Even More Laem Pak Bia

Black-tailed godwit, limosa limosa,Deserted Building, Laem Pak Bia,

 Petchaburi Province, 22.03.10

Indian Cormorant,  phalacrocorax niger,King's Project, Petchaburi Province, 22.03.10

After a weekend of no birding I headed back to Laem Pak Bia early this morning. There was plenty of bird activity at my first stop but all fairly familiar. I managed to lose my favourite pencil so that put a dampener on my morning. I headed into the King's Project and snapped this very obliging Indian Cormorant. Please don't tell me it is a Great, ok please do if it is! And please don't tell me if it is a Little!

This is the Little Cormorant from Khok Kam a few weeks ago which I originally published as an Indian with some pompous reference to "pepper" above the eye! The bill and neck are really quite different from photos of the Indian. 

I have to say I find all of this identification stuff absolutely intriguing and engrossing. 

I saw some nice birds today:  a couple of Nordmann's greenshanks, any number of marsh sandpipers, common greenshanks and spotted redshanks, curlew sandpiper, red-necked stint, a Brahminy kite, pacific golden and grey plovers, many brown-headed gulls, caspian terns, kentish plover, lesser sand-plover, little grebe, 14 painted stork, lots of eurasian curlew and black-tailed godwits and a couple of unidentifieds, notably two distant birds like curlews with decurved bills and attentuated bodies but unfortunately, only a silhouette and no other detail. No spoon-billed sandpiper and no flamingo.

A few days ago I posted a photograph of a paddyfield pipit with a leg deformity. I sent it onto Phil Round and he advises a lot of paddyfield pipits have it and it is called Knemidocoptic mange which is caused by mites.

More Laem Pak Bia!

A flock of black-tailed godwits, limosa limosa, Laem Pak Bia, 19.03.10

I was out in the salt pans once more at about 07:30h and I was barely out of my car than I have a flock of 11 Caspian terns and 50 brown-headed gulls in my sights. Suddenly birds started scurrying and I thought maybe a harrier or a kite but no, an osprey. A closer look around the immediate salt pans yields 1 Nordmann's Greenshank, unmistakable two-toned bill, washed out grey. In more distant saltpans, hundreds of great egrets are visible, dwarfing hundreds of little egrets. In nearer saltpans I count 250 eurasian curlews and 450 black tailed godwits; there is also a huge flock of black-naped terns further away which are uncountable from my viewpoint. And the regulars: black-winged stilts, spotted redshanks, little cormorants, kentish plover, red-necked stint, grey plover, common greenshank, curlew sandpiper..... As I progress in search of Spoon-billed Sandpiper I see a Dunlin, two sanderlings, many common tern, long-toed stint and the flamingo is there looking magnificent and it even does a little turn for me and shows me its beautiful wings. The large flocks are restless....... thanks be to God for school holidays! No Spoon-billed Sandpipers today but I feel as if I am getting hot!

pretty flamingo shows his wings, Laem Pak Bia, 19.03.10

from left to right

spotted redshank, tringa erythropus

curlew sandpiper, calidrid ferriginea 

long-toed stint, calidris subminuta

Laem Pak Bia, 19.03.10

curlew sandpiper,calidrid ferriginea, Laem Pak Bia, 19.03.10

spotted redshank, tringa erythropus,  Laem Pak Bia, 19.03.10

Caspian tern, sterna caspia, Laem Pak Bia, 19.03.10

Update and News

My friend Parn, www.discoverythai.com , tells me the possible greater spotted eagle at Huay Mai Teng reservoir was an oriental honey buzzard, a passage migrant. Many thanks, Parn, and I am glad I made you laugh! Mmmmmmmmmm! Maybe time to give up and get a new hobby! Far from it, I love this and I accept I am going to make a lot of mistakes. 

Oriental honey buzzard, pernis ptilorhyncus, Huay Mai Teng Reservoir, Ratchaburi. 16.03.10

Parn sends me hot news and a photograph of a Masked Finfoot, he saw at Khao Yai National Park at the Haew Sewat Waterfall near the crocodile area. A major rarity. Should I attempt a dawn start?!

Huay Mai Teng Reservoir, Ratchaburi Province

We took a drive out to this reservoir Tuesday afternoon in the heat and I wasn't expecting much. I don't know why as I have seen great birds here and I can't recall ever coming away feeling that this is not a very good place and that I would be better going to the more obvious local attractions.

I am pretty sure I saw a greater spotted eagle high in the sky with possibly a pied harrier nearby. It seemed as if they knew I was on their case as they soared higher before I had the camera on them. I managed one poor shot of the eagle. All I will say is I think it was a greater spotted but I am  not sure so I have sent the picture to a raptorologist friend.

On the ground there were a couple of yellow wagtails. These birds were unmistakably wagtails because they wagged their rears but they seemed very different from the specimen I saw at Khok Kam last week. I have had a look at the field book and there are two yellow wagtails listed, a Western and an Eastern Yellow wagtail and they are listed as separate species. Oh dear, more identification problems!

Paddyfield pipit, anthus rufulus, Huai May Teng Teservoir, Ratchaburi, 16.03.10

This little paddyfield pipit troubled me. Look at its legs. They appear to be deformed so I have sought an opinion from the professionals. It may be this bird is recently fledged and this is some sort of after birth thing which eventually disappears. I really don't know but whatever it is it did not appear to hamper the little bird's mobility and flightiness. Nearby there were a couple of gorgeous little-ringed plover, sporting a huge yellow eye ring wholly out of kilter with their otherwise dainty proportions.

The water level has dropped considerably at the reservoir and this means the road across can be used. It also means a strip of rich grass has been exposed and this will attract some interesting birds in the next few months. Last year I saw 4 river lapwings here and this was a great moment for me as I knew I was looking at something of a rarity. The first arrivals would appear to be oriental pratincoles which were a regular fixture here last year. According to the field book they are breeding visitors. I was wondering where they come from and the taxonomic name probably gives the answer: the Maldives. There were about 25 of them but they were difficult to count as they were flying in and then flying on.

oriental pratincole, glareola maldivarum, Huay Mai Teng Reservoir, 15.03.10

This wood sandpiper hung around for a while. This is a regular here. I didn't realise it has a connection with the pratincole: they both contain "glareola" in their taxonomic names. Identification is made easier by the supercilium, the eyebrow, which extends beyond the eye plus I have a couple of bad shots of the same bird in flight and they reveal full visibility of the legs and its white rear. This enables it to be distinguished from the very similar green sandpiper.

wood sandpiper, tringa glareola, Huay Mai Teng Reservoir, 15.03.10

With the reservoir level down I must remember to make a weekly run up here. I really hope the river lapwing return as well as a few other interesting species.

Today we went to Bang Pra non-hunting ground in Chonburi province east of Bangkok. We took some friends to the airport today so I thought I would check this out. We followed the directions in Nick Upton's www.thaibirding.com and reached the wildlife sanctuary where we were advised that there were no birds! When we asked if we could look, we were told no. Strange, I thought. For whatever reason I sensed the good lady wasn't going to let us enter for whatever reason. So we entered further up the road but I must confess I was in no mood for it. I think it looks as if it is an area of enormous potential and possibly to do it justice we would need an overnight stop. Anyhow I picked out this lesser coucal in the trees.There were plenty of other birds including lineated barbet, yellow-vented bulbul and lots of small, fast moving birds and many unidentifieds. I was just not in the mood!

lesser coucal, centropus bengalensis, Bang Pra, 15.03.10

I also like this dragon fly which I had never seen before and which stood still enough for me to get the camera on it.

My day wasn't helped by leaving my spectacles at home. I cannot read without them . Then I thought I had lost my favourite pencil, which I hadn't because it felt out of my trouser leg later in the evening! Plus My scope tripod has a problem; the screw that holds the scope in place has sheered off so I cannot steady the scope. A frustrating sort of day so we drove home. However I will do a bit more research and I will be back.

Huay Mai Teng Resrvoir, Ratchaburi Province

A nice shot of Huay Mai Teng Reservoir which we visited today. It's about 30 kms west of Ratchaburi town on the road to Suan Pueng. I bird here regularily ans have seen some nice birds here. The banner pic above of the three black kites was taken from almost the same spot. The water level is down considerably so the road across the reservoir on the far side is now usable. A report will follow but I need to get to bed as I am taking some friends to the airport in the morning.

Laem Pak Bia: Pretty in Pink

I didn't do any birding this weekend. Instead I took it easy as I have been feeling a bit under the weather. This morning was different. I was out in the Laem Pak Bia salt pans at 06:20h and took a new access route thanks to a tip from Phil Round. This didn't yield spoon-billed sandpiper, alas, but it yielded a tremendous bird count for the morning and more to the point was great fun.

Let me apologise to purists. However this flamingo is irresistible. It is a regular visitor to Laem Pak Bia and is a beauty. It is generally considered to be an escapee. Pretty in pink, enough said.

Pretty flamingo, Laem Pak Bia, 15.03.10

Now if you look at the top photograph to the right of the flamingo at about 1300h, is a bird which is much more important from an ornithological perspective; a great cormorant, phalcrocorax niger. Last year I went on a BCST boat trip, led by Phil Round into the Inner Gulf from nearby Bang Tabun and we saw a number of  great cormorants in the estuary with evidence to suggest they were breeding. Sadly I do not have the photographic evidence to show you what a beautiful looking bird this is in breeding plumage. Maybe a 500 mm or 600 mm lens would do this bird justice from a distance. Fortunately I have a decent telescope so I was able to get a good look at it. I reckon it is a juvenile.

Other highlights of the morning were 11 Nordmann's Greenshanks, washed out gray upperside and stout, two toned bill, and 14 Caspian terns mixed up in a flock of 45 brown-headed gulls. Add in huge flocks of black-tailed godwits, ( c 425 ), eurasian curlew and black-naped terns (c 275).

eurasian curlew,numenius arquata, Laem Pak Bia, 15.03.10

This Caspian tern was a simple point and shoot. When I took the photograph I didn't know what species of tern it was and I must say I was pleasantly surpised to see its big red bill when I downleaded these onto my notebook. Later in the day I saw 14 of these terns mixed up with a flock of brown-headed gulls. This may well be one of them.

Caspian tern, sterna caspia, Laem Pak Bia, 15.03.10

In the absence of soon-billed sandpipers there were plenty of small calidrids, plovers and other birds: curlew sandpiper, common sandpiper, greenshank, marsh sandpiper, kentish plover, malaysian plover, lesser sandplover, red-necked stint, long-toed stint, grey plover and pacific golden plover.

Long-toed stint, calidiris subminuta, Laem Pak Bia, 15.03.10

Many other commoners: Brahminy kite, collared kingfisher, black-capped kingfisher, pied fantial, and abundance of egrets, herons and cormorants. What a lovely way to spend a Monday morning! I reckon 30 species.

Some brown-headed gulls with some of the Caspian terns to the right.

Damned Shorebirds!

Tuesday, I ventured back to Laem Pak Bia, back to the deserted building and made it out reasonably early, getting to the site just before 07:30h. For starters I observed 10 painted stork messing around in a tree but just too far away to take a decent shot. There were plenty of birds, many black-tailed godwits, black-winged stilts, marsh sandpipers, little egrets, one pacific golden plover, two Nordmann's greenshank and a number of greenshanks. I managed one decent snap of this pacific golden plover, everything else was simply too far away or too small or a combination of both.

Pacific golden plover, pluvialis fulva, Laem Pak Bia, (DB), 09.03.10

There was a lot of birds: plovers, stints, small sandpipers and I have to confess to feeling useless as I really struggled to identify them. A number of factors: too far away, too much movement, change of plumage and so on. However there is no point beating myself up: shorebirds are really an art form in terms of identification and it comes down to patience and time. I am not the most patient person in the world! I am pretty happy with the progress made to date and no doubt this will continue.

I managed to get caught behind a truck on a single lane track in the salt pans. The truck was being filled  up with salt so I was held up for about 45 minutes. This process is manual and it was painful watching the graft, both men and women. Those people must be as tough and strong as anybody. I wonder what they make of us people of leisure driving around their work place looking at the birds. I won't share what I would be thinking if our roles were reversed!

Eventually I made it up to the main Laem Pak Bia site and once more I felt useless as the small birds all looked indistinguishable and there wasn't any sign of spoonbill sandpiper. Lots of red-necked stints, plovers and what looked like curlew sandpipers in transition to breeding plumage. On the mud flats as usual there were hundreds of curlew.

Wednesday we had some rain in the morning, a good down pour. We decided to head off to Khok Kam, salt pans situated at the top of the Inner Gulf of Thailand, immediately west of Bangkok. This is an important bird area, once more a major shore bird site, and the spoon-billed sandpiper has been recorded here every year. I had no expectation of seeing SBS but while out in the salt pans I took a call from Phil Round about some books he is going to lend me. When I told him where I was he advised me that two separate SBS had been recorded there last week; that they knew it was two different birds because one was ringed. Alas we didn't see any SBS but I managed some good photographs and this Indian Cormorant  Little Cormorant( see comment below, this is in fact a fine example of a little cormorant! GB16.03.10)  is the shot of the day. It is distinguished from Little Cormorant by the size (bigger) of its bill and the downward pointing tip. If you look carefully you will see this specimen has what Robson, Birds of Thailand, describes as "silvery peppering over eye" which indicates breeding plumage. ( This reads very well and it is indisputable except it is a little cormorant!!! and it still remains the shot of the day!)

Indian cormorant, phalacrocorax fuscicollis, Khok Kam, 10.03.10

Little cormorant, phalacrocorax niger, Khok Kam,10.03.10

Yellow wagtail, motacilla flava, Khok Kam, 10.03.10

This yellow wagtail was full of energy and, as you can see, was hardly camera shy! Elsewhere there was a flock of about 60 brown-headed gulls showing all their guises including the very striking brown head of their breeding plumage. In fact it was fascinating watching this flock form as each bird seemed to take its turn in descending and indeed appeared to quite literally fall out of the sky. 

Whiskered tern, chlidonias hybridus, Khok Kam, 10.03.10

(Photo: Luna Baradero)

I was really struggling to identify these terns, there were 20 of them. I thought maybe they were black-naped terns except there are no records of this species in this area! When I spoke with Phil Round he confirmed they would be whiskered terns! So I guess we could add pelagic birds to shorebirds: damned shorebirds and pelagic birds! 


Elsewhere I came across two articles online about how to count birds. Ebird: Bird Counting Part 1 and Ebird: Bird Counting Part 2. I really didn't have a clue what to do when confronted, as I often am, by very large flocks of single and mixed species  of birds.

Beyond....

Just to say we are booked to travel to the Philippines April 15th! This is first and foremost a family holiday and in particular an opportunity for my son, Benedict, to meet his grandparents and for my wife, Luna, to reconnect with her family. However we are going to spend a few days in Manila and I understand there is some good birding in and around the capital. We are booked to fly to Palawan and plan to spend a week there birding and relaxing and then on to Cebu, hopefully for a few days before heading to Bacolod City in Negros. Thanks to Phil Round I am in touch with the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines and Phil has also advised the birding is a lot more challenging than here. Can't wait.

Laem Pak Bia : Deserted Building

Once more plans for an early start did not materialise! Well, first weekend off of our holidays so no real surprises. We drove down to Hua Hin for lunch and on our way back stopped at The Deserted Building, one of the key birding sites in the Laem Pak Bia area. I took some decent shots but I was strangely restless and uninterested! I must confess to being physically exhausted. Add in the company of my wife and 8 month old son, to distract me. There were hundreds of birds, in particular the resident black-tailed godwits, many greenshanks, and I rather fancy I saw at least one great knot; but alas, no evidence and it didn't hang around for long. Perhaps this too added to my sense of frustration!  There were a few little herons about including this one and a good few common and spotted redshanks.

Little heron, butorides striata, Laem Pak Bia (DB), 07.03.10

Spotted redshank, tringa erythropus, Laem Pak Bia (DB), 07.03.10

I am looking forward to returning refreshed and restored, maybe early Tuesday morning.

Days Like These

One of the things that has changed since I started taking photographs is I have stopped listing the birds I  observe and have stopped recording details of unidentified birds. In a way I have started to rely on photographs for identifying birds I cannot identify. This is not wise as I don't always manage to capture a photograph of the bird.  No doubt the fact that I have largely been looking at raptors of late is also a reason. However I must resolve from here onwards to start recording more in my notebook.

Saturday afternoon after teaching I headed out once more  to Wat Norng Blah Lai in Petchaburi. However I had barely left home than I spotted a couple of black kites swooping down on wet rice paddy where hundreds of openbills and cattle egrets were attempting to feed and take it easy. This prompted further investigation as I had never seen black kites so close to home before. In the final analysis I counted 12 black kites, 8 of which were perched on nearby trees. Who needs to travel to see birds in Thailand?! This really is one of the truly great things about birding in Thailand...... you never seem to be very far away form good birds.

Further down the Petchkasem Highway I had to pull to the side as once more I saw a large bird in the sky hovering above Manao Corner, where the Petchkasem merges with the main morth-south highway in and out of Bangkok. Another black kite, to qualify this with "sadly", seems inappropriate. So onwards I went through  Khao Yoi to Wat Norng Blah Lai where it was very quiet on the eagle front. I spotted one greater spotted eagle with my scope but as I attempted to get near it took off. Then this eastern marsh-harrier, a male I believe, performed a little for me as it hunted over the rice paddy.

eastern marsh-harrier, male, circus spilonotus, Wat Norng Blah Lai, Petchaburi Province, 27.02.10

There were plenty of black kites, a black shouldered kite and a female pied harrier was doing her rounds in a distant part of the paddy. Many commoners: large-billed crows, openbills, cattle egret, little egrets, pied starlings, great egrets, red wattled lapwing, plain prinias etc. There was eagle activity but it was distant. Last weekend's window had been taken over by thousands of ducks, under human control, who were getting fattened up for slaughter on the remnants of the rice harvest. No doubt the eagles would relish a bit of duck hence the human presence to scare them away.

At the end of the day I saw an amazing sight. I was looking at a very fine black kite through the scope, it was sitting on the rice paddy and from nowhere a slithering long snake, possibly a king cobra, pounced but the kite got away just in the nick of time. I really can't be sure what species of snakeit was but it was long and slimmish. It slithered off quickly into the undergrowth when it had failed to land its prey. No love lost in nature.

Sunday afternoon I returned with Luna, my wife and Benedict, my son. She said she wanted some air and there was plenty of wind. It was also scorching hot. We fell on to this black kite almost immediately.

black kite , milvus migrans, Wat Norng Blah Lai, Petchaburi Province, 28.02.10

Next we met Mr Parn, a Thai raptorologist and very serious photographer. He told me the days count had been 6 greater spotted eagles and a couple of imperial and steppe eagles. He told me I needed to be out early and very kindly took me to a place and pointed out a dead tree and he told me an imperial eagle perches on it every day from about 7:00 am to 9:00 am. Parn reckons the eagles will be gone soon. I strongly urge you to head for Parn's web site www.discoverythai.com. Don't let the Thai language deter you. Use some common sense and click some links and you will see some truly excellent bird photography. We saw a pied harrier, male, and a black shouldered kite as well as many commoners. I really want to get the male pied harrier in my sights. I think it is an eerie looking creature!

Monday was a public holiday so no school but, alas, I felt so tired that I lay in bed and played with my wife and son. The unexpected arrival of two of Luna's friends late morning prompted me to head out and not feel guilty of being neglectful! I decided to head for the sandspit at Laem Pak Bia, a very important shorebird site which I hadn't yet visited. En route I drive through Khao Yoi and went via the ponds in the Wat Takrao area. I got very excited because I thought I sighted a darter in a pond. In fact the photograph confirmed it was clearly a purple heron so I was a little deflated. A darter would not have been unheard of in these parts but it would have been unusual.

My favourite ponds alas were no more; I am not sure if this was intentional drainage or  a result of natural evaporation due to heat. In the past I have seen a lot of good birds here including pheasant-tailed and bronze-winged jacanas, cotton pygmy geese, purple swamphen, and little grebe. Until water returns there won't be much for them here.

A barn swallow obliged in front of the camera.

barn swallow, hirundo rustica, Khao Yoi, Petchaburi Province, 01.03.10

Elsewhere in the ponds I counted 78 lesser whistling ducks. Closeby there were 3 juvenile pheasant-tailed jacanas. It was also noticeable that the pond herons were starting to develop their breeding plumage finally making it possible to distinguish Chinese and Indian. I also observed two Indian cormorants with their distinctively tipped bills. 

So onwards to the Laem Pak Bia sandspit. Unfortunately it was very windy so I was only able to stay on the lee side of the sandspit. The Gulf of Thailand was very choppy, rough in fact. There were not that many birds either but there was one Chinese egret. I have some photos but I don't think they do the bird any justice or would help anyone with identification as I was a fair way away. I got a good shot of this Malaysian plover, hardly a rarity but a good bird nonetheless. Notice the rings which I enquired about to Phil Round who advised the ringing had been done by the Department of National Park and by a scientist as part of a research project. Phil commented that the ringing is fairly pointless as these birds don't really go anywhere!

Malaysian plover, charadrius peronii, Laem Pak Bia sandspit, Petchaburi Province, 01.03.10


My list shows a common sandpiper, three Malaysian plovers, various terns including this shot of a lesser crested tern. I thought initially this was a greater crested tern due to its dark gray body but the bill, its orange/yellow hue is what makes me call this a lesser. I have looked at the Oriental Bird Image database and reckon this is correct. The greaters  have unmistakably yellow bills....... of course I could be wrong!

lesser crested tern, thalasseus bengalensis, Laem Pak Bia sandspit, Petchaburi Province, 01.03.10

Later I headed to the Deserted Building nearby and I make this a Nordmann's greenshank; there is a disctinct two tone to the bill and the lighter head markings together with the yellowish leg colour marry with Robson's description. Of course it could be something else so I'll put a question mark to indicate "putative" or in plain English, "not sure". Please feel free to advise!

Nordmann's greenshank (?), tringa guttifer, Laem Pak Bia, Petchaburi Province, 01.03.10
(see comment below, this is not a Nordmann's Greenshank but rather a Marsh Sandpiper)

black-tailed godwit, limosa limosa, Laem Pak Bia , Petchaburi Province, 01.03.10

Finally a black-tailed godwit. There are often 400 + plus black-tailed godwits loitering around the deserted building. 

More to come!