Da Lat
Da Lat is at an altitude of 1500m on the Da Lat plateau. The town is a popular tourist destination for Vietnamese people and is fairly busy. All around the town are numerous plastic green houses, accommodating the vast local market gardening industry, growing cut flowers for export and fruit and vegetables. A short distance from town the forests are a mix of coniferous, montane evergreen and secondary. These forests are host to a number of endemic and near-endemic bird species.
Day 20: Wednesday 3rd April 2019
Today we visited Ta Nung valley, which has something of the feel of a theme park - the theme being various platforms on which people can photograph each other or themselves. We arrived early and got a couple of hours good birding in before the crowds started to arrive. Even when they did arrive, I thought it quite fun to see people posing - and felt impelled to have ago myself. The 'park' is surrounded by forest, and during the course of the morning we found 4 species new to me - Grey-crowned Crocias, Black-headed Sibia, Rufous-backed Sibia and Lesser Shortwing.
Today we visited Ta Nung valley, which has something of the feel of a theme park - the theme being various platforms on which people can photograph each other or themselves. We arrived early and got a couple of hours good birding in before the crowds started to arrive. Even when they did arrive, I thought it quite fun to see people posing - and felt impelled to have ago myself. The 'park' is surrounded by forest, and during the course of the morning we found 4 species new to me - Grey-crowned Crocias, Black-headed Sibia, Rufous-backed Sibia and Lesser Shortwing.
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In the more evergreen forest above ~2000m, despite it calling loudly and persistently at close quarters, only 2 people in the group managed to glimpse a Grey-bellied Tesia through the dense undergrowth. Even less success was obtained in gaining identifiable views of the similarly noisy Collared Laughingthrushes here.
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Most of the birds seen were in the more open coniferous forest between 1850m and ~2000m. In addition to the Cutia, we also found Asian House Martin, Green-backed Tit, Chestnut-vented Nuthatch, Dalat Shrike-babbler, Large Niltava, Besra, Chestnut-crowned Warbler, and White-faced Jay here.
In the afternoon we visited Lake Ho Tuyen Lam, where we found Vietnamese Crossbill and Vietnamese Greenfinch just before the rain descended and stopped play once again.
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In the evening we visited woodland around the Dalat cemetery. Here we were quickly successful in seeing Large-tailed Nightjar, Collared Scops Owl and Oriental Scops Owl - the latter was so pleased to see us it nearly landed on Susan.
Day 22: Friday 5th April 2019
Today we visited Bidoup national park. We had early success with 3 skulkers in quick succession - Pygmy Cupwing, Grey-bellied Tesia and Lesser Shortwing (again for those that didn't see it previously). Then we had a long quiet interval before seeing Collared Laughingthrush - another skulking and difficult to see bird - that we actually saw quite well in the end.
Today we visited Bidoup national park. We had early success with 3 skulkers in quick succession - Pygmy Cupwing, Grey-bellied Tesia and Lesser Shortwing (again for those that didn't see it previously). Then we had a long quiet interval before seeing Collared Laughingthrush - another skulking and difficult to see bird - that we actually saw quite well in the end.
Day 23: Saturday 6th April 2019
This morning we had a bit of a lay-in with a 06:00 breakfast. We visited the Da Lat cemetery for a final hour of birding before setting off on the long drive back to Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon, as it is more usually called here). In Saigon we stayed at the Park Royal hotel, near the airport - certainly the nicest hotel we have stayed in in Vietnam.
Day 24: Sunday 7th April 2019
Morning relaxing at the hotel and then off to the airport for our flights home, via Singapore, on Singapore airlines.
Day 25: Monday 8th April 2019
Arrived home
This morning we had a bit of a lay-in with a 06:00 breakfast. We visited the Da Lat cemetery for a final hour of birding before setting off on the long drive back to Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon, as it is more usually called here). In Saigon we stayed at the Park Royal hotel, near the airport - certainly the nicest hotel we have stayed in in Vietnam.
Day 24: Sunday 7th April 2019
Morning relaxing at the hotel and then off to the airport for our flights home, via Singapore, on Singapore airlines.
Day 25: Monday 8th April 2019
Arrived home