Passage migrant Drongo-Cuckoo - Hanoi

Hi everyone, 

Spent a good saturday morning on 26th September at the Botanical Gardens, saw some Bianchi's Warblers, a mixed-species foraging flock of Asian-Brown Flycatcher, "Blyth's" Leaf Warblers, Tailorbirds and Sulphur-breasted Warbler. A nice surprise was a Drongo-Cuckoo, it appeared right in front of me, just 4-5m away. It is listed in Robson as passage migrant in East Tonkin. A great patch tick I think!

In the afternoon I had a quick stroll at Bai Da along the Red River. Saw lods of Black Drongos there, but because of floods I can not access to the small wooded patch... After that I  head back to Thanh Tri and have some shots of Taiga and Asian-brown Flycatchers.

I also added some photos of Grey-headed Lapwings that I took at Vinh Tuy bridge two weeks ago. More recently (24th Sept. at ca 3pm) I flushed 2 Black Storks there, foraging at the flooded banks of the Red River.

Le Viet Tuan Hoang

Fork-tailed Drongo-Cuckoo

Ceicercus Warbler cf Bianchi's

Sulphur-breasted Warbler 

Taiga Flycatcher

Grey-headed Lapwings

Hanoi : Black Stork and Woodcock to start the New Year

A strange pair of species for a post title, but one was the biggest (and maybe the rarest) bird I have seen over the past few months, and the other the hardest to photograph. Both have been spotted during a walk yesterday morning along the Red River, at Hanoi, only 1 km from the city centre.

January 1st is the traditional day for birders to get outdoors and make a good, birdy start to the New Year!

The Black Stork was roosting on a sandbar with 50-60 Grey Herons, near Vinh Thuy Bridge. An adult, maybe the one recorded mid-Nov 20km upstream by S. de Albuquerque & M. Ashby.

After being flushed, the flock (with the Stork) landed 300 meters away on another sandbar, in the middle of the river.

A long distance and heavily cropped record shot. Grey Herons here in Vietnam have a very large flush distance (at least 200m for this pic). They are hunted for food so they have very good reasons for not trusting humans.

Sightings of Black Stork over the last 3 years at/around Hanoi (that I am aware of):

-26^th Oct. 2011 (2 juv.,Vinh Thuy Bridge also)

-26^th Oct. 2012 (1 juv.)

-10^th Nov. 2012 (2 juv., among them one seen the 26^th Oct.)

-mid-Nov. 2013 (1 ad.)

-1^st Jan. 2014 (1 ad.)

All these birds were sighted along the Red River, often roosting on sandbars, only one time observed foraging (in a small pond adjacent to the river).

Black Stork is a rare winter visitor in Vietnam (only recorded from East Tonkin apparently).

The Eurasian Woodcock was flushed in a nearby orchard.

Not an uncommon sight in the Hanoi area (both winter visitors and passage migrants), in small wooded areas, banana plantations and even downtown parks – where they have some difficulty to hide!

A lucky flight shot

Some recent sightings from Ba Be National Park

Spent a couple of days at Ba Be National Park earlier this week with Le Quy Minh, Simon de Albuquerque and Marcel Ashby and looks like we found something new for the Vietnam list …  wait for it …. da, da, da, da, da, ... Great Crested Grebe. Not the most exciting species for European birders maybe but it appears to be a first for Vietnam.

The bird was seen at close quarters happily paddling around the lake on the afternoon of 19th and again on the morning of 20th November. 

White-eared Night-herons (we made it five birds) were observed heading out to feed at dusk on 19th and returning to roost at dawn on 20th.Also a nice little group of nine Mandarin Duck and a pair of Tufted Duck currently in residence on the lake.

A few days earlier a Black Stork was seen flying along the Red River near Lien Hong by Simon and Marcel. 

Cheers all,

Richard Craik

The lonely Grebe (Le Quy Minh)

Deluxe Ducks - the Mandarin family (Le Quy Minh)

Wintering Black Storks & Martins

For a birder in (almost) birdless Hanoi, the only thing better than a Black Stork is...

...two Black Storks!

The 10th November, 2 juv. were soaring through a pure blue automn sky above the area where I photographed one individual the 26th October.

Circling with a Black Kite

This is the guy I spotted and photographed the 26th October. I recognize it from the small notch in the secondaries of the left wing. This bird show an injured (broken?) leg which was hanging in flight - this was not the case 2 weeks ago.
The result of a bad encounter with a bipedal creature ?...

One hour later, the two Storks were roosting on the riverbank with some Grey Herons.

One week ago, Hung sent me a message (thanks guy!) : "Just twitched the Grey-throated Martin along the Red River !". I checked my old Robson guide (edition 2005...) but... no Grey-throated Martin ! However, after some research, I learned that Grey-throated Martin Riparia chinensis was formerly treated under Plain Martin Riparia paludicola ssp chinensis.
Then I remembered a place along the Red River where I had several sightings of small flocks of Riparia sp (never a common sight in my area), and decided to go there. Just arrived, I spotted several Martins sp in small mixed flocks with Swallows (Barn + Red-rumped or Striated). I managed to get some acceptable pictures - great fun !- and id. two species : Grey-throated Martin and Sand Martin.

Grey-throated Martin

Sand Martin

This species is very similar to Pale Martin (recorded in East Tonkin) but the latter has paler and netter breast-band, with no dark smudging on breast or upper-belly. But try to spot these features with the bins!

Sand Martin is a winter visitor, but Grey-throated Martin should be a resident. This area is full of steep sandy embankments (river banks + sand-pits ) and I would not be surprised if there is a colony somewhere...

Black Stork - Red River/Hanoi

At 15h00 on Friday 26 October I spotted a juv. Black Stork soaring above this area here along the Red River, c.25 km north of Hanoi. I lost it but found it again one hour later on the sandbar, in the same area.
This guy was not searching for food and I assume that it intended to stay here for the night.
I  crawled to within about c.100 meters of it. Pfiuu, photographing flycatchers in an orchard is much more easy!..

Sebastien

And a very poor video, which  I publish here really as a record and nothing else :

2 Black Storks at Hanoi / 29-10-2011

Hi all,

Big surprise this morning at the feet of Vinh Tuy Bridge with 2 Black Storks

feeding in the grasslands along the Red River (on the right in the photo above). At least one bird was an immature. I saw the second one only in fly, at great distance.

I spotted also many waders, at least 80-90 birds (and I scaned only half the place !), with 30-40 Temminck's Stints, 20+ Kentish Plovers, 2-3 Common Greenshanks (+ few Common and Green Sandpipers, many Little Ring Plovers). Probably the best spot for waders at Hanoi. But you have to bring your scope.
Sebastien