And then after exploring the low and mid altitudes of Daxueshan we reach the end of the road and the top of the mountain. There is a large parking lot here however our guide confirms that it is full during the summer, now there are quite a few places left. We explore the built up area for a short while before the guide decides it is time for lunch so back to the car we go to take out our lunch bag.
And then it starts to rain. Not heavily but just enough that we look for an overhang to hide under which is the one from the visitor center. Here protected we start to eat while our guide starts to roam around for some reason or other.
In fact it is a very good reason as he suddenly returns running that a Mikado pheasant, the national bird of Taiwan, has been spotted. So we pick up our lunch hastily and run through the rain to the nearby spot where the pheasant is giving us a few nice views while we do our best to shield the camera from the rain. Returning to our lunch spot we get another endemic, a much more feisty White-whiskered Laughingthrush that adopts us while waiting for any crumbs from our lunch.
As the rain stops again we explore a bit more the area around the visitor center while eating our lunch finding one more new endemic, a beautiful collared bush rubin. And then it is time to start hiking with the first grass patch providing us nice views of a very skulky Taiwan Bush Warbler, one more endemic.
It is a short trail that we are following leading to a nice overlook point where a pagoda has been built, likely to shelter from rain.
It is an overlook of the Heavenly Pond, a small lake but we are much more attracted by our first Reeve’s Muntjac, what a cute diminutive animal.
We then descend and circle the pond looking for birds and other mammals in this beautiful landscape.
We find no more mammals but we do find a few birds including our first Taiwan Barwing, a beautiful and very active small bird.
We close the loop back at the parking lot and we go to the toilets assuming that it is time to return back towards Taichung. However that is not the case the guide points to a different trail, there are still more birds to see.
This is a more level and nice trail but with relatively few birds. Even so we catch a glimpse of one more endemic the Taiwan Bush-Robin, nice!
And then it is time for one more hike in the area where the pheasant was seen. There are no more pheasants but we see a few Taiwan Yuhina, another endemic, and a Southern Nutcracker before it is time to return to the lower altitudes and then back to the hotel in Taichung after a very productive day here.
