Odd duck

I spent Christmas Day, 2024, in Thung Nham Bird Park in northern Vietnam. This roughly translates as “bird valley”. Access to the lake and marshes of the park is via boat. These boats are powered by local Vietnamese women that row these boats with their feet. Amazing how they have mastered this. The lady that captained my boat was baffled at my camera set up. She spoke no English and I certainly spoke no Vietnamese so she was not sure at first what I wanted her do do with boat to maneuver it for the best photo angles and locations. After a while and many gestures she got the hang of it so provided me with countless opportunities to photograph many types of birds that live and nest there. This first set of shots is of an Asian Openbill. This is a “stork-like” bird, but its bill does not “stab” its prey. Rather, it strains the water through the opening in its bill. Very odd looking bird, I found them difficult to photograph throughout Vietnam but not here-we were able to approach them point blank.