Botanical Garden - Hanoi

Today (27 Jan) a walk around the park in the late morning to look for migrants was disappointing, with just 1 Taiga Fly, some Olive-backed Pipits, 1 Dusky Warbler and 1 Red-Flanked Bush Robin.

Perhaps the best for me was some obliging Yellow-browed Warblers, usually hard to photograph.



Orange-Flanked Bush Robin
A pensive Olive-backed Pipit

Tomorrow I go to Laos. I will come back on the 10st Feb.





CHÚC MỪNG NĂM MỚI. I wish you a Happy Vietnamese New Year of the Cat!
Sebastien

Van Long - A cold of duck... but no ducks

Short visit to Van Long Natural Reserve last Sunday.

The marsh was full of Egrets of 4 species (Cattle ones seems the most numerous). Behind the dyke, the flooded rice paddy fields hold many wetland birds, notable species were 14 Pheasant-tailed Jacanas, 1 Citrine Wagtail and 18 Black-winged Stilts. I flushed some waders but failed to identify them. Many Fork-tailed Swifts were also hunting insects above the water.

No ducks. It seems that the french expression “il fait un froid de canard” = it’s biting cold (literal translation is “it makes a cold of duck”, a sentence which comes from the hunters) doesn’t work here…

A smart Grey Wagtail sitting on one of the few perches available
White-browed Crakes were in good numbers Those Black-winged Stilts were a nice surprise, but this species is probably regular here

A huge flock of Egrets congregating at dusk, looking for somewhere to roost for the night.

They chose the eucalyptus trees and the rocks around. It was truly an amazing sight enough to justify this motorbike trip, despite the brass monkey weather.

Sebastien

Tam Dao - Large Niltava, Common Rosefinch, Corrigenda Forktail

Hi all,

Today (22 Jan) a short lunch stroll along the stream near the Bear Rescue Center produced some good birds, including

- 1 female Large Niltava!

- 2 Scaly Thrushes

- 1 imm. male Common Rosefinch

- 1 White-breasted Kingfisher

The White-crowned Forktail seen two days ago turned out to be a Slaty-backed Forktail, unless there's two species here.

Cheers
Falk

Botanical gardens in winter

On 20th January I decided to take a stroll around the botanical gardens.

There were a few winter visitors:
Japanese Thrush 2 (male and female)
Chinese Blackbird 2 (male and female)
Red-flanked Bluetail 1
Brown Flycatcher 1
Dusky Warbler 2
Olive-backed Pipit 6
Yellow-browed Warbler 5+

And wagtails of both the Grey and White species.

Simon

White-crowned Forktail, Bear Rescue Center Tam Dao

Hi all,

Yesterday (18 Jan) a White-crowned Forktail was seen along the small stream next to the Bear Rescue Center.
Other birds of not were
1 m Hainan Blue Flycatcher
1 Asian Brown Flycatcher
many Taiga Flycatchers

Cheers
Falk

Adrenaline rush at noon

Hi all,

Today, another noon bash along the banks of the Red river, same area than last Sunday.

Birding was a bit slow first with just Green and Common Sandpipers but then got more interesting with a male Bluethroat and a Citrine Wagtail.

Arrived at the extremity south of the area, I noticed some waders. I got my bins on them and was astonished to discover, one after the other, 1, 2, 3, 4 and finally 5 Long-billed Plovers !!! I said to myself : “Hey, what’s going on here? Am I dreaming?”.
Simon came after work and counted… 6 birds!
New shots of the beasts:

Short video (settings 480p please)