The Old England Manor Hotel, He Huan mountains, Taiwan

Posted on by

2

When: June 2025 Weather: Cool 20C

NikonP900, P950, Leica Q3 and M11

From Sun Moon Lake, we drove about an hour and a half up the He Huan Mountain to our hotel, a somewhat incongruously French styled hotel at about 1700m. The cooler weather was a welcome respite to the heat of Taipei and Sun Moon Lake. Shortly after we checked in we headed out to the Skywalk, an elevated walkway over the mountainous grasslands….

The quaintly named Old England Manor Hotel is the building in the distance with the tall narrow tower sticking up among the green hills of Nantou county
our view of the mountains from the hotel
this is the exit point of the Skywalk, a 1.6km long elevated walkway which we walked in the afternoon
It was very hot at 3pm when we started but we were blessed by this stunning rainbow
First bird to show was the White eared Sibia….he was very responsive and sang back merrily
white eared sibia
white eared sibia
The Taiwan Liocichla also appeared fleetingly
Taiwan Liocichla
Our old friend, the Taiwan Yuhinia
taiwan yuhinia
overhead, a black eagle soared
and then in the far distance, a splash of dark orange…the male grey chinned minivet
the yellowish female gray chinned minivet
The rainbow entertained us all the way along the skywalk

We heard several other birds like the white tailed robin and yellow bellied bush warbler but they didn’t show….back at the hotel we found this charming Citrus Beetle…

citrus beetle
the view from our hotel the next morning.. we had a 6am start, exited the hotel and turned left on to the main road and walked 500m till we reached a small road leading up the mountain…..about a 1 hr circuit leading us back to the main road where the skywalk ended. It took us rather more than an hour as we stopped and birded along the way
A black bulbul greeted us
and then a sparkling collared greenfinch posed and sang
collared greenfinch
summer blooms along the road
and along the way, these brown bullfinches watched over us
brown bullfinch

After a couple of hours we got back to the hotel…not many birds but still a fun enough walk….

the terrace at the old england hotel

So birding wise, we didn’t see many new species but it was nice to chill a bit in the high ground….the birding at DaXueShan (Big icy mountain) is much better…see a previous post….

2 thoughts on “The Old England Manor Hotel, He Huan mountains, Taiwan”

Leave a comment