The Leech Whisperer: Tuesdays at 7 on Animal Planet.

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I could hear the gibbons again first thing at dawn, although I didn't actually see them this morning. There were a couple of birds about though, and it's nice and cool first thing, coupled with the sound of gibbons.



After breakfast, I headed to Crocodile Lake which involves a 12km car ride to the trail head and then a 5km 'hike'. I left my main pack at the HQ, just taking supplies for a one-night stay, because I'll be spending another three nights at the HQ when I return. I'm hesitant to call it a hike because, well, the path is paved, although it is just a path through the forest. I was driven to the trail head in a very rickety pickup, although given the condition of the road, it's unsurprising that it's rickety. The road was horrendously muddy and extremely rutted and there was a lot of bouncing around. I really thought we'd get stuck in the mud, but obviously the driver knows how to navigate this particular mud. It's the sort of track that would have been quite difficult to walk on without tripping or sinking and I'd certainly have become plastered in sticky mud had I walked.



The 5km trail to the crocodile lake was a pleasant walk. Apparently in the past they have insisted on guides for the crocodile lake trail, although this is now optional which is good because there's absolutely no need for a guide. Since it's paved, a blind person wouldn't be able to get lost.



The walk up to the lake was really good for primates which weren't shy or skittish at all, at least no more than you'd expect for any wild animal. They do, however stop what they're doing and watch you intensely as you would past though. Presumably the ones along the path are better protected than most by virtue of being so close to the ranger station. The primates included several groups of doucs, and, most excitingly, a group of Annamese Silvered Langurs. The Silvered Langurs in particular showed very well as the group crossed the path in a really open spot just above me, and then stopped in a tree on the other side to watch me from really close. In particular there was a little baby langur that sat out in the open and stared at me, posing excellently for pictures. This is a species that is often quite difficult to see and can be hit and miss so I'm pleased that I got this excellent view. There were some birds along the walk too, mostly in occasional bird waves, although not as many birds as I'd have hoped for. In particular I was keeping my eyes open for ground birds, especially pittas and pheasants, but failed completely on those fronts. Despite being paved, I still got fairly well leeched and with all those leeches around I'd have hoped to find a pitta, which I believe are called leech birds in Malay.



Although 5km isn't far, it's enough to feel like it's in the middle of the wilderness, especially at a birding pace which is 3-4x slower than normal based on the time markers. Just before coming up to the lake is a raised bridge above the water at the edge of the lake which is mostly flooded bamboo forest and then emerges a raised building which is the ranger station and viewing platform and also has a limited number of visitor rooms, and there is food cooked by the ranger available, as well as filtered drinking water. A perfectly nice place to stay for a little bit, although most people only visit on day trips.



In terms of the lake itself, it's absolutely stunning, a really pretty view. It's a huge lake, you can't see all the way to the end and it's fringed by extensive reeds and then rainforest. I think the reed beds would normally be even more extensive but the water level is quite high currently. The little patch of papaya trees and vegetable plants is rather inundated with the sad little papaya trees that barely have the tops sticking out of the water. The reeds along the edge of the lake have got loads of waterbirds (although hardly any weavers, which I had expected to be quite abundant). This included various bitterns, storks, etc, and my first ever wild swamphen outside Australia, which is surprising given how much I've been in range for them. And a tree by the watch tower was attracting lots of different flowerpeckers and a bird that looked flowerpeckerish that was all brown with a bright red rump and bright red beak that I'm not sure the ID of.



As you may have guessed from the name, Crocodile Lake is also famous for its population of crocodiles. These are the endangered Siamese Crocodiles that were reintroduced to the lake and there are reasonable numbers. Although not absolutely everywhere, a scan of the visible part of the lake generally would produce one easily and every now and again one would come up close and haul up into the reeds or snap at a fish, or a cute widdle baby would show up. There were rainforesty birds to be seen flying over the lake too of course including hornbills and green pigeons and such.



I spent the afternoon enjoying the view of the lake and looking for birds in the reed beds. The view of the lake fringed with reeds and then backing on to forested hills really is stunning. It also rained particularly torrentially this afternoon so it was good to be undercover in the viewing decks (or it may have just seemed like a lot more because of the sound in the tin roof). I did have a brief look up the trail again for groundbirds before dinner. I was, surprisingly successful, as I flushed a peacock-pheasant! I am, occasionally, capable of finding ground birds after all! A very brief view, but identifiable. I was even more successful at finding leeches. Actually, I would say they were successful at finding me. There were absolutely loads of then now that it had rained and they were very persistent. Several especially enterprising leeches had managed to o find their way into my pants. That's the British word 'pants' not the American one. They obviously crawled all the way up my trouser leg, and were along the bottom lining of my pants. Not expecting to find leeches there, I didn't deal with the properly and ended up scratching them off which is not recommended. Because of these adventurous leeches, I ended up bleeding in a way that is not normally typical of males. For spotlighting, leech socks were going on.



Dinner was had communally with the rangers as well as the other visitors: a middle class Vietnamese family. During that time, I was slowly shedding leeches as ones that I hadn't found decided they had had their fill. I was far more nonchalant about the leeches than the rangers, who were really freaked out by them and wouldn't touch them. This suggests that it's not normally as leechy as this. I may be incredibly inefficient at using chopsticks, but I do know how to handle a leech. I asked about where the rangers thought I might find animals at night or slow lorises and was told that I was not allowed to go out at night because it was dangerous. So I quickly said yes of course, abandoned that line of questioning, and went out anyway. I don't think there's actually much risk, apart from maybe meeting a gaur randomly. You certainly couldn't get lost. I didn't think I was likely to be found out either, because the rangers and other visitors were drinking copious amounts of locally brewed rice spirits which appeared to basically be disinfectant. They stored it in jerry cans too which didn't help the appareance of disinfectant. The fact that they had already had a quarter of a jerry can when I left was promising for me not being noticed.



About two minutes in to the spotlighting and a Small Indian Civet crossed the path. A good start. Then nothing for several hours. Nothing. Not even eyeshine or an owl calling, barely even any bats. Just a couple of spiders. I was also a bit uncomfortable since I was rather sticky with blood and although I had a change of most clothes, this did not extend to trousers so I have to wear the bloody things (pun intended) again tomorrow. Just one day of wear and the trousers stink. Not of sweat, but of rusty nails from all the iron in the blood. I worked the trail really hard, but didn't find anything at all really. No slow loris and I'm halfway through my nights at Cat Tien now. I'm still hopeful though, that I'll find one on the road past the rapids back at the HQ. The trail was too closed in to see particularly well at the canopy. I did find my third target primate today though, the Annamese Silvered Langur, and the first if my ground bird targets. I generally do better with mammals that birds it seems.



My shower tonight would have been a novel setting for a horror film. I untucked my shirt and four blood-filled leeches fell out onto the floor and more came out from various other areas. I had blood spots under my arm pits, on my neck, and all over my chest, back, and lower body. I don't know how on earth the leeches got to some of those spots. The thing is once leeches are all fat and chubby and filled with blood, they're sort of cute looking. Rather than the evil looking monsters that they look like when they're skinny and waving around. I also feeling like I've nurtured the leeches by this point since they're full of my own blood. So I gathered all the fat chubby leeches and set them free. Aww. I'm like the leech whisperer or something. I think I should get a TV show on Animal Planet.



(this is yesterday’s post of course, posted the next day due to not having any connection at Crocodile Lake)



New birds:

Great Hornbill

Oriental White-eye

Cinnamon Bittern

Black Bittern

Yellow-vented Green-pigeon

Indochinese Swamphen

Chestnut-winged Cuckoo

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater

Germain’s Peacock Pheasant



Mammals:

Annamese Silvered Langur

Small Indian Civet

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