Where Have all the Birds Gone?!

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It's worth noting that yesterday's list of new birds included my 1000th species seen in this calendar year, which I'm very pleased with. At the moment that is the Grey-bellied Tesia, although it will probably move up of down a few when adjusted for taxonomy and errors in the list. It will still be a species seen yesterday, however.

Although I did very well on Lang Biang yesterday, especially with that Laughingthrush, I wanted to go back today. There are still quite a few more species to get, and of my four days here I was always planning a minimum of two at Lang Biang (although that was mainly because I didn't think I'd find the Laughingthrush).



After breakfast I decided to do the local method of getting to the mountain. Well, the method for locals who can't be bothered waiting for the bus and then spending 4x as long on the bus - I called a GrabBike. This cost only 48K and is clearly better than a normal motorbike because it's cheaper, comes right to you, is cashless, and above all you get to wear a snazzy green Grab helmet with white go faster stripes. The Grab logo - Green with the word Grab written in white tyre marks - is clearly far better than Uber's. I know Uber's brand image is that of an evil army of robots about to take over humanity and destroy the world. But even so, they don't have to be so blatant about it.



Upon arrival, I bought a ticket and then left the mountain immidiately to take the trail up the muddy farmers track outside the gate. Had I not bought a ticket, I wouldn't have actually had any questions, but I felt like I ought to buy a ticket anyway. I soon saw some Vinous-breasted Starlings in the fields at the bottom of the mountain which arw a cool species, and tjia was ny first time getting a proper prolonged look at them. The few hundred metres through the coffee plantations actually proved quite successful as I soon added another starling - Collared - as well as a Paddyfield Pipit. Just on the edge of the pine forest, I had a flyby (which also landed and I could look at it properly) of a bird that I instantly identified to genus level and though: I didn't realise there were Zoothera here! It was a Scaly-breasted Thrush (genus Zoothera) which was cool and I also managed my first properly decent pictures of a White-faced Jay. For those who are familiar with jays in Europe I would suggest googling that, it's a really weird sort of same-but-different looking bird.



I think the walk up the pine forest is the most tiring bit of summiting the whole mountain because it's just a really steep slope to walk away up and then taken really slippery in a lot of places. Not the sort of mud that plasters you - it's too steep - buy the sort that is really tricky to clamber up.



I had brought my light warm coat thing with me today because it was a couple of degrees colder than yesterday and really rather cold in general. It's ok in the broadleaf forest where the vegetation is too dense for wind, but in the pine forest it feela really a bit too cold in my extra light, thin trousers and shirt which are much better suited to Cat Tien's climate. At least it makes the physical exertion easier. My phone says it's 18 degrees in Dalat which probably means about 16 a few hundred metres up on the summit +wind.



As I was in the mixed pine/broadleaf area before getting to the proper broadleaf forest I put my binoculars on to what I thought was a nuthatch and it turned out to be a treecreper! A different species to those in Europe, but nonetheless the birds in this pine forest really aren't species that I think of as Asian but it feels much more European. In fact, the main bird target for the pine forest that I haven't seen yet is actually a crossbill. The other main target for the Dalat area is Grey-crowned Crocias which, like the Laughingthrush, is a very localised endemic. I was looking for that today, although I think I might actually be above the altitudinal range at Mount Lang Biang. When I first got into the broadleaf forest I saw a Pygmy Cupwing (=Wren Babbler) on the side of the path which is a really cute little bird. And up ahead I saw a flock of what I thought might have been Crocias from a distance but they were actually Blue-winged Minlas. A nice bird, but not the one I want. I think Tuyen Lam Lake where I'm going to try and go tomorrow might prove better for Crocias as I believe the broadleaf forest is at a lower altitude.



Most of the time in the broadleaf forest, as usual, was completely dead bird-wise. It really amazes me how a forest can have so little bird action for so long. I did see a Black Giant Squirrel though which is a common animal that I've kept missing. They're really cool, a medium sized dog sized squirrel running through the trees. This one looked a bit different to ones I've seen in Thailand with a coat that becomes pale in certain light. The birding today was pretty terrible though. One of the worst birding days in a very long time. I never really got a proper bird wave just a small group of birds that wasn't nearly as good as any of yesterday's waves. It had some sibias which I was wanting to see and a couple of other birds with them. But not really a wave. I also got a brief view of a partridge which was nice. I always like seeing ground birds. I got a few leech bites today too which I wasn't expecting here at over 2000m above sea level. They were different looking leeches with paler undersides.



I stopped about 300m before the summit, because that last bit is really killer and now that I've been up once I don't feel the need to do so again since there's not really any additional benefit of going all the way. I doubt many people climb Mt Lang Biang two days in a row anyway.



Although the species list looks quite impressive, and I saw quite a few desired species, it just really felt like an incredibly slow birding day. Just really rubbish birding. There were just such long periods with absolutely nothing which get depressing. In some places you struggle to find new species but you at least see common ones now and again on a bad birding day. Here, there don't seem to be 'common species' there's nothing for hours and hours and hours and then loads of rare species show up and then nothing again. I was just seeing very, very occasional single individual sunbirds and things. No fulvettas, no fantails, no shrike-babblers. At all, the whole day. It's rather ridiculous.



I spent absolutely all day in the broadleaf forest walking up and down with the assumption that eventually I'd come across a bird wave, and I actually left later than I had intended because I haven't had a watch since mine broke at Mount Kinabalu and I've been keeping my phone off to preserve battery until I really need it because it's quite difficult to get it to charge. Basically I've managed to break it. At least I buy cheap phones. Well I never found a bird wave and I left the broadleaf forest having seen probably a single digit number of individual birds. Definitely fewer than two individual birds per hour in the broadleaf forest. Probably only about one individual per hour on average (and of course most hours had zero birds since you tend to see at least a few at a time). Unless you tape them in, birding here is just ridiculously luck based.



I walked back through the pine forest because I knew I was going to miss the bus anyway and at least in the pine forest there are birds about. They're generally the same species - White-faced Jay, Green-backed Got and occasional Nuthatches and flycatchers - but at least there were birds around! There is a sign saying you're not supposed to go that way after 15:00 but signs say a lot of things. The route down through the pines is certainly quick. You don't have a choice, it's so steep and slippery that on the way down there's certainly no way to take it slowly. I'm pleased I did this route though because I found the crossbills I had been looking for. A brief and rather silhouetted look, but good. (I don’t think these have bit split from the ones in Europe at all, it’s just a very isolated population of them)



At one point along the particular muddy bit of trail through the fields near the end, some idiot had decided that it would be a good idea to rip the tops off all the coffee plants along the trail to so that they could put them over the mud to walk on it. All it takes is for a disgruntled farmer to put barbed wire over the trail entrance and that's it. If you don't want muddy shoes then you take a jeep. Simple. I don't understand what goes through someone's head that they think that's appropriate. Nothing I imagine.



It was gone 5:30 when I got to the bottom, and I was worried that there wouldn't be any taxis either but there were so no problem. Although all the taxis in Dalat are metered they see. To have different rates. The one I got today had a cheaper per km 'first price' and a more expensive per km 'next price' and no starting fee compared to the one yesterday. The meter also went up in increments of 100 dong which is a bit bizarre given the smallest unit of currency is 1000. (Which is only worth about 3 British pence so seems like an incredibly small amount to make on a note - there are no coins). This taxi ended up costing 147000 which is exactly 10000 more than yesterday.



I'm not sure why I'm complaining about the birding, you can see the species list is quite good. I think it's that I was unusually lucky yesterday, with the Laughingthrush especially, and unusually unlucky today and the effort of climbing the mountain a second day in a row didn't seem particularly rewarded.



I'm surprised not to have seen any cutias or silver-eared mesias yet. The former is one I really want to see, and the latter I did see at Bukit Fraser way long ago but it's a really pretty species. I believe the mesias are one species that was formerly common but has been reduced tremendously by trapping for the caged bird trade. I'm pleased today wasn't my first day because yesterday felt way better. If today was my first Dalat birding day that would have been depressing.



Before going for dinner, I decided to do something that I wouldn't normally: I booked a bus for the journey going back to Saigon. You may have noticed that at no point on this trip, even for long distance buses, have I booked anything. I've just shown up at the station and this has only backfired once when going from Taman Negara back to KL and I ended up stuck in Temerloh (which I shouldn't have ever been at) for hours because all the buses were full. The reason I've booked a bus now is because I've been specifically warned that the day I have to travel - the 2nd - is Vietnam's Independence Day as well as being a Sunday and it's a long weekend. I've booked a 'tourist bus' which presumably is like a normal bus but 50%!m(MISSING)ore expensive and filled with annoying tourists. It has an 'English-speaking associate' too because when it comes to sitting on a bus for eight hours, you need linguistic help. And in addition to the already inflated fare, they have the cheek to add an $8 (that's about 200k) public holiday surcharge. I can't be at all flexible with when I'm travelling though, I have a flight the next day.



New birds:

Black-collared Starling

Scaly Thrush

Indochinese Cuckooshrike

Brown-throated Treecreeper

Kloss' Leaf-warbler

Rufous-capped Babbler

Rufous-throated Partridge

Black-headed Sibia





Mammal:

Black Giant Squirrel

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