Nicobar Pigeon in Con Dao

This was a pure family holiday (6.-9. October), with most time being spent floating in the warm water with the kids or eating through the seafood restaurants.

I initially planned to take my 10 year old to Bay Canh island to see the turtles laying eggs (and looking for Nicobar Pigeon in the forest). But as we were a little late in the season and turtles not guaranteed we didn't go. Also a longer boat trip to the Egg Island (hon Trung) was not so compatible with the family plans, so my birding was limited to morning walks through the forest of the main island, Con Son.

Near Ong Dung Beach

Of course the main target was Nicobar Pigeon, however with low hope, as this bird seems to be rarely or never seen by birders. Hung has photographed it some years ago during a survey, but I've found no other reports of sightings. On the other hand, not many birders make that detour to the Con Dao Islands....

My main walk was up to the So Ray Plantation and down the other side until the coast near Ong Dung Beach. The start of the trail is marked by a sign at the road, so easy to find. After 50 m through banana trees the forest starts and it is actually pretty nice forest with relatively tall trees. Into the forest I was welcomed by Common Tailorbirds, Pin-striped Tit-babblers, Streak-throated Bulbuls and White-rumped Shamas, which remained the most common birds I saw on the Island. Also rather soon I saw a group of Red Junglefowl. And then I flushed a bird from the ground, it flew up and perched in sight but mostly hidden behind branches. Darkish body and a few times a wierd shaped thin head peaked out. I tried to approach for a photo, but it escaped unphotographed. Before, when the bird was flying up, a white tail flashed, the rest was very dark. That was it then, Nicobar Pigeon! Less than satisfying views, but the bird was there, with only 20 min on the trail.

 Common Con Dao birds

After this sighting the trail went up steeply, and when almost reaching the highest spot, several Pied Imperial Pigeons were flying off from the trees above the trail. That spot remained the only place where I saw them, again when returning. On the top it got flat again, I guess that's what is called So Ray Plantation. More Junglefowl here, a female Yellow-rumped Flycatcher, Common Iora, some Phyllos Warblers, Greater Racket-Tailed Drongo. 

Then the trail descended steeply down the other side. A lot of Long-tailed Macaques and also quite many Giant Black Squirrels down here. The black variant of Variable Squirrel was very common everywhere. All three are endemic subspecies. Also a few Northern Treeshrew. The mammals seemed more common than birds, actually. Almost all the way down the slope I flushed another Nicobar Pigeon. This time I saw the short while tail and the dark back and wings of the bird quite well. Like the first bird, it made a loud woosh-woosh sound with the wings when flying up.

 Con Dao mammals

Ahaetulla Sp., but which one?


I returned the same way and reached the road around lunch time. The way back could also be shortend by going up the new paved path to the road leading to Ong Dung beach, when arranging pick up there.

Along this road, they are constructing a new National Park headquarter, if I read the construction sign right. Shortly after this, there is a signpost marking trails to Bai Bang Beach (2.4 km) and Dat Tham Beach (3 km). I tried this path another morning. As the ones decending to Ong Dung beach, these ones where also recently paved. One of thoe works not so uncommon in Vietnam's national parks: a 3 m wide path made from granite blocks and lots of mortar, surely very expensive and totally useless. The algue growing on the mortar made the path extremly slippery. It was rather dry and I managed not to  hurt myself too badly. The forest here is also nice, but much lower trees and dryer than the one at So Ray trail, and I saw much less birds here. Forest wagtails and a White-bellied Sea Eagle at Bai Bang Beach were the only new birds here. However, during the first km on the trail, lots of Pigeons were calling, probably Pied Imperial.

Slippery path

I did not see much else: Kentish Plover, Common Sandpiper and Pacific Reef Egret on the Beaches, 2 Terns hunting on the Lotus ponds, I believe it were moulting White-winged Terns. And Flying Foxes feeding in the trees of the hotel compound.

So very happy about the two Pigeons, but nothing really exiting besides. So for a birding trip to Con Dao, I'd recommend to focus on the So Ray trail (both my sightings of the Nicobar Pigeon were at the parts with tallest forest near the lower end of the steep slopes on either side of the hill) and try to get out to Trung Island (see Richards report here).  Here a map of the Island, the mentionned trails can be seen west of "Con Dao Town". Another trail in the North of the Island is marked there as well, could be interesting, but I havn't tried it.

Florian

Terns and turtles: A short holiday in Con Dao

Jonathan Eames, Dinh Thi Hoa, my wife Lan, daughter Carmen and me, Richard Craik, had a short holiday on Con Dao Island from 10th to 14th July. A typical holiday for us really, a mix of family fun (the swimming pool and trampoline at the resort provided most of this), sweaty games of tennis on hot, sticky afternoons and morning birding trips.

On our first afternoon there we met up with the very helpful Ms Thuy from Con Dao National Park. Through her we made arrangements to hire a speedboat for a morning at Trung Island on 11th July and another trip on the 13th and 14th to Troc and Tre Nho islands and Bay Canh Island where we would overnight to watch the Green Turtles egg-laying on the beach. Fortunately the speedboat was already booked for the morning of 12th July so I could enjoy a lay-in after watching the World Cup Final till 4 in the morning.

Approaching Trung Island just after 7.30 in the morning we could see that Bridled Terns made up the majority of the birds circling above the small egg-shaped island along with smaller numbers of Great Crested and Roseate terns. In nooks and crannies at lower levels Brown Noddy and Brown Booby were nesting. We had not been able to get onto Trung Island on earlier trips to Con Dao but this time we were to be luckier as the calm sea conditions meant the speedboat could briefly get close enough for us to hop onto the slippery barnacle encrusted rocks. Mind you, that was the easy bit! We now had to scramble up the sheer jagged rocks to reach the nesting terns near the top of the island.

Not having the best head for heights I called it a day around 10 metres below the summit and settled into a nice shady spot while Jonathan clambered up to the top to photograph the nesting birds close up. After an hour or so watching terns wheeling around our heads it was time to scramble back down to the boat and rescue the womenfolk who were by now beginning to turn varying shades of green as the speedboat bobbed around offshore.

On the morning of the 13th we boarded the speedboat loaded down with our provisions for the next 24 hours and headed for Tre Nho via Troc Island. There was not a lot happening on Troc Island but we did get some nice looks at a group of Black-naped Terns including at least one recently fledged young bird as we passed close by the island.

Continuing to Tre Nho we disembarked with our bottles of water, "banh mi pate" and oranges to spend the morning searching for the extremely elusive Nicobar Pigeon. We had failed to find the little bugger on previous trips to Con Dao and after a hot and sweaty morning scouring Tre Nho we were to fail again this time. What we did discover though was that Tre Nho has to be the easiest place in the world to see Mangrove Whistler, which was literally everywhere on this tiny little island. A couple of "pishes" would bring the inquisitive little whistlers in from every direction. So, no Nicobars on Tre Nho this time but there were Pied Imperial- pigeons, a few Emerald Doves, plenty of White-rumped Shamas and a small colony of Bridled Terns on the rocky cliffs.

In the afternoon we continued to the much larger Bay Canh were we searched in vain
once more for Nicobar Pigeon and after a swim and an early dinner we set the alarm for two o'clock and hit the sack. Well, hard wooden beds actually, a sack would have been sheer luxury. Up at two, we only had to wait thirty minutes or so before the first Green Turtle hauled itself up the beach and started to dig a hole in the sandy beach. By five o'clock we had watched eleven Green Turtles lay their eggs before disppearing back into the moonlit ocean. And we disappeared back to Con Dao Island before our speedboat moored nearby was left high and dry by the fast receding tide.

Photo of Roseate Terns by Jonathan C. Eames