Out with the Old.....

So to the Abandonned Building, Laem Pak Bia,  this morning and apart from a huge number of Black-tailed Godwits, maybe in excess of 2,000 birds, I managed to find a Spoon-billed Sandpiper in among the Red-necked Stints. I feel very pleased about this as it is the first time I have found this fellow unaided. He was as effervescent as ever. Alas no photos as the birds were on the move and not making it easy.

I headed back to the Abandonned Building, where I had parked the truck,  and watched the Peregrine Falcon above fly in and land on its top and in fact he posed a little for me. A Thai lifer for me though I have seen it in the Philippines. I retreated to the rubbish dump in search of the Brahminy Starling. I thought I was looking at a set from Doctor Who as there were 4 greeen tents with lenses sticking out bang in the middle of a rubbish dump ....... they looked like tanks! It took me a few moments to realise the big lens photographers were on the scene and our dear Brahminy Starling was right under their noses jostling the mynas and other birds in pursuit of the food left out. I had good views for about 10 minutes but alas no photograph as it then flew off and did not return. What a beautiful bird and a lifer.

So I headed off to the Kings Project in pursuit of Long-billed Dowitcher with a spring in my step. There I met some very obliging Pintail Snipe, once more lifers and none too shy of the camera. I originally thought I had spotted a Temminck's Stint but my advisor(!), Tom Bucklund, tells me it is definitely a Long-toed Stint - pictured below

Long-toed Stint

Kings Project

Laem Pak Bia

31.12.10

Nearby a Black-capped Kingfisher offered a few shots. This is one of my favourite birds and species. I could look at this fellow and his ilk all day.

I passed by on the eagles and Cinerous Vulture and headed home. They can wait for another day or year! In the late afternoon I went out into the local rice paddy where I was greeted by a Common Kestrel perched on a pillar in the distance. Not the best picture I ever took but a good record shot and a  new tick for the patch.

Common Kestrel

Ratchaburi

31.12.10

I headed over to the other side of the paddy and had a look at the recently reported Western Marsh Harriers ..... again my advisor tells me these aren't Western but are Eastern Marsh Harriers, specifically a male juvenile. Now that I have looked at the books I have absolutely no problem with this - I got it completely wrong and if I had done my research I would have realised that a Western is something of a rarity, something to crow about....a pun!  News Year Resolution: take time in making IDs and consider the literature and ID guides.

Eastern Marsh Harrier

Ratchaburi

31.12.10

My Dear Readers & Viewers that is it for 2010. Let me wish you a Very Happy New Year and express the hope that you have a great year's birding in 2011. My  birding year in 2010 felt like a privilege, like I was spoiled, spoiled rotten. I have seen some truly memorable birds, been to some great places and met some excellent people. I hope to see you out there in 2011 and when I get a moment I will review the year and give you the numbers. Once more best wishes and a Happy New Year.

A Couple of Days Off!

Rufous-winged Buzzard

Mae Wong Area

29.12.10

As I was travelling with my wife and son I thought I had better cater to their needs as non-birders and so we headed from Nakhon Sawan in the direction of Mae Wong National Park to the north. The objectives being beautiful scenery and a rest. We bade fond farewells to Brian and set off. I have to say notwithstanding signage I found it difficult to locate the park. En route we saw a Crested Serpent-Eagle plus an unidentified raptor ; big, very white underneath........ possibly a juvenile of same species.

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater

Mae Wong Area

29.12.10

We finally found the park and drove in and actually took a leisurely drive to the road end at Chong Len. I was generally impresed by the wuality of the road and facilities in the park. A Grey Wagtail and some warblers, probably To-barred but they were moving fast and I was having a day off!

We found a nice resort close to the hotel and settled in for a restful night. In the morning we just sat around and I got drawntot the birds in the trees. First up I noticed a couple of Asian Brown Flycatchers, and in the trees there were warblers and bulbuls, notably Black-headed. A Chestnut-headed Bee-eater posed high up for me. 

 In the afternoon we headed to the local village for some lunch and supplies and we spotted this Rufous-winged Buzzard in the trees. For once I had no bins or camera in the car so had a look and headed for lunch. An hour later on our return it was still there so I legged it back and got my kit and managed these shots. In the absence of internet access let me thank Tom Backlund for assistance with the ID; Tom suggested Rufous-winged Buzzard and I would agree with this on the basis of the photos I looked at subsequently on the Oriental Bird Club Database.

I then sat out in the grounds for a few hours and as day drew to a close I was disturbed by the loud screech of some birds and had a look at a nearby statue and there on it the offering table was a red-billed Blue Magpie and a Green-billed Malkoha. I didn't get the Magpie immediately and I didn't manage a photograph but it returned about 30 minutes after initial sighting and gave me a little display which enable me to ID it. What a beautiful bird with its long tail and beautiful colours. The malkoha hung around in the upper story of the trees and gave me a few decent shots.

Finally I snapped this little fellow thinking it was an Olive-backed Sunbird. In any event I was happy to get the scope on it. When I reviewed the photograph  I was distracted by what appears to be a supercilium. So this got me checking the literature and from this it is quite clearly a Purple Sunbird, a female to be precise. The key diagnostic and distinguishing feature is the small amount of white on the tail whereas the Olive-backed has lots. So three lifers on my days off .......the Buzzard, the Magpie and the Sunbird!

I am already excited about the prospect of returning to do some serious birding here. I really like the feel of this place! It is a known site for the Rufous-necked Hornbill and the Crested Kingfisher and a lot of other cracking birds too.

Bueng Boraphet Part 2

About 3:30 pm Brian and I took to the water once more this time joined by my wife and son and we headed over to the Siberian Rubythroat site where we picked up Bill who had gone back to get more shots of this beauty. It was time to fill our boots with pictures of more common birds: Blue-tailed Bee-eater, Black-Shouldered Kite, Long-tailed Shrike, Brown Shrike, Barn Swallow, Little Cormorants, Openbill,Purple Swamphen, Little Egret, Intermediate Egret, Common Coot, Grey Heron, Black Drongo, Yellow Bittern, Cinnamon Bittern, Black Bittern, Pheasant-tailed Jacana, Striated Grassbird, a solitary Common Moorhen seemed out of place and a few unidentified LBJ......little brown jobs.

Blue-tailed Bee-eater

Purple Heron

Pheasant-tailed Jacana

Purple Swamphen

The pièce de resistance came at the end of the day when Mr Phanom took us to a roosting site overflowing with openbill, cormorants, egrets and upon close examination there were about 20 + Black Headed Ibises and  3 or 4 Darters. I wouldn't like to estimate how many birds were here - 10,000 +? I don't know but it was a truly amazing spectacle and what a racket! Bill allowed me to plug my EOS body into his 500 mm telephoto lens.

Openbill

The Mayhem!

A Bees' Nest

Mr Phanom

We made it back to terra firma in the pitch dark about 19:30h with my little boy sound asleep in his mother's arms. What an unforgettable day! I would recommend any birder visiting Thailand to include Bueng Boraphet on their itinerary, it really is an overwhelming in-your-face experience. 

Bueng Boraphet Part 1

Siberian Rubythroat - Canon EOS

Bueng Boraphet

27.12.10

About 20 minutes into our day out on Bueng Boraphet Monday, 27th December 2010, Mr Phanom's boat chugging along through the reeds as we made our way out into the lake proper, I told my companion Brian that at times I find birds quite overwhelming and that this was one of those moments. The words of the great English poet and Jesuit priest, Gerard Manley Hopkins, sprung to my mind: "The world is charged with the grandeur of God, It will flame out like shining from shook foil; It gathers to a greatness...." .

Lesser Whistling Duck - Canon EOS

Bueng Boraphet 27.12.10

There were thousands of birds, mainly ducks, flaming out everywhere in chaotic flocks, big, small and inbetween as far as the eye could see. Brian said the only beings that could not be happy with the spectacle as the morning sun slowly rose were the fish! At 0630h it was decidedly cool and breezy out on the lake.

Common Coot

Bueng Boraphet

27.12.10

As I write about this wonderful day's birding I recall that I got news as we drove north to Nakhon Sawan province of a Cinerous Vulture dropping out of the sky in Phetchaburi Province. For a moment I wondered if I was going in the right direction. Cinerous Vulture or no I am very glad I pressed on to Bueng Boraphet!

Little Egret

Bueng Boraphet

27.12.10

In the first hour of light what impressed me most was the myriad flocks of ducks cascading in all directions:mainly Lesser Whistling Duck, distinguished by their brown bodies and contrasting dark wings, but also some flocks of Garganey, with quite visible white underparts. If the Lesser Whistling Ducks were in tens of  thousands then the Garganeys were in thousands. I was also impressed by the large numbers of Common Coots sitting on the water in their hundreds and much more prominent to my mind than the Purple Swamphen.

Sunrise, Bueng Boraphet, Nakhon Sawan

27.12.10

© Brian Casatelli

As daylight came there were additionally huge numbers of Little Grebes and Cotton Pygmy Geese to be seen. Both species are pretty common in my locale but it was the sheer numbers of them on Bueng Boraphet that impressed, in their thousands.

Little Grebes

Cotton Pygmy Geese

© Brian Casatelli

Spot-billed Pelican (EOS Kiss)

The first significant sightings of the day were a distant but distinct 4 Spot-billed Pelicans, unexpected. Soon after we started to see a few ducks in among the more common birds notably 3 Northern Shovellers and 2 Tufted Ducks  .......  a

nd a Ruddy Shellduck flew in briefly. Seemed strange to see just one of these as I have been seeing them in fours and eights recently. 

Barn Swallow

© Brian Casatelli

Alas no photographs of the ducks. They were a little distance away and hard enough to view, let alone photograph, from a boat. You will see that many of today's shots are taken with the Canon as digiscoping was simply too hard on account of the boat's movement even with the engine off.

Intermediate Egret (EOS Kiss)

Bueng Boraphet, 27.12.10.

Mr Phanom steered us to land where he took us to Siberian Rubythroat, absolutely beautiful birds with their deep red throat. En route an unexpected Peregrine Falcon crossed our bows and Brian managed to snap it up. He simply walks up to the scrub bushes, opens them up and points to the bird - as easy as that. In the same area we saw some Nightjars which we were told were a Savannah and a Large-Tailed but I am not making claims for either as I wouldn't stand a hope in hell of calling either in the future. In the same area we saw a Crow-billed Drongo, a Long-tailed Shrike, flocks of Baya Weavers and Scaly-breasted Munias and a good number of House Sparrows, the latter a lifer for me!

Peregrine Falcon

© Brian Casatelli

At this point we were joined by Bill Clarke from Dublin, Ireland and Khun Nang his guide. Unfortunately Bill's boat broke down so he joined us and I am working on him to give us some photographs of the ducks! At about 11:00 am we headed back to land for lunch and a nap. Not a bad morning!

I am far away from Cyberspace

Dear Readers I am blissfully far away from technology so no updates but having an ornitholigical blast. News reaches me of a new Thai record of 5 Spot-Winged Starlings being observed at Kaeng Krachan, a   Cinerous Vulture on the ground in Petchaburi province eating carrion and please help me ID this bird in the photograph aboven this afternoon by the roadside near Mae Wong, north west Thailand. More comprehensive service will resume as soon as I reconnect with the modern world! In my absence, unlikely, a Very Happy New Year to you all.

Huay Mai Teng Reservoir

Little Ringed Plover

Charadrius dubius jerdoni

Huay Mai Teng Reservoir, Ratchaburi Province

25.12.10

A quick spin up to the reservoir after Christmas dinner gave me an unexpected bonus: 30 or so Small Pratincoles sitting down near the water's edge. Unfortunately there was a lot of human activity in the surrounding area and the birds were airborne before I could finish counting them. Beautiful, small, greyish birds with a distinguishing white wing window. I opted to look and  count as opposed to photograph so sadly no visual record. However there was a flock of these birds here last winter and I expect they will be around for a while and offer other opportunities. Elsewhere a few Little Ringed Plovers happy to pose for the camera. Thereafter the usual suspects with possibly a flash of a rain quail.

Merry Christmas!

A Merry Christmas to you whoever and wherever you may be! We are at home in Ratchaburi and have been doing Christmas things these last forty-eight hours and will continue in this spirit for at least the next day or so. It'll be just another day in the heat here in Thailand and there will be little to distinguish it from any other Saturday in the year. The Post Office will be open and retail will rule as per usual. I might manage a little local birding in the next thirty-six hours but we are headed to Bueng Boraphet  Sunday morning. So once more best wishes and I hope Christmas brings you and yours much happiness and contentment.

Midweek Notes

Oriental Reed Warbler

Ratchaburi

18.12.10

As always it is an interesting time in the kingdom of birds. Towards the end of last week this Oriental Reed Warbler obliged for me and I managed to get the EOS Canon Kiss X3 onto it and take a  few decent pictures. I love this bird's wing structure especially the layering at the tip. I am sure it has a name. It's a joy to watch this bird slide down the reeds. There are quite a lot of interesting birds around in the reeds: notably yellow-bellied prinia -  I am working on the photograph! Lots of partials and unknowns! I think I am definitely getting a bit sharper in the field and seeing more!

Out in the paddy tonight it was raptor heaven. Pieds joined by Eastern (corrected 01.01.11) Marsh Harriers. They were a distance away plus it was late so I had to settle for observation only. They are harvesting the paddy at the moment so I think this is likely to mean more birds as presumably this means the prey will have fewer places to hide. I'll hopefully get some shots of these Marsh Harriers later in the week. However it is a new species for this local patch.

A Gentle Sunday Afternoon

Ruddy Shellducks

Wat Khao Takhroa

19.12.10

I took a gentle drive down to Laem Pak Bia this afternoon aiming to be at The King's Project for about 5:00 pm with possibilities of sighting some rare starlings pre-roost...... I include the Common Starling which is a major rarity on these shores.

The drive almost felt nostalgic as I drove down through Khao Yoi which is were I did most of my early birdwatching just under two years ago. I drove past the reed pond which yielded some memorable birds for me: yellow bittern, bronze-winged and pheasant-tailed jacana, purple swamphen, cotton pygmy-goose to name a few. For a raw novice these were great birds as they have striking features, are beautiful to look at and with the exception of the bittern, are unchallenging in terms of identification. Alas  the pond is no longer: it is being dried out and it has no visible bird life as the plants and shrubs rot away. I also remember turning a corner in this area and seeing a raptor perched on a concrete pylon. Today I know this bird was a Black-shouldered Kite but at the time I didn't and I was abuzz at the time thinking I had seen an eagle or some such like! I remembered seeing yellow legs and thinking for some reason it might have been a Booted Eagle!

As I drove along past the railway line I stopped and looked at a pair of Ospreys, birds which would draw in the crowds in the UK, but very much taken for granted here as common. I saw four today in my travels. There were 4 Ruddy Shellducks on the big pond in the Wat Khao Takhrao area, but no signs of other ducks.  I managed to catch two of the RDSs, pictured above, as they took to the air.

Throughout the afternoon I was in contact with Phil Round by telephone as he was birding in the area and he reported sightings of two Spoon-billed Sandpipers at Pak Thale and a further two at the Abandoned Building; of equal importance he told me he had seen a Brahminy Starling in this area and he was looking for Common Starling. So I headed on through Pak Thale and made it to the Abandonned Building in Laem Pak Bia just after 4:00 pm.

From reading trip reports on www.birdforum.net I often laugh as birders talk about touring rubbish dumps throughout the world in search of birds. It makes perfect sense really as rubbish dumps must be perfect locations for opportunists like birds. So at the Abandoned Building I stopped at the nearby rubbish dump and after about 10 minutes I managed one Common Starling and even managed a bad photograph of it. The Common Starling was on the move constantly so my choice was either to look at it with my bins or to try to photograph it. I opted to look at the bird. I think I saw the Brahminy, fleetingly, as it was quite different from the birds around it, mainly White-vented Mynas, but I can't claim it. However Java Sparrow sprang to my mind which I hope was just the effect of the light in extentuating the Brahminy's black cap! I will be back, as The Terminator would say,and hopefully will see the Brahminy as I believe it has been about for a while.

Next over to the King's Project where I met up with Phil Round and the starlings finally came in, a large number of White-shouldered Starlings and three Chestnut-tailed Starlings in the gloom. Phil was very happy as the Common Starling was a Thailand Lifer for him and he doesn't get many of these any longer.

Pied Harrier Special!

Well  I can use the digiscope rig to photograph raptors in flight! What a lot of fun I had this afternoon with this Pied Harrier in the local rice paddy - the juvenile and female were by no means as obliging.