I was in Southern Taiwan for a conference this week. One morning at first light  I stood on the balcony of my hotel room  and watched the wind in the palm trees near the harbor.  As the light improved I realized hundreds of small birds were flying past – or rather were being blown past from bush to tree down along the shore.  Looking closely I could just make out that they were Brown shrikes and mostly juveniles. Then one juvenile landed on the balcony about two feet away from me.  For about a minute it paused, clinging on to the railing, before flying to the next tree.  I looked up towards the ocean and saw many white dots dancing over the surface of the water.  Large groups of white egrets were migrating along the coast. They flew low and were buffeted by the wind unlike the day before when they formed much more orderly flocks.