White-eyed River Martin is the dream of every birdwatcher in Thailand and whilst I did not have any pretensions of finding it, I did head to Bueng Boraphet in Nakorn Sawan province, where the River Martin was last seen in 1978, for a couple of days with Alex Vargas.

On the morning of 13th August we drove to Bueng Boraphet and headed straight for the “bird park” on the southern shore of the lake and took a boat trip with Mr Panom. The boat was a reasonably large, flat-bottomed thing with seats and an open front and sides, making for good viewing. At this time of the year things are fairly quiet and there were fewer birds than we would see on a similar trip in the “winter”. However, there were good numbers of Spot-billed Pelicans with at least 40 birds present and we were able to get quite close; close enough to get a couple of reasonable photos with just my compact camera.

As we travelled around the lake it was easy to get great views of Pheasant-tailed Jacana and Bronze-winged Jacana too, with plenty of juveniles to see. Other waterbirds that were abundant were Asian Openbill, Purple Swamphen, Little Grebe, Great Egret, Little Egret, Purple Heron, Little Cormorant and Yellow Bittern. Although things were quiet we had a few highlights, one being a Barn Owl perched in some waterside vegetation which we were able to approach quiet closely. Another good bird was an Oriental Darter which we got close to and 3 White-winged Terns were interesting migrants.

On the way back to the shore we came across a Cinnamon Bittern, some Lesser Whistling Ducks, a White-browed Crake and a Little Grebe with two chicks on its back – a very cute scene.

Bueng Boraphet is not all about waterbirds, there is a good helping of open-country species to see too; we saw plenty of Baya Weavers and their nests and quite a few Blue-tailed Bee-eaters. Other species included Chestnut Munia, Scaly-breasted Munia, Indian Roller, White-throated Kingfisher, Pied Fantail and of course lots more of the commonest open-country species.

After the boat ride we headed into Nakorn Sawan for lunch in Pizza Hut which left us a bit bloated. The next thing to do was find a hotel and we found a pleasant one on the main road through the town – The Asia Nakorn Sawan Hotel – at 750 baht per night for a large, air-conditioned room it was good value for money.

At 3pm we drove to the fish research station on the north shore of the lake for a few hours. Here we took a walk around the crocodile pen where a colony of Asian Golden Weavers was easy to observe. We noticed that at one nest which was very close to the walkway a female was bringing food to the chicks every minute or so. Close by a male was collecting nest material and flying away from the nest, every time dropping the nest material into the water. We speculated that he was attempting to distract our attention from the nest by this behaviour – it’s possible, birds are remarkable creatures.

A walk around the research station turned up Oriental Magpie Robin, Plaintive Cuckoo, Streak-eared and Sooty-headed Bulbul, Coppersmith Barbet, Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker, Lesser Coucal, Plain-backed Sparrow and Ashy Woodswallow. Scanning across the lake we saw plenty more waterbirds, a couple of Long-tailed Shrikes, a large flock of Whistling Ducks, Black-crowned Night Herons and a distant Pied Kingfisher. A number of Oriental Darters were nice but a drunk driver crashing into Alex’s car and wrecking it as we were putting our equipment in to it was not so nice and resulted in a 5 hour wait at the accident site and police station. Not the best way to prepare for the next day’s birding.

Above are some photos I took around Bueng Boraphet on the two days we were there. On the 14th we didn’t start until late, due to our previous evening but it didn’t seem to matter. Walking the nature trail at the bird park on the southern side of the lake we got most of the waterbirds from the previous day and added Indian Cormorant to the waterbird list. 6-7 Darters were a nice site and there were plenty of other species to see. Highlights were a Chestnut-tailed Starling and a female Shikra but other birds included Black Drongo, Common Iora, Baya Weaver, Red Collared Dove, Cattle Egret, Plaintive Cuckoo, Indian Roller, Zitting Cisticola and Yellow-bellied Prinia.

After spending some time taking photos of butterflies and sheltering from a rain shower we decided to head home at about 2pm, arriving in Bangkok at about 5pm.

birds, birding, thailand, nature, national parks