Happy New Year from Ratchaburi!

Red-throated Pipit

Anthus cervinus

นกเด้าดินอกแดง

Ratchaburi 01.01.12

Almost as an afterthought I decided to go birding at 1630h and headed into the local rice paddy here in Ratchaburi; literally round the corner from where we live. I took my son with me and he very obliging fell asleep! My first bird of 2012 was a Common Myna, the first bird I viewed using my bins was an Asian Pied Starling and the first and only bird I have photographed in 2012 was a Red-throated Pipit.

It was unusually quiet and overcast and in fact conditions were really against photography. I was able to drive out into the middle of the rice paddy as the ground is flat and dry and the steady flow of trucks in and out has made a decent track. I ventured on a Common Kestrel hovering, a Black-shouldered Kite and I had the good fortune to see two Pied Harriers, a male and a female, flying in tandem and immediately even my dodgy eyes could see the female as a bigger bird than the male. There were lots of Red-throated Pipits.

Not bad for an afterthought! Happy New Year once more to you all!