Mid-week Bulletin

Huay Mai Teng Reservoir

Ratchaburi Province

31.10.10

Four weeks ago a road continued to the other side of Huay Mai Teng reservoir where you can see a small piece of roof in the above picture!

On Sunday I went back to the reservoir early in the morning and had a good look at the female pied harrier and a black kite. I also had a pair of common kingfishers in my sights but I just couldn't take a decent photograph of either. So below is a blooper and I am not really sure what went wrong. Perhaps it was just too early in the morning and the light was not good enough, ASA too low, very gray early morning light or maybe I wasn't good enough. Most likely a combination of them all! Whatever it is good to know that the harriers are back and I expect they will arrive in Ratchaburi soon.

Common kingfisher - digiscoped blooper!

The EOS saves the day!

EOS snaps of Green Bee-eater

Paddyfield Pipit

Huay Mai Teng Reservoir, Ratchaburi

31.10.10

News filters through of an Amur Falcon being seen at the Chumphon Raptor Watch and more significantly of about another 1,750 Amur falcons, 2 Himalayan Griffons, 2 Steppe Eagles and 1 Imperial Eagle being observed at Chiang Dao in the far north of Thailand. One of the Thai language boards has reports of Heuglin Gulls at Laem Pak Bia. I was reading Wansteadbirder's blog about a twitch from London to the South-West of England to view an American bittern. He's posted an amazing photograph of the mass of people  assembled to view the bird and the account of the twitch is highly entertaining. Well I am not heading north or south to pursue the Amur falcons! Such crowds are unheard of in connection with bird watching in Thailand. Thank God! There would have been a time in my life when I would have gone for it but thank God for a bit of common sense in my life these days! Not that much I hasten to add.

I went out locally last night hoping to see harriers sweeping the rice paddy. Instead I  saw a black-capped kingfisher, the first of the winter and tonight it was in the same location with a white-throated and a common kingfisher in the very near vicinity. Three species of kingfisher within a kilometre of home is good! The black-capped is very elegant with very striking collars and a very distinctive red bill. If I am right he is a migrant.


I have been taking soundings on an internet digiscoping board and hope I can apply some of the help and tips that have been offered and publish a few more decent shots this weekend. If you would like to see a brilliant picture of a great egret please go to my friend Tara's flickr.com gallery. More at the weekend, I hope, but I have significant work commitments this weekend so may be only a little bit of a blog!