BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="dalat" data-source="post: 3312110" data-attributes="member: 65207">After this excursion to the south it was back to Hanoi, where I did a bit of city birding, a half day trip to Ba Vi and a 2 day trip to Xuan Thuy.Ba Vi National Park is a mountain quite close to Hanoi of about 1300 m, which has good forest, some interesting resident birds (like Rufous-cheeked Laughingthrush, Grey-winged Blackbirds) and good potential for migrants, especially Thrushes. A new highway reaches almost all the way to the park, so leaving Hanoi early morning, I was there in about 1 hour, much faster than a couple of years ago. A road leads all the way up the mountain, where footpaths and stairs lead to the two summits, one with a Buddhist temple and the other one with a Ho Chi Minh temple. I usually prefer the Ho Chi Minh side, as the way is a bit longer and it generally gets less people than the Buddhist peak. However, not this time. I had made the mistake to go on Saturday, and it was totally crowded. Already at six am, groups of friendly but very noisy young people were on the trails. Not sure if that was a normal weekend or a special holiday, but all day was extremly crowded and noisy, so less than ideal. I spent the morning trying to avoid people by going off the paths or along the older half overgrown steps leading up the Ho Chi Minh peak. No really exiting finds, but still a number of nice birds, such as: Small Niltava, Rusty-capped Fulvetta, some nice Orange-headed Thrushes, Blue Whistling Thrushes (the migrant race with dark beak), some Siberian Thrushes. On the summit, Brown-backed Needletails were whooshing by very close. Later I went down the road a bit, and discovered that a new path (mostly steps) had been constructed between the popular peaks and the peak where some army guys guard some antenna. This path seems to be hardly used, it is already overgrown in parts, but still in good shape, no problem to use it. I didn't see much there, apart from a nice White-throated Rock Thrush, but it was already noon by then. Perhaps this paths could be interesting earlier in the morning?Going down, I tried the paths in the botanical gardens opposite to the restaurants in the park HQ area. The trails there are very overgrown now and hardly usable any more. A shame, this area used to be quite good at times for migrants. I saw the Red-billed Blue Magpies, a Grey Treepie, and a bunch of Phyllos, Arctic and Yellow-browed being the only ones I could ID.Still some good birds, but I left a little unnerved. My plan was to go birding, not meeting up with hundreds of friendly young Vietnamese very exited to talk to a foreigner... :-O</blockquote>

Verification