Hi Martin - just loved this account of the perils of birdwatching in a
foreign country.
I've just come back from 5 weeks in Vietnam and Cambodia with similar
frustrating attempts at doing some bird watching, even though I thought
I was well prepared with a SE Asia Bird Guide, a local contact who had
already taken me out for four hours down in the Mekong Delta on a
previous trip, and having allocated some parts of the trip as purely for
that purpose.
The best place was 'dry' tropical jungle in NE Cambodia, where I stayed
at an ecolodge for 3 days and had the benefit of a list left by visitors
from Canada of what they'd seen a couple of months before. I managed to
identify 12 birds (all of them lifers, although I don't really count
myself as a twitcher). Due to poor eyesight and doing almost all my
birdwatching from the verandah of my own 'house' or that of the
restaurant, there were many smaller birds which we'd call 'lbb's' or
little brown birds. And one pair of what I swear were orioles, who came
to the path next to the restaurant regularly, but weren't in the bird
book I had with me. The great advantage this place had over several
others in Vietnam was that there were some deciduous trees which were
just getting their leaves, so there were open spaces in the jungle for
birds to fly through and be identified in. The highlight was a
white-rumped shama, brilliant blue back and long blue tail (with a white
rump) and a soft russet waistcoat, only saw him twice but he was truly
beautiful.
In Vietnam, went to a very well run National Park near Hue called Bach
Ma, with an education centre at the gate and an English-speaking ranger
who luckily also happened to be a keen birder. At the top of the
mountain where I stayed I later ran into an ex-poacher now converted to
a forest guard who is a bird caller. He could immitate (and get
responses from) about a dozen of the local feathered inhabitants, but
the jungle is so thick it is almost impossible to see any birds at all -
the chorus of bird calls however is better than any orchestra I've ever
heard, all day and especially at dawn the following morning when I set
out at first light to walk to the summit, with a side trip up to the
remains of an American helicopter landing base from the war era.
In a clearing around the path (looked like it had been caused by a small
land slip at some time) I did see a babbler, babbling away to the new
born sunrays which were streaming down through the mist - these
mountains were almost totally mist- and fogbound at their lower levels
almost all the time I was there. And also saw some unidentified smaller
birds on a steep walk down to a waterfall with my driver (who I think
was sent with me by the hotel staff after they had failed to disuade me
from doing the walk, so he could carry me out if I came to grief). He
was a 'city boy' and seemed quite alarmed by the surrounding jungle -
maybe if I had stopped to think that Vietnamese jungle still contains
tigers and other large and interesting wildlife, I might have had second
thoughts too, but I'm very glad I didn't - as well as the birds, there
was the magic scenery of the sun lighting up the wild rhododendrons and
magnolias, which were just coming into flower. And taking my shoes off
my weary feet and paddling in the little pools in the gushing mountain
stream that fed the waterfalls was pretty magic by then too! As was
having a drink from a bubbler which had a sign explaining in great
detail why it was safe to drink - as I'd forgotten my de rigeur bottle
of water, it tasted great and I had no ill effects afterwards.
Everywhere else drank bottled water which is now a major industry in
both countries - must be nice for the residents to have it reasonably
cheaply available too!
Later, after a visit to Hanoi, I took a train up very near the Chinese
border, to a hill tribe town called SaPa. I had an interesting time
trying to find anyone who knew about the local bird life, but finally
after a wonderful pillion ride through some really nice forest, tracked
down someone in the Forestry department who let me look at a study done
by some scientists from the Netherlands a few years back, with a bird
list printed in English and Latin names, which compared helpfully with
Craig Robinsons SE Asia bird guide I had with me. So even though I
didn't identify many birds, I was able to narrow down the choices of
what they might have been when I did see them.
All of which made me realise what an incredibly rich and valuable
resource the COG surveys and lists are and how lucky we are in Canberra
and Australia generally to have such a great knowledge of our birds!
Next trip will be spending 3 months travelling from Canberra to Cape
York and back during the coming winter, so will be on the lookout for
lots of sub-tropical and tropical birds up there too. It was interesting
birding overseas but still in SE Asia, comparing their bird families
with ours and noting many, many similarities.
cheers, Wendy
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