There is a short, only 7km long, and narrow river on the border of Taipei and New Taipei City, where Neihu 內湖 meets Xizhi 汐止. The river is called Neigou 內溝溪 and flows into Keelung River 基隆河.
That is where our nature class took place. The closest MRT station is Donghu 東湖捷運站.
The park is located along the narrow stretch of waterway, which at times looks more like a canal than a river.
At the beginning of of our nature class we went through a park called Lohas.
Closer to the water many different kinds of Japanese cherry trees were planted. I can only imagine how beautiful the place looks in springtime. Because of the unusually warm winter, some of the trees were blooming even now.
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| Formosan cherry - Prunus campanulata |
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| Prunus taiwaniana |
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| Prunus campanulata |
The river looked more like a canal at the beginning of our walk. We actually walked on the concrete embankment. We could see from there an amazing mosaic on the other side. The mosaic was many meters long and was showing life scenes from Taiwan's rural life.
Soon the canal turned back into a river, a very overgrown river.
The part of the path that we walked was like a community garden. Many plants attracting butterflies were grown there and we were lucky enough to spot a few pupas and butterflies.
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| Common tiger pupae |
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| Common tiger - Danaus genutia |
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| Ceylon blue glassy tiger - Ideopsis similis |
Other insects (and spiders) we've encountered:
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| A very big grasshopper (or locust) |
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| White spotted moth - 鹿子蛾 - Amata fortunei |
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| Tussock moth caterpillar - Orgyia postica - 小白紋毒蛾幼蟲 |
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| Argiope aemula- 長圓金珠 |
The butterly path was decorated with all kinds of funny ornaments.
Close to the river and in the river we could observe many different kinds of birds.
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| Common kingfisher - Alcedo atthis - 翠鳥 |
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| Egret - Ardea alba - 白鷺 |
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| A very hungry egret - Ardea alba - 白鷺 |
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| Black-crowned night heron - Nycticorax nycticorax - 夜鷺 |
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| Grey heron - Ardea cinerea - 蒼鷺 |
In the pond nearby there were a few water lilies.
It's interesting how Taiwanese people can turn any piece of land into a small vegetable plot:
As always kids also had some time to fool around:
The teacher showed them how to make a ring with a blade of grass:
The weather was wonderful for this kind of walk and I am glad we get a chance to explore new places every week.
I love how interesting your post is! Che children was having fun as well as i see.
ReplyDeleteBeatiful handmade mosaic tiles and i love how detailed the picture is
Thank you. And yes, children always have fun at these nature classes.
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