Vietnam Trip report 14/1/16 – 26/1/16 (Long)

My two week trip to Vietnam was a family holiday. I organised one 24-hour-long guided birding trip to Bạch Mã National Park plus some opportunistic birdwatching while being a tourist. The result was 99 species, including 58 lifers, with some IDs still unresolved.
The birding trip to Bạch Mã began on my first day in Vietnam and was selected because it was the closest I would be staying to one of the better-known birding destinations in Vietnam. I organised it through the helpful Le Quy Minh. I met him through Birding Pal but never met him face to face because he was away. Minh organised my guide (Nanh) (for more details on Minh and Nanh go to www.vietnambirding.com/about-us.aspx) as well as a driver, meals and accommodation. I paid for everything, but Minh provided advice before the trip plus follow-up identification of Bạch Mã birds calls via email after I returned to Australia. Several other bird calls from my trip were identified by Marc Anderson after I listed them as mysteries on xeno-canto.

We stayed at River Beach Resort near Hội An ebird.org/ebird/australia/view/checklist?subID=S27970097 The resort is about 3 hours drive from Bạch Mã. The traffic in Vietnam is slow compared to Australia, so the majority of the drive to Bạch Mã was at a speed of about 40 kilometres an hour. Being new to Vietnam several of the urban birds I saw on the way would have been lifers and I was able to ID a few but urban birding wasn’t part of the tour, making it a frustrating trip. Once we got into the farmland and forest after the turn off to Bạch Mã it was a different story and the birding tour began.

Road to Bạch Mã 14/1/16 – 15 species incl Paddyfield Pipit & Siberian Stonechat ebird.org/ebird/australia/view/checklist?subID=S27970007
Nanh stuck to the roads, getting the driver to meet us once we had worked our way up another section of the mountain. It was a sensible approach but hard work. The thick forest made it difficult to see many of the birds but Nanh made up for it by pointing out whatever was around and then impersonating the call of a Collared Owlet so he could pick up anything that didn’t show itself. The owlet call worked like ‘pishing’. He also used playback from his phone if we could hear an identified species nearby. For some time we were in a band of cloud or fog that meant calls were the only way of getting an ID.

Bạch Mã 14/1/16 – 31 species incl Red-headed Trogon, Blue-winged Leafbird and Racquet-tailed Treepie ebird.org/ebird/australia/view/checklist?subID=S27967572
Non-birding highlights included a large black snake, a family of rare Red-shanked Douc langurs, squirrels and a Muntjac deer that was close enough for me to get a poor photo.
After night-fall we went to the accommodation higher up the mountain. Dinner was noodles at ‘The Chicken Restaurant’ across the road with a wonderful array of Bạch Mã moths flying in to keep me company. Nanh then took me out spotlighting but the fog or cloud made it impossible. He got me up before dawn the next morning in time to hear a Mountain Scops Owl calling and then more noodles and a nice coffee kept warm with a candle for breakfast. After that Nanh covered the summit area, which was above the accommodation. Nanh was good company, knowledgeable and tireless in finding birds, many of which we heard only and I knew none of the calls. He found many birds that I would have missed and it would have been a frustrating experience without him.
Bạch Mã 15/1/16 – 26 species incl Silver Pheasant, Golden-throated Barbet, White-browed Scimitar-babbler & Sultan Tit ebird.org/ebird/australia/view/checklist?subID=S27968698

The way back to Hội An included an attempt to find the once-reliable Brown Fish-owls at the entrance to the park. Apparently some recently installed floodlights caused them to move from the roost at the gate and we failed to find out where they had moved to.

The best birding once back at River Beach Resort was along the river next to the resort and in the nearby sand dunes behind Cua Dai beach between Palm Garden resort and Zero Seamile Beach Club. The section behind the dunes is littered with cactus, a few trees, cow dung and graves/memorials (this may be why this block hasn’t been developed. I also got a spike from one of the cacti so tread carefully). It is also bombarded with Vietnamese pop music from the seafood restaurants but every time I went there I found birds. Unfortunately the mornings were always overcast and that was when I had time for birding.
Hội An 16/1/16 – 10 species ebird.org/ebird/australia/view/checklist?subID=S28134883
Hội An 17/1/16 – 7 species incl Sooty-headed Bulbul ebird.org/ebird/australia/view/checklist?subID=S28135003
Hội An 18/1/16 – 12 species incl Indian Nightjar, Vinous-breasted Starling, ebird.org/ebird/australia/view/checklist?subID=S28418760
Hội An 19/1/16 – 5 species – ebird.org/ebird/australia/view/checklist?subID=S28418969
I had difficulty with IDs for several species at Hội An (images on this link) s273.photobucket.com/user/eve_jean_talbot/library/Birds/Vietnam%202016%20Hoi%20An?sort=3&page=1 particularly the shrikes. I originally thought they were all Long-tailed Shrikes but have since changed all but one of them to Brown Shrikes. I also failed to ID many of the swifts in flight and a pipit that I think is either Richard’s or Paddyfield. If anyone can ID them from the photos on the link it would be appreciated.
There are also 7 unidentified bird calls from Hội An on xeno-canto www.xeno-canto.org/contributor/CCUCXWCPSW?query=mystery including this one that could be Grey-capped Greenfinch.http://www.xeno-canto.org/forum/topic/14219

From Hội An we went to Hanoi. Central Hanoi has two birding sites that I was aware of (the Botanic Gardens surrounding the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, and Lenin Park). I managed to visit both on one morning. The mornings in Hanoi were just as overcast as Hội An, so conditions were far from ideal. The crowds, noise, traffic and the crews of people constantly raking the grass and leaves around the Botanic Gardens added to the challenges. On the upside were quite a few sprinklers leaving large puddles of water in the grass that brought some birds out into the open.

Hanoi Botanic Gardens 20/1/16 – 11 species incl Taiga Flycatcher, Asian Brown Flycatcher, White-throated Fantail ebird.org/ebird/australia/view/checklist?subID=S28461732
I’m still not completely confident of my IDs of the two flycatchers. It seems clear to me from their calls that both were present (Asian Brown Flycatcher www.xeno-canto.org/307731 Taiga Flycatcherhttp://www.xeno-canto.org/307730 ) but I’m not sure if I’ve got the IDs right for the photos and video. There’s also an image of a bird with its head obscured by a branch. I’ve called it Flowerpecker?http://s273.photobucket.com/user/eve_jean_talbot/library/Birds/Vietnam%202016%20Hanoi?sort=3&page=1
Lenin Park’s local name is Thong Nhat Park. There is another Lenin Park on Dien Bien Phu near the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Thong Nhat Park costs a couple of dollars to enter.
Lenin Park 20/1/16 – 5 species incl White Wagtail ebird.org/ebird/australia/view/checklist?subID=S28495773

The next destination was an overnight cruise on Hạ Long Bay which sounds like a great place for birding but I had been warned from previous trip reports that it would be mostly crows and kites. And – sure enough – whilst on the cruise Large-billed Crows and Black Kites were the only birds I saw that I could identify.
ebird.org/ebird/australia/view/checklist?subID=S28495822 Before leaving the docks I got some long-range flight shots of ducks that turned out to be Spot-billed Ducks and just outside the docks several seagulls flew past. I couldn’t ID them but thought they might be Relict or Brown-headed Gulls. On the bus on the way out I saw a flock of hundreds of gulls over the same area but couldn’t ID them either. s273.photobucket.com/user/eve_jean_talbot/library/Birds/Vietnam%20-%20Halong%20Bay?sort=3&page=1
The long wait for the bus after the cruise meant that I was free to wander through the many nearby incomplete building sites. There I found Common Kingfishers (hunting in the flooded foundations of half-finished apartment blocks) plus Siberian Stonechat and Blue Rock-thrush. I also just missed a Motacilla wagtail as it flew off.
Ha Long Bay 23/1/16 – ebird.org/ebird/australia/view/checklist?subID=S28495822

The next stop was Haiphong (no birding) and then Ho Chi Minh City. The only site I birded in HCMC was the impressive Reunification or Independence Palace and I went there as a tourist without my camera. That was a mistake because the gardens were very quiet with lots of birds – the roof of the palace was the best location I found in Vietnam for watching swifts

Reunification Palace (24/1/16) 8 species incl White-rumped Munia, White-crested Laughingthrush, Great Myna ebird.org/ebird/australia/view/checklist?subID=S28496132
The final locations I saw birds were on a day trip from Ho Chi Minh City to the Mekong Delta. The first site was around Cái Bè which included the markets and short trip up a mangrove-lined creek across the river. The highlight of this was recording the call of an Ashy Tailorbird (identified by Marc Anderson on xeno-canto) and a species that I didn’t even know was found in Vietnam. I have an out-of-focus attempted photo that looks like it could have been an Ashy Tailorbird.
Cái Bè – 25/1/16 – 11 species incl Ashy Tailorbird ebird.org/ebird/australia/view/checklist?subID=S28512427

The final location was the village garden of our tour guide. The birds included a poorly seen and photographed Olive-backed Sunbird and a cormorant that was a long way away.
Xã Hòa Khánh – 25/1/16 – 6 species incl Plain-backed Sparrow, Malaysian Pied Fantail ebird.org/ebird/australia/view/checklist?subID=S28523264
I also got a photo of a bulbul in HCMC itself that could be Grey-eyed or Streak-eared. s273.photobucket.com/user/eve_jean_talbot/library/Birds/Vietnam%202016%20Mekong%20HMC?sort=3&page=1

For a first time visitor to Vietnam there were plenty of new birds for me. Most of the times that I didn’t take my birding gear on a tourist activity I regretted it. I spent a total of two days birdwatching out of the two-week trip, so I think the result was well worth the time I put into it. I recorded calls of 54 species with 18 mystery calls remaining on xeno-canto www.xeno-canto.org/contributor/CCUCXWCPSW?query=mystery and took photos or video of 44 species with 4 remaining with ID issues (pipit in Hội An, the two flycatchers in Hanoi and the bulbul in HCMC).

The Field Guide I was using was Helm Field Guides – Birds of South-East Asia (Concise edition) by Craig Robson. The colour plates and information were excellent and will be useful in future if I visit any of the other countries it covers. To make up for the lack of distribution maps, I marked the species that occur in Vietnam using birdlist.org/vietnam.htm. In the field guide, the Range section of the notes on each bird mentions which part of Vietnam it occurs in (Tonkin – North, Annam – Central and Cochinchina – south).
As a tourist Vietnam is a wonderful experience with Ha Long Bay, Reunification Palace, Bạch Mã, Hội An Old Town and Mekong Delta all highlights. Plus the great food/coffee and the odd little experiences that will stay in the mind just as long, like having a straight razor shave, having the wax cleaned out of my ears by a barber in Hội An, and being hassled by juvenile itinerant shoe repairers in Hanoi (who did such a good job repairing one of my much-loved hiking boots that I changed my mind about them and went back and got them to fix the other one.)

The only real down-side was my decision to use Jetstar for the internal flights (HCMC to Danang, then Danang to Hanoi and then Hanoi to HCMC). I chose Jetstar because they were cheaper than Vietnam Airlines (the airline we used for flying to and from Australia). Jetstar kept re-scheduling flights without explanation. The flight between HCMC and Danang ended up being changed several times. The first time was weeks before we left for Vietnam and I only found out they had changed it because Le Quy Minh checked the arrival times at Danang and found the flight wasn’t there. I had based everything else on the timing of this flight so having it changed is an experience I don’t want to repeat. We didn’t have any issues with Vietnam Airlines so we would pay the extra and use them next time.