Central Vietnam Birding - DA NANG/NGOC LINH

The long awaited adventure finally took off after a long break. All looking happy and excited! We had arrived one day earlier before our birding tour started. Our very own adventure started the moment we touched down at Danang International Airport. One of our teammates saw that our hotel was nearby, seems to be walkable, hence we all decided to walk there. And yes, we could see our hotel from the airport but the walk there almost drained our energy before the trip started. We settled in, went for dinner, had our first banh mi and called for the night.
It's our first day of our trip and the pick up time from our hotel was 530am. We all managed to gather except for one, as usual, skipped the morning session. Our Guide, Quyen, is hosting us again and we were all glad to see him again. The target for this morning was the Langurs. We arrived at the 1st point after a 30mins drive but didn't get to see the Langurs. Then Quyen asked if we wanted to shoot the nesting of the Blue-bearded bee-eater, quickly we all said Yes!! But we needed to hike about 800m up a steep hill. Happily we all said just go, no problem!! The hike was truly a wake up call, didn't expect it to be so steep! But the rewards were good! Worth it!!

We also managed to shoot the rare endangered Red-shanked Douc Langurs on our way up. Mission accomplished!

We are back at the hotel for breakfast then proceeded with checkout, and finally we are on our 6hr journey drive up to Ngoc Linh Nature Reserve.
We stopped for a simple lunch midway at Cafe No 1 Garden, followed by a photoshoot of the Wired-tailed swallows along the riverside. At last we arrived at our humble hotel, Nhà Nghi HOÀNG GIA TRANG, where we would stay for the next 2 nights.

We set out at 530am the next day, having our breakfast along the way. Today, we would embark on an 800m mountainous hike into the highland forest to reach our 1st bird hide of the trip. This journey really puts our stamina, endurance, determination and mind power to a test. Crossing 3 valley streams in a VVV manner, with steep descent and ascent, with the final push all the way to the Hide, estimated about 1800m above sea level. With our backpacks, gears, and tripods in tow, the trekking adventure commenced, except for one who hired a porter!
We are targeting 2 key birds here, the Red-tailed Laughing Thrush and the Golden-winged Laughing Thrush. And we nailed it!!

There were also quite a number of other birds seen at this Hide such as the Brown-crowned Scimitar Babbler, the Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher, the Rufous-winged Fulvetta, the Indochinese Fulvetta, the Snowy-browed Flycatcher, both male and female, and a juvenile, and the White-throated Fantail. A few of them were lifers for us.

As the mountain weather began to shift, giving way to its unpredictable microclimate, Quyen suggested that we should quickly pack up and leave, and call it a day. We made our descent slowly down the mountain, battling the route which we came from. We arrived back at our hotel in the late afternoon, washed up and rested, getting ready for an early dinner at 6pm as we did not have proper lunch in the forest.

We are now into the 3rd day of our trip, had our breakfast in the hotel restaurant and proceeded to check out. We went for some roadside birding before beginning our 2~3hr road journey over to Mang Den - the Central Highland of Vietnam. Some of the birds seen were Short-billed Minivet, Scarlert Minivet, Black-headed Sibia, Yellow-cheeked Tit, Grey-crowned Tit, Necklaced Barbet, both male and female Green-tailed Sunbird, the White-browed Piculet, and finally the Chestnut-crowned Warbler (hardest tiny bird to shoot and not everyone got it).