Painted stork, mycteria leucocephala, Laem Pak Bia - deserted building, 23.05.10
What with the return to work and the very hot weather I haven't been doing much birding. I am happy to report that we have had a lot of rain and this should continue into October, possibly November. The rain tends to come late in the day between 4:00 pm and 5:00 pm and usually batters down for a couple of hours.
It's been on my mind to spend more time in forests over the next few months. Get familiar with woodpeckers and other forest species. Of course a combination of forests, heat and rain means leeches so I will need to find out what are the best preventative masures.
The local rice paddy continues to throw up nice birds: watercocks and on Thursday last week I watched a black-shouldered kite put on a spectacular performance as it dropped down feet first from a height of about 100 feet in an attempt to capture prey. Plenty of egrets, cattle, little and great.
On my way back from a visit to friends in Hua Hin I stopped off at Laem Pak Bia and had a brief look around the King's Project and the deserted building. First visit I have ever made to either location and not seen a shore bird - no black-tailed godwits. Plenty of cormorants, both little and Indian and a solitary painted stork. No real excitement at the King's Project either, a brahminy kite and a black kite hunting, lots of egrets but nothing really noteworthy.
Never a dull moment in birding, however. I used the opportunity to take a good look at the cormorants, specifically distinguishing little and Indian. The Indian has turquoise eyes and a longer, slimmer bill. Yesterday it was easy to distinguish the two and many of the little cormorants had a yellow point on the end of their bill.
Friday is a holiday and I think I am going to make an early start and head into Chaloem Phrakhiat NP and see what forest birds I can observe
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