A duck species that hails from the Eurasian arctic circle was spotted for the first time in Kaohsiung’s Cieding Wetlands (茄萣濕地), the city’s Public Works Bureau said in a news release on Wednesday.
Smews are migratory birds that mainly winter in the lands off the North Sea, the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago, but they are rarely seen in Taiwan, which lies well south of these habitats, the bureau said.
The smew sighting was reported by a birdwatcher surnamed Wu (吳), who photographed a specimen in the wild on Monday, it said.
Photo: CNA
Considered diving ducks, smews feed under the water and the color of their feathers vary by sex, it said, adding that males are white with black masks around the eyes and beak, while females are gray with chestnut-colored heads and necks.
Flocks of smews typically inhabit estuaries, lakes, ponds and other water environments, but those sighted in Taiwan seem to live singly and do not mix with other ducks, it said.
The ducks were spotted in Changhua County’s Dacheng Township (大城), Chiayi County’s Budai Township (布袋) and Yilan County’s Jhuan Borough (竹安).
The smew sighting came after the documented arrival of black-faced spoonbills and other migratory birds in Cieding this year, suggesting that the city government’s wetland conservation strategy is achieving success, it said.
Kaohsiung will redouble its efforts to make the jurisdiction a safe and welcoming environment for migratory birds, it said.
Tourists are urged to maintain silence, avoid doing anything that could scare or harm the birds, and cooperate with the government’s efforts to protect the city’s natural resources and keep the environment sustainable, it said.
GREATER NUMBER: The sorties might have been a response to the US and the EU expressing concern on Friday over China’s ‘provocations’ in the Taiwan Strait Twenty-five Chinese military aircraft and four naval ships were detected around Taiwan from 6am Saturday to 6am yesterday, including eight airplanes that had crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and another two that entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ). The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft that entered Taiwan’s southwestern ADIZ were a Y-8 anti-submarine plane and a BZK-005 uncrewed aerial vehicle, the Ministry of National Defense said. The aircraft that flew across the median line include two Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets, four J-16 multipurpose fighters and two J-10 jets, the ministry’s official Web site showed. Taiwan’s armed forces monitored the
LUNAR NEW YEAR PEAK: Taiwanese who are in China should get vaccinated and consider returning early, as infection rates are expected to increase, the CECC said China faces five major problems once COVID-19 begins spreading there, with a peak in infections likely during the Lunar New Year holidays, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), said yesterday. Wang wrote on Facebook that according to the center’s data, the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in China is worth noting, as the new Omicron subvariants BF.7 and BA.5.2 spreading in China are highly infectious and are more transmissible than the previously dominating Omicron subvariants. “The virus cannot be eliminated even under China’s strict control measures,” he wrote. “Its policy
The building of a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) plant in Phoenix, Arizona, is expected to lead to the creation of a “Little Taipei” over the coming year, as TSMC employees and related companies move in, a Phoenix-based real-estate agent has said. TSMC is investing US$12 billion to build a wafer plant in northern Phoenix that is scheduled to begin mass production in 2024. The company on Tuesday held a “tool-in” ceremony to mark the installation of the first batch of equipment at the fab. Some TSMC employees have moved into newly constructed apartments in a community 10 minutes’ drive from the
TWO RISKIEST SPOTS: People living in Taitung County received 20 earthquake alerts over the past 12 months, while Hualien County placed second with 17 alerts Taitung County residents received national earthquake alerts on their mobile phones more frequently over the past year than people in other parts of Taiwan, Central Weather Bureau data showed. Between Nov. 20 last year and Nov. 20, Taitung residents topped other administrative regions with 20 earthquake alerts. They were followed by Hualien County residents who received 17 alerts and Chiayi County residents who received 11, the bureau said. Residents in Penghu, Kinmen and Lienchiang counties did not receive a single earthquake alert, it said. The bureau shared the data on Facebook for the first time since the government connected the earthquake warning
RSS