Hi 
everyone,Birding trip at Cuc Phuong (on 14th-15th). Nothing of particular interest for all of you, but not for me ! 2 new species in the pocket, I dare not tell you which ones... I send you a photo of a mammal. If you have any idea of the species, please tell me ! I was pishing along the Loop trail in order to attract hidden birds. My pish attracted nothing but this curious animal, which approached me less than 2 meters... Hey guy, buy glasses !
On the road back to Hanoi, short stop at Van Long, mainly to rest tired butt muscles (I am a motobirder, a rare species). The marshy area 1 km on the left of the small harbour for boat trips were full of Egrets (Little 60+, Great 15-20, Cattle 30 among buffaloes). A nice unexpected surprise was a group of 29 Asian Openbills with both juveniles and adults perched quietly on top of trees, for all the local people to... admire (not the most appropriate verb, I know). They choosed a small clump of willows (?) located 500m on the right of the boats place.
An erratic group of the wealthy thai population ?
Cheers,
Sébastien Delonglée
Congrats for the openbills! Mammal is a Treeshrew I think.
ReplyDeleteCheers, Florian
thanks Florian !
ReplyDeletefor your help
yes, a Treeshrew, it`s exactly this species
I was afraid it was (again !) a squirrel
I have nothing against the squirrels
but it`s so good to discover something else ;-)
Cheers,
Sébastien
Wow, that's a good record for the region, I presume! Where does this dispersing post-breeding community (I'd include the Little Cormorant and Lesser Whistling Duck here, too) come from? Where are the next breeding grounds for openbills - Southern Lao?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, great record!
Cheers,
Falk
The trees are Eucalypt-trees, by the way.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Falk
Agreed a great record, first noted by Le Manh Hung, just before Sebastien visited the site.
ReplyDeleteI guess southern Laos is the closest these birds get to Van Long normally, but they are more abundant in Thailand, so they could have dispersed from there. As for the reasons for this unprecedented dispersal event, we can only guess...