Dusky Thrush

     I had mistaken the bird on this page for a streak-breasted scimitar babbler, which is a brush and field bird. A reader was kind enough to inform me that it was a dusky thrush. I saw this bird well beyond the Guandu Bridge, just before you get to Danshui.

*          *          *

For more information on the dusky thrush, click here.

Enoch is Baptized

     Our son Enoch was baptized on August 15, 2010, some eighteen years and three days after I arrived in Taiwan.  I didn't know until after the baptism that Enoch had been successfully inviting other kids to church and encouraging them to get baptized.  

     It was hard to get a photo of Enoch when he wasn't looking down at the baptism liturgy.  In the photo in which both Enoch and Pastor Kim Crutchfield are facing the camera, they aren't posing.  They just happened to look up at the same time.

      Now they descend into the pool.  I tried to get a photo of him with his head underwater, but the camera wouldn't click soon enough.

       Even for summer, the water can seem cold.

*   *   *

Order of the Arrow Ordeal

      Earlier this year, I was inducted into the Order of the Arrow, a program of the Boy Scouts of America.  The nature and makeup of the Order of the Arrow ordeal is supposed to be a secret, so that's all I'll say about that.  In the photo above, you see Boy Scout leaders and Order of the Arrow candidates.

     The Order of the Arrow is both an honor and a step toward more responsibility, mainly in the outdoor life areas of the Boy Scouts of America. 

     In the photo below below are some Boy Scout leaders and Order of the Arrow members.  The caps and vests worn by some of them are patterned after the traditional costumes of Taiwan aborigines. 

*          *          *

River Kingfisher

     In the eighteen years I've been in Taiwan, I've seen only three river kingfishers and then only on a total of four occasions.  Most recently was today: July 31, 2010, and I was fortunate enough to have my camera on me. 
    I had never seen a river kingfisher in Taipei County before and wasn't expecting one then.  I was stalking an unidentified heron when, through the corner of my eye, I glimpsed a flash of turquoise fly past me.  After determining the direction in which it had flown, I crept up to that spot. Upon spotting the bird I alternately took pictures and slid my feet sideways, inches at a time, to move closer.

     With the small digital camera I use, it's hard to get a clear photo of a small bird.  These pictures, which I took at Shuangxi Creek (Shuangxi Riverside Park) will have to do.

*          *          *

Michelle at the CKS Gardens in Shihlin

      My wife Michelle posed for these pictures at the gardens on the grounds of the Chiang Kai-shek mansion in the Shihlin District.  The date was December 8, 2009.

*          *          *