Weekend Notes

Little Tern - breeding

A bit of a lacklustre weekend on the birding front but it did take me to Huay Mai Teng Reservoir Saturday afternoon where I saw 2 River Lapwing, about 10-12 Small Pratincoles and at least 8 Rain Quail. In fact I probably heard more Rain Quail than I saw. These are the species I was looking for in the sense of confirming their continued presence or otherwise. I was pleased to see Small Pratincoles were still present; with breeding over their departure is imminent. They will not be around for much longer and their numbers are markedly down already.No sign of any Thick-Knee species though one Great Thick-Knee has been reported from the Laem Pak Bia area.

Little Tern - in transition

On Sunday I took some friends to the beach at Ban Bang Kaew, between Laem Pak Bia and Cha am; they were wanting to photograph fishing boats so I took the opportunity to see what waders and pelagic birds were around. Not a lot. Strange not seeing any gulls or crested terns but there were plenty of Little Terns in transition from breeding into non-breeding plumage, a handful of Greater Sand-plovers and a couple of dainty Malaysian Plovers.

Malaysian Plover

Lacklustre?! Just gentle and pleasant really. Birds never disappoint. For better or worse I am mightily busy. So I am struggling to devote much time to birdwatching right now. I also believe my trip to Mae Wong a few months ago marked a major shift in my outlook. I really want to get in close to the birds now and I want better shots of rarer birds: that really can only come from a much more planned and targeted approach to my birdwatching. In real terms this means at the moment I am not taking very many shots. I could but I am after better images and I understand that real opportunities at the moment are few and far between. Watch this space........I hope!

Elsewhere there are reports of great birds. Check out Dave Gandy's BangkokCityBirding for news of observations of significant migrating wader species in the Inner Gulf at the weekend; Peter Ericsson is enjoying a purple patch right now: he seems to have an amazing ability to be in the right place at the right time; you can read Peter's blog  but probably best to check him out on facebook where he posts on a regular basis.