When: May 2022. Weather hot, tropical, 25-34C Nikon P950, Leica Q and Leica M11/35Lux
A long awaited holiday finally brought us to Lang Co, an area between Danang and Hue on Vietnam’s eastern coastline. It’s an easy 2.5hr flight from Singapore into Danang and then an hour’s transfer to the Banyan Tree Laguna Resort. The drive through the tunnel and Lap An Bay was interesting enough. We deliberately chose the lagoon villas which were nearer to the greenery behind rather than the more expensive sea-front villas…and it was a good choice! Even as we were being checked in at the villa sundeck itself, a bird on the tree kept distracting me….
A stripe-throated bulbul! Lifer. What a great welcome to our accommodation. We were to see many more of this gorgeous bird…
We had chosen to come here largely because of Bach Ma National Park’s reputation for having wonderful birding so imagine our dismay when we found out that the park was closed due to road repairs! Have never come across any national park being closed before…. Deciding to make the most of a bad situation, we decided to just bird around the back of the villa (we were in villa 160) where there was a water lily pond and the front of the villa where there was an interesting looking forested hill.
A pair of sooty headed bulbuls right outside our villathe water lily pond just beyond our poolA chinese spotted dove…which looks more chestnut coloured than the ones we get in singaporeA noisy white throated kingfisher demanded our attentionThe water lily pond in the lagoonThe Banyan Tree Resort at LangcoThere’s an underutilised car park lot just outside villas 160….and there was much joy to be had birding here….The racquet tailed treepie was seen easily everywhereas was the spectacular racquet tailed drongo….which we also get in singapore except that the one here in vietnam has a large tuft of feathers where the beak meets the head..Star bird of the first morning and indeed of the whole trip was the Lesser necklaced Laughing Thrush who sat on this branch for an hour obliginglyLesser necklaced laughing thrushthe spectacular striped throated bulbuls were ever presentMagpie RobinBlue throated bee eaters were commonHill mynahsooty headed bulbul sunning himselfA few greater coucal sightings were made but I could only manage this half blocked shotand when the birds were quiet, the butterflies more than made up for itolive winged sunbird which is a bit different from the ones seen in singapore
So the Banyan Tree Resort in Langco proved to be an excellent location for incidental birding anytime of the day even if you don’t leave the resort. Recommended
