Wildlife of S. E. Asia and S. America. A Photo Journal by Francis Burlingham.: 2019-02-10

Introduction

Over the last few years I have been lucky enough to live in Thailand, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Colombia and now Brunei. In my spare time I have had the opportunity to travel fairly widely, camera in hand, in search of wildlife. In these posts I aim to share some of these experiences and show you some of the extraordinary wildlife that can be found in these regions. All of the photographs you see within the posts and pages here are my own unless otherwise stated. Copyright © Francis Burlingham 2015

Thursday 14 February 2019

Dry Season and Tet in HCMC Vietnam.

I have not left the city for a few months now. Nonetheless I have still managed to see some nice wildlife on my trips around the city.

Danaus chrysippus (Plain Tiger) HCMC Vietnam

The botanical gardens are a pleasant place for a stroll and attract a few hardy butterflies that manage to survive in the city. I took these shots in October at the seasons were changing.

Junonia almana (Peacock Pansy) HCMC Vietnam

Hypolimnas bolina (The Great Egg Fly) male HCMC Vietnam

Graphium sarpendon (Common Bluebottle) HCMC Vietnam

Eutropis multifasciata (Many-Lined Sun Skink) HCMC Vietrnam

Rats are a common feature in HCMC as in any big city and seem to be particularly numerous around the aviary in the gardens where they steal the birds food. I could not resist getting this shot of a sweaty looking rat cleaning itself, apparently not phased by the presence of people nearby.

Rattus norvegicus (Brown Rat.)

As the dry season started to kick in I noticed a number of hawk moths emerging around the city. I found this beautiful oleander hawk moth on my balcony as well as a deaths head hawk moth caterpillar feasting on my plants.

Daphnis nerii (Oleander Hawk Moth) HCMC Vietnam

Acherontia lachesis (Deaths Head Hawkmoth) HCMC Vietnam

Acherontia lachesis (Deaths Head Hawkmoth)

Theretra nessus (The Yam Hawk moth)

This beautiful bee mimic moth also visited my balcony.

Ceryx sphenodes? (Clearwing tiger moth) HCMC Vietnam

As the dry season continued I noticed a substantial drop in air quality. This seemed to reach a peak over Christmas when the visibility across the city was seriously reduced. This did not stop the swiftlets and swallows from hunting around my apartment block and I took these shots of them flying through a polluted sky.

A swiftlet in flight through a polluted sky

Spot the swiftlets

Theses sun birds are regular visitors to the plants on my balcony which gave some colour in contrast to the grey of the sky.

Nectarinia jugularis (Olive-backed Sun bird) Female HCMC Vietnam

Nectarinia jugularis (Olive-backed Sunbird) Male HCMC Vietnam

The worst of the pollution seemed to clear after the Christmas period and once again the sky became blue as the wind picked up. The city is transformed with flower markets packed with traditional yellow flowers at this time of year in preparation for the Tet holiday. The sky became a clear blue as the factories shut for the holiday.

Traditional Tet Tree.

Flower market in District 7

I managed to spot this lovely pair of little green bee eaters in a wasteland area in Nha Be. They would not allow me to get too close and I was at the limits of the lens I was using with these shots.

Merops orientalis (Little Green Bee-eater) Female HCMC Vietnam

Merops orientalis (Little Green Bee-eater) Male HCMC Vietnam

The wasteland area is an abandoned building project bordered on two sides by rivers. The roads are in place but the houses were never built and so the plots have become overgrown. Sadly I found an old mist net in the area that had probably been used to catch song birds for the pet trade. In it were the decomposing remains of a number of bats that had become entangled and died.