Since beginning his birding career at the age of 10, Noah Strycker has always kept his eyes skyward.
“Birds are a great way for people around the world to connect with nature. Birds are accessible, interesting and somewhat mysterious,” said the 29-year-old from the US, who set a world record on Sept. 16 for notching up the most birds spotted in a calendar year — which is known in the birding world as the “Big Year” challenge.
For Strycker, the magic bird — No. 4,342 since Jan. 1, helping him break a record — was a Sri Lankan frogmouth, a greyish bird he spotted in the Thattekad Bird Sanctuary in India.
However, Strycker — who is recording his journey in a blog called “Birding Without Borders” for the US-based National Audubon Society, a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to bird conservation — is not satisfied with his tally.
Aiming to observe at least 5,000 bird species in his Big Year challenge, the globetrotting birder is to visit Taiwan this week in a bid to add 100 new species to his count in four days.
The task might sound daunting, but luckily Strycker is to be assisted by the Chinese Wild Bird Federation, Taiwan’s most established birding society, and two of the nation’s foremost birders.
With the help of Wayne Hsu (許哲瑋), the federation’s director of conservation and international affairs, and Hung Kuan-chieh (洪貫捷), a former director of the federation, Strycker said he is expecting to see a lot of birds.
“Taiwan is an important stop on my 2015 world Big Year effort to become the first human to see half of the world’s bird species — about 5,000 — in a single year,” Strycker said.
However, to meet that goal a precise, but flexible plan is needed, Hsu said.
“The focus will have to be the Dasyueshan National Forest Recreation Area,” Hsu said, referring to Taiwan’s birding paradise, where 26 of Taiwan’s 27 endemic bird species can be observed.
Although the objective is clear, the plan cannot be fixed and has to take numerous variables into consideration, including weather, traffic and, most of all, luck.
For now, Strycker’s whirlwind tour is to start with camping on Dasyueshan (大雪山) in Taichung County from tomorrow to Friday. That is to be followed on Saturday with a visit to the nearby Huisun National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County for birds like the Taiwan blue magpie and the varied tit.
Finally, after a trip on Sunday to southern parts of the nation to see Taiwan bulbuls and black-faced spoonbills, Strycker is to conclude his journey at about midnight and take an overnight flight to the Philippines for the next stop of his odyssey.
The main focus of the trip is to observe as many bird species as possible, Strycker said, adding that it would still be nice to simply marvel at beautiful creatures that can only be found in Taiwan.
“I hope to get a glimpse of the rare and magnificent Mikado and Swinhoe’s pheasants in their natural environment at Dasyueshan,” Strycker said.
“And I don’t think any trip to Taiwan would be complete without a look at a Taiwan blue magpie — Taiwan’s national bird, beautiful and awesome,” he said.
Strycker’s visit could stir up interest in birding and raise conservation awareness in Taiwan, Hsu said.
“Taiwan has one of the highest densities of bird species in the world, and is seeing a growth in the number of people interested in birding,” Hsu said.
“Hopefully, through Noah’s journey, Taiwan can raise its global profile and share its experiences in conservation,” he added.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is aware that Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong has weakened any possible sentiment for a “one country, two systems” arrangement for Taiwan, and has instructed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) politburo member Wang Huning (王滬寧) to develop new ways of defining cross-strait relations, Japanese news magazine Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday. A former professor of international politics at Fu Dan University, Wang is expected to develop a dialogue that could serve as the foundation for cross-strait unification, and Xi plans to use the framework to support a fourth term as president, Nikkei Asia quoted an anonymous source
LUCKY DATE: The man picked the 10th ‘Super Red Envelope’ in a lottery store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli because he broke up with his girlfriend on Jan. 10 A man who recently broke up with his girlfriend won a NT$1 million (US$32,929) prize in the “NT$20 million Super Red Envelope” lottery after picking a card based on the date of their breakup, Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The man, in his 20s, bought the 10th ticket at a lottery store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢), because he broke up with his girlfriend on Jan. 10, the store owner told the lottery company. The “Super Red Envelope” lottery was a limited offering by the company during the Lunar New Year holiday, which ended yesterday. The cards, which cost NT$2,000 each, came with
TOURISM BOOST: The transportation system could help attract more visitors to the area, as the line is to connect multiple cultural sites, a city councilor said Residents in New Taipei City’s Ankeng District (安坑) said the local light rail system might have a positive influence, but raised questions about its practicality. The Ankeng light rail system, which is to commence operations after the Lunar New Year holiday, would cut travel time for commuters from Ankeng to downtown Taipei or New Taipei City by 15 to 20 minutes, the city government said. According to the initial plan, there would be one train every 15 minutes during peak time and additional interval trains would run between the densely populated Ankang Station (安康) and Shisizhang Station (十 四張). To encourage people to
CHAMPION TREES: The team used light detection and ranging imaging to locate the tree, and found that it measured a height of 84.1m and had a girth of 8.5m A team committed to finding the tallest trees in the nation yesterday said that an 84.1m tall Taiwania cryptomerioides tree had been named the tallest tree in Taiwan and East Asia. The Taiwan Champion Trees, a team consisting of researchers from the Council of Agriculture’s Taiwan Forestry Research Institute and National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), in June last year used light detection and ranging (LiDAR) imaging to find the giant tree, numbered 55214, upstream of the Daan River (大安溪). A 20-member expedition team led by Rebecca Hsu (徐嘉君), an assistant researcher at the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, set out to find the
RSS