Dartford Waffler

Whilst lazing around on the beach last week at Hat Chao Samran I decided to expand my skills as a naturalist and go shell collecting! The only issue constraining this self-improvement is my complete lack of any book to help me identify what I found.

Quite an amazing variety of shells were easily found on the various strandlines on the beach. Many of the shells were tiny or just fragments of larger shells, but here is a gallery of the complete shells that I collected in about 30 minutes.

If anyone can shed any light on the identity of these shells please get in touch with me.

shells, thailand, nature

At the weekend my wife and I took a trip to the beach at Hat Chao Samran, in the Laem Pak Bia area. Now, this was never supposed to be a birding trip but I take my binoculars everywhere so I can grab any opportunity to look at something with feathers.

Beach Food
A short drive up the beach from the main parking area at Hat Chao Samran takes one to a small selection of seafood restaurants that spill onto the beach itself. The food in most of these shops is good and fairly cheap, so my wife and I decided to spend the afternoon stuffing our faces and sitting on the beach.

Out to sea a number of Little Terns were fishing, including a number of juveniles. One bird I watched caught a fish and flew up high with it before tossing it into the air. As the fish fell, the tern caught it again in mid air and performed the same trick twice more; interesting behaviour. Other birds from the beach included Little Egrets, Red Collared Dove, Blue-tailed Bee-eater and an unidentified Accipiter.

The King’s Project
After about 4 hours of eating, napping and reading it began to cool down a little and I suggested a drive around the King’s Project area to see some birds. This spot is always packed with birds and they can be approached very closely in the car. At this time of the year it was mostly only common species to be seen, but they make quite a sight at only a few metres distance. Even a photography dullard like myself can get some interesting shots by sticking a compact digital camera out of the car window and randomly pressing the button.

With this series of pictures I put the camera on action mode and held down the botton. Okay, so they aren’t the best Little Cormorant pictures you will ever see but I like the effect of the series of shots - a bit like one of those flicker books kids make.

As we left the King’s Project the rain began which made a couple of football-playing monks run away for shelter. Both of us felt like staying so we decided to head to Cha-Am to find a hotel and some bars and restaurants for the evening.

Cha-Am
My advice would be forget Cha-Am as a destination for anything. The beach road is overdeveloped, the beach not so great and at this time of year it was dead at night. With such a huge number of places to stay and hardly anyone there we easily found a reasonable room with air-con for 500baht. I have heard that the tourist industry is suffering in Thailand and I would suggest that it because of rampant overdevelopment, flooding of the market with poor quality resorts and services and the fact that many of these beaches just are not nice at all.

Despite this we had a pleasant evening and in the morning Blue-tailed Bee-eaters were abundant in the trees along the beach and a pair of White-rumped Munias were in the hotle car park. At the far north end of the beach there was a group of 7 Pacific Reef Egrets - 1 dark morph and 6 white.

birds, birding, thailand, nature, national parks

Male & female Olive-backed Sunbirds by Johan Svensson

Olive-backed Sunbird (Nectarinia jugularis) is one of those species that gets widely overlooked when birdwatching in Thailand; it is small, it is not particularly colourful (although the male is attractive enough) and it is commonest in habitats such as parks and gardens in which birdwatchers don’t spend much time. It is, however, quite remarkable for its adaptability, being found in virtually all habitats from mangroves, to forest edge: in fact, Olive-backed Sunbird is so ecologically tolerant that it is common even in plantations and cities, making it Thailand’s most abundant and widespread sunbird as this range map and accompanying text from A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand indicate.

Olive-backed Sunbird in Bangkok’s Parks
For those intending a birding vacation in Thailand, Olive-backed Sunbird is almost certainly going to be seen, but it is by visiting a park that the best and most protracted views are likely to be obtained, where the species is very common: Lumphini Park, Suan Rot Fai and Suan Luang in Bangkok are all good places to study this interesting little bird. 

Olive-backed Sunbird in Gardens
Olive-backed Sunbird takes nectar from flowers, as the scientific name suggests, as well as taking insects from leaves and spider’s webs and it is interesting to see that it pierces the base of the flower to “steal” the nectar rather than taking it from the flower’s aperture and effecting pollination. I quite often get the opportunity to watch this interesting behaviour as I have my breakfast in the morning when a pair of Olive-backed Sunbirds visit some flowering plants in our yard; sometimes it feels like we are having breakfast together. The flowers they favour in our yard are tiny, clustered affairs that don’t seem to have an opening and piercing the flower is the only way for the sunbirds to get in to the nectar.

Sunbird-attracting Flowers by Nick Upton

In fact that Olive-backed Sunbirds make it into our tiny front yard at all is proof of how ecologically tolerant the species is: we have a small corner filled with pot plants in a street where the only vegetation is in the form of similar collections of pot plants in people’s yards and balconies. The area I live in is quite built up but there are a few areas of wasteland and fruit orchards remaining within a few hundred metres or so, however, this pair of sunbirds nests in a neighbour’s yard and seem to spend their whole time in this one street.

The small collection of plants in my yard that attracts sunbirds

The street I live in along with a pair of Olive-backed Sunbirds

The two above photos give some idea of how adaptable Olive-backed Sunbirds are in their habitat requirements: this is one of the few species that, happily, can live alongside humans in urban areas. Species such as this are important in connecting city dwellers with nature; this pair have certainly engaged my wife’s niece and nephew who wait for the sunbirds to appear on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Observing & Photographing Olive-backed Sunbird Behaviour
Rather unusually for a small bird, Olive-backed Sunbird’s usual cluth size is just 2; one would assume that the energy expended in collecting enough nectar and insects for more than two young would push the parents beyond their limits of endurance. The nest is an untidy but complicated sac which hangs from vegetation and can frequently be found in gardens in Bangkok - the abundance of this species would certainly make it an interesting subject for armchair ornithologists to study: certainly photographers find it a good subject as these lovely photos by Peter Ericsson prove.

Female Olive-backed Sunbird by Peter Ericsson

Male Olive-backed Sunbird by Peter Ericsson

For more photos of Olive-backed Sunbird check out Johan Svensson’s beautiful collection of pictures of this species: Olive-backed Sunbird.

Those interested in learning much more about Olive-backed Sunbird and other sunbirds should get hold of a copy of Sunbirds: A Guide to the Sunbirds, Spiderhunters, Sugarbirds and Flowerpeckers of the World (Helm Identification Guides), it is available for less than £10 ($20).

Acknowledgements: Some of the information here comes from Phil Round’s book The Birds of the Bangkok Area.

birds, birding, thailand, nature

Having recently discussed the addition of Slaty-backed Gull to the Thai list, it seems only natural to talk about this excellent book which attempts to deal with all the races of large gulls that have caused so much confusion over recent years, as well as all the other, more well-understood gull species.

A large book, and not cheap to buy, but certainly the most up-to-date and comprehensive book on gulls currently available. There are detailed sections on all species with colour plates and many photos for each species and race. Without this publication birders have a limited chance of separating birds such as Slaty-backed Gull, Heuglin’s Gull, Vega Gull, Herring Gull, Mongolian Gull, Caspian Gull etc. The photos of Slaty-backed Gull in this book certainly prove that it would have made identification of Thailand’s Slaty-backed Gull relatively easy had it been available to the observers.

I have been using this publication for nearly 2 years now and it helped me get to grips with Yellow-legged, Caspian and both argentatus and argenteus races of Herring Gull in UK; hopefully it will help me find species such as Mongolian Gull, Slaty-backed Gull, and perhaps others, in Thailand.

Whilst very helpful in learning about tricky to identify gulls, the number of difficult to separate species and details on moult pattern can be confusing. It is also worth noting that this publication is not the final word on gull taxonomy and there are likely to be more splits in the future; fortunately all the races known are covered here and if and when any are split it will be fairly easy to understand what has happened.

birds, birding, thailand, nature, books

Craig Robson’s Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand, published in 2002 did a great job of updating older field guides, particularly with the inclusion of species which had been added to the Thai list since publication of Lekagul & Round’s Guide. However, since then even more species have been added, so many that the Robson guidebook is beginning to look rather out of date already. A revised version of lekagul and Round is available in Asia Book Stores in Thailand which depicts many of the most recent additions to Thailand’s avifauna, but for non Thai readers, the bad news is it is only available in Thai - still, the pictures and range maps are clear enough for all.

On thaibirding.com I keep a list of the newest additions that I know of here: Recent Additions to Thai Checklist, there are notes on all the species mentioned.

The most recent addition is Slaty-backed Gull; read more about its discovery in Thailand here: Slaty-backed Gull.

1st Winter Slaty-backed Gull by Alex Vargas

The additions to the Thai checklist since the publication of Robson, as I know them, are:

• Pallid Harrier
• Long-tailed Wren Babbler
• Chestnut-cheeked Starling
• Mew Gull
• Greater Scaup
• Isabelline Wheatear
• Demoiselle Crane
• Red-headed Bunting
• Red-billed Starling
• Lesser Black-backed Gull
• Grey Phalarope
• Large-billed Reed Warbler
• Grass Owl
• Mekong Wagtail
• Spotted Wren Babbler
• Little Gull
• Mongolian Gull
• Black-necked Grebe
• Long-tailed Duck
• Slaty-backed Gull

For more information on the additions take a look at the annotated list here: Recent Additions to Thai Checklist.

birds, birding, thailand, nature

Sometimes it is nice to broaden ones appreciation of nature; it is all too easy to become too focused on birding in Thailand with so many species to find; so whilst counting waterbirds at Muang Boran Fishponds on Saturday I found some time to try some photos of the dragonflies and damselflies that are so abundant there. I saw at least 4 species but only managed to get photos of a couple.

One species of bright yellow dragonfly was especially numerous and extremely active and unapproachable, leaving me with just one semi-okay picture, but another species was much easier to get close to and photograph.

Below is one of the better pictures I obtained followed by thumbnails of some others of varying quality.

  thailand, nature, insects

Whilst waterbird counts are conducted in midwinter in Asia through the Asian Midwinter Waterbird Census, the numbers of waterbirds present in the wet season doesn’t seem to attract much attention in Thailand. Having been visiting Muang Boran Fishponds for years I am fully aware of the large numbers of waterbirds present but having read more on the subject, the possibility of it holding significant numbers of some species appeared to me.

On Saturday 7th June I visited the site with the express purpose of counting waterbirds. The full results can be seen here along with some other notes on the observations: Waterbird Count at Muang Boran Fishponds.

The highest numbers were recorded for:

• Cattle Egret - 91
• Indian Cormorant - 83
• Little Grebe - 72
• Pheasant-tailed Jacana - 66
• Bronze-winged Jacana - 65
• Little Cormorant -61
• Javan Pond Heron - 54
• White-browed Crake - 47

Further counts will be conducted over the next few months.

Other Birds
Whilst I focussed my attention on waterbirds, it would take a particularly tunnel-visioned birder not to notice other species. On this visit I saw a total of 50 species in just over 4 hours, with some of the nicer ones being 9 Asian Golden Weavers, 1 Chestnut Munia, 12 Striated Grassbirds, 1 immature Brahminy Kite and juveniles of Oriental Pratincole and Black-winged Stilt.

A couple of birds were of interest due to their timing. 1 Barn Swallow was seen as was a singing Oriental Reed Warbler. Neither of these is normal at this time of year, but neither are they unprecedented; small numbers of Barn Swallows can be found year-round and there are a couple of other rainy season records of Oriental Reed Warbler.

birding, thailand, nature, national parks

On the morning of 5th June I joined Gabby and Alex Vargas for a trip to Bang Pra in Chonburi province in the hope of finding some Quail. Unfortunately, we arrived rather later than hoped which reduced our chances of finding these tricky birds due to the human disturbance that had already begun. However, in the fringing woodland we managed to find 2 Asian Barred Owlets, a pair of Rufous Treepies feeding young, several Greater Racket-tailed Drongos and a group of splendid White-crested Laughingthrushes: Bang Pra is one of the easiest places to see this common but secretive bird.

Finding Quail
Rain Quail, Barred Buttonquail, Yellow-legged Buttonquail, Small Buttonquail and Blue-breasted Quail all occur here, but seeing them is becoming increasingly difficult due to severe habitat degradation. Raised water levels, over grazing, over use by locals and vegetation compaction by birdwatchers’ vehicles has seriously reduced the amount of quail habitat at this site. The below picture illustrates the poor condition of grassland and marginal habitat.

Even with these problems it should be possible to find some of these species by walking around the grassy areas and scanning amongst the vegetation for the birds coming out to feed. Listening out for the call of the Rain Quail is also a good tactic. However, it takes some considerable effort and in the heat and humidity at Bang Pra it can be difficult to persevere; this was the case on this occassion and after a few Indochinese Bushlarks, a single Australasian Bushlark, Zitting Cisticolas and Paddyfield Pipits enthusiasm was low. Patience, perseverance and tolerance of extreme heat and humidity are the keys to finding difficult birds in Thailand so that our brief stroll only produced common birds such as Oriental Pratincole, Great Egret, Little Egret, Black-winged Stilt and Red-wattled Lapwing.

Large Waterbirds
A number of large waterbird species are present at Bang Pra, either feral colonists from the nearby zoo or as releases from the nearby waterbird breeding facility. On this visit we saw a single Spot-billed Pelican circling in the sky and 5 Painted Storks in the shallow water, both of these species have established breeding colonies after escaping from the open zoo at Khao Khieo.

Other good waterbirds seen in the past include Oriental Darter and Malayan Night Heron but on this trip we had to settle for the common birds such as Little Cormorant and Cattle Egret; we did get some nice views of Yellow Bittern however.

Some Common Birds at Bang Pra
Leaving Alex in the car to recover from the heat, Gabby and I walked along a trail to see what we could find. In fact it amounted to very little as by this time it was 10am - hot and low on bird activity. We found a number of the more common birds for the location:

• Long-tailed Shrike
• Sooty-headed Bulbul
• Streak-eared Bulbul
• Plain Prinia
• Common Iora
• Green Bee-eater
• Green-billed Malkoha
• Spotted Dove
• Peaceful Dove
• White-throated Kingfisher
• Asian Pied Starling
• Common Myna
• White-vented Myna
• Pied Fantail
• Greater Coucal
• Oriental Magpie Robin
• Yellow-vented Bulbul

We did find a few less common species too, an immature Chinese Sparrowhawk was most impressive, perched in a tree consuming prey before flying away and a few Brown-backed Needletails amongts the House Swifts and Asian Palm Swifts, soaring overhead.

This relaxed pace did give me time to take a few photographs of the habitat at Bang Pra.

With that we found it was time to leave for some food and refreshment. Arriving late, walking very little and leaving early is not the best policy for birdwatching in Thailand but with so many birds available it is always possible to see something of interest.

Another interesting e-mail arrived in my inbox today, this time from Alex Vargas to let me know that he had spent some time updating his photo galleries on pbase.

Alex has a growing gallery of not only Thai birds but others from around the world. However, his Thai birds photo gallery is the one I spent most time looking at and he has some really nice photos of some really nice birds. Of course, the nature of birdwatching in Thailand means that he still has many species to add to his catalogue, which should allow him to maintain an interest for a long time to come.

I have reproduced here a few of Alex’s photos of birds of Thailand.

Take a look at all of Alex’s photos: http://www.pbase.com/alex_vargas

thailand, birds, birding, nature, photography

Excuse the terrible pun but I just received a very interesting e-mail from Ian Smith, of Viang Yonok Hotel in Chiang Saen, which I thought I would share. 

“We have noticed how agressive the Common Mynas are. Every day they dive bomb one of our cats when she walks out into the garden. At first we thought it was just because she was in the vicinity of their nest, even though this is high up in the roof our our entrance gateway. Then this got worse until they divebomb her wherever she is in the garden. They even do it to the dogs sometimes. 30 minutes ago, our gardener came running with a female Koel which was being attacked by two Mynas. He rescued her and I’ve put her in a cardboard box for a couple of hours. A male was also attacked but is still in the tree.”

Here are the two pictures Ian sent me.

 What is the Explanation for this?

These two birds appear to be juveniles, the first a male and the second being a female. Koels are nest parasitic in the same way as Cuckoos, and Mynas are often used as host species; in early May I saw 2 male Koels being fed by a pair of Black-collared Starlings close to Kaeng Krachan National Park. It is strange that the Mynas which could be the host parents were seen attacking the Koels as once the host species has accepted the parasite they usually take care of them until fully fledged, indeed the two males I saw being fed were in virtual adult plumage. It could be possible that another species has hosted these Koels and the Mynas recognise them as nest parasites, although I would have thought that Ian would have seen the real host parents,  or that as the chicks get close to adult plumage the Mynas have realised their mistake.

From Ian’s description of the Mynas attacking cats and dogs it certainly seems like he has a particularly aggressive pair on his property. Another example of what makes birdwatching in Thailand so interesting.

birds, birding, nature, thailand