It's a strange paradox. Saigon has one tiny park hiding behind the Reunification Palace, and the buzz is that Vietnamese have a thirst for concrete on concrete. But the small green spaces they have are well used. This park is the only place to go jogging with only a slight chance of being run over by a motorcycle, and there's a small tinker-toy gymnasium and playground. It's also the only place where teenagers can legally be seen holding hands and occasionally pecking each other on the cheek. They have elaborate decorations for tet. Here's a leftover tiger topiary.
There's no understory here..in fact it seems coincidental that there are plants at all. So the birds and insects are here by accident.
So far the insects on the other side of the world are unremarkable. We have the usual ants, mosquitos, moth flies, sulphur butterflies, halictid bees in the lotus--even the assassin bug that invaded our home was a textbook variety. Here is a pretty cool shield bug, though--pretty big, with nifty orange antennae.
Here are some bird photos taken with my digital camera through my binoculars. It's a super pain in the ass to do, and as you can see it gives slightly imperfect results. But its a great tool for bird watching in a place where you're the only expert in the country and rely on a book without range maps. Google image searches help a lot too. Off the top of my head, the number in the park so far is about 15, but the birds are completely and totally different from what we'd see in Prospect Park (unlike the insects).
Today I heard the most exquisite bird song and scanned the trees until I saw this:
Somebody's pet White Rumped Shama.
Yup, its the ol' nursery for pet birds. I know I need to be open. But all I can think of is letting the birds go and telling their owners to get binoculars.
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