Finally a bird pic!

Hold onto this one folks as it may be one of the only bird blips you get from me during my time in Nam! They are just too damn hard to photograph! Murphy's law states (or should state!) that as soon as one leaves their camera behind - the birds will appear in perfect view. This happened to me with a black bittern in Kakadu in 2011 and just recently its happened to me a few times here in Tam Dao, most recently this morning. I was making banana pancakes when I looked out the bungalow window and had the most perfect view of a blue-billed magpie! Not once but several times! But I'd left my camera in my room and sadly the iphone just didn't cut it. So whilst I ate my now slightly burnt pancakes I thought it might be a good omen to set out on a walk around the creek with my camera in hand.

I hadn't even gotten anywhere near the creek when I happened upon this little Common Tailorbird, Orthotomus sutorius, made famous by Rudyard Kipling in 'Jungle Book', this was a new tick for me on my Vietnam list! Tailorbirds get their name from the way their nest is constructed. The edges of a large leaf are pierced and sewn together with plant fibre or spider silk to make a cradle in which the actual nest is built. This passerine bird is typically found in open farmland, scrub, forest edges and gardens and across much of tropical Asia.

BEST SEEN LARGE!

Wow! So I was stoked that I may have already gotten my blip for the day and continued down to the creek with great enthusiasm. I took my favourite little walking trail which unfortunatey now comes out right near the road that the military are currently building, so instead of rock hopping to the left like I normally do, I turned right to see what I could find. I did happen upon a blue-beared kingfisher, but he flew up into foliage too far away to photograph. I staked him out for awhile hoping he'd swoop back down to the water near me but I'd spooked him too badly and he eventually flew downstream not to be seen again.

I continued on my way and didn't come across too much else, but then as I was deciding how to make my way up the side of the bank some fishing line strung up along the creek caught my eye. It was?a home-made mist net used by bird poachers :( I was so furious I started pulling the whole thing down - it was at least 50 metres long! I got half way through and realised I was going to have to take my shoes off and wade into the water to finish pulling it down. At this time, two Vietnamese military men came up to me and started talking to me in Vietnamese. I yelled at them that I didn't understand them and marched on into the freezing water - I think they though I was a mad crazy woman! By the time I was finished I was fuming, had numb toes and feet and was not somebody to be messed with! I had to march back through the temporary military camp to get home, barefoot, with the bundled mist net in my arms and a rather crazed look on my face. The 7 or so men that came out to see what I was doing didn't dare say anything to me!

I was so furious I went for a run to let of some steam. Thankfully there were no birds or bats caught in the net but I think its been set up for quite some time and has probably caught hundreds or thousands of birds over time :( NOT ANYMORE! I'm glad I found it and I'm glad its now gone. I'll report it to somebody who might actaully do something about it tomorrow and see what happens...