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

Lenin Park-Hanoi : migration in full swing!

New sightings of migrants at Lenin Park during 3 visits : last Monday with John Parr & Family and Falk Wicker + 2 solo noon strolls on Tuesday/Wednesday. Most of the birds have been spotted in the area near the northern gate - a part, the best one, is outside the park (i.e. on the other side of the barrier) and accessible by Le Duân Street. In total, not more than 2 ha of birding playground mostly occupied by small trees, scrub and bushes.

- 1 White-shouldered Starling *
- 1 Spangled Drongo
- 1 Ashy Drongo (ssp mouhoti)
- 1 Wryneck
- 2 Siberian Stonechats
- 2 males Hainan Blue Flycatchers
- 1 Taiga Flycatcher
- 1 male Yellow-rumped Flycatcher
- 1 female Blue-and-White Flycatcher
- 1 Chinese/Hill Blue Flycatcher
- 1 Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher
- 2 Siberian Rubythroats
- 1 Manchurian Bush-warbler
- 1 Dusky Warbler
- 1 Seicercus Warbler
- 1 Blue Whistling Thrush
- 1 Chestnut Bunting
- 1 imm Pied Harrier headed north *
- 15 Black-crowned Night Herons *
- 1 Chestnut-winged Cuckoo *

* Patch tick (now ca 110 species spotted in the 2 main Hanoi’s parks)

John, Falk, did I forget anything ?

This stunning male Chestnut Bunting, not yet in breeding plumage, was foraging in low scrub


Manchurian Bush-warbler. Piles of dead branches are an excellent playground for this skulker. And the game it like best is hide-and-seek!

Male Hainan Blue Flycatcher with a strange throat/upper breast pattern (normaly, it is dark blue)

Taiga Flycatcher enjoying luxury perches

Wryneck

Siberian Rubythroat

Female Chinese/Hill Blue Flycatcher

Spangled Drongo

Blue Whistling Thrush of the black-billed migratory race caeruleus (a possible future split)

Chestnut-winged Cuckoo moving slowly from branch to branch high up in the tree canopy. A rare passage migrant in the Hanoi area - another sighting the 16-04-11 by Falk & Simon (Red river Island)


Black-crowned Night Herons (5 individuals on Monday, 15 on Tuesday) flying around Bẩy Mẫu Lake

Sébastien

Three more pics from me (Falk)

A well-camouflaged Scaly-breasted Munia,

A very showy Plaintive Cuckoo,

And one of those Flys - Chinese or Hill Blue?

Lenin Park - Hanoi

Hi all,

Recent sightings of migrants in the park (near the northern gate) :

- 1 Orange-headed Thrush
- 1 Seicercus sp
- 1 Verditer Flycatcher
- 2-3 Hill/Chinese Blue Flycatchers
- 1 male Mugimaki Flycatcher
- 1 male Hainan Blue Flycatcher
- 1 Manchurian Bush-warbler (heard)
- 2 Black-naped Monarchs
- some Grey-capped Greenfinches
- 1 Spot-necked Babbler (not a migrant of course!)

Spotted this nice male Mugimaki Flycatcher last Sunday with John Parr and his family. Probably a one day bird, no recent sighting.

Noisy and nervous Spot-necked Babbler seen this morning (29th March). Obviously "escapee" is everyone's first thought. But I think it's too easy to put every "incongruous sighting" in the category "escaped" (or "released", but it is much harder to imagine, here !) . In any case a great looking bird !

How many captive Black-throated Laughingthrushes at Hanoi ? Hundreds, more probably thousands ? But how many sightings of this species in the 2 main Hanoian's parks ? For me it is very simple : not a single one. I could say the same thing about other common "cage birds" : Mynas, White-crested Laughingthrush, Hwamei (only 2 sightings in two years)... Have you ever seen a single Spot-necked Babbler in a cage here ?... Just to say there is higher probability that it is a genuine vagrant, even if it is hard to believe. Just my opinion!

Male Black-naped Monarch

Verditer Flycatcher

Sebastien

Lenin Park

A stroll around the patch this morning revealed two new interesting guys : 1 Manchurian Bush-warbler and 1 Pallas's Leaf Warbler.

Pallas's Leaf Warbler. You can see the yellow rump in the photo above

Manchurian Bush-warbler

This skulker is a photographer's nightmare. What makes life really frustrating is that it is a rather common winter visitor but it impossible to get a clean view (leave alone a clean shot). First, I heard its distinctive rattling call (trrrt... trrrt). I followed it - it was on the ground, invisible - and suddenly it emerged for a few seconds, before disappearing for good.
I am rather satisfied by those photos, I know such occasions don't happen everyday !

The same female Cyornis flycatcher than yesterday. Do you confirm the ID : Chinese Blue or not ?

She found a boyfriend during the night. The handsome guy below was not here yesterday, and they were flying almost `wing in wing` this morning :)

Do you know some key features that can be used to separate males Hill Blue and Chinese Blue ? (I have `The Robson` edition... 2005)

Sebastien

Hanoi birding patches - 18/19-10-2011

Hi all,

Short birding strolls at the local "hot spots" (Lenin Park (1), Botanical garden (2), wooded area of the Red River Island (3), new patch at Gia Lam (4)) produced the following, among others :

Asian Stubtail exploring rubble full of rubbish. The challenge was how to take a photo of this guy without plastic bags around. Lenin Park/Toilet area.
Good video (October 2010, exactly at the same place) here.

- 1 Manchurian Bush-warbler (3), good views (during 15 seconds. With a such mega-skulker I can consider it was a good observation ! But not enough - not yet !- for a photo)
- 1 Ashy Minivet, 1 Verditer Fly (3)
- 2 Asian Stubtails (1, 2), both behind the WC
- 1 female Orange-headed Thrush (4)
- 2 Grey Bushchats (1), male and female together
- some Asian Brown Fly (1, 2, 3, 4)
- 2 Taiga Fly (4)
- some Dusky Warblers (1, 3, 4)
- some Grey-headed Canary Fly (1, 2, 3, 4)
- some Black Drongos (1, 3)

Sébastien Delonglée

A Flycatcher and its friend enjoying the morning sun/Lenin Park

A gorgeous female Orange-headed Thrush

The famous Toilet area of the Lenin Park that the World envies us !

Flycatchers list for memory : Dark-sided Flycatcher, Asian Brown Fly, Brown-breasted Fly, Brown-chested Jungle Fly, Ferruginous Fly, Verditer Fly, Yellow-rumped Fly, Green-backed Fly, Mugimaki Fly, Taiga Fly, Snowy-browed Fly, Blue-and-White Fly, Fujian Niltava, Hainan Blue Fly, Chinese/Hill Blue Fly, Grey-headed Canary Fly, Black-naped Monarch, Asian Paradise Fly - among many other good birds - have been spotted here !

Lenin Park scenery

Lenin Park, 9-10-2011

Hi all,

Apart from seeing a young guy having a walk with his approx. 2 year old Stump-tailed Macaque, it was actually quite nice to check Lenin Park on a busy Sunday.

5 Oriental Honey Buzzards and 3 Purple Herons were soaring overhead, as was a flock of Barn Swallows and an unidentified Riparia-species.

The corner near the circus held 1 Wryneck, 1 Asian Brown Flycatcher, 2 Brown Shrikes and 1 Siberian Stonechat.

Around the toilets there were 1 Forest Wagtail, 1 Dark-sided Flycatcher, 1 Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher and another Asian Brown Flycatcher, as well as one Ashy Drongo.

One Striated Heron flew across the lake.

Cheers,
Falk

Sun Oct 02: Lenin Park, Hanoi

Saturday in the Botanical Gardens was a disaster. Do not try to take a 20 month old boy out birding!

Sunday morning saw me, albeit a touch late, at Lenin Park. Seemed to be plenty around (much of which was passing over and I could not ID). Today they were cutting branches down around the (great birding) toilet block, so I am not sure what it will be like in the future. All the branches on the ground did attract a lot of flycatchers though. Just after my phone went, a large dark coloured raptor casually flew over, not to far above me. Photo not possible, damn it (hands on phone). It looked (to an amateur) like a very big, dark coloured falcon, (but with slower wing-beats, and strong banding on both body and wings). Next time...

Birds I have some idea about:

• Drongo - Ashy


• Robin - Pied magpie


• Flycatcher - Hainan blue


• Flycatcher - Asian Brown


• Flycatcher - Hill blue


• Flycatcher - Taiga


• Robin-Siberian blue (female)

I have posted images of the last birds here on Birdforum to try and tie them down. This post has been updated, based on that.

Wayne

Hill Blue flycatcher

Lenin Park lately

(I had huge problems publishing this post out of my upgrade to IE9 (with MS Word 2010). Even compatibility mode did not work. Found many others on web with same problem, but no solution (yet). Finally solved by downloading and using Google Chrome.)


Saturday 16 April
A nice morning out. While there was very little action around the "toilet" area, the rest of the park made up for it. Notable birds (for me):

• Drongo (Ashy) - 3 pale and one darker morph


• Sharma - White rumped (near Le Duan)


• Shrike - Burmese

Saturday 23 April

A slow morning at first, with more birds visible & moving around later on. Again, very little action around the "toilet"area, but a few interesting birds 100m past it. Notable birds:

• Drongo - Spangled


• Flycatcher - Yellow rumped (Female)


• Munia - Scaly (surprisingly just 1 - I have always seen these guys in groups in the past)

Wayne Hodgkinson, Hanoi

Lenin Park. April 9th

A lovely morning at Lenin Park. After meeting Sebastian for the first time, I spent about two hours around the toilets, as I really wanted to see the Orange-headed Thrush. No joy, but I saw all the other birds he did, as well as an unidentified flycatcher that may well be a female Narcissus flycatcher, although I really am not sure (see bottom two images).

Wayne

Lenin Park / April 9th

Short stroll around the famous Lenin Park toilets. Spotted four guys exploiting the place : 1 Hainan Blue Flycatcher, 1 Chinese/Hill Blue Flycatcher, 1 Orange-headed Thrush, 1 Eyebrowed Thrush.

Sebastien

Lenin Park 7th April 2011

Visiting birder Pieter Lojtmeijer went to Lenin Park in the afternoon and found the following:

Rufous-tailed Robin (1)
Bianchi's Warbler (two different individuals)
Eastern-crowned Warbler (2)
Blyth's Leaf Warbler (3)
Dusky Warbler (1),
Yellow-browed Warbler (ca. 25)
Chinese/Hill-blue Flycatcher (a male and a fem.)
Asian Brown Flycatcher (1)
Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher (at least 6 exx.)
Maroon Oriole (a fem.)
Blue Rock Thrush (a fem.)
Chestnut Bunting (a first spring male)
Grey-headed Greenfinch (4)
Plantive Cuckoo (2 males)

The next day along the edge of West Lake and at the small temple on the island there he saw 3 Grey-headed Lapwings and 3 Yellow-rumped Flycatchers; and in the botanical gardens there was a Forest Wagtail.

Lenin Park 30/03

Very few migrants/winter visitors seen in the park this morning (1 Brown Shrike, 1 Japanese Thrush, some Olive-backed Pipits). But nice surprise with 5-6 Grey-capped Greenfinches feeding in a flowerbed.
Also 3-4 males Plaintive Cuckoos singing.
Two of the 3 mozzy-infested corners have been completely cleaned to "fight against social evils". Bad for us...
Sebastien