The Legendary Leech Whisperer of Crocodile Lake

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(The title is tongue in cheek in case it’s not obvious enough – I’m not quite full of myself enough to unironically refer to myself as legendary)



The lake was very cool first thing in the morning, it was shrouded in low mist with mist coming up from from the forest as well, and there were gibbons calling from the far bank. One of the rangers asked if I would like to go on a boat ride on the lake for an hour for 150k which sounded like a good idea. They don't use motorboats on the lake but instead have little plastic boats propelled by a paddle and we cruised around a bit along the lake edge as well as into the flooded forest area. It was nice to get a different perspective on the lake with the waterbirds and such visible from closer as well as some interesting forest birds like White-crested Laughingthrushed and a few different woodpeckers. A couple of large flocks of Lesser Whistling Ducks also appeared today that weren't here yesterday.



After breakfast, two of the three rangers donned the full ranger gear and went off in a boat out across the lake to do rangery things and I birded the lakeside some more as well as bit along the trail. I had most of the day around the lake since I wasn't due to be picked up from the trailhead until 4.



When I went along the trail to be all sneaky looking for ground birds, I decided that I couldn't be bothered with the leech socks. I am the leech whisperer after all. In about three minutes when I looked down I had seven leeches around my ankles, several crawling up my shoes and a few up my legs. Leech socks it is. The mosquitos were pretty bad too which is concerning given how prevalent dengue fever is at Cat Tien (and they were the sort of mosquito that carries dengue). When they go out to do their rangering, the rangers wear leech socks and are fully covered apart from their face and hands, which is probably it s good idea. I, on the other hand, wear long trousers but short sleeved shirts, and DEET only does so much. The thing about leech socks though, is that although they stop leeches getting at you, they don't stop then trying and then you end up working the a mass of leeches in your shoes. And they don't help with the arboreal leeches either of course, which are about. There was very little bird activity, but I did find an Orange-breasted Trogon and a super cool sneaky looking Oriental Vine Snake.



As I was heading back about midday ish (I was going to walk slowly and sneakily for ground birds) a large group of British tourists arrived and I was rather entertained by how much they were fussing over the approximately three leeches between them that got around there leech socks and copious amounts of leech repellent. Each leech had to be eased off with much screeching and then little bits of paper and antiseptic wipes over each bite and the leeches themselves had to be touched only through tissues. I guess not everybody can be a hardcore leech whisperer like I am.



Apart from a couple of brief periods of bird activity, the walk back was rather quiet. Much less successful with primate too with just one group of doucs. I did see another snake too, although I don't think this was a vine snake and it was teeny weeny and beautifully patterned. And I actually found two if those. It took me about three and a half hours to do the walk - a walk which is signed as taking 80 minutes - but as a result of my slow and sneaky walking along the trail, I found two bird species that I was targeting - an Indochinese Green Magpie and a Siamese Fireback. Not prolonged views of either, but I'm happy to have seen both species, each being my third green magpie and third fireback pheasant species of the trip. I also saw a Grey-faced Tit-babbler which is cool because it’s such a range-restricted species, although it’s not particularly exciting to look at.



I'm pleased that I spent the night at crocodile lake, although it could have been done perfectly well as a day trip, spending the night there was a good experience. It was also not as expensive as I had heard because although I had heard that accommodation at crocodile lake was expensive, I got a no-frills room rather than one of the cabins for only 180k per night.



I had about 20 minutes until the scheduled time for the car to pick me up and during this time I was entertained by a pair of Racket-tailed Treepies hopping in and out from a bush onto the road. While I was waiting I also removed my leech socks and found that one of them hadn't been totally effective because one leech had got in, drank its fill, and then got popped, leading to the bottom of the leech sock and my socks being soaked with blood. I'm the leech whisperer though, so it's no problem. Although it makes a right mess.



The car came half an hour late which is slightly annoying but unsurprising and as with the way there, it was a very bumpy and slippery drive. When I got back, I had to do some washing of clothes - although I've been washing my clothes in the shower when possible drying arrangements and time meant it had built up - and then after dinner went to look for a slow loris.



I decided that the best place to find a slow loris would be in the forest on the other side of the rapids, where I saw my first doucs. Wading across a river is the sort of thing that sounds like it would be dangerous at night, but I don't think it's any more so than in the day.



Just before the rapids, I got an excellent view, and even some terrible record shot photos of, and Indian Giant Flying Squirrel scooting up an exposed tree and then sitting within the leaves. A much better view than on my first night. Not quite a walk away view, but it was a walk away from eyeshine that had gone right to the densest part of the tree and was now sat there, view.



The rapids were surprisingly cold though, and I'm a little concerned about all my leech wounds around my ankles, but you gotta do what you gotta do. The lengths I go to to find animals... There were cool fish in the stream at night though, some loaches and things.



Prior to heading out, I was feeling quite confident. 4km and wet, muddy feet later, I was feeling far less confident. The things about the Pygmy Slow Loris at Cat Tien I that some reports seem to have it really easily, while others don't find it at all. Even proper mammal watchers who usually find things, I don't think Jon Hall found one. But I seem to do well a slow lorises... I continued on for quite a while longer, stubbornly determined to find the loris, but eventually the road became too muddy for me to walk and look at the trees, I just had to have the torch on the ground to walk, so I turned back having successfully gone from bloody trousers to muddy trousers.



Back across the rapids, I got an amazing view of two common palm civets chasing each other next to the path and then running across an overhead vine right above me really close. Too close for my camera to focus on in fact, a great sighting. And just as I was back into the HQ area itself, I was thinking to myself that it’s weird how I hadn’t even heard any owls around and then I picked up some owlish eyeshine in a line of trees across the main HQ lawn area. This turned out to be a Brown Hawk-owl which is cool. It’s always great to see a new owl, and this one sat in view nicely for quite a while. So, two more chances for that loris then…



New birds:

White-crested Laughingthrush

Orange-breasted Trogon

Shikra

Indochinese Green Magpie

Grey-faced Tit-babbler

Siamese Fireback

Brown Hawk-owl

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