Birding in Vietnam

Earlier this year the crackpot idea of going to Vietnam seized my imagination. Don't ask me why—I guess because I've heard it's beautiful. Sometimes something that slight is enough to plant a bee in my bonnet. But also, perhaps, the fact that I was there, briefly, for literally an hour, in 1965 (refueling stop), when both the place and I were very different. I already have a history with Vietnam. I'd like to fill it out.

I found a Sierra Club trip that looked interesting, and was keeping it in my sights—but when I sought it out online the other day, thinking of maybe finally signing up, it was full! Drats!

So I googled. In particular, I googled Vietnam + birds + tours—since I've got this vague idea of seeing kingfishers the world over, and surely there are kingfishers in Vietnam. And I got a hit: WINGS Birding Tours, based out of Tucson. And waddaya know, they had one spot open on their Vietnam tour this coming March.

I bit.

In my application, I mentioned that I'm not really a birder. Which is true: birders have tons more focus and patience than I do, not to mention knowledge. (And better binoculars: my Zeiss 10 x 40s are fine, but they're no Swarovskis.) I would maybe call myself a desultory birder: I like birds; I like to look at them, watch their behaviors; I have a few special interests—shorebirds, raptors, hummingbirds, woodpeckers, kingfishers, geese, waders. Mostly larger birds that don't flit around in dark forests demanding not to be seen.

Siamese Fireback (Lophura diardi)

My application elicited a quick email from Matt at WINGS. "Basically," he pointed out, "the sole focus of the tour will be the birds (with some exceptions, of course, such as butterflies, mammals, that sort of thing, as we encounter them)." Ha ha, I loved that "that sort of thing"—like, birds are all that really matter, but we acknowledge that there are other life forms on the planet, and if they're big and/or bright enough, maybe we'll train our binoculars on them. Matt also commented that "we’ll certainly see some great, colorful birds like Siamese Fireback, but we’ll spend a lot of time looking for cryptic, well-hidden brown birds in the dark forest as well." (I think he was just trying to scare me off: we will potentially see several hundred species, maybe just one exemplar per, but still: there's a lot more than LBJs—little brown jobs—in the forests of Vietnam. See below.) "In general birders are a very focused group." (You can say that again!) "We won’t be visiting a lot of cultural sites on tour unless the location happens to coincide with excellent birding (though on the Vietnam tour we stay in a couple nice colonial cities). You’ll be up pre-dawn every day and bird full on all morning, with a short break during the mid-afternoon hours (sometimes), then a few more hours before dinner. Some nights the group will go back out after dinner to look for night birds such as owls and nightjars." I love owls and nightjars, so bring 'em on! As for pre-dawn every day, that will be a challenge, and it will have to become part of my Zen practice: get up and get with it and don't complain, because life is good. Dammit.

(No, seriously: I'm almost looking forward to the 5:30 a.m. starts. I can use a little shaking up of my "routine," such as it is.)

Matt—who also mentioned that the one spot had just opened up due to a cancellation a couple of days ago (Providence!)—pointed me to a "tour narrative" from last year, written by the leader the ten of us will be traveling with, Susan Myers. She lists many of the birds they found. I thought here I'd post photos of some of those. Just to prime my spotting skills. And to share the beauty of this world. Birds rock! (Hey, just their names rock!) (And they're not all LBJs by a long shot!)

Bar-bellied Pitta (Pitta elliotii)

White-tailed Blue Flycatcher (Elminia albicauda)

Ratchet-tailed Treepie (Temnurus temnurus)

Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler (Pomatorhinus ruficollis musicus)

Fujian Niltava (Niltava davidi)

Limestone Leaf-warbler (Phylloscopus calciatilis)
(This one is as close as we get to an LBJ in this gallery,
and I was choosing these species at random.)

Sultan Tit (Melanochlora sultanea)

Lesser-necklaced Laughingthrush (Garulax monileger)

With the laughingthrush I'm only halfway through the 21-day tour—but that's a nice sample, don't you think?

And here's a mammal, for balance: the endangered Delacour Langur (Trachypithecus delacouri), which we may see in Cuc Phuong National Park. I hope we do. And I hope it's not too sad, knowing that they aren't much longer for this poor benighted Earth.