Hanoi - Spring passage : a happy end

Morning stroll today (9th May) at the Lenin Park in the hope of picking up some interesting late migrants. The first bird I encountered after 2 minutes was a stonking male White-throated Rock Thrush, with the beak wide open gasping on a 40 degrees day ! At Hanoi, I always seen this species between the last week of April and the 1^st week of May (2-3 sightings annually) ; it is obviously peak time for them to be passing through this part of Vietnam. Interestingly, in all our Hanoi’s birding spots, we have not a single sighting during the autumn passage.

The peak time for Brown/Burmese Shrikes and Ashy/Spangled Drongos is definitely behind us. Only 1 single Brown Shrike seen this morning.

And again a nice male Yellow-rumped Flycatcher hanging around - the only flycatcher spotted this morning. The spring passage 2012 at the Lenin park have been particularly good for this species. Difficult to quantify because the migrants can stay some days here, but I estimate their numbers at not less than 15-20 individuals - 1 sighting/2-3 visits on average.

The unexpected bird of the day was a Cinnamon Bittern (patch tick, # 111), seen around the small wet patch where the local trapper set up (every day !!!) his mist net.

And 2 days ago, along the channel of the Red River Island (flooded now), I heard 3 Reed Warblers singing from within the tiny reedbeds, which turned out to be Black-browed. Lifer !

Sebastien