Ang Trapeang Thmor

One of my goals for Cambodia was to get in a birding trip, or at least a portion of a day when binoculars were more important than cameras.  Ryan agreed because he is both supportive and interested in all types of wildlife.  I found the Sam Veasna Center from Trip Advisor, and it was also mentioned in our Lonely Planet guidebook.  I visited their website and really wanted to go on the Tonle Sap trip.  Tonle Sap is a large freshwater lake near Siem Reap.  It is the largest such body of fresh water in Cambodia and possibly the the entire region of southeast Asia?  It is still on my list to visit because April is the last month of the dry season, which typically lasts from mid-January through the end of April.  By April, this region hasn't seen a drop of rain in months, and the dry rice fields and low-lying ponds and rivers are a testament to that.  The good people at Sam Veasna said that the water levels of Tonle Sap were so low in April that sometimes the "floating villages" weren't floating, and they suggested instead a trip to Ang Trapeang Thmor.

Ang Trapeang Thmor, or ATT, is a joint conservation effort between the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Sam Veasna Center.  These two organizations try to keep tourism local in nearly every sense of the word.  The bird guides and drivers are Cambodia and have received free training on bird identification from the Sam Veasna Center.  Our guide explained to us that the training is free, but that most people do not complete the training because of the early hours.  Perhaps this explains why there aren't more birders?  In addition to local guides and free training, the tours also offer meals prepared in the villages most proximate to the birding areas as a way for tourist dollars to stay in the area.  Birders pay for the bird tours, and Sam Veasna ensures that the money stays in the area where the birds are by involving landowners and restaurants and by hiring and training local guides and drivers.  The take-home message for Cambodians: birds are good because they bring in money.

The ATT area is near a reservoir of the same name, but includes adjacent rice fields.  Most of the fields were dry, but there was still plenty of wildlife to see.  First birds of the day were Painted Storks, a species I had not expected to see once I knew I would not be going to Tonle Sap.  What a find, and so pretty in the morning sun! Our guide, Mr. Tharath, helped us with the digiscoping.  The camera that bit the dust the day before would have been perfect to use in conjunction with the spotting scope, but Ryan's underwater camera worked like a charm in the end.  

Here's a bit of what we saw:

We ate breakfast while in the middle of the dry rice fields, after spotting our first pair of Sarus Cranes.  The food came from The Blue Pumpkin, a Cambodian cafe chain that offers good coffee and snacks in probably the most relaxed atmosphere I've ever seen in a business establishment.  We passed on near Pub Street.  In addition to tables and chairs, there are beds or lounge-like things where you can spread out, lie down, or nap while enjoying your food.  Our to-go food was wonderful and the coffee much appreciated.  The containers were woven from palms, a common way to carry things in Siem Reap and more sustainable than plastic bags.  This was Ryan's favorite part of the trip, and one of my favorite shots of him from our vacation.

Normally, a birding tour to the ATT area ends with a trip to a local silk factory, where you can see the silk being woven.  We were looking forward to this cultural diversion, but because this was the last day of the Khmer New Year, the silk portion of the tour was not available to us.  However, we were happy to have only a half-day of birding, as it was a warm day for it.  Plus, our party had grown by two: two apprentice guides joined us after breakfast, and they rode in the back of the truck!  Perhaps another reason why most Cambodians don't survive the free training?

If you are ever in Cambodia and would like to see some of the countryside in a way that also gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling inside that the cost of your ticket is really more of a positive investment in sustainable tourism, I highly recommend getting in touch with the Sam Veasna Center.  In addition to the trips offered online, they will orchestrate custom trips for those of you who are really hard-core and want to do nothing more than see and photograph birds.  Their main office is in Siem Reap, and if you just want to play around, they also have morning bird trips in and around the city.

Here is my species list for the entire trip, 47 species in all:
Lesser Whistling-Duck
Cotton Pygmy-Goose
Little Grebe
Asian Openbill
Painted Stork
Little Cormorant
Oriental Darter
Yellow Bittern
Gray Heron
Purple Heron
Little Egret
Cattle Egret
Chinese Pond-Heron
Rufous-winged Buzzard
Eastern Marsh-Harrier
Black Kite
Watercock
Purple Swamphen
Eurasian Coot
Sarus Crane
Red-wattled Lapwing
Black-winged Stilt
Bronze-winged Jacana
Oriental Pratincole
Spotted Dove
Zebra Dove
Spotted Owlet
Black-capped Kingfisher
Pied Kingfisher
Green Bee-eater
Indian Roller
Coppersmith Barbet
Brown Shrike
Black Drongo
Pied Fantail
Rufous Treepie
Indochinese Bushlark
Barn Swallow
Light-vented Bulbul
Sooty-headed Bulbul
Oriental Reed-Warbler
Javan Myna
Common Myna
Black-collared Starling
Purple Sunbird
Asian Golden Weaver
Nutmeg Mannikin