Asian Golden Weaver is not at all common in Thailand and becoming increasingly rarer due to habitat destruction, although it can be found at a few sites I know; the most reliable being Muang Boran Fishponds where it is easy to get fairly close  to a nesting colony without disturbing the birds. Ashley Banwell had contacted me with a small list of species that he was interested in seeing; for someone with as large a life list as he has finding lifers isn’t so easy but Asian Golden Weaver stood out as one species on his list that I knew I could help him with.

At 5am I met Ashley at The Hotel Manhattan in Sukhumvit Soi 15 and we headed off to Muang Boran Fishponds before the traffic built up. Because of the problems with parking and security, it is a good idea to park at Bang Poo, just a few kilometres beyond Muang Boran and get a taxi back to the fishponds and this is what we did.

As soon as we were into the site the birdwatching began and one of the first we saw was a male Asian Golden Weaver – that didn’t take long! However, it was quite distant and we were happy to wait for better views. There is always an abundance of waterbirds here and we quickly saw Cattle Egret, Great Egret, Little Egret, Little Cormorant, Black-crowned Night Heron, White-browed Crake, Moorhen, Little Grebe, Javan Pond Heron, Chinese Pond Heron and an impressive male Watercock, always a good bird to see.

Striated Grassbird is very abundant here and it didn’t take long before we were hearing them all around us and they are always easily seen, perched high up on posts and trees singing away. The open aspect of this site means that most birds can be viewed well and it is a great spot for getting pictures. Both Brown Shrike and Long-tailed Shrike gave good photo opportunites and Oriental Pratincoles were everwhere just waiting to be photographed. We also briefly saw an Oriental Skylark and Zitting Cisticolas flitting around in the grass.

Further along a large pond held plenty of waterbirds and we added Intermediate Egret, Pheasant-tailed and Bronze-winged Jacanas to the list. Pheasant-tailed breeds here, there are not that many places in Thailand where it does, and it can be found easily and in good numbers all year round here; they certainly look striking in their breeding plumage.

As we walked towards where the weavers breed we came a cross a tschutschensis race Yellow Wagtail and several Oriental Reed Warblers before hearing some weavers. I was expecting it to be Asian Golden as they are the commonest weaver at this site but it turned out to be a male Streaked Weaver! This is quite an uncommon species and one that I had managed not to see before – an addition to my life list and the Muang Boran Fishponds list. A couple of female Asian Golden Weavers also appeared but it was a singing reed warbler that Ashley spotted that got our attention. It crept up the reeds and sung from the tops and the song was quite different to the plentiful Black-browed Reed Warblers. We got a decent look at it and its slightly longer bill and thin dark eyestripe reaching only as far as the eye identified it as Manchurian Reed Warbler.

Eventually we decided to go straight to the weaver nest site and we got superb views of beautiful male Asian Golden Weavers making their nests and displaying to the females, all at close range. After admiring these birds and photographing them we decided to head off to Petchaburi as Ashley wanted to spend the next 2 days at Kaeng Krachan looking for White-fronted Scops Owl and Giant Pitta – ambitious indeed.

A few hours later, after lunch, we arrived at Tung Bang Jak, a little before Petburi town and we soon saw the photogenic Green Bee-eaters that are so easy to see here. Ashley got some nice photos of these beautiful birds before our attention was caught by some more weavers calling from the reeds. 2 female Asian Golden Weavers were soon joined by a superb male and then 7 male Streaked Weavers popped their heads out – suddenly these species were common! After enjoying these busy little birds we moved a little further down the road seeing most of the usual species that can be found here; Pond Herons, Egrets, Black-winged Stilt, Wood Sandpiper, Asian Openbill Stork, Plain-backed Sparrow, Red-wattled Lapwing, Mynas and Black-shouldered Kite; before finding our third weaver species for the day: Baya Weaver. This species is by far the most common here and it was strange that this was the one we found last, but all of Thailand’s 3 weaver species in one day (actually a few minutes) was quite pleasing as they are attractive little birds in their summer plumage.

We stopped for a while to watch a farmer in the rice fields and it made a nice picture to see a more or less traditional form of agriculture in action with lots of large waterbirds in attendance. This is a scene which is absent from many Asian countries where most birds have been trapped and hunted out of existence in farmland.

Having admired this scene and reflected upon how nice it was that lots of birds can still be found outside of national parks in Thailand it was quite upsetting to find a mist net strung up beside the road. I can only think that it was left in order to trap birds for the cage bird trade, the merit-making trade or for the table. If it was left unattended by a ringer I would be most annoyed at their idiocy for any birds that were caught in this net would die very quickly in the midday heat and humidity. Click on the thumbnail below and you can see a close up of the net which shows that it is inded a mist net and not something else.

After the mist net incident we found some Bronze-winged Jacanas, 100s of Asian Openbills and a beautiful pair of Pink-necked Green Pigeons perched on a wire. Keen to add some shorebirds to our tally we then moved on to Pak Thale.

The Spoon-billed Sandpipers seemed to have left Pak Thale a while ago but we were expecting to see plenty of other species. Unfortunately shorebirds were pretty thin on the ground here, most species are well into their migration I guess, but this is a good time of year to find Grey-tailed Tattler and we saw 3 here. Other birds included Red-necked Stint, Kentish Plover, Marsh Sandpiper, Little Tern, Curlew Sandpiper, Common Greenshank, Spotted Redshank and Common Sandpiper. A walk to the shore produced 3 Curlew and a Whimbrel but with little else we decided to go to the sand spit.

On the way we spotted a group of shorebirds which included breeding plumage Curlew Sandpiper, Red-necked Stint and Spotted Redshank.

After finding a boat we slowly headed out to the spit and I spotted a pair of Blue-throated Bee-eaters above the mangroves; an uncommon bird this far north. The tide was in and we could see a group of roosting shorebirds, hoping that perhaps a “White-faced” Plover might still be around. Unfortunately, as we landed,  two other birdwatchers decided that they didn’t want us for company, got up in a hurry, and walked straight at the shorebirds flushing the whole group!!!!!! Quite amazing how thoughtless some people can be! Luckily our boatman said he could land us at another spot where we got nice views of Malaysian Plover, Kentish PLover, Sanderling, Lesser Sand Plover and 2 Greater Sand Plover, all in breeding plumage, making sure we didn’t disturb the birds. No sign of the “White-faced” though.

With time ticking by we took a look at roosting terns getting very close-up views of Lesser and Great Crested Terns alongside Caspian, Common and Little Terns as well as Brown-headed Gulls due to the skill of our boatman. On the way back a Black-capped Kingfisher was still hanging around.

Our last stop of the day was to look for Black-faced Spoonbill, but it wasn’t to be seen. Instead we got 5 Painted Storks and Grey Heron alongside a number of egrets, all chasing fish around. In the nearby scrubland we found both Blue-tailed and Green Bee-eaters and the ever-present Indochinese Bushlark as well as a Paddyfield Pipit with an injured leg. That was it, a good day of birding with one lifer for both of us. All that was left was to drive to Ban Maka near Kaeng Krachan to drop Ashley off for his quest. The drive took a bit longer than expected but Gunn and Beverly at Ban Maka were very welcoming and quickly prepared food for us. We also added another bird to the day list – Large-tailed Nightjar which was everywhere near Ban Maka, you couldn’t possibly miss it if you went there at night – a fine end to a nice day’s birdwatching in Thailand.

Having survived the worst of the Songkran water fighting I was joined, on the 15th April,  by Mark Thomas, Jenny Atkins and Jason Goodwin for a day of general birding around Petburi province. After a little trouble finding it, I collected them from the Twin Towers Hotel near HuaLompong station at a little after 5am and we headed off to Laem Pak Bia.

On arrival we stopped at the spot which has been favoured by a pair of Black-faced Spoonbills all winter, not sure if they would still be around at this late time in the season. At first very little was to be seen at this spot; Indochinese Bushlark, Plain-backed Sparrow, Green Bee-eater, Collared Kingfisher, a Painted Stork and many egrets but just as we were about to move along, Jason spotted a Spoonbill in flight. Unfortunately, although we could clearly see it was a Black-faced Spoonbill it landed way out of sight. As we waited for it to emerge again we added White-winged Tern, Whiskered Tern, Curlew Sandpiper and Blue-tailed Bee-eater to our tally before some workers flushed the spoonbill again. This time we had longer flight views but again it landed way beyond where we could see.

Although the Spoon-billed Sandpipers seemed to have moved on some weeks back we headed to Pak Thale for an outside chance that one might be lingering. It was not to be but we did see 5 Red-necked Phalaropes coming into breeding plumage along with Gull-billed Tern, Red-necked Stint, Long-toed Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Marsh Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank and Curlew. Little Terns seemed to be nesting on a dry salt pan which to me didn’t seem to be a good choice as it could get reflooded at any time.

With the sun beating down on us a Dusky Warbler and Common Tailorbird weren’t enough to detain us any longer and we headed to the boat yard for a drink. After some ice cold water we hired a boat to take us out to the sand spit in search of “White-faced” Plover. First of all though we landed on the sand bar to view the roosting terns. We had a great selection of species here with a single Caspian Tern, around 20 Great Crested Terns, 3 Lesser Crested Terns and many Common and Little Terns – great opportunities for photographers! Further out to sea we could also see Whiskered and White-winged Terns and we were lucky enough to get 3 White-winged Terns land on the sand bar to bathe. One bird was in complete breeding plumage and stood out beautifully amongst the other species.

On to the sand spit we easily found Malaysian Plover nesting and spotted a Grey-tailed Tattler, an uncommon passage migrant in Thailand. Also present were Kentish Plover, Sanderling and Little Terns. Out on the mudflats Jenny spotted 2 Pied Avocets in flight – another very uncommon species in Thailand – and Javan Pond Herons were nice in their breeding plumage. Amongst the other species a Chinese Egret was spotted, its distinctive behaviour helping separate it from the similar Pacific Reef Egret – subtle structural and plumage details such as the shape of the head plumes and the bill structure could also be seen when it came into close range.

As we proceeded to leave I spotted a Greater Sand Plover in breeding plumage and as I looked at it through my telescope I saw what seemed to be a “White-faced” Plover in the background. Whilst we watched this bird Mark noticed that it had a black ring on its left leg and a yellow/green ring on its right leg. Although this bird had a white-face (all white lores) and was quite striking when it turned face on, I later found out from Phil Round that this combination had been fitted to Malaysian Plovers from the nest – thus this bird was a Malaysian Plover and not a “White-faced”. Indeed, the genuine “White-faced” Plovers are so distinctive that I really should have ruled this bird out beforehand: take a look at photos of the “real thing” – “White-faced” Plover.

After a welcome lunch at the boatyard we drove to Tung Bang Jak, an area of rice agriculture and reedy areas in search of waterbirds.  We spent and hour and a half birding along the quiet road finding a good number of birds including Asian Golden Weaver, large and numerous flocks of Baya Weaver, Green Bee-eater, Brown Shrike, a lingering Siberian Stonechat, Indian Roller, Plain-backed Sparrow, Chestnut Munia, Purple Heron, Cotton Pygmy Goose, Pink-necked Green Pigeon, Watercock, hoards of Asian Openbill Storks and Cattle Egrets and Bronze-winged Jacana amongst many other species. This area is always good for birds and a large number of species can be seen quickly, particularly in the early morning, but as our visit proved, it is also worth a look at any time of the day. The traditional styles of agriculture in this area make for a patchwork of habitats and as in many parts of the world, where extensive agriculture occurs, biodiversity remains high. The sight of a herd of ducks being shepherded around by a couple of herders was pleasant and some photos were almost obligatory. The herder told me that he had 4000 ducks under his care!

With time pressing on we went back to Laem Pak Bia to spend some time in the King’s Project area. This spot is really good at dusk as many birds come in to roost in the mangroves. In the reeds we found Oriental Reed Warbler and Black-browed Reed Warbler. White-breasted Waterhen was easy but Ruddy-breasted Crake only gave us fleeting views. However, the roosting birds were good; large numbers of Black Drongo and Mynas came in as usual but a surprise was 1500-2000 Bee-eaters, most of which were Blue-tailed Bee-eaters with a few Green Bee-eaters. It was an amazing sight with clouds of birds circling before they chose their roosting spot. At the same time we enjoyed a very nice sunset.

As this proceeded large numbers of Black-crowned Night Herons were exiting the magroves and after seeing a few huge fruit bats we got into the car to search for nightjars. After a brief drive we found 2 Indian Nightjars on the road and got excellent views of them at close range. Always a good ending to a day birdwatching in Thailand!

Yesterday (Sunday 6th April) my wife and I intended to go to the Muang Boran open air museum but when we got there we found the price had been increased to 100 baht for Thais and 300 baht for foreigners. I have been there before and whilst it is pleasant I don’t think it is very good value for money at that price, particularly as the staff were quite surly and unpleasant about it. So, instead, we headed to nearby Bang Poo for lunch at the seafood restaurant located at the end of the pier.

As we arrived the tide was out and I had a brief look at the birds. A few Javan Pond Herons, some Black-winged Stilts, a few Kentish Plovers, a couple of thousand Brown-headed Gulls and some egrets were all I spotted before we had our lunch.

Lunch was very good – crab fried rice, fried fish in garlic, shrimps in chilli sauce and crab’s legs washed down with some beer came to around 700 baht (just over £11) and by the time we had finished it the tide had come in.

Outside it was rainign a bit but not enough to stop me watching the gulls and terns. The Brown-headed Gulls are always easy to observe here as they wheel around feeding from people’s hands but yesterday I got great views of both Whiskered and White-winged Terns as they fished close to the pier. I spent some time taking some photos and got some reasonable shots with just a compact camera – the opportunities for proper photographers here are very good!

birds, birding, thailand, nature, photography