A Day in Laem Pak Bia

Painted stork,

Mycteria leucocephala

Laem Pak Bia, Phetchaburi

23.08.10

I joined up with Tom and Gary through www.birdforum.net for what turned out to be an excellent day's birding in Laem Pak Bia, yesterday. Tom, a native of Finland, lives in Hua Hin and Gary is here on holiday form England so it was really good to have company. On our approach to the deserted building we sighted a number of aerial species including Painted Stork and Black-crowned Night Heron. There were about 6 painted stork hanging out in the saltpans but not much else so we didn't really hang around for long here.

Next stop at the King's Project Tom spotted 5 aerial spot-billed pelicans and found a further seven in the fish ponds. What amazing birds, looking utterly out of place in these ponds, absolutely massive and completely out of proportion. These were lifers for Tom and Gary, and very much on Tom's "wanted" list. I had some very happy experiences with these pelicans this time last year with a sighting of about 80 in the Khao Yoi area, a great birding moment for me and several other sightings of smaller numbers. I was delighted to be able to add them to my list for this year as they don't hang around for long and are therefore easily missed. Today the were scared off by the approach of a brahminy kite and were gone before I could get my camera on them....damn! They would have made some great shots!

We managed to see Thailand's three species of cormorant here: little, indian and great. In the excitement of seeing the great cormorant I somehow managed to lose the screw which attaches the camera to my scope so at this point the photgraphs end. I overlooked the Indian cormorant until checking my photographs this morning and you can see the diagnostic blue eye and "the white tuft on rear side of head", (Robson: Field Guide to Birds of Thailand). Likewise with the great cormorant the photograph shows what Robson describes as  "...the yellow facial and gular skin". (Gular:pertaining to the throat!)

Great cormorant,(left)

Phalacrocorax carba

Indian cormorant, (right)

Phalacrocorax fuscicollis 

Laem Pak Bia, Phetchaburi

23.08.10

Next, thanks to Tom I then got a lifer, a ruff, and I must say I might have overlooked this bird as a redshank, except of course its plumage is very scaly. There were three of them in shallow ponds with some redshanks. Tom then caught a brief glimpse of a ruddy-breasted crake in the reed beds which he attempted to flush to no avail.

We them headed up to Pak Thale where there wasn't much to see as the tide was far out. We were hoping to see a tattler. What we did see is the construction of  a concrete walkway from the road to the mudflats, where people normally park their cars; I have heard they plan to include a viewing platform and bird centre here so I can report they are well on their way to completion.

We then headed back to Laem Pak Bia for lunch and then off to the sand spit by boat. Here we saw an abundance of common and little terns, two Malaysian plovers, both banded with a yellow and orange tag on their left legs and three rudy turnstones. 

We then went back to Pak Thale but approached it form the village to the creek. Sadly nothing to report but we saw a huge flock of curlews nearby taking to the air so decided to head back to the main site and here we really had a field day. In excess of 300 curlews, 100 whimbrels, any number of lesser sandplovers and more common waders spread over three or four salt pans. In the midst of these birds I caught sight of a grey bird that was significantly bigger than the other birds around it. However it was resting and all its features were not visible. What we could see were shortish yellow legs but as it began to move it revealed a prominent white supercilium and then it flew a little and its upperside was all grey: a grey-tailed tattler, another lifer for  my companions and a great bird as these fellows are passage migrants. We had a good scan and Gary produced a ruddy turnstone and then a broad-billed sandpiper.

So as 5:00 pm approached and storm clouds gathered angrily nearby, serving notice of a major deluge, we decided to call it a day. My list shows 73 species for the day. Not bad for August and some excellent birds, most importantly some species that you would expect to see at this time of the year.

It was great to have company and in fact to have such expert company. Both Tom and Gary have been at this for a lot of years. I have no doubt I will go birding with Tom in the near future and great to have made a local connection. I suspect Gary might be telling Mrs Gary that they will be coming back soon!

Khok Kham: In Search of Spoon-billed Sandpiper

Common tern

Sterna hirundo longipennis

นกนางนวลแกลบธรรมดา

Khok Kham 16.08.10

(with grateful thanks to StonedCurlew on www.birdforum.net for help with identification)

I went down to Khok Kham this afternoon in search of the reported spoon-billed sandpiper. It's a 90 km drive from home through fish sauce and fish farm territory along the Rama II highway to Nakhon Sakhon which must be to Thailand what Hull is (or was) to England. I fancied getting my digiscope rig onto spoonie especially as latest reports indicate the bird could be seen from the birding centre. Alas spoonie did not show for me but there were plenty of nice birds nevertheless and a few decent shots. Clearly digiscoping becomes much easier in good light when fast shutter speeds mean less vibration and shake and accordingly result in much sharper images.

The first birds of note were about 20 common terns. Now I really struggled with this ID so I posted the photo on www.birdforum.net and StonedCurlew came back and confirmed the ID. I was expecting common tern to have a reddish bill. I thought it might be a whiskered tern but again I didn't feel comfortable with this either. So over to BirdForum for help. Duly received and grateful thanks.

Little cormorant

Phalacrocorax niger   

นกกานัำเล๊ก

Khok Kham 16.08.10

I kept a keen eye out for spoonie and had a close look at a dry pond with many plovers, stints and a few curlew sandpipers. Lots of little cormoroants. Alas no spoonie. I took a few picures but the light was variable and anyhow photographing small birds at a distance is much more problematic than the bigger ones! Here are some of the photos and I have to say there has been an obvious improvement.

Marsh sandpiper

Tringa stagnatilis

นกชายเลนบึง

Little egret

Egretta garzetta

นกยางเบีย

Little heron

Butorides striatus

นกยางเขียว

Khok Kham 16.08.10

I must say the digiscoping is a better, happier experience but I am still at the bottom of a likely steep learning curve. Point and shoot it ain't but I am getting better at framing the bird and I tend to shoot using the self-timer on a 3 second countdown, just about enough time for the rig to be still so long as our dear bird doesn't move too much. I am not going to rush out and buy heads and release cables yet but would welcome any suggestions as to how to improve in any way. I say this as I am enjoying it.....a lot!

Starling Masterclass:Chumphon

Asian glossy starling

Aplonis panayensis

นกเอีี้้ยงดำปักษ์ใต้

Chumphon 13.08.10

Chumphon calls itself the gateway to the south of Thailand. It lies just off the Gulf of Thailand about halfway down the peninsula. It is also home to an increasingly important annual Raptor Watch in the autumn when tens of thousands of raptors, oriental honey buzzards, Japanese and Chinese sparrowhawks, black bazas and smaller numbers of eagles and other raptors can be observed on their southbound migration to warmer climes.  It was my good fortune to have a few hours' birding on Friday 13th August 2010 with Chukiat Nualsri, one of the leading lights of the Raptor Watch and the Thai birding scene.

Initially we were going to head to the north of Thailand to Mae Wong in search of crested kingfisher. However "we" include a 13 month old boy and a non-birding mother and in view of the weather I thought it might be too much and possibly dangerous to inflict Mae Wong on them, especially as reports suggest  that the wet season means a lot of rain and a lot of biting insects. So we decided to head south to Chumphon where there are alternatives in the event of inclement weather and adverse conditions. I dropped Chukiat an email and he was happy to show me round some of the local sites. I have to say what a blessing it is to have a local guide because I would never have found the places he took me to all of which are easily reached from the centre of Chumphon.

If you will allow me to combine starlings and mynas then this turned into a starling masterclass and I very much doubt this would have happened had I been left to my own devices. I say this because I think if I am going to be honest I would have overlooked the mynas we saw at our first stop, a field at the rear of the sports stadium. It was full of buffalos and swamphens, an intermediate egret, cattle egret and lots of mynas. Chukiat pointed me to a jungle myna and on closer observation I could see it was similar to the common myna but in fact quite distinct; no yellow facial skin, an orange bill with a bluish base, a black head and light body, yellow eyes, a very short crest.... in other words totally different! And a lifer. 

Being a simple soul I would have assumed it couldn't be a jungle myna because I wasn't, errrr, in a jungle! The Thai name means "buffalo starling" so not much of a surprise to see them in a field full of buffalo! Indeed I wished I had set up my rig as I might have got a decent shot of a couple of these birds on top of a buffalo. Then a couple of  white-vented mynas flew in distinguished by their dark colours and prominent crest. Of course their key diagnostic is the white vent. Fortunately the crested myna is a very rare bird......

There were at least 25 purple swamphen in the field. I don't think I have ever seen so many in one place, as common as openbills are up here in Ratchaburi. Chukiat told me he had seen a number of quite rare birds here over the years including an oriental plover earlier this year.

Jungle myna

Acridotheres fuscus

นกเอีี้้ยงควาย

Chumphon 13.08.10

On our second stop we saw some lesser coucals, a white-throated kingfisher and then more starlings: firstly a couple of vinous-breasted starlings and then soon after a couple of black-collared starling, both lifers. I would have to say these latter starlings are really beautiful, very intricately coloured and that the drawings in my field guides don't really do them justice. According to Chukiat the books show them as resident all over Thailand but he reckons he is the only person to have seen them in Chumphon and he added that I can now claim to be the second birder to have seen black-collared starling there! And then two asian pied starling flew in just for good measure.

We then had a short drive along the coast near Chumphon which yielded a Malaysian plover, a curlew, a few sand plovers, pacific reef egret, (dark morph), little heron and a fair few common sandpipers. These latter fellows must be recent arrivals. We then went to a local school in Chumphon to see asian glossy starling, one of my favourite birds, and while there a jungle myna popped up to say hello. I got my digiscope rig out and managed to catch a couple of shots. Not bad, seven sturnidae in a morning. Thanks to Chukiat for a fascinating morning.

On Saturday Luna, Benedict & I drove out to Mo Kho Chumphon National Park where we had a pleasant walk in the new mangrove walkway. It didn't yield many birds, a beautiful mangrove whistler, a lifer, collared kingfisher,a little heron and an unidentified little one, maybe an olive backed sunbird.

Little heron

butorides striatus

นกเยางเขียว

Chumphon 14.08.10

The mangrove walkway next to the park headquarters has been completed recently and I have to say it will be difficult to find a better mangrove walkway in Thailand. It covers a considerable area on both sides of a river, connected by a bridge. We were able to wheel a baby buggy around it without too much difficulty though I think it would be impractical for a wheelchair. Great facilities including usable (clean!) toilets, a restaurant and very helpful and friendly staff. In a different season at a different time this mangrove may yield some very good birds. Definitely recommended and I'd be interested to hear reports from other visitors.

The Digiscoping Curve

River lapwing, vanellus duvaucelii, 

Huai Mai Teng Reservoir

Ratchaburi Province

1st August 2010

I am not altogether sure if my digiscoping curve is going up or down. All I can say is it is getting me pictures of birds that my point and shoot DSLR couldn't unless it was fitted with a big telephoto lens. Of course this type of photography is is not easy. It is not easy getting the bird into the viewfinder before any consideration of focus. As you may appreciate these creatures move quickly especially the little ones! I have the bird in the viewfinder and just as I am about to shoot it flies off. Focussing is very difficult too. Many dud shots. Masses of vibration and movement and ...well I am proud of the efforts below. They are by no means perfect but they suggest I am heading in the right direction.

So my plan to get up early and head for Huai Mai Teng Reservoir didn't materialise. I made it there about 14:00h and I am delighted to report there were 3 river lapwing on the premises and one photograph is publishable after some cropping. Below are some other samples form today.

Sadly I missed out on a number of good birds, notably a pied kingfisher which was fishing.......dreams of  shooting it as it hits the water! Dream on. I struggled to get the scope onto it as it perched on a post. Must be one of my favourite birds. I desperately want to see the crested kingfisher to get a perspective on how it compares with the pied.

I went home feeling pissed off thinking I hadn't managed any decent shots. These are not award winners but they are, as I have said, real progress. Hopelessly smitten!

Digiscoping: A Beginning

Ah some geeky techno stuff for those of you with a fondness for anoraks and car coats, preferably purchased from C & A. I happen to have a top of the range telescope, a Kowa 883 and it is a brilliant sighting tool, especially for shore birds, although its use in forests and more confined areas is slightly limited, just a little bit!

Now on starting to look at birds seriously I soon realised that it is possible to fit a camera to a telescope and take advantage of the lens for taking photographs: digiscoping. As I have come to realise this is an art form and until recently it has only been an idea in the recess of my head. I was really unsure about how to get started specifically what camera to use and how to fix it to my scope.

Well we are up and running. Here are some offerings from a combination of my Kowa 883, 20 - 60 mm eye piece and Nikon P5100. Please allow me a learning curve!

A large-billed crow, Lumphini Park, Bangkok

Some turtles, Phutthamonthon Park, Bangkok

Silhouetted oriental magpie robin

 Phutthamonthon Park, Bangkok

Monitor lizard, Phutthamonthon Park, Bangkok

Asian openbill, local, Ratchaburi

Cattle egret, local, Ratchaburi

Open bill, local Ratchaburi

now you know why it is called "openbill"!

Streak-eared bulbul, local, Ratchaburi

again you can see why it is called streak-eared!

My dear readers I am hopelessly smitten. The potential of digiscoping is frightening. Let us say, however, it is fraught with difficulties and I have quite literally stuck my toe into a very large pond. Progress has been difficult, much frustration, but initial results tell me it is very promising.

Oh and I have the notebook back, repaired and upgraded and it appears to be in very good order. More later and expect improvements as I now have an instruction manual for the camera.

A Day in Kaeng Krachan National Park

On Monday morning, 19th July 2010, I managed an early start and was up at 03:30h and was on the road to Kaeng Krachan at 04:00h. I was at the park gates for 06:00 and my Thai drivers license and school ID card secured me and my truck entry into the park for 70 baht (about 1.40 GBP or $US 2.00), saving a few baht. I have to say the drivers license, which cost about 100 baht all told, has saved me a fortune over the last year.

It was a greyish, cool morning and I resolved that I was going to try to make it to the higher ground. I stopped, however, to view three very elegant female jungle fowl walking along the road which was generously covered in large mounds of elephant dung.These girls are  not quite as striking as the males with their flamboyant yellow hackles, but nevertheless good looking birds;a car with a couple of western birders slowed to have a look and moved on without too much hanging around.  A little bit later I stopped to view some unidentified birds.  My notes say of one a "..largish bill, brown head and neck then yellowish breast and belly, pink legs and a sharp call". 24 hours later I cannot make an identification. I have to own that there were a significant number of unidentified birds today, at least twenty!

Alas my truck could not negotiate the final section of the road to the summit station and I had to reverse down for a hair raising half kilometre and ended up spending the greater part of the day between Ban Krung, the mid-station so to speak and Stream 3 as it is known. This actually worked out very well but at the onset I had some doubts especially when 2 tailorbirds started to dart around the lower scrub. I thought maybe these are mountain tailorbirds and consulted the fieldbook (Robson) and saw there was also a dark-necked tailorbird, new one to me I hasten to add, so when I restored my eyes to the optics the birds had legged it!All I can say is I do not think they were common tailorbirds!

Throughout the day I had good views of emerald doves feeding on the road and this was the first bird I saw after the tailorbirds. I then managed to snatch a very quick view of an aerial great hornbill flying high above the canopy. The striking feature which made identification possible was the white band across its wings. It always feels good to see a hornbill in the jungle. Soon after I sighted a dusky broadbill in the trees. What an astonishing looking bird, straight out of Walt Disney. This bird didn't hang around for very long but was unmistakable due to its enormous red bill plus what Robson describes as its "beige bib".

A few minutes later I was joined briefly by the birders who had passed me earlier in the day, a Swedish couple led by Mr Piyat, a local guide whom we have engaged in the past. They had just seen blue pitta near where I had seen the tailorbirds and told me there were also reports of hooded pitta being in the area.Mr Piyat had overtaken me on the way up the mountain and was amused but not surprised that my vehicle had not made it to the top.

I had some nice views of greater flameback, an asian pardise flycatcher, some sultan tits involved in very vigorous courting, ochraceous bulbul and a good few unidentifieds including a barbet, and to be frank had I taken a better description I would have been able to name it. As much as the birds I was just enjoying being in the forest and walking up and down the track at my leisure, catching glimpses and hearing the sounds of the birds and other animals around me. Plus I have been suffering from an unending series of respiratory infections recently and it felt great to be breathing in good, clean forest air.

I went down to the ranger station in pursuit of lunch and one of the rangers said there was no food. Another problem, I thought, as I was hoping to spend the entire day in the park. He then asked me if I wanted some rice, and an omelette and I said :"Sure" and he went off and made this with his own fair hand and served it up with a bottle of water and some chilli sauce. When I went to pay him he refused to take my money and in that nice Thai way smiled and said "Mai bpen rai". Now I am often critical of tourist type services in Thailand but this definitely ranks as one of the great things about Thailand: the sudden, unexpected generosity and kindness of people. These are the people, and there are a good few of them, that have built Thailand's reputation as a great place to vist. So thank you Mr Ranger. He steered me towards Stream 3 as I decided I would like to pursue kingfishers in the afternoon.

I was very happy walking upand down the streams and was in no particular hurry. There were plenty of decent birds, more flamebacks and sultan tits, but no kingfishers. I wasn't concerned about what I saw. I got excited when I saw a green dove with a brown upper body and thought this must be something new as it is was not an emerald dove. Robson quickly confirmed it to be the female emerald dove and what a nice bird she was to. Also good to be able to distinguish some of these male and females. I tried looking for the blue pitta but drew no luck there.

Later in the afternoon I bumped into Mr Piyat and his clients again.  We had a good view of more flamebacks and they went off looking for kingfishers. I went into the forest and managed to get cover behind a tree where I got some great views of what I thought was a greater flameback. I thought this until tonight, Tuesday, when I looked at my photographs and compared them with the drawings in Robson. There is no doubt that I photographed a grey-headed woodpecker, a lifer no less and not a common or garden bird either! And while I have only looked at the photos in the camera display they look reasonable and are certainly good enough to support this identification.

Mr Piyat and his clients then came into the forest convinced they could hear hooded pitta and a few minutes later we caught a few glimpses of this really striking bird on the forest floor. The colours are amazing, a pastel green body with turquoise topped wings and lower back, and a black head with a  brown crown. Once more, straight out of Disney. Another lifer no less. Talk about good fortune on the one hand, combined with laughable ineptitude on the other. I hung around in a vain attempt to get a photograph of the pitta but he didn't prevail and I really didn't want to cause the bird any distress. I was amazed  that the Swedish guy literally saw the hooded pitta and then made his farewells and off they went. I felt very relieved in fact that I am not under any pressure to get birds in the bag, so to speak. I also thought maybe this guy is a somebody in the scientific community, because he spoke impeccable English with a very plummy accent and he did say he was on his way to a conference in Singapore. Anyway my apologies if I didn't treat you with due deference and respect!

I began the drive out of the park very content with my day's birding. I stopped at one of the bridges and had a good view of what I thought was a greater flameback but just thought I should check the book to be sure. And of course there is the possibility that it might have been a common flameback. You know that kind of sums up the day. I really need to do some preparation so that when I see birds for a few seconds I can be much sharper on my identification. But for me it was a great day, just what I needed. And I took the wrong road out of the park but it was headed to Petchaburi and it took me straight to the road I take to get home and it cut about 30 minutes off my drive, completely avoiding the very avoidable town of Kaeng Krachan. I made it door to door in 90 minutes.This means I'll go back in about a month and I think I will engage Mr Piyat with his motor so we can get to the upper area.

My notebook has been repaired and is ready for collection in Bangkok where we are headed this weekend. I'll post the pics of the grey-headed woodpecker some time next week. Not a brilliant pic but it will do!

grey-headed woodpecker, Kaeng Krachan, 19th July 2010

Huai Mai Teng Reservoir, Ratchaburi Province

I finally made it out birding Sunday afternoon, 11th July 2010, for the first time in quite a while and what fun I had. I only took a few pihotographs mainly because my notebook has crashed so will not be able to load any photos for the immediate future. Huai Mai Teng reservoir and the surrounding area is a great place to bird and doesn't get much coverage although I have recently seen a report from one of Thailand's foremost expatriate birders and a photograph of a river lapwing on www.discoverythai.com   by a local bird photographer.

I am fond of this reservoir because I pulled it out of nowhere so to speak, simply by looking at a map of Ratchaburi province and noticing the large amount of water marked. In my very unscientific manner  I concluded that there must be a lot of birds there and headed out one day about this time last year to find the reservoir and a couple of weeks later I almost ran over 4 river lapwings, the first observations I reported. Of course these were credited to someone else! And since then I have always seen  interesting birds when I visit.

Today was no exception, in fact today might be considered as one of my best at this site. There was one river lapwing and I was actually thrilled that it was there as I went there hoping to see this it. Other highlights were two pied kingfishers, a black bittern and a cinnamon bittern.

Here is the list for the day: green bee-eater, red-wattled lapwing, plain backed sparrow, bushlark (u/i), blue-throated bee-eater, river lapwing, little egret,cattle egret, little cormorant, openbill, lesser whistling duck, paddyfield pipit, pied starling, chinese pond heron, common myna, black-winged stilt ( 1 only!), black-headed bulbul, black-shouldered kite, sooty-headed bulbul, common iora, plain prinia, pied fantail, white-throated kingfisher, golden weaver, great egret, cinnamon bittern, pied kingfisher, black bittern, bronze-winged jacana and little ringed plover. A couple of other unidentifieds...little brown jobs!

A very pleasant few hours and one of the local fishermen to whom I pointed out  the river lapwing advised me to get there early in the morning as there were a lot more birds.I shall try......I remember when I did make it there and almost drove over 4 black kites , three of which are the top photo and then stumbled on a greater spotted eagle resting in a tree.