The New Year started in fairly sedate fashion, with a long weekend at our beach house in Pingtung County, just a few kilometers from Longluan Lake. I’ve never seen anything very special at the lake, and it’s often a rather windy place in winter. However, today’s early morning visit produced a nice surprise in the form of an Eastern Buzzard, passing directly over my head before continuing north. This is a rare winter visitor to Taiwan.

Also at Longluan Lake today: two White-shouldered Starlings, Brown-headed and Pale Thrushes, an Arctic Warbler, a Blue Rock Thrush, and a scattering of Eastern Spot-billed Ducks and Tufted Ducks sheltering from the strong winds.

Elsewhere in the area during the long weekend, an offshore fishing Osprey, a Common Kestrel, and several Crested Serpent Eagles and Crested Goshawks soaring over the hill behind our house continued the raptor theme for the start of 2015.

Taiwan tick: Eastern Buzzard (total 273)