Thousands of swallows recently arrived in Kenting National Park from Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia, marking the start of their summer migration, park officials said yesterday.
More than 10,000 swallows flew over Hengchun Township (恆春), Pingtung County, and stayed in the park on Tuesday night, the officials said.
The park is also gearing up for another annual event — land crabs are expected to start traveling to the beach to lay their egg around the full moon on July 26.
The park is a popular summer destination for beach and surf lovers, as well as wildlife enthusiasts. Birds began flocking to its forests and riverbanks this month as part of their trips to cooler northern areas.
The arrival of the birds marks the beginning of the annual “Kenting (墾丁) ecological carnival,” said Tsai Yi-jung (蔡乙榮), an avian expert at the park’s headquarters.
Swallows will be arriving until early next month and will be followed by migrations of brown shrikes, egrets, birds of prey and wild geese, Tsai said.
Full moons in July, August and September mark the egg-laying period for land crabs, Tsai said.
To protect the crab population — which has shown signs of dropping over past years — the park is considering closing one lane on each side of Taiwan Provincial Highway No. 6 from kilometer 39 to kilometer 41.5, since it runs through the path many land crabs take to beaches, said Ma Hsieh-chun (馬協群), head of the park’s conservation division.
The proposal will be raised at a traffic safety meeting on July 30, Ma said.
The park headquarters said most land crabs in Kenting gather along Banana Bay (香蕉灣), Back Bay (後灣) and Manjhou’s (滿州) Gangkou River (港口溪). Banana Bay has the largest diversity of land crabs in the nation, with more than 10 varieties in the area.
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