Reservoir Update

Lesser Coucal

Not such a great day for photography but a pleasant afternoon, if a little wet, for birding. The question is this: have the River Lapwing moved on from Huay Mai Teng Reservoir? No sign of them today. This is consistent with the last three years - the River Lapwing have usually gone by now. So, too, however, had the Small Pratincoles in each of the last three years, but again today they were present in numbers, around 100 or so. Perhaps the lapwing are still around.

Lesser Coucal

We have had a lot of rain this week and it was reflected in an appreciable rise in water levels at the reservoir. It's still low but it appears to be filling up. The bird of the day was Yellow Wagtail, of which I would estimate at least 60 putting on aerial displays. Good numbers of Oriental Skylarks and lots of vocal Rain Quail; only two seen in brief snatches of flight but I do wonder how many of these quail are here. A solitary Pied Kingfisher performed its spectacular hover before plunging into the water in pursuit of prey. Sadly light and rain meant I was not set up.

Eastern Stonechat

A Peregrine Falcon flew over high and a distant Chinese Francolin could be heard. Plenty of Zitting Cisticolas, Oriental Pratincoles, (but no evidence of a build up of numbers) and Paddyfield Pipits. In the last light of the day I saw a pretty sight: a Lesser Coucal with two juveniles. Sadly the juveniles took cover before I could get a shot of them but the adult stayed in the clear for long enough; I would have liked a shot of the juveniles as they are really quite distinct and quite pretty.

I also saw three Brown Shrike, 2 Black Drongo, 3 Whiskered Tern and 1 Eastern Stonechat today: normal migrants that take up residence at the reservoir for the "winter".