Laem Pak Bia - Abandoned Building

Black-tailed Godwit

Limosa limosa

นกปากแอ่นทางดำ

Laem Pak Bia, Phetchburi

04.12.11

The plan was to set off in the middle of the night and be at Bang Kao to the north of Cha-am, about 20 km south of the main action area in Laem Pak Bia, for daybreak. It is about a 80 minute drive from home. In any event I was awake at 0315h and I had a look at my wife and son lying sound asleep and opted to stay with them! Next thing it was 0900h!

Common Greenshank

Tringa Nebularia

นกทะเลขาปาเขียว

Laem Pak Bia, Phetchburi

04.12.11

In the end I set off at about 12 noon and as I took an alternative route in order to avoid road works, I came out onto Pra Rama II Road, or route No. 35, just before Wang Manao, where Rama II joins the Phetkasem, or route No. 4. There I saw two Black Kites on the north side of the highway chasing a combine harvester in the hope of a juicy tidbit. This area is very much Black Kite country as the main roost sight in Khao Yoi is on the other side of the highway about 5 km to the south. It is not unusual to see kettles of Black Kites from the main highway and indeed as you head further south sightings of Greater Spotted Eagle are also possible

Malaysian Plover - male

Charadrius peronii

นกหัวโตมลายู

Bang Kao, Phetchburi

04.12.11

On arrival it was a depressing sight at Bang Kao. The bull-dozers and heavy-duty vehicles are at work turning an important pool into a fish farm. I have seen Ruddy Shelduck and Painted Stork here and rare birds regularily show up. I am not sure I will be seeing them or their ilk again here. There were still birds here: Little Ringed Plovers, Lesser Sand-plovers, Greenshanks, Wood Sandpiper.

Spotted Redshank

Tringa erythropus

นกทะเลขาแดงลายจุด

Laem Pak Bia, Phetchburi

04.12.11

The beach, as reported in previous posts, has taken a hammering due to reshaping the creek entrance. There used to be a decent sized flock of gulls and terns parked on the beach here: no sign of them today. Perhaps I am being unduly pessimistic on account of it being close to high-tide. A couple of Brown-headed Gulls flew past but there was no sign of the big terns, in particular Lesser Crested and Caspian. It was also sad to note how much flotsam and jetsam there was on the beach.

Pacific Golden Plover

Pluvialis fulva

นกหัวโดหลังจุดสีทอง

Laem Pak Bia, Phetchburi

04.12.11

However the little birds have not been deterred with good numbers of Malaysian Plovers and at least five Sanderlings with lots of Lesser Sand-plovers. A Brahminy Kite flew menacingly across and parked up in the adjacent coconut trees. Sad to see such a significant level of change.

Sanderlings

Calidris alba

นกคอสั้นตีนไว

Bang Kao, Phetchburi

04.12.11

So I drove north and decided on the Abandoned Building at Laem Pak Bia. No big surprises and none of the sought after species but tons of birds. ( Well, maybe there is a surprise as I am having Tom Backlund check out a photo!) At least a thousand Black-tailed Godwits, several hundreds of Spotted Redshanks and lots of other interesting birds including Curlew Sandpiper, Greenshank, Marsh Sandpiper and Long-toed Stint. There were also about 20 Caspian Terns sitting on the bund; unfortunately the sun was behind them and I was in front of them so no photograph possible! As usual a few Little Heron were darting about.

Malaysian Plover - male - choking?!

Charadrius peronii

นกหัวโตมลายู

Bang Kao, Phetchburi

04.12.11

I had a lot of fun today with the digiscope rig. I really like the rig, the new camera is a treat and a trip to the coast usually means optimal light. I am also using the loupe again as a sunshade is inadequate in such bright light. In many of these shots I am also using the remote shutter release with a two second time delay.

Malaysian Plover - female

Charadrius peronii

นกหัวโตมลายู

Bang Kao, Phetchburi

04.12.11

Malaysian Plover - males

Charadrius peronii

นกหัวโตมลายู

Bang Kao, Phetchburi

04.12.11

About 25 Painted Stork flew in late in the afternoon presumably to roost. They offer an excellent photo opportunity as they are landing on bushes near the Abandoned Building. I was more interested in a Black-tailed Godwit that I managed to get close to.

Painted Stork

Mycteria leucocephala

นกกาบบัว

Laem Pak, Phetchburi

04.12.11

I decided to head north for the final hour of the day in a vain attempt to see Grey-headed Lapwing at Bang Kaew. No sign of it and no sign of any Garganey either. But, no complaints, I was very happy with  my afternoon

Little Egret

Egretta garzetta

นกยางเปีย

Laem Pak Bia, Phetchburi

04.12.11

Gulf Of Thailand Common Birds Digiscoped

Greater sand Plover - breeding

Charadrius leschenaultii

นกหัวโตทรายใหญ่

Pak Thale

02.04.11

Greater sand Plover - breeding

Charadrius leschenaultii

นกหัวโตทรายใหญ่

Pak Thale

02.04.11

Greater sand Plover - breeding

Charadrius leschenaultii

นกหัวโตทรายใหญ่

Pak Thale

02.04.11

Note 07.04.11 Let me record grateful thanks to Dave Gandy for correcting me in wrongly identifying these plovers when they are in fact Greaters. Dave reckons the bill is too long and after consideration and a little look at the literature I have to agree with him.  I'll take consolation from the fact that the literature acknowledges the difficulty in separating the two species. However I have the literature and should have looked at it before rushing into publishing. Hayman et al in Shorebirds says:  "Best features to separate from Greater are leg length and colour, relative proportions of bill, head and body, call and extent of white on wing and tail, and size. Lesser has shorter dark grey legs....... in Greater, leg colour is more variable but always paler.......Greater has a....clearly longer bill." Later in "Bare Parts" Hayman says of the Lesser :"[Bill]....length about equal to the distance between the bill-base and rear edge of eye." It is quite clear the legs are almost green, the bill is long and in fact is shorter than the distance from the base bill to the rear edge of the eye. So once more thank you Dave. 

Javan Pond Heron

Ardeola speciosa

นกยางกรอกพันธุ์ชวา

Pak Thale

02.04.11

Black-winged Stilt

Himantopus himantopus

นกตืนเทืยน

Pak Thale

02.04.11

Brown-headed Gull - breeding

Larus brunnicephalus

นกนางนวลธรรมดา

Bang Kao

03.04.11

 Little Tern

Sterna albifrons

นกนางนวลแกลบเล็ก

Bang Kao

03.04.11

 Brown-headed Gull - non-breeding

Larus brunnicephalus

นกนางนวลธรรมดา

Bang Kao

03.04.11

 Great Egret - breeding

Casmerodius albus

นกยางโทนใหญ่

Bang Kao

03.04.11

 Whiskered Tern

Chlidonias hybridus

นกนางนวลแกลบเคราขาว

Bang Kao

03.04.11

Curlew sandpiper - breeding

Calidris ferruginea

นกชายเลนปากโค้ง

Bang Kao

03.04.11

The weather in Thailand has returned to the normal heat and of course this means much better light for photography. So we had a gentle drive up and down to Cha-am Saturday afternoon returning Sunday and en route I stopped a did a little bit of digiscoping. We didn't see any Spoon-billed Sandpiper but a local birder confirmed they are still around and that Saturday morning he had seen four birds, two of which were showing breeding plumage. A lot of the waders are well advanced into breeding plumage none more so than this very striking curlew sandpiper. I hope I can shoot it again in better light to really show the complexity of its breeding plumage. As you can see the Brown-headed Gull is huge - see how it dwarfs the out of focus sanderling in the above shot!

Malaysian Plovers at Bang Kao

Monday, yesterday, being a public holiday in Thailand in honour of The King's birthday, I had a long lie and mid-morning we went off en famille for a day out. Just like in the UK on public holidays there was rain in the air and it was unusually overcast and dull!  I thought Bang Kao would be the ideal compromise for my non-birding wife and my small son as there is a beautiful, deserted beach there and the possibility of some decent birds. This also meant we could go into Cha-am later for our favourite crab curry and steamed sea bass - ah, the real pleasures of life in Thailand!

So we drove to the beach area and we were rewarded with a small flock of some 20 or so Malaysian plovers. Nearby a small group of 6 Sanderlings were also very active on the beach but nowhere near as co-operative for the camera. I had the perfect shot set up and off they went!

I have to say my initial reaction to the Malaysian Plovers was in fact Kentish Plovers. However I have had a good scout around the literature and photographs, plus talked to Tom Backlund and I am happy to say these are Malaysian Plovers and will happily accept being unreliable if I am wrong. In part I was initially influenced by the lack of a joined up breast band in the males but I also thought that Malaysians were usually solitary or in pairs ..... not really sure where this comes from. On looking through the literature I realised that if these plovers were to be Kentish they would have black legs and at this time of the year would be sporting non-breeding plumage. So Malaysians they must be and very elegant birds to boot.

Mischievous Sanderlings

There were plenty of birds around - common sandpiper, brown headed gulls, black-tailed godwits, redshanks, greenshanks, painted stork and a couple of raptors : the above Brahminy and also a Black Kite were hovering around. Most enjoyable really for a leisurely afternoon.

Twitching Ruddy Shelduck - A Cautionary Tale

The unexpected arrival of some friends on Saturday led to a change of plans. I was planning on spending last night in Bangkok and then to head to the Bird Fair at Bang Pu this morning. Alas no. My friends are about today as well, so no trip to Bangkok and no Bird Fair.  Instead I got up early and drove south for about 90 minutes to twitch Ruddy Shelduck between Cha-am and Puk Tian beach in Phetchaburi province, about 10 km south of the main action area in Laem Pak Bia. I was also hoping to add Grey- headed Lapwing as this too has been reported in the Laem Pak Bia area.

I don't know about twitching. This is the first time I have been in the Laem Pak Bia area and not visited either the Kings Project or Pak Thale. God alone knows how many good birds I sacrificed because of the twitch and I can tell you from driving through the area that some of the salt pans were bursting with flocks of birds. However I had limited time today in view of visitors and family commitments so this was the right thing to do for me - who knows how long the RSDs will hang around for?

Remarkably I managed to find the reported location and drove in and, lo and behold, in among the hundreds of black-tailed godwits, brown-headed gulls, black-winged-stilts, four painted stork, and smaller pockets of shore birds and hundreds of egrets were eight unmistakable ruddy shelducks. Beautiful biggish ducks with a washed out orange appearance. I got the glasses on them and was thinking over how to approach the photographs when off they went! The other birds stayed but these guys simply upped and offed. I wasn't set up so sadly no photgraphs and I have no doubt they would have made a good shot!

So there is twitching for you! Fortunately I saw the target species and it becomes my latest life bird but I don't really feel as though I know this bird or that we have spent any meaningful time together! A flash in the pan so to speak.  No doubt many a birder has travelled a considerably longer distance to draw a blank. I doubt I would be prepared to go on this kind of twitch. When the Masked Finfoot was found in Khao Yai earlier this year I wasn't prepared to make the effort. I would have wanted to see it had I been in the area but I wasn't prepared to embark on a 12-15 hour round trip.
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I have to say there were great numbers of Painted Stork in the area today. I reckon I observed easily in excess of fifty birds today. A review of the above picture shows a Caspian tern, with its stonking great orange bill, in the midst of the gulls.

I made a little detour into the deserted building in Laem Pak Bia as Spooners have been reported there in the last two weeks. I was looking for an easy spot today and the possibilities were too much like hard work and looked impossible to access so I let them be. I was in pursuit of Grey-headed Lapwing and headed on. I got to the reported location but there was no sign of them so I headed on through Laem Pak Bia in a homeward direction and made a brief stop in the Wat Khao Takrao area where there were also many painted stork, grey heron and other heron. I managed to photograph this black-shouldered kite who posed a little for me.