Osprey - Van Long

Seen last Sunday (14th November) circling high above the dyke.

Sebastien

Van Long, 13.11.2010

Pleasant trip to Van Long to see the Delacour's Langurs that we missed during our only previous visit. Got good views around 4 pm.

Birds were pretty much the usual ones (EDIT: I just learned that Coot isn't actually so usual here), but always nice to actually see birds in large numbers:
Uncountable egrets, Great, Intermediate, Little and Cattle, White-browed Crakes 30 + (all over the place and very close views both from the boat and the dike), Pheasant-tailed Jacana 3, Moorhen 10+, Coot 2, Little Grebe 10+, Crested Myna 30+
Common and White-throated Kingfishers, Long-tailed and Brown Shrikes, Kestrel.

We went by motorbike, pleasant trip via the Ho-Chi-Minh Highway, Chi Ne and Ngo Dong and stayed overnight in the Van Long Resort there (a bit too expensive for what they offer...)
Huong and Florian

Adult male Japanese Thrush

Up till now almost all of the thrushes in the botanical gardens have been young birds, but today there were:
Japanese Thrush adult male 1 - a beautiful bird with its jet black and white plumage
Japanese Thrush adult female 2
Japanese Thrush 1st winter male 3
Japanese Thrush 1st winter female 5
Grey-backed Thrush 1st winter female 1
Scaly Thrush 1
Rufous-tailed Robin 1
Olive-backed Pipit 15

Simon

Thrushes in Botanical Gardens

Lots of Thrushes in the Botanical Gardens this morning, at least 10 in the two usual spots.
A few easy Japanese Thrushes but also quite a few that were difficult to me, I think most were 1st winter Japanese. One looked like a Black-throated (very dense and dark streaked throat, less dense streaks on belly and flanks, grey sides and upperside of head and neck).
Further a Rufous-tailed Robin (lifer!), a Red-flanked Bluetail and an Ashy Drongo.
Florian

Lenin Park

This morning in Lenin Park, behind the toilets:
Japanese Thrush 2
Snowy-browed Flycatcher 2 (chasing each other, one looked neat like the one in the photos, the other a little scrubby)
Taiga Flycatcher 1

Florian

And near the northern entrance :

2 Thrushes (1 1st winter Japanese, 1 exactly like the mysterious one seen by Falk and Simon, photographied by Roland Männel with well-demarcated streaky rather than spotted breast, so 1st winter Grey-backed/ photo above), 1 Grey Bushchat, 1 Ceicercus Warbler, 1 Dark-sided Flycatcher

Sebastien

6.11.2010, Red River Island

Saturday morning visit to the island:
Taiga Flycatcher 1
Small Niltava 1
Wryneck 2
Grey Bushchat 1
Oriental Skylark 1
Thickbilled Warbler 2
Dusky Warbler 5
Seicercus Warbler sp. 1
Harrier sp. 1

Sebastien also saw a Shortwing with a very long Eyebrow...

Sebastien, Christian, Florian


Here now a pic of the Lark by Christian. Please correct if I'm wrong with Oriental Skylark.