Erbazi Botanical Garden 二叭子植物園

Finally our Tuesday nature class took place close to our home, in Xindian. We went to the Erbazi Botanical Garden 二叭子植物園 in Ankang 安康.
It's not easy to get there by public transportation. And that's why I picked up everyone from the Xindian MRT station and drove them there. If you would like to go there by public transportation then you first need to take MRT to the last station - Xindian 新店捷運站 and from there take bus 839 to 達觀社區達觀亭站.

Just after we met the teacher at the bus stop, she pointed out a "flying shrimp".

Coffee bee hawkmoth - Cephonodes hylas - 長喙天餓

He was eating from flowers which are a bit tricky - they tell the insects with their changing color (from yellow, through orange to red) if they are good to eat or not.

Lantana camara - 馬纓丹- Lantana pospolita

This week we observed many different spiders. Unfortunately I can't find the names of most of them.

Giant woods spider - 人面蜘蛛 - Nephila pilipes - Prządka olbrzymia

Ebrechtella tricuspidata - 花蛛

I've also spotted a very big praying mantis.

Kids got a chance to take a closer look at some grasshoppers:

This one must have just finished molting as it was not moving, probably still drying it's wings and getting all the fluids in the body running :-) We've found the skin close by.

Planthopper's nymph - 蠟蟬 若蟲

There were also quite a few ladybugs:

And other unidentified insects worth showing:

Tonga westwoodi - 綠瓢蠟蟬 

紫紅蜻蜓

And also caterpillars:

There were also some birds that were posing for us:

Sparrowhawk - Accipiter virgatus - 松雀鷹 - Krogulec orientalny

We also looked at some fungi and plants:

Auriculariaceae - 木耳 - Uszakowate

So many wonderful things in nature! This walk was full of beauty and wonder.

You can read about the previous time our family went to the Erbazi Botanical Garden HERE.