Seeing quite a few different species of birds this winter.
Two Eye-browed Thrushes 白眉鶇 Turdus obscurus, an adolescent to the left and mature male on the right, and in the center a Scaly Thrush or White's Ground Thrush 虎鶇 Zoothera dauma.
The White's Ground Thrush 虎鶇 Zoothera dauma is regularly in the grass of the Girl Scout's lawn in the morning and afternoon's through cherry blossoming and into the first week of a cool and wet March. It flies into trees on the field perimeter as soon as anyone comes onto the field.
Philip and Tammy go out for a short walk in the woods not far from the house we lived in nearly 18 years ago about 15 minutes away from our current place below the Girl Scout Training Camp. we start down one of the many paths, this one having a single trail marker at the roadside. not far in we discover dumping activity, fortunately nothing too toxic. farther in a tree, not naturally fallen but placed, lies across the path, usually a kind of warning or sign. We walk in anyway, enticed by the obvious bird activity. not long after watching for birds, Philip hears a ruffling near the path. we find a formosan ferret-badger 鼬獾 (you4 huan1) Melogale moschata subaurantiaca struggling in a gin trap. It's been there long enough to draw flies to its severely damaged front right leg. The line to the gin trap has tangled the poor animal in bushes, but it allows us to get a hold of it and gradually lower it into Tammy's just right sized backpack by the trap line. We check for other traps and then carry the animal and another empty trap out, calling Sean to see if he has tools or advice about what to do. We take the animal to his place in our community. After getting the animal out of the bag, The trap is impossible to open and Philip and Sean decide that if the trap is removed, the animal might lose too much blood. So, Sean arranges to take it to an emergency vet care hospital along with another dog rescued from a gin trap.
The formosan ferret-badger Melogale moschata subaurantiaca an endemic (only found on Taiwan) subspecies of Melogale moschata - Chinese Ferret-badger or Small-toothed Ferret-badger, is a member of the Mustelidae family. Distinctive mask-like face markings distinguish the Ferret-badger from other cats, such as the Formosan gem-faced civet 白鼻心 Paguma larvata taivana. In Chinese it is known as 鼬獾 (you4 huan1), 做山獾 and 白鼻狸. This ferret-badger badger lives in burrows or crevices and is active at dusk and at night. Nocturnal, it has poor vision, small teeth and weak biting, the ferret badger is not a strong hunter, but omnivorous, feeding on fruit, soft and hard-bodied insects, snails, slugs, earthworms, frogs, lizards, and occasionally small rodents and birds (and their eggs). It is savage when alarmed and its anal secretions are foul-smelling. It has a keen sense of smell and is a good climber. It has an extended breeding season from February to September, with each adult female producing only one litter in any one year, the female gives birth to a litter of up to 3 young in May or June. The average body size of the Formosa ferret-badger is 35 to 40 cm with a tail of 14 to 20 cm and weighs 1 to 1.75 kg. It is common in forestlands at elevations up to 2100m. It seems that it is the civet that is the target of the traps in this area. Unfortunately unintended catches like this ferret-badger or cats or dogs are just left to die a long, painful death if they don't chew off their paws to get free. Ferret badgers have been on the endangered species list since 1996.
