Morning in Ba Vi

Arriving at Ba Vi to a fine sunny morning, we were quick to head up the top track towards the temple.  We were back 30 minutes later, as it was just too windy up top.  Pretty much the only bird we had seen was a female Small Niltava, which thankfully was a lifer for both of us.  Later, we added a male as well.  We slowly birded down the road (amongst the multitude of weekend traffic, cars and bikes) and added a few birds.  These including an Orange-headed Thrush, a couple of Dark-sided Flycatchers, two Gray-throated Babblers, four species of Bulbul (Black, Black crested, Puff-throated and Red-whiskered).  Mid-morning a flight of 6 Oriental Honey Buzzards went over.  We had a lovely morning, and we were back in Hanoi in time for lunch.

Puff-throated Bulbul

Dark-sided Flycatcher

Wayne Hodgkinson and Falk Wicker

Hanoi : spring passage still in progress

Hi all,

Below a list of some migrants seen last week (23th -> 28th April) during morning or noon strolls, at my 2 favorite patches: Lenin Park - LP and the Red River Island - RRI (not in the main wooded area but in a  ½ ha garden near farms - surprisingly very birdy).
Still a good spring passage. Much less flycatchers than 3-4 weeks ago but still good stuff. And new guests...

- Taiga Flycatcher (1 in RRI)
- Asian Brown Fly (2-3 RRI + 1 LP)
- Asian Paradise Fly (1 RRI + 1 LP)
- Dark-sided Fly (1 LP)
- Yellow-rumped Fly (2-3 LP + 1 RRI)
- Olive-backed Pipit (1 RRI, late migrant)
- Forest Wagtail (2 RRI)
- Oriental Reed Warbler (1 LP - Patch tick !)
- Spangled Drongo (1 LP + 2 RRI)
- Ashy Drongo (2-3 LP + 2 RRI)
- Siberian Blue Robin (LP + RRI, at least 1 each)
- Chestnut Bunting (1 RRI)
- Black-naped Oriole (1 RRI)
- Brown Shrike (4-5+ LP)
- Burmese Shrike (5+ LP)
- White-throated Rock Thrush (1 LP + 1 RRI, females).
- Eyebrowed Thrush (1 LP)
- Arctic Warbler (many : LP + RRI, including a number of singing males)
- Radde’s Warbler (2-3 LP)

But the show will be over soon ( 2 weeks more?). Let's enjoy it before the long birdless days :( of the summer! 

Sebastien

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Asian Paradise Flycatcher female

Forest Wagtail in a banana tree plantation - RRI

Brown Shrike

All the Brown S. I spotted recently belong to this ssp. (superciliosus ?)

Ashy Drongo ssp. leucogenis

White-vented Myna (LP, patch tick but probably escapee)

Eyebrowed Thrush female

Yellow-rumped Fly male

Yellow-rumped Fly female

Oriental Reed Warbler, a rather unexpected bird for the Lenin Park list!

This guy was singing in dense scrub

White-throated Rock Thrush female (28th April - LP)

Previous sightings :  2010 : 21th April LP, 22th April BG, 6th May RRI 

2011 : 24th + 28th April RRI

Dark-sided Flycatcher

 Arctic Warbler singing

Radde's Warbler

Central Vietnam - 40km West of Nha Trang (Sept 02)

Family weekend in Nha Trang, and I managed to get a morning pass, shooting off to a patch of forest 40km to the west. Lots of great birds again, and some good images. There are two birds I cannot ID (and there were no takers on Birdforum either) - images, with descriptions, below. Also saw many birds that I had no chance to identify or photograph.

The birds currently were:

• Bea-eater-Chestnut capped


• Bluebird-Asian fairy


• Bulbul-Grey eyed


• Bulbul-Sooty Headed


• Coucal-Greater


• Drongo-Ashy (both mouhoti and the more common races)


• Drongo-Black


• Eagle-Crested serpent


• Flycatcher-Darksided


• Iora-Common


• Iora-Great


• Kingfisher-White throated


• Kingfisher-Common


• Leafbird-Blue winged


• Malkoha-Green billed


• Minivet-Scarlet


• Minivet-Long tailed


• Monarch-Black naped


• Sunbird-Crimson


• Swallow-Barn


• Wagtail-Forest


• Wagtail-Grey


• Woodpecker-Unidentified (small, B&W, plain wings, big head on small neck, no easily visible red, very good singer, varied song)

When I saw the bird below, I initially thought it was yet another Drongo, but when scoped, there was blue on it. As I watched, I saw it dive and catch something from the surface of a small lake three times before it disappeared. Multiple images, as none are so clear.

This bird sat very still in the bamboo. When a small brown bird (sorry) caught a moth / butterfly and was sitting on the ground with it, this bird dive-bombed the smaller bird a couple of times before disappearing.

And a few images I just like. LOL

Asian fairy bluebird

Black Naped Monarch

Green-billed Malkoha

Dark sided Flycatcher

Wayne

Lenin Park, Hanoi

Hi all,

Just want to share 2 pics taken this morning at the Lenin Park.
I wish you a good weekend !

1st winter male Siberian Blue Robin, skulking on the ground, at the foot of bamboo thickets beside vegetable gardens.

A cute 1st winter Dark-sided Fly

Sebastien

Lenin Park, Hanoi

Hi all,

this morning (16th September) a walk through the northern and eastern parts of the park (including toilets, of course) produced the following - as always amongst others: at least 3 Dark-sided Flycatchers, 3 Asian Brown Flycatchers, 2 Yellow-rumped Flycatchers (1 female-type, 1 first year male), 1 probable male Hainan Blue Flycatcher, 8 or more Arctic Warblers (with one bird being confusingly brownish-colored on the back), about 30 - 40 Purple-backed Starlings still in the fruiting tree Florian has marked on his map.
Cheers,
Florian, Falk

And at lunch in the botanical gardens there was 1 Asian Brown Flycatcher, 2 Brown Shrikes and 1 Arctic Warbler.
Simon

And a Verditer Fly in the Lenin Park, the one seen yesterday by Florian. A lifer for me...
If I summarize, 5 species of Fly today over there, good !
And if I add the Brown-breasted and other species seen last winter and springer (Mugimaki, Red-throated, Blue-and-white and Fujian niltava - wintering !-), at least 10 species of Fly (let alone Asian Paradise-Fly and Grey-headed Canary Fly) have stopped in this area as big as a football ground. Not bad for an urban park.
Sébastien

Verditer Flycatcher/Lenin Park
Dark-sided Flycatcher/Lenin Park

Flycatchers and Starlings in Lenin Park

Another rainy morning, so we did not go to the island. Richard went to Lenin Park instead, where he quickly found his 3rd lifer of the trip, the Yellow-rumped Flycatcher. I (Florian) joined him a little later and it turned out not too bad: Lots of Flycatchers: 3 Dark-sided, 1 Asian Brown, 2 Hainan Blue, 1 Verditer. That fruiting tree Sebastien photographed yesterday still had plenty of Purple-backed Starlings, so I finally got to see them as well. I thought there were 2 White-shouldered among them, but not sure. I also saw a yellow vent and streaked belly which think must have belonged to a juv. Black-naped Oriole. And 2 Brown Shrikes and a Cuckoo sp.
That area behind the toilets had 4 flycatchers alone, so even if smelly definitely a good spot.

And in order to distract myself from urgent work, i played a little with google maps. The locations of starlings and that place behind the toilets:


Lenin Park Hanoi auf einer größeren Karte anzeigen