The Bird has Flown

I am very pleased to say our bird has flown from its nest. Now it is possible that a hungry owl has flown in and had it during the night. I prefer to think the red-collared dove flew. I was very concerned because I didn't see the mother return to feed the fledgling. So I was fearful that the bird might die. However it looked reasonably chirper in the nest on the basis of daily observations, it was moving around and I saw it fight off some smaller birds, sparrows, that attempted to mob it. No evidence of a dead bird in the immediate vicinity of the nest so I am hopeful the bird has made it to freedom.

plaintive cuckoo, cacomantis merulinus

Khao Prachapchang Non-hunting Area

Ratchaburi Province, 06.06.10

I am still taking it pretty easy, not really putting myself about or pushing myself . I took a trip to the local non-hunting ground and heard plenty of birds but only sighted a greater-racket tailed drongo, a plaintive cuckoo and this cattle egret which performed very well for the camera. I make the cuckoo  the female hepatic morph as opposed to the hepatic morph variant or the banded bay cuckoo! In respect of the former this is due to my fellow being lighter  around the eye and in respect of the latter my fellow's bill is a lot shorter. Please correct me if I am wrong!

cattle egret, bubulcus ibis

Khao Prachapchang Non-hunting Area

Ratchaburi Province, 06.06.10

I went up to the Huai Mai Teng reservoir after but little to report other than an abundance of nesting oriental pratincoles noisily defending their nests; a few of the pratincoles were mobbing a predatory black-shouldered kite.  I sighted a very beautifully coloured blue-throated bee-eater, a bird which visits to breed. There should be a lot of these but mine was solitary and I have to say I was really taken by the extraordinary complexity of its colouring. It was perched high on a tree branch killing some beautiful yellow butterfly. I had been hoping there would have been river lapwing present as I thought I saw a photograph on  a Thai website of this species at the reservoir. Of course it was in July last year that I sighted 4 river lapwings here and I got my first taste of a reasonably rare species.

Edit: I have just been reviewing photographs and I reckon I should add these from Huai Mai Teng reservoir.

Indochinese bushlark, mirafra marionae

Huai Mai Teng Reservoir

Ratchaburi Province, 06.06.10

Blue-throated bee-eater, merops viridis

Huai Mai Teng Reservoir

Ratchaburi Province, 06.06.10