About Myself
Hi,
I am a recent graduate of Taipei American School (K-12 international school)
and will be attending Cornell University's
College of Arts and Sciences starting August. This page is an introduction
to me as a person and how I became interested in what I enjoy today. Since
young, I have been intensely interested in the natural world, and as you
can probably see, it has become a large part of my life. I am trying not
to make this page look like my resume, but just to give you an idea of
the things I've done in the past.
At the moment, I am a great bird fanatic. Unsurprisingly, I am a member
of the Wild Bird Society of Taipei (the Taipei division of the Chinese
Wild Bird Federation), and I regularly join the birding activities
they sponsor. I've been a leader at every one of the bi-annual Kuantu Water
Birds' Seasons since 1997, helping the public understand the importance
of wetland conservation, and in the 1997 Summer Birding Camp teaching elementary
school children the joy of birding. Every
time I go birding, I compile detailed field records and submit them to
the Wild Bird Society to contribute to our island-wide bird census that
helps us understand a great deal about Taiwan's birds and their habits.
Recently, I discovered that by combining birding with biking, I can cover
a lot of ground and see many more birds. The only drawback is that biking
can sometimes be exhausting going up steep mountain roads! So far, I have
seen nearly 300 species of birds in Taiwan (photographed
more than 50), 152 in America, 162 in Borneo,
74 in Australia, and a couple dozen more in
Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. I haven't compiled a world list yet,
which should be slightly less than the total of all these regions added
up together.
Bird-watching
is my main passion, but I am just as interested in collecting or photographing
various insects, especially butterflies and beetles. I own a personal collection
of insect specimens that I've gathered from the wild since sixth grade,
including butterflies, moths, beetles, cicadas, wasps, dragonflies, grasshoppers,
praying mantids, and much more. I have ceased my collecting in recent years
and began photographing them instead. Some of my works may be seen in the
Photo
Gallery, though these are not the best examples because I normally
use slide film and I have yet to get a slide scanner. So far, I've photographed
more than 110 species of butterflies in Taiwan, but I haven't been keeping
track of how many species I've seen. I've also published a couple articles
about Taiwan butterflies and beetles,
and I also own a website on Stag
Beetles of Taiwan. I am considering to joining the membership of the
newly established The
Butterfly Conservation Society of R.O.C. One project I am currently
working on is gathering specimens for the first insect collection of Taipei
American School. I hope to obtain as many of the species on the checklist
as possible, and I will eventually donate the entire collection to the
school when I graduate. I also help other institutions around the world
obtain specimens from Taiwan, and I send specimens upon request to Europe,
Australia, Japan, and USA.
Since forth grade, I have also been a cetacean (whale and dolphins) and shark enthusiast. My brother and I are volunteers at the young Cetacean Research Laboratory of the National Taiwan University. I am in the observational committee, and we go on research excursions to identify the cetacean species that occur in the coastal waters of Taiwan (see Dolphin Research Cruise Off Ilan trip report).
I have various other interests besides nature. The World Wide Web is my "second home," where I spend no less than two or three hours online everyday. To see me online or to chat with me, follow the recent trend and get ICQ! I also enjoy an occasional battle of Doom II, WarCraft II, StarCraft, or Duke Nukem with my friends. Away from the computer, I collect stamps for leisure. I focus on animal stamps from around the world (surprise, surprise!).. Another passion of mine is music. I play the cello and performed in the Taipei Century Symphony Orchestra for over two years. I enjoy listening to classical music, movie soundtracks, modern musicals, some jazz, some pop, and many others. Some of my favorite composers are Antonin Dvorak (Cello Concerto in B minor, Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" etc.), John Williams (Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones etc.), and Andrew Lloyd Webber (The Phantom of the Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, "Amigos Para Siempre" etc.). I don't have a favorite pop singer, but I especially like Michael Jackson's pieces that call attention to practical problems our world is facing ("Earth Song," "Heal the World," "Black or White" etc.).
A
word about my pets. Since the day that I began keeping silkworms before
I entered elementary school, I have always had animals beside me as I grew
up. I love my two adopted Common Kestrels, especially
as I watch them become more tame day by day. I used to be a fish-keeping
fanatic as well when I was in sixth and seventh grade, but the interest
somehow faded away even though I still enjoy keeping my aquarium of tropical
fish. If you already think my pets are unusual, you might be surprised
to learn that I raise many different types of insects at different times
of the year. During the summer, I often collect beetles from the wild and
keep them for the month or so they live.
Some
species breed well in captivity, and through the winter I raise their larvae
until they turn into adult beetles (how long this takes depends on the
species). I also bring home butterfly larvae whenever I encounter them
in the wild and take care of them until they become adult butterflies.
Then I usually bring them back to where they were found to set them free.
Name:
Wayne Hsu
Nicknames: F.B.Magpie, Kooka
B-day: December 16 (same as Ludwig van Beethoven)
Pets (including former): budgerigar "Stanley," a pair of Common Kestrels, aquarium of freshwater tropical fish (mostly Amazon), aquarium of goldfish, a red-eared turtle, dragon-lizards, albino mice (kestrel food), mealworms (turtle & lizard food), Japanese rhinoceros beetles (Allomyrina dichotomus), Potosia aeruginosa, and larvae (grubs) of Eudicella smithi bertherandi.
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