Cambodia August 2013, Angkor Wat and Tonle Sap

Unfortunately I spent only four days in this lovely country and my time here was mostly spent more or less twitching Angkor Wat. I did not do much birding, but still visited two sites of interest and maybe this post will still be useful to somebody.

We did two days of sightseeing in Angkor, visiting a large array of temples. Around the temples we still saw some birds as the complex is located in decent dry dipterocarp forest. Birds observed included Cotton Pygmy Goose, Greater Racket-tailed Drongo, Red-breasted Parakeet and Bronze-winged Jacana. The best area for birdwatching within the Angkor Wat boundaries is however the small patch of good dry dipterocarp forest at Kbal Spean. Unfortunately we visited this area during the middle of the day saw therefore few birds, amongst them: Ruby-cheeked Sunbird, Black-naped Monarch, Great Iora and Pin-striped Tit-babbler. This area could prove productive for Neglected Nuthatch has been sighted here.

On the last day we did a boat ride to the "flooded forest" at Tonle Sap. At first we wanted to visit Prek Toal Bird Sanctuary but according to http://www.samveasna.org/ are the key species (Greater Adjutant, Lesser Adjutant, Spot-billed Pelican and Milky Stork) not around during this time of year. Thus we refrained from the expensive boat ride ($110 per person) and made a cheaper boat ride. This still resulted in a distant sighting of several Spot-billed Pelicans, many Black Bitterns, Oriental Pratincoles, some Darters and Painted Storks and a single Black-headed Ibis. 

"Flooded forest" at Tonle Sap. Picture made by Anna van der Kaaden

Like I said, my "twitch" of Angkor Wat did not do this country justice birdingwise and I would love to come back and do a proper trip to see all specialities.

Myanmar July – August 2013, Hlawga Park

This site, situated 90 minutes drive from Yangon, is the easiest place in the world to see the davisoni race of Stripe-throated Bulbul which has a high split potential. If split, it will be a new endemic for the country. It also used to be a site for Pale-capped Pigeon, but I don´t know of any recent records. We visited this site as a daytrip from Yangon by taxi. We paid K 30.000 for going to the park from Yangon, one drive through the park and back to the Hotel, stopping at a WWII memorial, because we had to see the nice flowers according to our driver. The entrance fee is K 800 per person and K 1.000 per vehicle.

The park was one of the weirdest places I´ve ever birded. The only interesting bird I´ve seen here was a male Green Peafowl that was walking around the entrance gate and allowed ridiculous close-up views, giving a rather zoo-like feeling. Apparently this species was re-introduced 12 years ago, so not countable for the purist, but if you can count Pink Pigeons and Mauritius Fodies on Iles Aux Aigrettes, than you can count these Peafowls. As soon as we were in the park we were surrounded by hundreds of Rhesus Macaques who were jumping up and down to be fed, which the locals do very regularly. This resulted in a rather hurried drive through the park, trying to get rid of the monkeys. At last I made a small walk that yielded White-throated Kingfisher, Common Iora and Olive-backed Sunbird and to my astonishment two wing-clipped Spot-billed Pelicans! After fifteen minutes however the macaques returned and I went back into the car, for I hate half-tame monkeys. During the rest of the drive through the park we saw nothing special, but more (re)introduced species like Gaur, Sambar and Hogdeer.

A very wild male Green Peacock (Pavo muticus)

Obviously we did not see any Pale-capped Pigeons or Stripe-throated Bulbuls and I wonder how Birdquest manages to see them (the bulbuls) and get them into a scope without dozens of macaques bothering them. I would not recommend going to this site for it is basically somewhat of a badly managed safari park with a lot partying youth in it as well in the afternoon.

Myanmar Juy – August 2013, Kyaiktiyo Wildlife Sanctuary

Just like our visit to the Moeyungyi Weetlends, our visit to Kyaiktiyo Wildlife Sanctuary was mostly insired by the http://birding.sstmyanmar.com/kyaikhtiyo-wildlife-sanctuary. Mount Kyaiktiyo is mostly famous for its Golden Rock Pagoda at its top, but there are apparently some reasonable forests on the mountain. We based ourselves at Kinpun Base Camp, from which we walked up the mountain on the first day towards the Maha Myaing Paya. First you pass through a lot of cleared forest and later through crappy secondary forest. Here we only found a Black-necked Laugher and some Crested Treeswifts.

The next day we took one of the trucks taking the pilgrims up the mountain in the hope to find better forest at higher altitude. We decided to walk down from the Golden Rock back to Kinpun. First you pass countless vendors, but later there are some patches of secondary forest which contained amongst others Vernal Hanging Parrot, Green-billed Malkoha, Blue-winged Leafbird, Crested Goshawk, Buff-breasted, Puff-throated and Striped Tit Babbler, Lesser Necklaced Laugher, Little Spiderhunter and Lesser Rufous-headed Parrotbill.

Even though we saw some interesting species, I don´t understand why this is a “wildlife sanctuary”. Maybe we did not find the right trails and birded in the wrong places, maybe the time of the year was not right, but in my opinion the human pressure on the forests here seems just too much. It still is an interesting site from a cultural perspective, but the fact that foreigners have to eat and sleep at specially selected places and are completely separated from the local people creates a weird atmosphere.  

Ridiculously large butterfly (Attacus atlas)

Myanmar July – August 2013, Moeyungyi Wetland Sanctuary

Since the main birding spot of the country, Mount Victoria, is unreachable in the rainy season (roads are apparently impassable) and it is extremely costly to arrange a visit (around $800 per person), we had to find some other destinations in Myanmar to fill the 28 days we had planned here. First we had planned to go to Myitkyina and to do a boat trip down the Ayeyarwaddy River, but after seeing the completely full river in Bagan, we let this idea go, for it would have been, birding wise, a rather boring four to six days.

Therefore we resorted to other birding areas off the standard tour itineraries. One of them is the Moeyungyi Wetland Sanctuary near Bago. I found on http://birding.sstmyanmar.com/moeyungyi-wetland-bird-sanctuary that this is a reliable site for Sarus Crane, a species I missed at Inle Lake. So we arranged a motorbike for 12.000 MKK in Bago to go to the wetlands and then we paid $25 for four canoes to go on the lake. We saw barely any birds during this boat trip, for the wetland areas were completely flooded. Most interestingly were four Painted Storks and some Asian Golden Weavers. We showed a picture of Sarus Crane to some local farmers and they knew the bird very well, but they only saw them in the dry season here. Other birds that can be observed here include Cotton Pygmy Goose, Grey-headed Swamphen, Bronze-winged Jacana and Oriental Pratincole (according to SST Tourism). I think for this site it makes a huge difference whether you visit it in the wet or the dry season and I advise checking this site out in the dry season, for it sounds definitely interesting. 

Flooded area as far as the eye reaches... No birds at all... (picture made by Janne de Hoop)