trail leads somewhere; I'd hate to come down this slippery thing!"

When I was finally near the ridge, I saw a couple branches in the trail. Unsure of which route to take, I stuck to the one straight ahead. The trail, however, started to disintegrate into the forest as I trekked further ahead. Soon, I found myself walking through the brush with no evidence of a path at all! Strange, I thought, and turned around to try the branches of the trail I saw earlier. After the sharp and slippery ascent to the true ridge, where I could finally see the other side of the mountain, I saw that there was another branch! For the first time in my life, I felt uneasy being alone in the forest. I reluctantly decided to turn around before I could get myself lost. The descent was not as bad as I had anticipated, and the trail seemed much shorter going back. I saw a WHITE'S GROUND THRUSH, another flock of GRAY-CHEEKED FULVETTAS, and a pair of RUSTY-CHEEKED SCIMITAR BABBLERS.

When I returned to the banding pavilion, the others had already caught and set free a number of birds, including a male THICKET FLYCATCHER, three GRAY-SIDED LAUGHING THRUSH, and GRAY-CHEEKED FULVETTAS. Soon, more birds turned up, such as STEERE'S LIOCICHLA, WHITE-BELLIED YUHINA, GOULD'S FULVETTA, LESSER and RUSTY-CHEEKED SCIMITAR BABBLERS, and a female WHITE-TAILED BLUE ROBIN. As I watched the banders busily taking measurements, I saw a flock of GRAY-SIDED LAUGHING THRUSHES approach. They appeared to be heading straight into one of our nets, so after the flock passed, I went to see if any had been caught. Two were in the net, one already banded. As I tried to untangle the banded bird and get it into the cloth bag, someone else untangled the other bird. Unfortunately, the bird was much stronger than I expected, and it managed to free its leg from the mesh and fly off. There goes a piece of information we could have learned from this bird! The other bird was successfully captured and brought to the pavilion. When the measurements were being made, however, it also escaped. "Flee" was written beside the record for these two birds. Near the end of our five-hour banding, it began raining and we set out to bring down the nets. We banded a total of thirty birds this day, more than the other two groups. Apparently, another group had caught a rare Japanese Robin, but it was eaten by some predator before the banders discovered it.
 

1. LITTLE GREBE
2. STRIATED/GREEN-BACKED HERON
3. MANDARIN DUCK
4. BAMBOO PARTRIDGE *
5. FORMOSAN/WHITE-THROATED HILL PARTRIDGE ! *
6. WHITE-BREASTED WATER HEN
7. COLLARED SCOPS OWL *
8. GRAY-HEADED PYGMY WOODPECKER
9. WHITE-BACKED WOODPECKER
10. GRAY-HEADED GREEN WOODPECKER *
11. PACIFIC SWALLOW
12. ORIENTAL TREE-PIPIT
13. GRAY-THROATED MINIVET
14. BLACK BULBUL
15. BROWN SHRIKE *
16. FORMOSAN WHISTLING THRUSH ! *
17. WHITE-TAILED BLUE ROBIN
18. SIBERIAN/RED-FLANKED BLUETAIL
19. PALE THRUSH
20. GOULD'S FULVETTA
21. GRAY-CHEEKED FULVETTA
22. GRAY-SIDED LAUGHING THRUSH
23. TAIWAN/WHITE-EARED SIBIA ! *
24. STEERE'S LIOCICHLA !
25. RUSTY-CHEEKED SCIMITAR BABBLER
26. LESSER/STREAK-BREASTED SCIMITAR BABBLER
27. RED-HEADED TREE BABBLER
28. FORMOSAN YUHINA ! *
29. WHITE-BELLIED YUHINA
30. WHITE-THROATED FLYCATCHER-WARBLER
31. THICKET FLYCATCHER *
32. BLACK-NAPED BLUE MONARCH
33. VARIED TIT
34. BRONZED DRONGO
35. JUNGLE/LARGE-BILLED CROW
36. HIMALAYAN GRAY TREEPIE
37. FORMOSAN BLUE MAGPIE !

* heard only
! endemic species

List of mammal species seen:

1. FORMOSAN ROCK-MONKEY/MACAQUE
2. FORMOSAN PANGOLIN
3. FORMOSAN RED-BELLIED TREE SQUIRREL
4. WHITE-FACED FLYING SQUIRREL
5. FORMOSAN GIANT FLYING SQUIRREL
6. FORMOSAN YELLOW-THROATED MARTEN
7. CHINESE/FORMOSAN REEVE'S MUNTJAC