Tainan Young Birder Blog

Downy Woodpecker    From Shasta we drove all the way to Vallejo, CA, where my grandpa lives. We stayed in Vallejo for a week in an Airbnb with my uncle Greg. We hadn't seen him or grandpa for more than four years! We had a lot of time to bird in Vallejo, soI have condensed all the stories down to three highlights.  Black Phoebe Lynch Canyon and Newell Open Space aren’t far from the B&B, about a fifteen minute drive. These two places are essentially the same valley in the same area, just divided by some hills. We visited three times, each more memorable than the last. The first time we went with uncle Greg, mom, and Aurora. It was later than usual, but the birding was still pretty good. We saw two types of phoebes, the Say’s Phoebe and the Black Phoebe. The more common one is the Black Phoebe, which has a dark black head, black breast, and a white underbody. The rarer one, the Say’s Phoebe, is a lot more interesting. It has a pinkish almost orange  belly, and is...

       After our short stay in Bend, we moved south to Mt. Shasta. Even though it was summer, the mountain top was still covered in snow. We did a lot of interesting stuff in Shasta, including horseback riding, fishing, birding, and we also went to a limestone cavern. My three most memorable birding spots were, Larry Wehmeyer Educational Area, Elsa Rupp Nature Study Area, and the Shasta Caverns. White-breasted Nuthatch      On our second day in Shasta, we decided to go fishing. Even though we didn’t catch anything, the scenery was outstanding, so it was worth it. The next day, determined to improve our luck, we did all of our birding that day. We arrived at the Education Area early. When we got out of the car, there were already a lot of bird sounds, so we birded outside of the entrance, and saw a few woodpeckers and some bushtits. When we entered the trail, I saw something on the ground. I immediately stopped Dad so he wouldn’t continue walking. The b...

 After our fun experience in Florence, we drove inland to a place in Central Oregon called Bend. When you think about deserts the first things that come to mind are probably cactus, dry heat, and barren land. Bend, which is part of the vast High Desert, is anything but that. The High Desert is unique in many ways, and is very different from anything in Taiwan. Because of its high elevation the high desert can get quite cold at night, something we had to learn the hard way the last time we were here. Rather than cacti, the vegetation here mainly consists of sagebrush. We only managed to fit in two birding trips in Bend due to the short amount of time we were here, but we still made it just as memorable. Cedar Waxwing  The first trip was to the Deschutes River Trail. When we got out of the car, we were immediately greeted by the drumming of Hairy Woodpeckers, foraging for food. Before we even got to the start of the trail, we were already met by a dazzling array of birds chirp...

       After all of my family had gotten over our jetlag, we officially started our journey. Our first stop was Florence, Oregon.We went on a total of three very memorable birding trips. Pigeon Guillemot, the fish in its mouth is for its young   The first spot was a place called Sea Lion Caves, a privately-owned tourist attraction since 1932! To get down to the actual caves you have to take an elevator and go down 10 stories.The caves are really dark, there is also a mesh wire between you and the wildlife. Even though it was dark, you can still hear the yelps of Pigeon Guillemots, and the occasional black silhouette flashing by. Insides the caves there weren't that many seals, only a couple of them chilling on the rocks. The other side of the caves were much more rewarding. There were hundred of cormorants, most of them either sitting on the bare rocks faces, or fishing in the water. There was also the Pigeon Guillemots with their red clown-like shoes, and its w...

This summer break our family was finally able to arrange a trip to America. We were there mostly to see family members, some of whom we hadn’t seen in four plus years! But besides visiting family and friends, me and my dad spent a good chunk of our time birding. We were able to see thirty-plus lifers, and one hundred fifty nine year-listers. We also submitted thirty four e-Bird checklists in July, which meant we qualified for the July Challenge. In the next few blog posts, I will be sharing the fun experiences I had, and I hope you guys will enjoy it. Canada Goose in a pretty meadow   We landed in America on July 10th, and on the very next day, I dragged my jetlagged body out of bed, and with dad, embarked on our first American birding trip. We decided to go to Steigerwald, one our favorite places to go birding the last time we were here. Grandma had told us Steigerwald was under construction a while back, and had changed quite a bit. Sure enough the original entrance wasn’t there ...