Great Thick Knee at Wat Takrao Phetchaburi Province

Great Thick Knee

Esacus recurvirostris

นกกระแตผีใหญ่

Wat Takrao 

Phetchaburi Province

30.08.10

This evening I spoke with Phil Round, of  the BCST, Mahidol University, Wetlands Trust, co-author of one of the two main English language guides to Thailand's birds,  and generally regarded as the leading authority on Thai avifauna; in short a really excellent and approachable person who simply enthuses about birds and knows Thailand and much of S E Asia like the back of his hand. I wanted to find out more about the Great Thick Knee we saw yesterday. Other than knowing it was a rarity I really don't know anything about the bird's relationship with Thailand.

Off the top of his head Phil reckons this is only the second sighting of the Great Thick Knee outside the Mekhong River area in the 30 years he has lived in Thailand, the first being about 10 years ago. Prior to this Phil reckons the last record outside the Mekhong area dates back to the 1960s. This bird is thought to have been at the site since June this year but its continued presence has only been in circulation over the last two weeks.

The photos are the product of my recent venture into digiscoping. I am delighted to have produced usable images but clearly there is a lot of improvement needed and I reckon I am going to have to buy a decent photo-editing programme. But the birds and the photography are giving me a real buzz.