Welcome to Vietnam Bird News

Bird news from Vietnam, from Vietnam's resident and visiting birders.

13 November 2011

Tam Dao NP, Water tank trail, 13-11-2011

Hi all,

An early morning visit to Tam Dao produced some nice species - even though a few hunters, campers and annoying Park "rangers" tried to get between us and the birds. In the end we succeeded!

Here the more notable species (amongst not many others),
- 1 or 2 Collared Owlets calling
- 1 juv. Grey-backed Shrike that was welcoming us at the Ranger station
- 1 bird looked suspiciously like a female Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush but views were too poor and short
- 1 female Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher- at least 1 White-crowned Forktail was heard
- quite a few Chestnut Bulbuls, also a few Black Bublbuls
- Mountain Tailorbird
- Sulphur-breasted Warbler
- a few flocks of laughingthrushes, probably Grey as well
- 2 Streaked Wren Babblers
- Red-billed Scimitar Babbler, heard only
- a fine pair of White-browed Shrike Babblers
- Black-chinned and Striated Yuhinas
- 1 or 2 Olive-backed Pipits
- 1 Fire-breasted Flowerpecker
- 1 female Fork-tailed Sunbird
- 1 Streaked Spiderhunter

We were really lucky with the weather as it started getting very foggy, just as we were heading back to Hanoi.
Even though my companions didn't seem to really believe me, but this was a good, above-average birding trip to Tam Dao!

Cheers,
Falk Wicker, Frank Momberg, John Parr

3 comments:

  1. That's not too bad! Go on Falk, tell us about your fun with the park staff - I thought you had your three year permit from the director?

    Simon

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very happy to know that I am not the only one to be annoying by those @#% guys at the forestry station !
    Poor Tam Dao... Lost 50% of its biodiversity the last decades and the worst NP ""rangers"" of the country...
    Sebastien

    ReplyDelete
  3. Surely one of the worst National Parks in..., anywhere!
    Still some good birds though.

    I totally triumphed with my permit - the face of the guy was like, F*** - I've got the wrong dudes here! It was brilliant.
    Hopefully that means less hassle for everyone.
    I will try to get up to TD town more often to make them aware that there's birders (with permits) around. That might help... or not. Let's see.

    Cheers
    Falk

    ReplyDelete