Having recently spent 2 weeks in China, then just 1 day back in Thailand, I find myself back in UK with the opportunity to walk out of the front door and see a whole load of breeding farmland birds within seconds. Spring is in full flow with lots of birds singing and even a few common species feeding fledged young and a short walk this morning provided me with some nice sightings and I managed to get a few passable photos of my main target – Corn Bunting. Every time I am back in Britain I always try to catch up with Corn Buntings as there is a small population of this declining species near my mother’s house which hangs on and it was my degree dissertation species. Today I found 5 calling males and 2 females within a very short walk and watched them calling from various song posts and chasing females back towards the nest. Read more »
Independent Birding at Zaamin National Park | Birding in Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan is a surprising country with a wide variety of landscapes, ancient historical monuments, some interesting food and drink as well as good infratructure that makes the country easy to travel in independently. However, my wife and I pushed this a little further than most travelers to the country by visiting Zaamin National Park where [...]
City Park Bird Abundance | Birding in Thailand
For those of us lucky enough to travel internationally to see birds it quickly becomes apparent that in some countries birds are abundant while in others birders have to work harder to see a wide range of species. This was brought home to me most recently spending a morning at Sri Nakorn Kuean Khan Park [...]
Touristing & Birding at Petra | Birding in Jordan
For those of us who travel with non-birding partners it can sometimes be tricky to balance enjoying time together somewhere interesting and the craving to maximise the opportunity to see new birds in new places. Personally, having a good holiday with my wife is the most important thing when planning trips together but doing some [...]
Rainy Season Birding at Pathum Thani Rice Research Centre | Birding in Thailand
There can be times of the year when bird watching hits a trough because a lack of activity, unhelpful weather or overfamiliarity with a smaller selection of species than at other times. In Thailand these factors are all true in the rainy season with a large number of species absent, on their breeding grounds further [...]
Mountain Birding from Chimgan | Birding in Uzbekistan
I have always loved immersing myself in mountain landscapes but over recent years my opportunity to do so has been limited with much of my time spent in tropical forests and wetlands in Thailand so when the opportunity presented itself to spend some time birding in mountain habitats in Uzbekistan I took it without having [...]
Daap Waterhole, Kaeng Krachan – Thailand Birding
April 21st, 2017 
Nick The hides/waterholes close to Kaeng Krachan have become famous with birders in Thailand and beyond and quite rightly as they always seem to deliver good birds and it is a great experience to get so close to so many species at these locations. Ban Song Nok and Lung Sin Waterhole are the most frequently visited of these hides but there are others that produce good birds but less reliably so than the previously mentioned two locations. However, in mid March 2017 it was suggested to me that I visit Daap Waterhole as there were some good species that were frequenting it at that time. My only previous experience of this spot was in April 2016 when it began raining 30 minutes after we arrived and did not stop but I need not have worried as we had an awesome afternoon of birding there this time. The following are a set of photos taken at Daap Waterhole on March 14th 2017. Read more »
Migration; Siberian Thrush – Thailand Birding
April 10th, 2017 Nick After weeks of overcast skies and stormy weather the forecast today was for clear skies. Considering that the clouds had made migrants extremely thin on the ground I wondered if things would be different with the change of weather and headed to Sri Nakorn Kuen Khan park this morning. As has often been the case early on there were no migrants other than a single Ashy Drongo but from around 8am there was a bit of an arrival of birds which gradually thinned out over the next hour until by about 10pm there were very few remaining apart from small numbers of Drongos. There were quite a few interesting birds including 3 Yellow-rumped Flycatchers, Crow-billed Drongo, 2 Mugimaki Flycatchers, 20+ Eyebrowed Thrushes, 2 Pale-legged Leaf Warblers both singing in short bursts but by far the most uncommon bird was a female Siberian Thrush which fed and rested in a small fruiting tree for about 10 minutes. Read more »
Beach Thick-knee Close Up – Thailand Birding
April 1st, 2017 Nick Last month I made two short visits to Southern Thailand where a long-staying Beach Thick-knee had been repeatedly seen at Laem Pakarang in Phang Nga province. Both of my trips took me to this site after some birding in the mangroves and on both occasions I was lucky enough to see this weird and wonderful bird. Although I had seen Beach Thick-knee in Australia, Java and Sumatra this was a Thai “tick” and having not seen one for nearly twenty years it was a very welcome sighting. As happy as I was with the first sighting, my second sighting on 22nd March was something special. Read more »
Oriental Plover at Pranburi – Thailand Birding
March 29th, 2017 Nick Last night I was driving home from Southern Thailand and as it got dark I decided to spend the night somewhere before continuing the journey the next day. As I was close to Hua Hin I thought I would find somewhere to stay near Pranburi Forest park and check the location for passage migrants the next morning. The idea was just to have something to do in the morning, I had no real expectations beyond some of the commoner passage migrants. As it happened the decision turned out to be a moment of inspiration as when I checked out the waders on the beach at around 10am this morning (29th March) alongside a group of Sand Plovers there was an Oriental Plover; a very scarce passage migrant in Thailand and the first time I had seen this species. Read more »
Central Thailand – Thailand Birding
March 10th, 2017 Nick Having had a very enjoyable tour of the North of Thailand recently and I moved on to the central leg of the tour in mid February. Visiting Wat PraPhuttabaht Noi, Khao Yai, Pak Thale/Laem Pak Bia, Petchaburi Rice Fields and Kaeng Krachan National Park turned up a wide variety of exciting species from wetlands, forest and open-country. Spoon-billed Sandpiper would have been top of most people’s favourites list but species such as Great Slaty Woodpecker, Black-and-red Broadbill, Nordmann’s Greenshank, Slender-billed Gull, Black-naped Tern, Grey Peacock Pheasant, White-browed Crake, Asian Golden Weaver, Banded Kingfisher and many others made this a very successful trip. Read on for a summary of this section of the trip and a selection of photographs. Read more »
Northern Thailand – Thailand Birding
February 20th, 2017 Nick I have just returned home having led a North & Central Thailand trip which was a great success in terms of both numbers and quality of birds. As usual the North provided us with a lot of good birding, nice flocks, colourful birds and wonderful photo opportunities with a long list of highlights including Mrs Hume’s Pheasant, Pin-tailed Parrotfinch, Baikal Teal, Brown-cheeked Rail, Black-eared Shrike-babbler, Grey-sided Thrush, Lanceolated Warbler, Pied Harrier, Jerdon’s Bushchat as well as many old favourites such as Scarlet-faced Liocichla, Dark-sided Thrush, Silver-eared Mesia, Giant Nuthatch and loads more. The following is a short summary of our time in the North of Thailand and some photos from the trip. Read more »
