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A global Big Year while working full-time (?) (1 Viewer)

Hello again,

I am a day early, but here it is. Week 6 was another full week of work, followed by a weekend of birding.

This week's update covers our first of many jaunts out from Bangkok by air. We will be flying out and back to Bangkok now for every weekend (plus some holidays) until at least mid-June before the first respite.

I am going to come to hate airports even more than I hate them now. That's something.

This trip started at DMK, the "old" Bangkok airport, which seems more and more antiquated every time we go there. Flying on AirAsia, we were first herded into the Gates 1-6 waiting room, which really has nothing to do with gates. It is more like a bus station, complete with incomprehensible audio, poor food choices, inadequate seating, and many screaming children. From here the crowds are led into buses which drive out to the plane on the tarmac.

Luckily the trip got much better after that. We were picked up from central Kuala Lumpur by Weng Chun, whom we hired as a guide last year as well. He is a fantastic birder and I cannot recommend him highly enough. I had sent him a long list of targets including low- and high-elevation birds, and he designed an itinerary that aggressively went after it. All said we picked up 63 new birds for the year, and 32 lifers.

At this point, I have 376 species, or 15.0% of the 2,500 goal, with 11.5% of the year used up.

Our weekend trip involved three sites: first, the outskirts of the Krau Wildlife Reserve, which was fantastic; second, Fraser's Hill, which was cold, windy, and damp; and finally the National Botanic Gardens in Kuala Lumpur, which was hot and crowded, but also productive. Weng was able to coax out both Blue-Winged and Hooded Pittas at the Gardens; no meant feat, given the human disturbance in the area.

Of the three sites, Fraser's Hill was decidedly the least productive; but worth the effort to visit, of course. With an elevation of 1.5 km it can be rather cool; this is the second time I've gone and forgot to pack warm clothes. I won't make that mistake again. It is also a bit of a challenge to get a beer there; Weng says that there are three places that serve it in town, and we've been to two of them now.

More details are at https://legallyblindbirding.net/2018-gbwy/

Another full week of work, and then we head to Siem Reap, Cambodia, Friday night. We will go to Prek Toal and Ang Trapeang Thmor.

Cheers,
Michael
 
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Hello everyone,

It is Monday evening in Bangkok, which means it is time for the next episode of GBWY 2018.

Details and photos here: https://legallyblindbirding.net/2018-gbwy/

This weekend we made our first-ever visit to Cambodia, flying in to Siem Reap. I am thinking that there are few visitors that go through this airport that do not go to nearby Angkor Wat. That would be us - only birders and various oddballs that are obsessed with other matters. We'd love to go see the temples as they are reportedly awe-inspiring, but frankly, birds are more beautiful than anything anyone ever built, IMO.

Moreover, the town was swarming with visitors, with Chinese New Year just a week away, so this would not be the best time for temple-walking.

This was also the first outing in which one of us was ill, but this is not going to stop us from getting birds. Usually it is my wife; she has thrown-up at some very good birding sites. My turn this time. We knew going in to this that probability-wise, some of these weekend trips would be in the Not Fun category. Well, we can tick one of those boxes now and move on!

Based on this weekend, Cambodia would not be my first choice for a Southeast Asia birding trip, if I could only choose one spot (I would go with Malaysia, hands down). The species variety was not as high as I had hoped - also our guides were not always on the same page as us. At one point the had suggested something about a diversion related to the local silk trade. No thanks. Just birds please.

But we did see four owl species (Barn Owl, Spotted Wood-Owl, Spotted Owlet, and Asian Barred Owlet), so I call it a good deal.
 
how is your % year / % species ratio getting on? thanks for the updates --- & hope you feel better soon

Ah, I knew I forgot something:

17.0% of goal, 13.5% of year used

Total to date: 425 (removed another double-counted bird)

Still ahead with a comfortable margin. By June I expect to be very far in the black, after trips to Australia and Africa; but then as the second half of the year progresses I'm going to run out of birds around here, and will need to get creative with flight plans. So that is when things are going to get really interesting.
 
Update time: Week 8

Working Days: 5

New species identified: 21

Total to date: 445 (removed another double-counted bird)

17.8% of goal, 15.4% of year used

Sites visited: Krabí & Koh Klang, Thailand

I was expecting a disappointing weekend, and that is what we got, although Krabí is a lovely area with interesting birding sites quite close to the town. We got 66 birds in a day and half birding, but few of them were birds not already seen in SE Asia on this trip.

What we did manage to see included Brown-winged Kingfisher, Chinese Egret, Golden-bellied Gerygone, Ruddy-breasted Crake, and Slaty-breasted Rail. The Gerygone is a bird that we have heard before in mangroves south of Bangkok; this was the first time we have seen them. The unmistakable vocalization reminds me of the start of a White-throated Sparrow song.

Next weekend we will have 1.5 days in Taipei, Taiwan.
 
It is Monday in Bangkok. Greetings. Here is this week's update.

Working Days: 5

New species identified: 33

Total to date: 478

19.1% of goal, 17.3% of year used

Sites visited: Wulai & Taipei, Taiwan

Due to the poor selection of flights, we had to be content with just 1.5 days in Taiwan. This limited us to the city of Taipei and environs. Fortunately, the Wulai area is not far and gets one high enough into the mountains to get some of the endemics that don't come down to the city.

I decided to invest in a new camera last week, as I've had enough of the poor results from my old Canon SLR. After quite a bit of perusal of discussions on this site, I decided to go with the Nikon P900. Moving to this from an SLR feels rather odd, and I'm not comfortable with it yet, but the images are dramatically improved. You can now visit my site and not wince at crap photos going forward!

We missed a number of our targets but cannot complain. We managed decent looks at skittish birds like Taiwan Scimitar-Babblers and a Dusky Fulvetta. There are some very lovely birds on this island; the Taiwan Blue-Magpie, White-eared Sibia, and Taiwan Yuhina were our favorites. Also it is always nice to visit countries where birding and/or bird photography is so popular. We found Taiwan to be much like Hong Kong in this regard; there were scopes and cameras everywhere - including a city street corner where a single blooming cherry tree full of birds created such a scene of clicking cameras that one might think a celebrity was there.

Pictures here: https://legallyblindbirding.net/2018-gbwy-2/
 
Sawasdee krub from Bangkok. Time for an update.

Week 10: February 27 – March 4, Nepal

Working Days: 3

New species identified: 58

Total to date: 536

21.4 % of goal, 19.2 % of year used

Sites visited: Kathmandu and environs, Nepal

Photos here: https://legallyblindbirding.net/2018-gbwy-2/

We had just over three days here due to a holiday; a total of 89 species in the Kathmandu area, with 58 new for the year. We didn't visit the higher and lower elevations, which require considerably more time to reach. The roads here are not good, to say the least.

The climate, at least in March, was perfect, although the haze of the city is a bit depressing as it obscures the mountains. The sites we visited were Champadevie, Phulchoki, and Shivapuri National Park; these all lie in the foothills that surround the city on all sides. We also spent a couple hours at a city park (Ranibari) on the last day. If I had to pick one site to visit, it would be Champadevie, which often was not aesthetically pleasing, but it yielded the most birds, including the only endemic in the country, Spiny Babbler.

This is not a good place to strike out on your own if you are not a local; outside of our hotel in the center of town, very few people spoke English. I do not understand how the streets are navigated here; going from point A to B requires the most circuitous routes imaginable. Traffic signals? Street signs? LOL. Reaching birding sites was even more difficult. Luckily one can get a decent guide here.

This area was Phylloscopus heaven. Or hell, in our case. We got some pretty definitive looks at four species (Greenish, Western Crowned, Ashy-throated, and Grey-hooded Warblers, the last one being abundant). Others went un-identified. I posted a request for help on for a bird here if you want to have a go.
 
Happy Monday from Bangkok.

Week # 11 featured a weekend trip up to the Chiang Mai province of Thailand, which is a lovely place with outstanding birding. Here there are mountains and cooler temperatures and lots of wintering birds.

Photos are here: https://legallyblindbirding.net/2018-gbwy-2/

Working Days: 5

New species identified: 45

Total to date: 583

23.3 % of goal, 21.1 % of year used

Sites visited: Doi Ang Khang & Doi Lang. These are great areas to find a number of birds that are not widely distributed in Thailand - we picked up quite a few that are not found (or at least are not common) in Doi Inthanon, which is the national park closest to the city and which gets considerable birding attention. Himalayan Cutia, Ultramarine Flycatcher, Hume's Pheasant, Giant Nuthatch, Hodgson's Frogmouth, Vivid Niltava, Spectacled Barwing, and Crested Finchbill are a few of the standouts.

I suppose I should be ranking all these sites in terms of their overall quality of birds and birding experience offered. This one would have to be in the top three so far this year.

Next weekend, another Friday night - Sunday night pair of flights, this time to Manila and Subic Bay, Philippines.

Thanks for reading!
 
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Good stuff. My first full day's birding in South-east Asia was at Doi Lang; 48 lifers that day! Like a kid at Christmas I was, a fabulous day in a fabulous place. Glad to see you're still going strong, hopefully Philippines will give you a nice boost.
 
Good stuff. My first full day's birding in South-east Asia was at Doi Lang; 48 lifers that day! Like a kid at Christmas I was, a fabulous day in a fabulous place. Glad to see you're still going strong, hopefully Philippines will give you a nice boost.

The Philippines provided some great additions; though we seem to have chosen a less than optimal spot.

And here is the update, then:

Week 12

Working Days: 5

New species identified: 38

Total to date: 621

24.8 % of goal, 23.1 % of year used

Sites visited: Subic Bay & Manila, Philippines

Very brief post here: https://legallyblindbirding.net/2018-gbwy-2/

As we only had about 1.5 days to bird due to flight schedules, we visited only a tiny fraction of what this country has to offer. Our guide suggested Subic Bay as an ideal weekend location from Manila, so that is where we set up shop. Saturday morning was quite good and we rapidly ticked many lifers without even moving. A pair of Plain Bush-hens even came out on the road for us, between looks at Green Racquet-tails and Guaiaberos. Then it got very hot and that was it. We did not see much until evening when we picked up Great Eared-Nightjar and Chocolate and Luzon Boobooks.

Sunday morning was quite slow. Our guide wanted to wait out the eventual arrival of interesting species at what he said was a productive spot... we waited, and nothing came. A rather expensive and frustrating waste of time.

Perhaps in November we will head back and try a different area; the difficulty of weekend trips is becoming more and more apparent... while the Philippines is a prime example of a nearby, species-rich area with many birds we need, the time needed to access the most productive areas is prohibitive. This leaves us with the environs of large cities, which can often be quite good, but just as often, not.

This coming weekend we head up to Yunnan, China.
 
Update time...

Week 13: March 20 – March 26, Yunnan, China

Working Days: 5

New species identified: 13

Total to date: 634

25.4 % of goal, 25.0 % of year used

https://legallyblindbirding.net/2018-gbwy-2/

Our first trip to China was to the city of Kunming, in the Yunnan province in the south. This is only about two hours from Bangkok. As it sits in the mountains, the climate of the city is said to be always spring-like, and indeed it extremely pleasant there.

On Saturday morning we arrived at dawn at Mt. Xishan, to the west of the city. This is a lovely spot with a long road that gently climbs up through the forest. There are some trails, too, and at least one restroom along the way; at the entrance there are a variety of food options. Per the eBird hotspot map it is the best area in the city, and I can imagine that a weekday visit here could be very productive indeed.

Key word: Weekday.

But on a weekend? Don't bother. Or at least, arrive very early and don't walk too far up the road.. after about 8:30 AM, it is almost impossible to bird here. Both sides of the road were filled with droves of people moving along as if on conveyor belts, as everyone is forced to hug the roadsides in dense lines because the center is occupied by an endless current of tour buses and other vehicles. Fast-moving, horn-blaring vehicles. Not a scenario amenable to scanning the trees, repositioning your person to get a better angle, or listening for calls.

But wait, there's more. Some of the other visitors had the curious habit of bringing their music along for their nature walk, kindly sharing it with everyone by eschewing earbuds and opting instead for a nice, low-fidelity, bluetooth speaker. Because nothing adds to the experience of a morning walk through the forest like loud, distorted, mono recordings of your favorite music to mask out those objectionable natural sounds. (I will never, ever understand this.)

Adding to this atmosphere, our local 'guide' did very little to help us find birds. Every other time I looked over at him, he was looking at his smartphone. And not in order to pull up recordings or do anything related to birding. I guess he was checking his email or the news. Of the birds we did see, my wife found most of them, because the 'guide' usually walked right past them. When he did stop and scan, it was almost always at a spot where there were no birds. I have never seen a more disengaged and oblivious birder, much less 'guide'.

To his credit, he did figure out that a different, less busy spot might be preferable for the afternoon. So we birded some roadsides in the foothills and picked up a few more species, but eventually this too became an exercise in vehicle avoidance first and birding second. Then at about 5:00 PM, several hours before sunset, he announced that we were done birding for the day. Given that he seemed to have no clue about where else to go, we didn't bother arguing with him about this. There seemed to be a language barrier problem here as
well. Just another part of the international birding adventure!

On Sunday we spent the morning at the Kunming Botanic Gardens, which was far less noisy and free of the roaring buses. It is a nice park and the birding was fine. Happily our 'guide' did manage to find us a Scaly Thrush, which was a splendid bird. All the more impressive given that he spent even more time reading his emails that morning than on the previous day, when he was too distracted by all the traffic and crowds, I suppose.

So I'm going to have a conversation with the company that set us up with this individual. Meanwhile, if you plan to go birding in Kunming and are looking for a guide, I can tell you who NOT to contact.

Also the Field Guide to the Birds of China by John MacKinnon and Karen Phillipps is simply not a good book; it gets at least one species, Spectacled Fulvetta, completely wrong. Imperfect bird books are a fact of life, but this one is particularly obnoxious in that it cost upwards of $50.

We are only a couple weeks away from our only extended trip (10 days) of this effort: to Ethiopia and South Africa; that will push the species count back up nicely. And get us away from the crowds. Yay.
 
Sorry to hear about your poor experience at Xishan, and what sounds like a truly awful guide - I'd be demanding a refund!

Please be assured there is some great birding in China - even close to cities at weekends - and there are also some very good guides. Some cities in Yunnan you might try hopping to from Kunming include Ruili, Tenchong, Baoshan, Dali and Lijiang - there may even be direct flights.

Cheers
Mike
 
Thanks for the suggestions, MKinHK an Mike C.

We are headed back to Yunnan tonight. This time we are going to go to Mt. Zixishan, about 3 hours west of Kunming, with a different guide. Should be better, but I think we will fall well short of the weekly goal, and the relative % is going to go from the black to the red for the first time.

Well at least there will be more drama in this pursuit, when we have to come back from behind... could be pretty boring otherwise.

Some of the places that I am now making plans for during the second half of the year include Bali, Sulawesi, Cairns, southern India, northern Vietnam, and UAE.
 
It is Sunday night in Bangkok, and time for an update for Week 14.

We just did another weekend jaunt up to Yunnan, China. Specifically we visited Zixishan, which is a mountain area about three hours west of Kunming. Or I should say three hours from the airport which is east of the city. One of those three hours is spent mostly crossing the city itself.

Working Days: 5

New species identified: 21

Total to date: 655

26.2 % of goal, 26.9 % of year used

Well this weekend certainly went better than the previous one. We arrived around 11:30PM Friday night and immediately started the long drive out to Mt. Zixi. After a couple hours sleep we were birding at sunrise on Saturday. Sunday (today) we were limited to three hours in the morning before needing to head back to the airport.

This is a much nicer environment than what were had visited on the outskirts of Kunming; you can pull off on the roads and walk them and bird without interruption for the most part. There are visitors but not hordes; most people seemed to be visiting the temple (which was good birding in the early morning). As far as I can tell there is one hotel here and one or two restaurants.

The area is predominately pine forests that are teeming with passerines, especially leaf warblers. Those we could identify included Tickell's and Pallas's Leaf Warblers, Arctic Warbler, and the very easy and striking Black-faced Warbler. Also enjoyed Yunnan Nuthatch, Red-tailed Minla, Godlewski's Bunting, Black-browed Tit, and two Scimitar-Babblers: Streak-breasted and Black-streaked (ugh, what names). A few Hume's Pheasants were on the road this morning.

All told, in our two weekend visits to Yunnan, which amounted to about three full days to bird, we netted 75 total species, with 34 of these new for the year. In May we will head further north to Sichuan for a pair of visits; will be interesting to compare and contrast with Yunnan.

So I as expected, the percentages (species goal and weeks of year used) have crisscrossed and we are now playing from behind. This setback will be temporary, as we are headed to Ethiopia late Thursday night, to start a ten day Africa trip. I don't expect to have a report on that until about April 17, which is when we get back to Bangkok.

Thanks for reading, and the continued interest in this massive disruption to my bank account!
 
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Hello all:

We arrived back in Bangkok today after a ten-day excursion that included Ethiopia and South Africa. As always, pictures and other details can be found here:

https://legallyblindbirding.net/2018-gbwy-2/

This completes Weeks 15 & 16, with the following status:

Working Days: 3

New species identified: 185 (Ethiopia) + 84 (South Africa) = 269

Total to date: 923

36.9 % of goal, 30.7 % of year used

Happily the statistics for this effort are back in the positive column; I'm trying to build up some cushion for what promises to be a tough month in June.

The Ethiopia number is more than double the other partly because we birded there first. But in terms of total species seen, we had 199 in Ethiopia and 135 in South Africa. Our guide in Ethiopia was very good and we had a strong birding focus. In South Africa, we were in and around Kruger National Park, using guides that were a bit more general (we seem to have been the first serious birders that they have worked with). So, much of the time in Kruger was spent appreciating the other wildlife and the stunning scenery. It is absolutely gorgeous and we wish we could spend a month there, in order to take it all in.

Also I did not understand just what a long drive it is from JNB airport up to Kruger - it runs up to about six hours. That chewed up a lot of time. Next time, a flight to a regional airport would be in order.

There were areas around Kruger that were strangely lacking in bird activity, though, and it really surprised us. It had been raining a lot recently to the point where the area is quite green; our guides said it was very unusual for April. Two of our days there were rainy and surprisingly cold and windy too. We did poorly for small passerines such as waxbills and the like. (The Red-billed Quelea were certainly not hard to find, though. What a sound they make when several hundred in a tight flock speed seemingly right over your head!) We were looking forward to seeing the Violet-eared Waxbill. No such luck. Not big cats either, though we did see African Wild Dogs. In any case, it was all a good reminder of why we really go birding; not for numbers, but for the resonant experience that only the natural world can supply.

This coming weekend, a quick trip to southern Vietnam.
 
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