A few late autumn goodies from northern Vietnam

The last few weeks dragonflies have become scarce, so my attention has shifted somewhat to birds. November 15 I visited Sa Pa and hiked up to the reservoir above the road that leads from Sa Pa town to the Love Waterfall area. Beyond the reservoir there are a number of small rocky streams running through what once was lovely forest and what is now an area with a few remaining trees and a lot of shrub. I was very happy to repeatedly flush a Wood Snipe that eventually I also saw for an instant on the ground, when it crossed a stream, before taking off again. To me this was both an unexpected and much desired species, irrespective of the fact that all snipe are more or less the same. The same day I also saw at approximately the same location a Long-tailed Shrike of subspecies tricolor. The first time I saw this subspecies in Vietnam. Apparently its range just about extends to the Sa Pa area.

December 5 I visited the same area again. No Wood Snipe this time, but I saw several female Blue-fronted Redstarts, new in Vietnam for me. It apparently winters regularly in the Sa Pa area. Another new bird for my Vietnamese list was the Great Spotted Woodpecker. A female fed in a lone tree for a while, before moving on.

Tam Dao also offered a few interesting birds to me recently, along the long trail at Tam Dao 2. On December 6 I was thrilled to flush a Dark-sided Thrush from the vegetation along the path that perched just long enough on a fallen log for me to be able to ID it. That same day also brought a party of Red-billed Scimitar-Babblers. Both were new birds for me.

On December 12, along the same trail and on a rather misty day, a party of Short-tailed Parrotbills were the definite highlight. I love parrotbills and seeing a party feeding for a while in close proximity was fantastic.

Below a photo of a Blue-fronted Redstart, taken with my macro lens.

Tom Kompier

Birding Sa Pa / 14-17th Feb.

Spent recently some days at Sa Pa – my 3rd trip there. At this time of the year, like more mountain sites in the north of Vietnam, the weather and especially fog can be a disturbing factor for visiting birders. I spent 3,5 days in the area but lost 1,5 days to rain and fog. Very frustrating when you hear birds calling around you and all you observe are shadows in the fog, sometimes few meters away! Fortunately my third day was sunny and I had a fantastic birding and photo session. 

I focused on 3 places: Ham Rong Gardens, Tram Ton pass (the “Golden stream/Love waterfall” area) and the scrubby hillsides en route to the pass. All of my birding was at elevation between 1500 and 1800m. To go up higher you have to follow the trail to Mt. Fansipan peak (3143m) which is demanding logistically (for "security reasons", the rangers will not allow you to enter the trail without a local guide) and time-wise. But most of the birds below the Camp 1 (2200m) can be seen in the “Golden stream/Love waterfall” area.

-Ham Rong Gardens: just a short walk out of the town. The lower parts are planted with forest-like patches of ornamental trees. Towards the top, grassy and scrubby vegetation takes over, and it is here that most interesting species can be seen.

I spotted there Daurian Redstart, Hill Prinia, Buff-throated Warbler, Brown-breasted Bulbul, Kloss's Leaf-Warbler, mixed flock of Vinous-throated and Ashy-throated Parrotbills, singing Grey Bushchat, Black-throated Sunbird, Little Bunting, Rusty-capped Fulvetta, Black-headed Greenfinch, Olive-backed Pipit, Verditer Flycatcher, Blue-winged Siva, singing Rufous-capped Babblers, singing Brownish-flanked Bush-Warblers…

Note that towards 10-11am a set of mega-loudspeakers is turned on to play pseudo-traditional music at ear-shattering volume!

-Tram Ton pass (15km from Sa Pa) - “Golden stream/Love waterfall” area: mixed flocks up here are amazingly species-rich. But the birding is slow between flocks - on average, I encountered 1 flock  ("bird-wave") every 30-45 min.

Recorded all three species of Minlas (Bar-throated, Red-tailed and Blue-winged), 2 Nuthatches (Chestnut-vented and White-tailed), 3 Tits (Yellow-cheeked, Yellow-browed and Black-throated), 2 Yuhinas (Stripe-throated, Wiskered), Ashy-throated, Chestnut-crowned and Black-faced Warblers, Great Barbet (h), a small party of Red-billed Blue-Magpies, female Red-flanked or Himalayan Bluetail, Golden Parrotbill (in the bamboo stands), Rufous-winged Fulvetta. Ground skulkers are present in good numbers with Pygmy Wren Babbler (only heard) and Grey-bellied Tesia (“crippling” views) sharing the dense undergrowth near streams. Along the Golden stream Blue Whistling Thrush, singing Plumbeous Water Redstart, Slaty-backed Forktail.

Forest below Tram Ton pass

-Scrubby hillsides en route to the pass: 

Best there were the cool Finchbill duo (Crested and Collared), Black-eared Shrike-Babbler, Spectacled Barwing, Spot-breasted Parrotbill, many singing Kloss's Leaf-Warblers, Rusty-capped Fulvetta, Green-tailed Sunbird, Black-throated Bushtit.

All in all it was a good trip, although the weather was not very cooperative. Again I missed Pale-throated Wren-Babbler, Golden-breasted Fulvetta, Black-streaked Scimitar-Babbler, White-browed Laughingthrush... I also never spotted a single Hwamei in the wild, but dozens in cage at Sa Pa town!

The cable car to the top of Mt. Fansipan will open on Vietnam’s National Day, September 2, this year. It will provide easy and quick access to the bamboo forest at 2800-3000m... but I don't think I will take it.

Vietnam seems to have this deep insecurity that its natural beauty and scenic landscapes are not enough -- they must be ‘improved’ with cable cars, touristic complexes and other recreational facilities, even in the heart of national parks… It’s a real shame.

Sebastien

 Black-throated Bushtit
talifuensis race (N Myanmar, north Indochina) with rufescent crown

Vinous-throated Parrotbill

Quite easy to find at Ham Rong Gardens, in mixed flocks with Ashy-throated
Check the scrubby/grassy margins !

Vinous-throated Parrotbill - foggy atmosphere

Rusty-capped Fulvetta, with 2 Parrotbills (Ashy-throated on the left, Vinous-throated on the right!)
In Ham Rong Gardens, this skulker is common in the scrubby margins

Golden Parrotbill prefers bamboo stands

Golden Parrotbill

Golden Parrotbill

Green-tailed Sunbird

Kloss's Leaf-Warbler P. ogilviegranti, one of the splits of the White-tailed Leaf-Warbler complex.
I made some recordings of singers. Common year-round resident at Sa Pa.

Kloss's Leaf-Warbler Pallas's Leaf Warbler
(thanks to James Eaton for pointing out this ID mistake)

Kloss's Leaf-Warbler, more pictures

Yellow-browed Warbler
Abundant winter visitor

Black-faced Warbler

Blue-winged Siva

Crested and Collared Finchbills - found together in heavily degraded or scrubby forests

male Yellow-cheeked Tit (north indochinese race rex, blue-grey above, broad ventral stripe)

A typical component species of mixed-species foraging flocks in forest

female Yellow-cheeked Tit, with olive-yellow ventral stripe

Another female

Yellow-browed Tit

Wiskered Yuhina

Wiskered Yuhina

Stripe-throated Yuhina

Rufous-winged Fulvetta

Bar-throated Minla

Bar-throated Minla

Grey-bellied Tesia
No playback used to lure it into view. Heard its call and found it foraging in the open along a stream, quite indifferent to my presence

Grey-bellied Tesia

More photos of this odd-looking little fellow (unfortunately blurry ones)

Black-eared Shrike-Babbler

Chestnut-crowned Warbler

White-tailed Nuthatch

White-tailed Nuthatch

Hill Prinia - noisy inhabitant of grass and low vegetation

male Plumbeous Water Redstart

even more beautiful when it spread out its rufous tail

Fansipan disaster

The Sun Group Corporation has commenced construction of a three-wire cable car system in Sapa town, Lao Cai province, to transport tourists to the peak of Fansipan Mountain – the roof of Indochina (3,143m), in the heart of the Hoang Lien National Park. It is scheduled for completion by the end of 2014.

The 7 km-long three-wire cable car system – the first of its kind in Asia – will be able to carry a maximum of 2,000 people per hour, with a capacity of 35 passengers per car. It will shorten the current two or three-day journey required to reach Fansipan’s summit down to... 15 minutes. 

That cable car will seriously threaten the site in the following ways: 

-The construction will cause the heaviest damage to the mountain in its history, and destroyed the authenticity and integrity of the topography of the mountain top. 

-Damage to vegetation and ecology. A swath of forest and vegetation of about 10 meters in width has to be felled below the cable car line; at the top a large surface of vegetation have to be destroyed for the cable car station, stores, restaurants and concrete paths – and probably hotels! A cable car owner is always soliciting tourists for more profit, which leads to a crowded mountain top. Then merchants are tempted to open more stores and restaurants. The top of the mountain will become a source of pollution and will endanger the whole mountain. 

-A scar on the natural beauty of the scenery. The cable car, never in harmony with the natural scenery, becomes visual pollution. Travelers visit this mountain to seek beauty, knowledge and mental relaxation. Hiking in the Fansipan Mountain enables one to fully explore the sites’ natural, aesthetic and cultural value. The construction of the cable car will damage the value of the national park. 

-Not in accordance with the basic demands of tourism. Relevant local departments should have invested in outbound transportation construction and improved fundamental tourist facilities outside the scenic zone, but instead they cash in on transportation in the heart of the scenic zone at the cost of damaging irreparably the site. It takes two or three days with local porters (of the Mông ethnic group) to reach the top, while soon 15 minutes will be enough. When the cable car company will profit, the local people will lose. 

-A contradiction to the protection of a national park. The aim of a national park strategy is to reserve and protect the authenticity and integrity of the original relics for future generations. Profit-seeking development projects contradict the public service role and spiritual and cultural functions of the national park. 

The effect of building a cable car system is obviously to cash in at the cost of damaging the scenery. 

No cable cars are allowed in national parks in the United States. The well-preserved natural scenery draws tourists from home and abroad. Each of America’s five mountains over 2,000 meters above sea level attracts more than 2 million tourists a year. Mount Fuji in Japan stands 3,776 meters above sea level. The road stops at 2,000-odd meters, and there is no cable car or neat walking steps above that point. A small path leads all the way to the top. The mountain attracts more than 2 million visitors annually. Do the Japanese have no money to build a cable car? 

Cable cars and other commercial entertainment facilities should be built in their proper place, not in scenic zones and national parks!

Cable cars also are needed in some mountainous regions as a means of transportation. Cable cars are promising, but not in the wrong place!

The summit of Mount Fansipan

Sa Pa / 13th-17th Feb

Spent recently four days at Sa Pa. This was not exclusively a birding trip and most of my birding was done around the city. I had also one afternoon session along the Fansipan Trail (half the trail between Tram Tôn Pass and Camp 1).
Despite it being incredibly foggy sometimes I managed some excellent - but unsurprising - birds and add a dozen new species to my life list.

• Scrubby habitat + small patches of secondary growth (some kms before the Silver Waterfall / 3 hours) : 2 Partridge sp. flushed, mixed flocks of Crested & Collared Finchbills and Brown-breasted Bulbuls, a lone Red-flanked Bluetail, Pallas’s Leaf Warbler, Grey Bushchat, Blue-winged Siva, Rusty-capped and Wiskered Fulvettas, Chestnut-crowned Warbler, Spectacled Barwing, Grey-bellied Tesia & Pygmy Wren Babbler along the streams, “Blyth’s” Leaf Warbler.

• Silver Waterfall touristic area and below (2 hours): Blue Whistling Thrush, Plumbeous and White-capped Water Redstarts, Little Forktail, White Wagtail ssp alboides, Asian Barret Owlet (h).

• Fansipan Trail below the Camp 1 (one afternoon) : Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher, Red-tailed Minla, Chestnut-vented and White-tailed Nuthatches, Yellow-cheeked, Yellow-browed and Black-throated Tits, Mountain Bulbul, Ashy-throated, Chestnut-crowned and Black-faced Warblers, Pygmy Wren Babbler (heard many times in the small, shady valleys), Chestnut-fronted Shrike Babbler, Rufous-winged Fulvetta, Stripe-throated and White-bellied Yuhinas, Green-tailed Sunbird, Great Barbet (h). 

• Ham Rong Gardens (2 x 2 hours, essentially the scrubby margins) : 2 nice males Red-flanked Bluetails, females Daurian Redstart, Hill Prinia, singing Buff-throated Warbler, “Blyth’s” and Pallas’s Leaf Warblers, small flocks of Vinous-throated Parrotbills, Grey Bushchat, Green-tailed Sunbird, flocks of Little Buntings, 1 male Chestnut Bunting, Rusty-capped Fulvetta, Black-headed Greenfinch, Olive-backed Pipit, 1 Yellow-bellied Fantail, Blue-winged Siva, a party of Rufous-capped Babblers. 

Collared Finchbill

Crested Finchbill and Brown-breasted Bulbul

Crested Finchbill

male and female Plumbeous Water Redstart

Little Forktail. 

I arrived at the Silver Waterfall (Thác Bạc) very early to avoid the crowd but failed to find one. Two hours later, 400 meters downstream, in a wild area, I finally bumped into this guy.

 Chestnut-crowned Warbler

 Pallas's Leaf Warbler

 male Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher

 Black-faced Warbler

 Chestnut-fronted Shrike Babbler

 Red-tailed Minla

Yellow-cheeked Tit calling excitedly in response to an imitation of the Collared Owlet

Black-throated Tit

Yellow-bellied Fantail

Buff-throated Warbler

Grey-bellied Tesia

male Chestnut Bunting

Little Bunting

Rusty-capped Fulvetta - only spotted in scrubby areas

Stripe-throated Fulvetta

Wiskered Fulvetta

 Female daurian Redstart

Olive-backed Pipit

Rufous-capped Babbler

Vinous-throated Parrotbill

Hill Prinia

male and female Green-tailed Sunbird

And a set of pictures of 2 philloscs to end with, both of the Blyth's Leaf Warbler complex.
Establishing which one of the 3 species of this complex is tricky. Any help would be welcome!

• The first one seen in a scrubby area, at 1800m :

• The second one, spotted at the Ham Rong Garden (1600m), was singing. Song recorded here (clic Download).

So Blyth's, Hartert's or Claudia's? Hopefully someone with experience of these species will propose some satisfactory ID's.

And Sa Pa, it is not only the birds but also its colorful hill tribes...

Black Hmong ethnic little girl

 

 Black Hmong women with babies

Black Hmong young girls

Red Dao ethnic woman

The mist would have been my worst enemy

More pictures of the presumably Ogilviegranti's Leaf Warbler ssp disturbans, taken last year at Sa Pa -  and probably not phylloscs of the Blyth's complex as I previously tought (see `comments`) :