Laem Pak Bia: A Great Day's Birding

 Black-faced Spoonbill
Platelea Minor
นกปากช้อนหน้าดำ
Pak Thale, Petchaburi Province

I always have a great day's birding when I join up with Tom and our trip to Laem Pak Bia on Saturday was probably one of the best day's birding I have ever had. From my perspective it is great to bird with such a knoweldgeable and experienced birder and we both saw some great birds.

No sooner had we started just to the north of Cha-am in Bang Kao hoping to see Ruddy Shelduck than Tom is saying "Look a parakeet" and sure enough a noisy, small, green mass darts in off the sea and moves rapidly inland. That's as far as the identification went but it would literally and metaphorically have gone over my head had I been on my own. Bang Kao did offer great views of eight beautiful Painted Stork in the early morning sun and a host of shorebirds and brown-headed gulls and an Eastern Marsh Harrier glided over just as we were leaving. I am not sure about the status of the RSDs. No sign of them this morning nor later in the day when I returned to collect my car. [Update from T Backlund: one RSD was seen here on Monday 29.11.10]

Black-headed Ibis
Threskiornis Melanocephalus
นกช้อนหอยขาว
Wat Khao Takhrao, Petchaburi Province
27.11.10

Next stop at the abandoned building in Laem Pak Bia where we bumped into three Hungarian birders who confirmed the presence of a Long-billed Dowitcher and a Black-faced Spoonbill further north at Pak Thale. This news had Tom itching. Nothing much to report here but we went into the King's Project and had a nice time photographing a Little Grebe and Grey Heron. We were looking at a flock of black-tailed godwits parked in a salt pan nearby when the loud crack of canon fire from the nearby temple caused their sudden flight. These miniature style canons are used in temples to mark the beginning of events or the arrival of a special time. Tom got his camera out and started shooting the flock of birds. The resulting photographs show the presence of an Asian Dowitcher in the flock - by any standards a very decent bird. Of course this was the surprise in the can, so to speak, as neither of us was aware of this bird in the flock and Tom only realised it when he processed his photos on getting home. Elsewhere in a  flock of brown-headed gulls we saw a few Caspian Terns with their distinctive big bright orange bills.

Red-necked Phalaropes
Phalaropus Lobatus
นกลอยทะเลคอแดง
Red-necked Phalarope
Pak Thale, Petchaburi Province
27.11.10

So we then headed north to Pak Thale to what is known as the Spoon-billed Sandpiper site in pursuit of the Black-faced Spoonbill. There were plenty of shorebirds, thousands, but we were looking for a flock of egrets with the Black-faced in their midst. We had a fruitless march around during which Tom pointed out some Red-necked Phalaropes "spinning" in one of the salt-pans. Very elegant and really distinctive birds and lifers for me! We noticed that our Hungarian friends had come back to this site so Tom went off to check locations with them while I photographed the phalaropes. Fortunately we were looking in the wrong location so off we went. This meant I wasn't able to photograph the two Spoon-billed Sandpipers which were in the salt pan and of course when we came back they had gone!

Anyhow we walked into another salt pan as directed and the Black-faced Spoonbill was there surrounded by between 45 - 50 Painted Stork. What an amazing sight! I was grateful for the digiscope as I was able to get some decent record shots. We were probably between 150 - 200 meters away and this is the last sort of bird you want to scare off. A second lifer, a real beauty of a bird and something of a rarity in these parts.  

Photo credit © Tom Backlund
Asian Dowitcher
Limnodromus Semipalmatus
นกช่อมทะเลปากยาว
Kings Project, Petchaburi Province
27.11.10

We then headed north to Wat Khao Takhrao and after a spot of lunch we went in pursuit of the reported Black-headed Ibises. Over lunch I made the mistake of looking at my photographs and decided to change the  exposure setting as I thought my photographs were too dark. Well as a result my pictures of the Ibises are a bit washed out. I had the correct exposure! We quickly found the Ibises sitting in a bit of a marsh, two adults and a juvenile. Nearby a Black-shouldered Kite and Black Kite were perched in trees. I had already seen the Ibises before at Bueng Boraphet but nevertheless great birds to see and look at.

Thereafter we went back to Pak Thale in vain pursuit of Spoon-billed Sandpiper and we had a spin around the marshes and rice paddies looking, also in vain, for Grey-headed Lapwing. Pak Thale yielded lots of Marsh Sandpipers, Curlews, a small flock of Gull-billed Terns, and the usual suspets including one Sanderling. I think I had a Temminck's Stint, a stint with greenish legs, but it flew before I was able to be sure. I am happy to report there are lots of birds, lots of birds indeed. 

Tom headed home so we drove back to Bang Kao. From there I checked on the Ruddy Shelducks, nope, and then I drove back to see if I could take some more photographs of the Black-faced Spoonbill; not a bird to be seen at the site. I then headed home with an eye open for Grey-headed Lapwing but to no avail. 

What a great day's birding!

Twitching Ruddy Shelduck - A Cautionary Tale

The unexpected arrival of some friends on Saturday led to a change of plans. I was planning on spending last night in Bangkok and then to head to the Bird Fair at Bang Pu this morning. Alas no. My friends are about today as well, so no trip to Bangkok and no Bird Fair.  Instead I got up early and drove south for about 90 minutes to twitch Ruddy Shelduck between Cha-am and Puk Tian beach in Phetchaburi province, about 10 km south of the main action area in Laem Pak Bia. I was also hoping to add Grey- headed Lapwing as this too has been reported in the Laem Pak Bia area.

I don't know about twitching. This is the first time I have been in the Laem Pak Bia area and not visited either the Kings Project or Pak Thale. God alone knows how many good birds I sacrificed because of the twitch and I can tell you from driving through the area that some of the salt pans were bursting with flocks of birds. However I had limited time today in view of visitors and family commitments so this was the right thing to do for me - who knows how long the RSDs will hang around for?

Remarkably I managed to find the reported location and drove in and, lo and behold, in among the hundreds of black-tailed godwits, brown-headed gulls, black-winged-stilts, four painted stork, and smaller pockets of shore birds and hundreds of egrets were eight unmistakable ruddy shelducks. Beautiful biggish ducks with a washed out orange appearance. I got the glasses on them and was thinking over how to approach the photographs when off they went! The other birds stayed but these guys simply upped and offed. I wasn't set up so sadly no photgraphs and I have no doubt they would have made a good shot!

So there is twitching for you! Fortunately I saw the target species and it becomes my latest life bird but I don't really feel as though I know this bird or that we have spent any meaningful time together! A flash in the pan so to speak.  No doubt many a birder has travelled a considerably longer distance to draw a blank. I doubt I would be prepared to go on this kind of twitch. When the Masked Finfoot was found in Khao Yai earlier this year I wasn't prepared to make the effort. I would have wanted to see it had I been in the area but I wasn't prepared to embark on a 12-15 hour round trip.
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I have to say there were great numbers of Painted Stork in the area today. I reckon I observed easily in excess of fifty birds today. A review of the above picture shows a Caspian tern, with its stonking great orange bill, in the midst of the gulls.

I made a little detour into the deserted building in Laem Pak Bia as Spooners have been reported there in the last two weeks. I was looking for an easy spot today and the possibilities were too much like hard work and looked impossible to access so I let them be. I was in pursuit of Grey-headed Lapwing and headed on. I got to the reported location but there was no sign of them so I headed on through Laem Pak Bia in a homeward direction and made a brief stop in the Wat Khao Takrao area where there were also many painted stork, grey heron and other heron. I managed to photograph this black-shouldered kite who posed a little for me.