Today I was about to explore my local patch for the first time, the patch is situated in a forest valley, some 30-40 m beneath our house is so I thought that the easiest way to enter the forest must be to climb down under the terrace and then start climbing down the 30-40 to the forest floor.
I soon realized that was hardly possible; the terrain under the terrace was very steep, the soil had started to erode, sharp limestone rock covered most of the ground and the undergrowth was extremely thick, and the terrain just seemed to get even worse further down the cliffs, my wife told me that any attempts to climb down 30-40m in this treadious terrain would be quite dangerous, after some 30 minutes of thinking I realized myself that the only way to get to the forest was to take the car and head downhill for some km and try to find another spot, after have driven downhill for about 2km I found a spot which seemed much more suitable, I parked the car and headed for the forest, I meet a few local loggers on the way and asked them if they knew anything about the wildlife inside the forest, they showed to have incredible knowledge as they have lived in the area for several decades and told me that tree leopards (clouded leopards), leopards, several kinds of hornbill were all common inhabits of the forest, yes there had even been several recent records of tiger from the forest.
My first sign of wildlife was a few footprints seen in the dry soil, apparently made by some of the larger wildcats, either by leopard or golden cat, a very promising start of the day. The first birds of the day I actually managed to locate and id by the voice, it did take quite a while before I saw the birds, but after some egger watching up in the canopy above me I spotted them, two possibly three adult Indochinese Green magpies was observed foraging in the leaflets above me, as they share the colouration of the leafs on the trees this bird can sometimes be extremely hard to see, you often hear it but much rarely sees it. This species is a near-endemic to the Indochina region, great stuff and another sign that shows the remarkable diversity of this forest, I hadn’t been here more than 20 minutes by the time I saw the magpies, but were already very excited, wild cat tracks, rumours of tigers lurking in the forest, uncommon green magpies, what would come up next?
I walked on along the small walk patch, which looked like being made by the mammals of the forest, it was very narrow and I could see that deers, pigs or macaques had foraged on roots and leafs along the patch. As I walked on a small ridge I could here something move somewhere beneath the ridge, whatever it was it disappeared before I could get a glimpse of it, a few minutes later I heard the distinctive call of the male green peafowl, the call was heard very well and it was very clear, suggesting that the bird was pretty close to me, and aim sure that the animal by the ridge probably was a green peafowl that was running away. The following minutes were rather calm and noting more than solitary butterflies were seen.
The habitat along the patch varied much, one moment you walked through dense rainforest-mossy montane forest while sometimes you come to a place where the grassy plains replaced the habitat, as I entered one of the more open parts along the patch I noted a quite large freshwater lake surrounded by beautiful reed wed, I took a while before I noted the small black-brown birds that was hiding in the tall grass that were hanging over parts of the lake, the birds was very shy and didn’t dare to enter more open water as I stood there, watching them, although I got good enough glimpse of a few birds to be able to id them as Little grebes, I noted at least 5-6 of these cute little birds. The next bird I saw was some sort of bird of prey, I did get rather bad views of the bird as it was flying high above the valley, although I would but a guess on either some species of hawk-eagle or maybe Crested serpent-eagle, both white-bellied and Scaly-breasted munias took advantage of the open habitat and was seen sitting in the long grass looking for preys or predators. A few juvenile black-hooded laughingthrushes was also noted picking large ants and bugs from water buffalo dung. Several species was relatively common in this more open habitat, I therefore spend over an hour here and this was indeed rewarding, species seen was red-headed vulture (a true rarity in Vietnam), King quail, Black-headed bulbul, Black-crested bulbul, Flavescent bulbul, Oriental white-eye, Blue magpie, Slender-bellied Oriole, Indochinese cuckoo-shrike and Greater racket-tailed drongo, after have spending almost two hours I thought it was about time to start heading back home again, on my way back I didn’t noted much, saw nothing unusually expect of one bird, a male bar-bellied Pitta was observed skulking in the undergrowth, the colouration was shining as the sun hit him, very beautiful, a shy creature and was at first very hard to see, just a good amount of luck got me looking right in the spot where he was, not either calling or making any sounds, just pure luck I got him, he was definitely the best bird of the day.
After all a ok first day, rather few species seen, I will be back shortly and will then head deeper inside the forest, I just scratched a bit today, lots of more things are still out there to be seen, I already looking forward to my next visit.
1. Little grebe (5-6 adult birds)
2. Red-headed vulture (1 adult and 1 juvenile bird)
3. Crested serpent-eagle (1 adult possibly seen)
3. Indochinese Green magpie (2-3 adult birds)
5. Blue magpie (2 adult females)
Green peafowl (only heard, will hopefully see one next time)
6. King quail (1 adult female seen)
7. White-bellied munia (2 flocks of 6 respectively 12 birds seen
8. Scaly-breasted munia (1 flock on 9 birds was seen)
9. Black-headed bulbul (a few small flocks consisting 5-8 birds were seen)
10. Black-crested bulbul (3 birds seen)
11. Flavescent bulbul (a flock of 8 birds seen)
12. Black-hooded laughingthrush (I at least assume it was this species, correct me if aim wrong, at least 4 birds seen)
13. Oriental white-eye (some 20-30 birds seen)
14. Slender-bellied oriole (5 birds seen)
15. Indochinese cuckoo-shrike (1 adult bird seen)
16. Greater racket-tailed drongo (2 adult birds seen)
17. Bar-bellied Pitta (1 adult male seen)
![30110102.ForestView[1].jpg](/data/attachments/44/44523-7b6caa5d4ab306a35732d710fad5dea1.jpg)
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