Dartford Waffler

Whilst I am not a twitcher (tried it and don’t like it at all), nor do I usually chase birds in any way, I do keep all sorts of lists as I find that doing so keeps my enthusiasm going. Of course I have kept year lists for many years, but never go looking for birds just to get a big list, just that it is interesting to see how each year varies.

In 2009 I spent a far greater time out birding than I ever have before and of course this resulted in my biggest year list ever; 648 species in Thailand in 2009.

Highlights for me in 2009 included a couple of sightings of Cutia at Doi Lang, a fantastic Diard’s Trogon at Khao Nor Chu Chi and a couple of seldom seen species at Kaeng Krachan - Rufous-browed Flycatcher and Ferruginous Partridge, both of which I got to see a couple of times.

In 2009 I finally caught up with some migrants that are common back in UK but I had never before seen in Thailand; Great Cormorant, Gadwall, Mallard, Common Teal, Common Ringed Plover, Common Shelduck, Northern House Martin are a few of these.

I will be keeping a year list for 2010 too but it will be difficult to top 2009.

Walking along Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, this afternoon I heard the distinctive call of a Chiffchaff above the roar of the traffic. Wow! This would be a new bird for Thailand!

The call was coming from some trees in nearby Chavit park, a small park created a few years ago to make some green space in the concrete jungle, and was easy to track down quickly to perch in a tree about 2 metres of off the ground; right above my head.

Unfortunately the song was coming from a speaker mounted on a tree; indeed my suspicions had been aroused beforehand as the Chiffchaff’s call was backed up by a number of other northern European birds. It seems that the park keepers had decided that the ambience of the park would be improved with the addition of some bird song, and it was quite pleasant, just that the species were a little out of place in Bangkok.

I recently had a couple of visits to Chiang Saen in Chiang Rai province which proved very interesting for some unusual winter migrants. Chiang Saen is close to lots of wetland areas including Chiang Saen lake, Yonok wetlands and The Mekong but there are interesting areas all around to investigate.

Chiang Saen Lake
The lake is not quite the birding spot it once was with its permanently raised water levels there are few marginal areas for birds to feed in but there are still some good birds to be found. Some of the more regular birds included Pintail Snipe, Citrine Wagtail, Purple Swamphen, Grey-headed Lapwing, Lesser Whistling Duck, Spot-billed Duck and Dusky Warbler but on checking the duck flock I found some interesting species.

Observing the ducks here takes some time because the birds are at great distance. One has to wait until the ducks get close and/or find a secluded place to watch the birds from close to where they like to feed. After spending a lot of time I found the following species on 11th December: Mallard, Gadwall, Garganey, Baer’s Pochard, Tufted Duck, Ferruginous Pochard, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, Eurasian Wigeon and Common Shelduck.

Baer’s Pochard is now is an endangered species and there was a male and female present. Mick Davies and Dowroong Danlamajak have been reporting a female Baer’s Pochard from the lake since late November and I saw the same pair again on the 21st December so they are obviously in the area for the winter.

Also on 11th December I saw a subadult Common Crane at Chiang Saen lake. As far as I am aware this is only the 3rd record for Thailand. I got a record shot of the bird.

Common Crane (Photo by Nick Upton)

Some other nice birds at the lake were 2 Siberian Rubythroats, Chestnut-tailed Starling and Red-throated Pipit.

On my second visit on 21st December I checked the ducks again and saw these: Mallard, Northern Shoveler, Baer’s Pochard, Common Teal, Garganey, Spot-billed Duck, Lesser Whistling Duck, Northern Pintail, Ferruginous Duck, Tufted Duck, Gadwall and 1 female Baikal Teal. This last bird is apparently only the second record for Thailand and I will submit a description and my field sketch to the Thai Record’s Comittee to see if it is accepted.

The Mekong
On 10th December to 12th December the water levels of the river were pretty high and very few birds were seen. We did see a female Peregrine and an osprey on sand bars and 13 River Lapwings. Eventually a Long-billed Plover was found on some sand and gravel at the back of an old warehouse on the river. This spot can be found by heading towards the Golden Triangle from Chiang saen town. After a few kilometres there is this sort of white geodesic dome on the right. Enter here and go to the river where birds are foraging on mud, sand and gravel close to the river bank.

On 21st December the water levels were much reduced and many birds were feeding in the area described above. These included many Temminck’s Stints, many Little Ringed Plovers, a few Kentish Plovers, 17 River Lapwings, 2 Common Snipe, 2 Long-billed Plovers, a few Long-toed Stints, a few Common Greenshank, 12 Spotted Redshank, 10+Citrine Wagtails and many White Wagtails. For me the most interesting bird was a Common Ringed Plover which I spotted because of its bright orange legs. Whilst this is a common bird in Europe there are very few records in Thailand.

Yonok
This area has some good birds and interesting areas to investigate. At one of the harrier roosts 60-70 birds came in on 10th and 11th December, mostly male Pied Harriers but good numbers of Eastern Marsh Harriers and 1 male Western Marsh Harrier.

Only 1 Small Pratincole was seen on the Mekong but at Yonok there were a few resting on mud and hundreds flying around at dusk.

Close to Yonok on 12th December some burnt rice stubble produced some farmland species that apparently used to be common but are not now. This included 100s of Red-throated Pipits and 1 Rosy Pipit. Alos many Yellow, White and Citrine Wagtails, Bluethroat, Oriental Skylark and 6 Chestnut-eared Buntings.

Other Birds
Chiang Saen has a lot to offer other than the sites I have mentioned. With so many rice fields and other wetlands other birds are waiting to be found.

I was told that a Chestnut-crowned Bush Warbler has recently been seen along with Falcated Duck. Mick Davies also has sensible sounding claims to Lesser Kestrel and Great Snipe in the last few months, both would be new for Thailand.

Both Grass Owl and River Tern have regularly been seen at Yonok over the last few years but I didn’t see them this time. The tern may have disappeared but the owls are still around, I just didn’t put any effort into looking for them.

This morning I had an unexpected visitor to my front yard. Whilst I am used to seeing Olive-backed Sunbirds every day, this fledgling Scaly-breasted Munia was a bit more of a surprise, particularly as it flew out of the plants at me as I was watering them.

Fledgling Scaly-breasted Munia
Photo by Nick Upton

Actually, I should not have been so surprised as a pair of Scaly-breasted Munias constantly nest in some bamboo in a neighbours yard. Scaly-breasted Munia is one of Thailand’s resident birds that breeds all year round and this pair make a new nest as soon as the chicks are fledged.

I watched this chick for a while and it was able to fly around okay and its mother was in attendance the whole time, feeding it when it called for food.

I recently spent two days at Laem Pak Bia and Pak Thale (6th & 7th November). After reporting some problems with the road into the Spoon-billed Sandpiper site at Pak Thale I am happy to say that the road has been finished and it is now negotiable by any vehicle again.

Spoon-billed Sandpiper
On the 6th I saw two Spoon-billed Sandpipers at Pak Thale and 1 on the 7th. I am sure the second bird was also present on the 7th but in a large flock of small waders virtually every bird was roosting will its bill tucked under its wing until workers on the salt pans flushed all the birds which then dispersed over a wide area.

I have been told that a survey in Russia has produced some bad news; in an area which previously held 200 Spoon-billed sandpipers on the bird’s breeding grounds, only 2 were found! With only 2 birds present at Pak Thale on 7th November and none reported from Khok Kham by 5th November things are a bit worrying.

Some Other Birds
Other birds which have been seen in the area include 1 Dunlin, Terek Sandpiper and Grey-tailed Tattler at Pak Thale, plus a few Nordmann’s Greenshank. At least 32 Nordmann’s Greenshank on salt pans at Laem Pak Bia on 6th was the largest count so far this winter.

Sand Spit
So far, on the sand spit, 1 White-faced Plover, as many as 3 Chinese Egrets, 2 Pacific Reef Egrets, a few Greater Crested Terns and Lesser Crested Terns have been reported. As far as I know no large gulls have been seen yet.

There are lots of great birds to see in Thailand but one of the best, to me, is the Great Hornbill. Whilst it is not the rarest bird, it is certainly one of the most memorable and any sighting is a highlight in my book: a few years ago I did a survey and Great Hornbill was voted the third most wanted bird by birders visiting Thailand.

Buy at AllPosters.com

Great Hornbills are striking looking birds but when you hear them flying over the forest canopy the sound is amazing. I have had people ask me in the past if a helicopter is over head; the surprise on their faces when I tell them it is a Great Hornbill is quite funny.

I see Great Hornbills virtually every time I go to Kaeng Krachan or Khao Yai national parks, but it is one of those birds I never tire of seeing and every time it is one of the highlights of the trip for me.

I spent a couple of days with my wife in Petchaburi province on 29th and 30th October doing some birdwatching and some lazing on the beach.

On the afternoon of 29th I headed to Pak Thale to see if I could find a returning Spoon-billed Sandpiper. A new road was being layed part the way into the site and I was unable to drive in, leaving me with a long and hot walk. The workers said it would be finished in three days though. They were laying a concrete road and where it joins the dirt road towards the sandpiper site there is now a large drop of about 7-8 inches. Unless something is done about this, access to the site will be impossible in a saloon car or even a minibus. A vehicle with very good ground clearance will be needed. I will look at the situation on my next visit.

Despite much searching I could not see any Spoon-billed Sandpipers. Lots of commoner waders were present - Marsh Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank, Broad-billed Sandpiper, Rufous-necked Stint, Long-toed Stint, Temminck’s Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Eurasian Curlew, Common Greenshank, Lesser Sand Plover, Greater Sand Plover, Kentish Plover, Black-winged Stilt, Common Sandpiper. Also seen were about a dozen Great Knot, 1 Turnstone and 1 Grey-tailed Tattler.

Having sweated myself silly I moved off and checked some wader flocks on my back to Had Chao Samran. Somewhere near the sign which demarcates the boudary between Laem Pak Bia and Pak Thale I checked out a flock of stints and found a single Spoon-billed Sandpiper amongst them! Hooray, it’s back!

I checked out a couple of other spots and found lots of Brown-headed Gulls with a Caspian Terna dna Black-headed Gull, a flock of c40 White-shouldered Starlings gathering to roost with huge numbers of White-vented Mynas and in some freshwater wetlands a Painted Stork was in the company of an Asian Openbill, a male Painted Snipe and 2 Purple Herons.

Khao Look Chang
A few months ago David Scott took me to some dry dipterocarp woodland at Khao Look Chang, Petchaburi. My wife and I went there for a quick look on 30th October. We arrived at 11.30am so I didn’t really expect much, however, within 30  minutes I had seen an Asian Barred Owlet, 5 Black-headed Woodpeckers, 4 Lineated Barbets, 5 Greater Racket-tailed Drongos, 1 Spangled Drongo, 1 Green-billed Malkoha, 1 Rufous Treepie and a Puff-throated Babbler, not bad for such a quick stop in the middle of the day.

Khao Yoi
Later in the day (about 4.30pm) we were nosing around in rice fields near Khao Yoi. Most of the normal birds for that habitat were easily seen but most impressive was a flock of Black Kites. At first I saw 2 birds but then noticed many more sitting in palm trees. Through my telescope I could see that there were large numbers in all the surrounding palms and more birds began to descend from above. I counted an impressive 473 Black Kites sitting in trees and wheeling around in the sky but with many many more high above and many birds unviewable on the blind side of the trees I would imagine the real total to be somewhere between 6-700.

As we were leaving a superb adult male eastern Marsh Harrier flew alongside the car, hunting over rice fields.

Some time ago Louise Truslow contacted me asking where she could go to see birds in large flocks. I suggested wetlands around Petchaburi as a great place to look. The reason she wanted to know was to get some ideas for a series of oil paintings of birds.

It seems that she found what she was looking for as now she has an exhibition of her bird art at the Neilson Hays library in Suriwong Road, Bangkok; she has very kindly invited me to the opening of the exhibition this evening.

The exhibition will run through October and the paintings will be auctioned to raise funds for the care of HIV orphans.

Here is an example of her artwork.

More information on the exhibition can be found on Lousie’s own website: Louise Truslow; When Kingfishers catch Fire.

Back in Thailand I have been going over my notes from my 5 week visit to England. It wasn’t really a birding trip, just a visit home, although I did go out birding a fair bit.

In total I saw 129 species. The best of which I suppose were Red-backed Shrike, Great Egret and Glossy Ibis. For me though the highlights were some of the more mundane species that I only get to see when back home.

I always enjoy seeing Treecreepers and I only saw a few which made the sightings even nicer. I got great satisfaction out of a flock of 5 Corn Buntings near my home - birds which breed in that area but in late summer are hard to find. 3 yellowhammer sightings, all within a short walk of home, were lovely and some summer visitors which I haven’t seen for years; Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat and Cuckoo were great too.

There seems to have been a mini invasion of Glossy Ibises into Britain over the last week with around half a dozen birds present. Last Thursday I caught up with one at Stodmarsh in Kent, the first time I have seen this species in Britain. However, I have seen plenty of them in India and Thailand where, at Bueng Boraphet, they seem to be increasing in numbers quite rapidly.

The amusing thing for me was that while quite a number of bird watchers were all concentrating on this UK rarity I was more interested in some of the commoner British species; I was particularly happy to see Cetti’s Warbler and Reed Warbler, birds that I hadn’t seen for over 2 years.

The Glossy Ibis was a nice bird to see, but it was a bit far away to photograph, instead here is a photo that I took in Thailand back in March.

Glossy Ibises
(Photo by Nick Upton)

birds, birding, nature