Indochinese Buhlark & Small Pratincoles

Indochinese Bushlark (EOS)
Huay Mai Teng Reservoir
26.02.11

I had a really pleasant afternoon at Huay Mai Teng Reservoir today. I thought the highlight was seeing a small flock of Small Pratincoles but there is a possibility that I saw and photographed an Indochinese Bushlark, which would be a lifer. I have posted the photo on BirdForum confirmation. (Update: my friend Tom confirmed this as an Indochinese....phew(!) and this has been reconfirmed by Viator: check out his fantastic galleries).

Of course I need to come clean and declare that I dismissed this bird as a Paddyfield Pipit at the time I took the photograph. Clearly the bill is wrong for a Pipit. The bird is about the same size as the Pipit and I had photographed one of these about five minutes earlier (see below) and I  assumed this was the same species. So we will see what the experts say.

Small Pratincole (EOS)

Huay Mai Teng Reservoir

26.02.11

I am very happy with the Small Pratincoles, exotic looking little birds. I would say at least 25 birds in the flock but they were hard to count as most were perfectly disguised against a rocky background.......and I didn't want to disturb them. In the same area there was a yellow bittern and a little ringed plover.

Small Pratincoles (EOS)

Huay Mai Teng Reservoir

26.02.11

Earlier a pair of Bronze-winged Jacanas  posed a little for me. I used the truck for cover and was able to get good views of the birds as they fed .

Bronze-winged Jacana (EOS)

Huay Mai Teng Reservoir

26.02.11

I saw two Common Kestrels in different parts of the site and an Opsrey flew over. I think there might have been a Darter as well as something that suggested cormorant flew over but the shape was different with a suggestion of a fan tail. I'll just need to be vigilant next time. Plus all the other usual species. All in all a great afternoon.

Paddyfield Pipit (EOS)

Huay Mai Teng Reservoir

26.02.11

Eastern Stonechat - Female (EOS)

Huay Mai Teng Reservoir

26.02.11

One against Two Thousand

Nothing quite like the arrival of a Pied Harrier to strike terror into the soul! I was looking at a Pied Kingfisher close to home Thursday late afternoon when I noticed a very large flock of Openbills standing in the nearby rice paddy: an interesting contrast with the green of the emergent rice plants. I thought they'd make a good photograph because they were densely packed so I reversed out and headed to the other side of the track. No sooner had I arrived than a Pied Harrier flew in and created mayhem as the Openbills took to the air and scattered. One Pied Harrier against perhaps 2,000 Openbills! Now that's power! I managed a couple of flight shots.

There are quite literally thousands of cattle egrets in the rice paddy at present and this one above shows it in transition to breeding plumage. 

Friday after work back to the rice paddy for more therapy. A Peregrine Falcon was on the premises and I think this may well be a first for the patch;will need to check.  In addition our old friends the Pied Harrier and Black-shouldered Kite were about. A strange piece of clod had me for a moment ....a nightjar, a frogmouth, something unusual.....ah a piece of earth on the road!!!

Little Egret

It's been a fairly quiet time this week on the bird front. The good news is my scope has been repaired and I am headed to Tokyo to collect it on 7th March. I have to say Kowa have been excellent. I am only going to  manage a few days in and around Tokyo so I don't expect to be filing reports of Japan's more exotic species. However as with most big cities there is excellent birding in and around Tokyo

Wood sandpiper

I can add two further species to the soi list: I had nine ashy-breasted woodswallows huddled together on a telephone wire and a bit further away I could see openbills flying in the rice paddy in the distance. There is plenty of activity on the rice paddy and as you can see from the above egret some birds are starting to sport their breeding plumage.....note the nape plumes. The flooded conditions in the paddy also mean there are better feeding opportunities and that means more species are about including noticeable numbers of Wood Sandpiper, Greenshanks and Redshanks. The Pied Harrier is still about though I reckon his departure to the north is imminent.

I must say I can't wait to get my scope back and to try my new Nikon P6000 and to see if that brings about the hoped for improvement in my digiscoping.

Where were the Openbills?

Openbills

20.02.11 

Ratchaburi

Openbills usually abound in and around my locale but until I saw a few perched on a tree this afternoon  I can't tell you when I last saw any. And then we saw some!  Luna, my wife, pointed out two huge kettles of them perhaps as many as 3,000 birds reasonably high in the sky. I didn't notice where they had parked but I presume they are back. What I want to know is where were they?

Black-shouldered Kite

Ratchaburi

20.02.11

I find it very therapeutic to take a few hours in the rice paddy. Our boy can push his buggy about with impunity and tire himself out! The paddy is large, flat and open and there is always a pleasant breeze taking the edge of the heat. One side is bordered by the railway line and so the landscape is periodically broken up by rollingstock and its distinctive noise.

On arrival this afternoon there were five Black Kites cavorting in the sky and two turned their attention to the thousands of cattle egrets reaping the prey from flooded rice paddies. Mayhem! The kites are really big, ugly birds!

The Black-shouldered Kite above is a much more sophisticated and co-ordinated creature and this one offered me a few shots as it hovered over a potential evening meal.

Plenty of Plain Prinias, some Yellow-bellied Prinias, a few Ziting Cisticolas, about 6 Redshanks, one distant Purple Heron, one Red-wattled Lapwing, one White-throated Kingfisher and thousands of Openbills!

Milky Stork at Pak Thale

I had an afternoon out and headed to the Wat Khao Takhrao area where there must have been at least 2,000 Lesser Whistling Ducks idling in the sun. There may have been other species but impossible to say due to a combination of distance and not having a telescope. Lots of Little Grebes and plenty of Wood Sandpiper, an Osprey out in the middle and a pleasant if rather hot walk. As I was in the area I took a spin down to Pak Thale not really expecting to see anything as it was gone 4:00 pm and I knew the tides would be against birdwatching. At the Spoonbill Sandpiper site a couple of very excited Thai photographers asked if I had seen the Milky Stork and showed me their photographs and directed me to Km 36 on the main road. There I bumped into Ralph Parks, from Khon Kaen via Dorset, England and he and his party had the bird in their sights and they were kind enough to let me view it through their scopes. It was at a considerable distance from us perched on a  concrete pillar with a small group of Painted Stork similarily perched. The Milky Stork had the all-white black fringed primaries diagnostic and while it resembled  Painted Stork  it was clearly different. I don't know about ticking this one, seemed too far away and I don't really feel as if I had any real engagement with it. I'll make the tick but I will feel a lot happier if I can see it again and get a better view of it. And what a time to be without a telelscope!!!

Some Shorebirds, Gulls and Terns

Great Crested Tern

Bang Kao 18.02.11

When I first visited Bang Kao in pursuit of Ruddy Shelduck I knew I would be back regularily. It is a perfect location to go with a small baby boy plus his mother likes it too. I wouldn't describe my wife as a non-birder because she loves looking at different species and has an outstanding eye: she has spotted many birds for me. However the beach and the pleasant seascape are added attractions to the birds.

Friday was a public holiday, Makabucha Day (วันมาฆาบูชา), and we went for a family day out starting in Hua Hin where I met up with a few friends for some lunch. Makabucha Day marks the beginning of Buddhist Lent and commemorates the occasion soon after The Buddha's enlightenment when 1250 followers assembled spontaneously to hear his words of wisdom.

The pond where I twitched Ruddy Shelduck is no more and  is now a grazing area for cattle. However the beach has resident Malaysian Plovers and Sanderlings and they did not disappoint; more to the point about 250 Brown-headed gulls were parked on it. A closer look revealed 6 Great Crested Tern were in this group and I even managed a picture.

Malaysian Plover

Bang Kao 18.02.11

Sanderling

Bang Kao 18.02.11

Brown-headed Gulls with a Great Crested Tern just above the horizon

Bang Kao 18.02.11

Intermediate Egret

Bang Kao 18.02.11

Sanderling

Bang Kao 18.02.11

Brown-headed Gull - First Year

Bang Kao 18.02.11

Brown-headed Gull - First Year

Bang Kao 18.02.11

Circus Melanoleucos

Pied Harrier

Circus Melanoleucos

เหยี่ยวด่างดำขาว

Ratchaburi 16.02.11

Unfortunately when I got to the rice paddy tonight I had the wrong lens on my camera, it was set at ISO 3200 and +2 EV,and I had a very restless 19 month old boy in the passenger seat and he was throwing things out of the window like a screwdriver, a digiscoping adaptor........ and this beauty was sitting about 70 yards away.........and just for good measure the display on my camera froze and I was unable to change settings! Anyhow I managed a few decentish shots. I should have filled my boots with great shots because this fellow was very obliging. Who knows what I might have done had I got the digiscope onto him. Mustn't grumble, Pied Harrier is a special bird, nice to have him so close to home and not at all camera shy!

Round and About Ratchaburi

Sooty-headed Bulbul

Soi 14.02.11

An interesting few days in and around Ratchaburi. Sunday I revisited another local site that I haven't been to in some time,  Khao Prathapchang Non-Hunting Area ( เขตห้ามล่าสัตว์) situated about 20 kms west on the road to Chombeung. I am not sure exactly what the status "non-hunting area" actually signifies in Thai law or for that matter how such an area is distinguished from a National Park. For instance Bueng Boraphet in Nakhon Sawan, one of the most important water bird sites in Thailand is a non-hunting area. I will do some research and if possible get back on this and would welcome any comment from readers in the know.

Khao Prathapchang was actually very windy on top and pretty tame birding wise: some Common Ioras, Black-crested Bulbuls, Olive-backed Sunbirds, Greater Racket-Tailed Drongos, White-Rumped Shamas and one unidentfied bird I took as a thrush species. However I enjoyed the climb up the hill and the hike to the top, a first I hasten to add,which gave some nice views back over the cultivated land of Ratchaburi province. I am not sure I will be back in a huge hurry but good to get more familiar with the location. At ground level I went along to the big sala which actually had some water near it. I presume at some point there must have been quite a lot of water there and that the level has subsided. I saw this from the top of the hill so reckoned it would be worth checking out: lots of monkeys and Red-wattled Lapwing, Little Grebe, a Common Moorhen and a solitary White-throated Kingfisher.

The soi list has a few more species to be added to it: yesterday I saw a Black-shouldered Kite, a Drongo, an Asian Koel and an Oriental Magpie Robin in additon to the usual suspects; as I write this (c 20:15h)  I can hear the neurotic screeching outside of  Red-wattled Lapwing......however I can't see it! The Sooty-headed Bulbul above has  very nice yellow undertail coverts. This particular species was one that really struck me on my arrival here in Ratchaburi a couple years ago.

Asian Palm Swift

Ratchaburi 15.02.11

Tonight my wife andI went down to the Meklong River and I tried to photograph the swallows. All I can say with certainty is there were some Barn Swallows but there were definitely other species but I wouldn't like to try naming them. Edit: the above I reckon is an Asian Palm Swift with its tail closed! Shot at ISO 3200 in the fading light. Maybe that can be a useful project while I am minus my scope: learn my swallows and swifts......as well as my drongos , my gulls, my pipits, and so on!

Chaloem Phrakiat Thai Phrachan National Park

It's only on checking my blog archive that I realise I haven't been to Chaloem Phrakiat Thai Phrachan National Park since May last year. Then the reservoir was virtually empty and I was troubled by this. I am glad to say it was looking much healthier today though by no means bursting. On the basis of today I can promise you I'll be back much sooner next time.

The Park is about an hour's drive from home heading south for a little and then west towards the Myanmar border. It runs parallel to Kaeng Krachan though is to the north. From what I can gather from the Department of National Park's website the park was once an enclave of communist insurgents and has only been a designated and protected National Park since about 2003. Here is the good bit:  it gets very few visitors.

Of course the mandatory stupidity: I forgot to bring a card for my camera so no pictures! This is particularly galling as a Kalij Pheasant (Lophura leucomelana),  walked out in front of me  and showed  briefly but long enough to have allowed a couple of decent shots. In fact it was so quiet in the bamboo forest that I picked up the pheasant's rustle in the undergrowth before he appeared,  grey blue, a red "comb" and a silvery grey train. This bird's unexpected presence will ensure my return.

Lots of noise and lots of unidentifieds. Two eagles, possibly Greater Spotted, but too high to identify and a lighter coloured smaller raptor. A small, fast, black and dark blue bird simply refused to let me get it in the bins and I reckon I saw this species three or four times in the course of my visit. Definites included a Red-throated Flycatcher, a female, Black-crested Bulbul, Green-billed Malkoha, Greater-Necklaced Laughingthrush, Greater Racket-tailed Drongo, Common Kingfisher, Grey Wagtail and the more common species.

Now there was one good thing about leaving my SD cards at home. It meant I had to write  field descriptions. Now I reckon I wouldn't have got a correct ID on the Red-thoated Flycatcher had I not done this. My notes read:"Like ABF ( Asian Brown Flycatcher) but white tail edges, black tail". That clinched the ID when I got home and looked at the field guides. I believe it is a lifer too along with the Grey Wagtail and the pheasant. I am pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to ID the wagtail either without a field description. I think I need to remember to do this all of the time!

There is one bird that I really wished I had the scope for. It must remain an unidentified but I think it was a woodpecker. Too far away for the binoculars, a small bird with a black mask and at least three white lines on its wing.

Without a doubt this was my most productive visit to this park and as I said above I will head back some time soon. As well as the birds I enjoyed the little bit of a hike I had in the jungle today.

Spoon-billed Sandpipers

This little wader has cult status among birders. Recent reports in Thailand indicate up to 7 can be seen in the Laem Pak Bia & Pak Thale areas of Phetchaburi province. Up to three more have been seen at Khok Kham near Samut Sakhorn, just to the west of Bangkok. This link to Spoon-billed Sandpipers recently photographed in China was posted on Bird Forum and  commentators are  rightly describing these with high end superlatives: stunning, awesome, breathtaking......... judge for yourself!

The Soi List

Olive-backed Sunbird

Soi 11.02.11

ซอย pronounced Soi means street in Thai. It doesn't mean the main drag rather a smaller road, think of Sukhumwit in Bangkok and the hundreds of sois that run off it. We live in a soi and our soi like most sois has soi dogs! We have a lot of stray dogs all over Thailand.  Our soi also has a lot of birds and I think the time has come to start a soi list. I say this because I was amazed by the number of species I saw in the course of an hour while pushing my baby boy about in his pram after work in the late afternoon.

Yellow-vented Bulbul

Soi 11.02.11

Our house is situated in a small estate facing  a golf driving range. There are a couple of little side streets running off the main soi and they abut onto rice paddy but the village does not have a through road so apart from when the soi dogs kick off it is fairly peaceful here. While the area is residential it is not too built up and beyond the golf range it is very much cultivated rice paddy with pockets of trees and scrub and various natural and man made irrigation channels. The driving range is busy late afternoon and early evening so not many birds then but in the mornings there can be several hundred cattle egrets feeding on the grass.

 Green Bee-eater

Soi 11.02.11

The criterion for getting onto the soi list will be that the bird can be seen from the soi. Number one on this new list will be Pied Harrier, a male, which I watched flying over the little bit of rice paddy nearby before flying off in the direction of the main rice paddy area. Next Scaly Breasted Munia, Little Egret, Common Myna, Pied Fantail, Brown Shrike, Red-collared Dove, Spotted Dove, Peaceful Dove, Streak-eared Bulbul, White-vented Myna, House Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Plain-Backed Sparrow, Yellow-Vented Bulbul, Sooty-headed Bulbul, Asian Pied Starling, Asian Koel (heard), Green Bee-eater, Olive-backed Sunbird and Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker. Excluding the Koel that gives the soi list a kick start of 20 species! I'll not add sightings prior to today and I will try to get photographs of as many of these birds as possible.

Close to Home

Coppersmith Barbet

Don Tako, Ratchaburi

09.02.11

I did my bit for the kingdom of birds yesterday at school. A colleague told me a small bird was in one of the lower grade classrooms and that the kids were chasing it around and making it feel scared and nervous. So we went to have a look and found a little sparrow  on a ledge in a corner, clearly petrified. I took off my shirt and used it as a net to catch the bird and then managed to pick it up and release it. Most of the kids know of my interest in birds but I don't think they understood it extended to taking off my shirt!

Pied Kingfisher

Don Tako, Ratchaburi

09.02.11

Yesterday afternoon the pied kingfishers were back but a group of small boys were intent on splashing about in the stream so that scared the birds away. I managed a couple of shots. Looks as if the kingfishers are nesting  nearby so maybe a bit of stealth and fieldcraft might enable me to get into position for some decent shots........when my scope comes back. I am amazed that we have 4 species of kingfisher on our doorstep: common, collared, black-capped and now pied. 

With the boys creating mayhem in the river I headed towards the main rice paddy. Flocks of black drongos, plain-backed sparrows and a coppersmith barbet "hooting" in a nearby tree. With the scope I might have managed a decent shot. I proceeded on into the rice paddy and there I watched a black-shouldered kite hover in its very distinctive manner. And in came a male pied harrier for a bit of supper, as ever sending everything scurrying. Sadly too far away to photograph. What a mighty bird!

Black-shouldered Kite

Don Tako, Ratchaburi

09.02.11

The day before's eagle remains unidentified, not very good shots. Tom agrees it is an eagle so we can record an eagle sp. for the local patch and I must keep looking! No sign of it yesterday evening however.

Some Good News

Pied Kingfisher - Canon Eos

 I am going to sleep so much better tonight as I have received confirmation that my telescope has reached its destination in Tokyo where it will be repaired. Phew! I have died a hundred deaths over the last few days. And, my Nikon P6000 kit arrived from Tara in the US of A. That means more crap photographs! It also means a short trip to Japan to collect the telescope. So I am mightily relieved.

The local bird scene has been really interesting these last few days. Yesterday evening about 750 m  from my home I had the pleasure of two Pied Kingfishers. I have to say they were close enough that had I my digiscoping rig I might have managed some cracking shots. I managed a couple of decent shots with the EF-S 55 -250 mm zoom, but had I been set up with the rig, who knows?!

The Pied Kingfisher really does it for me. Well they all do really. However the Pied is a new species for my locale.

The merit of simply getting out and looking at the birds that come along really shone through this evening. Obviously I am comparing this to twitching but as the light started to go I noticed a large dark raptor which I automatically categorised as Black Kite. It was hovering high up and came over in my direction. This was no kite but an aquila eagle. I reckon it was a Steppe Eagle but i have sent my photographs off to Tom for an opinion. If not then it will probably be an Imperial as this fellow had a big wingspan and I doubt if it was a Greater Spot. An aquila eagle will be another tick for the local patch. Not really what I was expecting.

Add in a pair of Black-shouldered Kites plus a male Pied Harrier flew over and sent everything scurrying  ........ great to be out birding on my doorstep and seeing such interesting species. Even better now that I know my gear is where it should be.

My wife said to me early this morning that it was going to be hot today. It certainly was - looks like the so called cool season is over. I am sure visitors from colder climes will have found it hot here in the middle of the day. It's now going to be uncomfortably hot.

These are also the first photographs that I have processed using Apple's Aperture software which I bought when I got my new notebook. There is a lot to learn, let's say!

The photograph above gives an idea of what the rice paddy is like right now. In a few weeks this will be all green with the latest batch of rice plants.

My Locale

I reckon the local rice paddy will be an interesting place over the next couple of weeks as there is a lot of surface water about and scores of birds, mainly common species like Cattle Egrets, Chinese Pond Herons, Common Mynas, Barn Swallows and Little Egrets. The watering is a precursor to planting the next rice crop. So good feeding opportunities.

I took my mind off my woes with a gentle hour or so at the local rice paddy. I managed the above shot of a Yellow-bellied Prinia with a 60 mm lens....heavily cropped.  I might have managed a decent shot of it with the telescope. There were also quite a lot of Plain Prinias and I had some good views of a Common Kingfisher and a couple of Black-shouldered Kites.

I should know the fate of my telescope tomorrow. Tracking shows the package arrived in Tokyo this afternoon so it should be delivered tomorrow. My concern is the contents have been switched. I hope I ma just being paranoid. Hopefully my P6000 will be delivered this week.

A Troubled Birder

There was finally enough time for me to escape for a few hours this afternoon to do a bit of birding and I headed to the local reservoir. It felt a bit strange as I have no telescope so no digiscoped photographs either. My telescope went off to Japan at lunchtime today for  a repair. I have to say I am really troubled about if it will ever arrive and if I will ever see it again. I have used a reputable courier I hasten to add, just a sense of foreboding. It wouldn't be difficult to open my package, take out the scope and replace it with something of a similar weight, and then seal it up. A further factor is I am awaiting delivery of a camera from the US. I managed to source a Nikon P6000 from a fellow digiscoper, Tara Tanaka, and it arrived in Thailand Thursday but hasn't reached me yet. Additionally I went to the Post Office yesterday to despatch my telescope thinking I had bought a product which had insurance but which I later learned had very limited insurance. The counter assistant said it did and to check out details online. I managed to read some small print later and discovered very limited insurance so I had to go back to the Post Office where I recalled the package. So I am a little on tenterhooks. I hope it's just me! In fact it has been a tough week as my son managed to kill my notebook by accidentally poring tea over it........

So it was pleasant to be out in the air, feeling a warm breeze on my face, and lots of common birds: notably some beautiful little grebes, a pair of common kingfishers, a female Siberian stonechat, lots of pied fantails, a black-shouldered kite plus the usual suspects.