Bob, Katy, and I started the day early with breakfast at 5:30 and took off at 6 in the open air truck with Tien. David didn’t join us today. We had about a 25 minute ride to the entrance to the hide that Tien’s son has been watching for us for the past week. The air was really pleasant as we drove through the Eastern side of the park with the not full any ore moon bright overhead. We got to the locked door (that was new) of the hide entrance and walked a short ways to the hide. This was a very nice hide that you can stand up in. Tien placed the great folding chairs out for us and then proceeded to do his hide feng shui magic to attract the birds.
 |
| Tien setting up the hide viewing area |
 |
| Red Junglefowl and a Northern Treeshrew |
 |
| Bar-bellied Pitta |
We saw a number of birds that we’ve seen before but seeing them in a hide often lets you study them in more detail and closer up. Two Green-legged Partridges strolled in and then two Lesser MouseDeer walked quickly through the back of the open area.
 |
| White-rumped Shama |
 |
| Lizard |
At one point, Tien said he heard leaf movement outside and that would be more langurs. We followed him out and across the dirt road was sudden movement in the high up branches. A large Black-shanked Douc Langur dropped 30 feet! Then another one followed. We had seen 2 other kinds of Langur so far so it was great to get to see this third type. We found a large male sitting on a branch as he displayed himself in various ways. As he moved down a branch, a female followed with a baby attached to her front. Very cool.
We also saw 2 types of treeshrews, the Northern Treeshrew and the Northern Smooth-tailed Treeshrew, plus a lizard that we are trying to identify. He didn’t have great manners as there was part of a meal worm hanging out of the side of his mouth for quite awhile!
At just after 10, we walked down the road for a bit to see what else might be around. It was starting to warm up and quiet down but Tien found a Grey-faced Tit Babbler which we all saw it and was another Life bird for Bob. He is up to 61 for the trip so far.
The truck picked us up at 10:30 and we headed back for lunch and a rest during the hot part of the day. It is apparently much hotter and drier than it should be here while up north, Hanoi has been having rain and cool. We are very glad that the trip was planned from north to south.
Lunch consisted of small fish patties and a dipping sauce and a vegetarian ramen noodle dish - both very good. This was followed by perfectly ripe papaya. I had seen a very large papaya on the counter and this was part of it.
It was hot and sticky in the early afternoon and I read my book for awhile on the sofas by the dining room under a ceiling fan. The AC only comes on for a few hours at night in your bedroom. Power is interesting here and is provided in multiple manners - solar and generator are the main sources but the power did go off twice today and I heard the generator being started up again and fans coming back on. We didn’t have wifi for most of the afternoon so I’m a bit behind writing up the day.
We met on the outside 2nd floor deck at 4 to see if it had cooled off enough to find and see a few birds. We did see huge flocks of Ashy-headed, and Thick-billed Green Pigeons roosting in a huge tree covered with some kind of fruit that they obviously liked. The tree was so full of birds that it made it seem as if there was a breeze moving the leaves and there was no breeze (unfortunately). We also saw an Oriental Pied Hornbill. A visiting Danish photographer/birder came out and took photos and looked through our scope. We sat out until about 5:30, returning at 6:30 for
 |
| View from the deck |
Once again, the food was great. We started with a delicious carrot soup and then a small clay pot of pork with rice and cabbage and carrots. Dessert was sections of banana fried with dribbles of chocolate sauce - excellent.
.JPG)
No comments:
Post a Comment