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