Taiwan: Formosan Endemics Matsu migration extension: 13th–18th April, 2019 Set departure tour: 18th– 27th April, 2019 Tour leader: Charley Hesse (main tour) Keith Barnes (extension) Report and photos by Charley Hesse. (All photos were taken on this tour) This was our first new, streamlined Taiwan tour with added Matsu migration extension. The Asian migration occurs along the Chinese coast, and the perfect place to see migrants are the Matsu islands of Dongyin and Nangan where we saw some fantastic birds like Yellow-breasted & Yellow Buntings, Mugimaki, Blue-and-white, Narcissus & Yellow-rumped Flycatchers, plus numerous species of thrushes, pipits & wagtails. After our successful pretour, we began the main endemics tour in style at Shimen dam with the spectacular Taiwan Blue-Magpie and tricky Black-necklaced Scimitar-Babbler. The first 3 days of the tour were spent at Taiwan’s premier birding site, Daxueshan. The majority of Taiwan’s endemics are found here, the foremost of which were the Mikado & Swinhoe’s Pheasants. The mammals were fantastic too with Taiwan Serow, Masked Civet and Red-and- white Flying-Squirrel. We later visited a ‘bat museum’ where we also added 3 bat species including the Formosan Golden (or Hodgson’s) Bat. Other mountain sites of Qingjing & Yushan finished off most of the endemics plus some great scenery too. One day we went up and over the Wuling Pass which is the highest road in the region and down to the scenic town of Tianxiang for the endemic Styan’s Bulul. We finished off the tour with some great shorebirding including Black-faced Spoonbill around Tainan and the amazing Fairy Pitta at Huben. We even went to see a Collared Scops- Owl roosting in the ceiling of a temple. Taiwan was an enjoyable and eye-opening tour for all, with a wonderful mix of migration & endemic birding, great food and beautiful scenery. It was also one of our most successful Taiwan tours to date with a whopping 233 species. Tropical Birding www.tropicalbirding.com 1 MATSU MIGRATION EXTENSION 14th April, 2019 – Nangang to Dongyin, Matsu islands After boarding the ferry from Keelung last night, we docked at the island of Nangang. This was not actually our destination, but the boat didn’t leave port for a couple of hours, so we were allowed to disembark and we went for an hour’s birding in the immediate vicinity of the port. We took a short walk along a road lined with trees and scrub and found Manchurian & Brownish-flanked Bush Warblers, Yellow-browed & Dusky Warblers, Japanese White-eye, Oriental Magpie-Robin and Black-faced Bunting. We scanned down to a running track below and saw that the central lawn was filled with pipits, so went closer to investigate. We ended up seeing 4 species, with Richard's, Olive-backed, Red-throated & Buff-bellied form of American Pipit, along with our first leucopsis White Wagtails. Before getting back on the boat, we also had a flyover of Eurasian Kestrel. The ride to our destination of Dongyin island was only short, but allowed us some good sea-watching, on which we saw several Red-necked Phalaropes, Black-tailed & Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Common & Great Crested Terns, plus a few random Barn and a single Bank Swallow. We arrived late morning and after a quick lunch went straight out birding. Little Buntings were common on the Matsu Isands. Our first site was the visitors centre which produced Red Collared-Dove, Common Greenshank, several Red-throated Pipits, Black-faced & our first Little Bunting. One of the best spots for migrants on the island is known as the vegetable farm, which despite its small size seems to produce an inordinate amount of birds. There were several Taiwanese bird photographers, and the place turned out to be loaded with flycatchers, including Gray-streaked, Ferruginous, Asian Brown, Narcissus, Mugimaki & Taiga Flycatchers. We also added our first Pacific Swift, Brown-rumped Minivet, Daurian Redstart, Siberian Stonechat, Pale Thrush, plus Chestnut & Tristram's Buntings. Next, we went to a valley filled with lush, overgrown farmland. The path was a bit steeper than Keith remembered but there were certainly plenty of birds around, with House Swift, Gray-headed Lapwing, Intermediate Egret, Peregrine Falcon, Black Drongo, Brambling plus Little & Yellow-browed Buntings. After a long walk, we drove to a small pond, where we saw Eurasian Wigeon, Little Ringed Plover, Common Greenshank, Wood Sandpiper, Oriental Pratincole, Gray Heron, Black-crowned Night-Heron and a fly-over of Osprey. It had been a very productive first day and we finished off with a nice hot Chinese meal in town. Tropical Birding www.tropicalbirding.com 2 15th April - Dongyin We started the day back at the running track and hoping to see if any new birds had come in overnight. As we hoped, there was nobody about to disturb the birds. On the track itself, we immediately found a couple of Little Ringed Plovers, and then a larger plover which was turned out to be a Greater Sand-Plover. Our next find was even better. We had a stunning male Yellow-breasted Bunting fly out of the grass and perch on a wall. This is now a critically endangered species and a stunning one at that. There were the usual Red-throated Pipits, some Eastern Yellow Wagtails on the grass and also several shorebirds, including Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Common Snipe, Wood Sandpiper plus some Oriental Pratincoles. Nearby we heard the unmistakeable call of a Rufous-tailed Robin but seeing this tricky bird was another matter. Next, we drove down to the vegetable garden again. It had been great yesterday and we hope for some new birds there too. We had a very productive time and saw Manchurian & Brownish-flanked Bush Warblers, Yellow-browed, Dusky & Eastern Crowned Warblers. We found a feeding site with Forest Wagtail hanging about, plus several Asian Brown, Narcissus & Taiga Flycatchers. We also saw Siberian Blue Robin, Red-flanked Bluetail, a female Japanese Thrush plus Chestnut & Tristram's Buntings. The beautiful Yellow-breasted Bunting is now one of the most threatened birds in Asia. We drove back up to the visitor’s centre where we saw our first Gray-faced Buzzard, had great views of Daurian Redstart and another fantastic male Yellow-breasted Bunting. We drove down to a small pond where we added Common Kingfisher and nearby Eastern Buzzard, Ashy Minivet and our first Pallas's Leaf Warbler. At one final stop before lunch, we found an interesting female flycatcher which we identified as Blue-and-white Flycatcher. In the afternoon, we took a drive to the other side of the island. We stopped to take in our first Yellow-rumped Flycatcher and Brown-headed Thrush. We drove out to a viewpoint with some heavy artillery where we saw Eastern Buzzard, Peregrine Falcon and Gray-backed Thrush. The final stop of the afternoon was the lighthouse. We parked and took a walk out to the point where we had some final birds, with our first Eurasian Hoopoe, Eurasian Wryneck plus better views of Tropical Birding www.tropicalbirding.com 3 Narcissus Flycatcher and Brown-headed Thrush. It had been a very productive day, but we returned to the hotel to rest and enjoy our last dinner here. Forest Wagtail & Narcissus Flycatcher. Tropical Birding www.tropicalbirding.com 4 16th April – Dongyin to Nangang, Matsu We were leaving this morning, but we couldn’t resist checking out the Dongyin Visitor Center one last time. In just a short time, we picked up Eurasian Wryneck, Red-rumped Swallow, Yellow-browed Warbler, Red-flanked Bluetail, Narcissus Flycatcher, Blue Rock-Thrush, Olive-backed Pipit and Black-faced Bunting so it seemed as if the weather overnight had brought some new arrivals. We also saw Pacific & House Swifts, Chinese Pond-Heron and an Osprey. We really hoped that there would be as many birds on Nangang, where we were going next. We boarded the boat, dumped our bags, and went straight up on deck. As we were pulling out, we started seeing birds and on our short crossing, we saw Peregrine Falcon, a flock of Garganey, flocks of Whimbrel, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Common Greenshank, Marsh Sandpiper, Black-tailed Gull, Common & Great Crested Terns. After docking, we dropped our bags at the hotel and went straight out birding. We first checked out the Jinshan Reservoir which was pretty active and we had Wood Sandpiper, Gray-faced & Eastern Buzzards, Yellow-browed & Dusky Warblers, Japanese White-eye, Blue-and-white Flycatcher, Olive-backed Pipit, Yellow-billed Grosbeak, Oriental Greenfinch and Little & Black-faced Buntings. We also heard another Rufous- tailed Robin, way down in the valley with no chance of seeing it. Next, we went to Shengtian Park, which had Oriental Turtle-Dove, an unidentified cuckoo, our first Arctic Warbler, and numerous Eyebrowed & Brown-headed Thrushes. In between sites, we found our first flock of Black-throated Tits and a Red- billed Starling. Chinese Pond-Herons are common on the Matsu Islands. After lunch at a great restaurant back in town, we checked out another well known migrant trap nearby; another vegetable farm. Despite its small size, we found a large variety of birds, with Manchurian Bush Warbler, Daurian Redstart, Blue Rock-Thrush, Siberian Stonechat, plus Little, Black-faced, Chestnut and our first Yellow Bunting which is quite a rarity. Our next site was called the Nangan Animal Shelter, but it only held a few species including Brownish-flanked Bush Warbler, plus our first Eastern Crowned Warblers, Blue Whistling-Thrush and White-shouldered Starlings. On our way back to town, we hit our last site of the day, the Qingshui Wetland. It was a small inlet of water, but it was low tide and packed with birds foraging on the mud.