After the hot previous day today it is forecasted to be even hotter. So we plan to start with the place where we will likely be in the sun the most, the Botanical Garden. And we start earlier, we do not have to eat outside today as we have our own provisions. But first we have to get to the correct subway station, there are multiple ones in the area.
We follow a path through the above ground section of another subway station, it has quite some interesting sculptures and even a few interesting birds.
Soon we arrive at our actual subway station, just in time as we were starting to heat up. It even has an interesting feature, an overlook platform over the entrance, quite interesting.
As expected after yesterday there is no machine that accepts credit cards to buy daily passes. We are prepared today with cash and soon we are in for the relatively short ride to the Botanical Garden station. Here we have the first encounter with the many school groups that seem to enjoy a nice day out to the Gardens, we didn’t expect that many to visit.
It is about a ten minute walk from the subway station exit to the garden entrance, it is nice to see that it is free to enter and we are ready to see the many birds that are expected to be seen here.
However given that the garden is full of people we find it difficult to find a spot that is more quiet to listen for birds or even to look for them without inconveniencing passerbys.
The first birds we see are already quite common ones for us, the White-rumped Shama we have seen in Hawaii and the Light-vented Bulbul, common throughout Taiwan.
Same for the doves and the supposedly rare Malayan Night Heron which is if anything really common in the city parks of Taiwan.
The park is surrounded almost to the wall by city buildings, it is like an oasis in a very built up city. And it is used as such by people for sporting pursuits and other training exercises.
The Garden itself was established during Japanese rule in 1896 as a nursery. It was then officially renamed to the Taihoku Botanical Garden in 1921. As such it has been preserved for quite some time and even has some historical buildings including the Guest House of Imperial Envoys, the only remaining office of the Qing dynasty in Taiwan. Unfortunately it has been closed for some time, most recently due to damage from earthquakes.
One major attraction here is the pond and we find multiple groups of photographers here, possibly for birds, but we do not see anything as we pass by. There are at least some interesting endemic dragonflies to look at as we circle the lake and then start walking back towards the entrance.
Here, even though there are multiple school groups screaming loudly, we find our first crested goshawk. We are not sure what we see at first but then we follow it to its roost and there we can watch it for quite some time. It is actually quite cute and seems curious about the hubbub happening below.
One of the things we really enjoy in Taiwan are the many water fountains, we can almost always find a nearby source to refill our water bottles.
There is one more pond further in the park but it is covered by algae and other growth and there are no birds nearby. There are however many frogs that we hear but never see.
And then it is time to leave and only then we notice the map at the entrance. When we entered it was surrounded by a few other visitors and we didn’t have time to look at it, now it is too late of course. So on we go to the subway station and then to Dihua Street where we hope to find something to eat and maybe to cool down.
