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 »
Gull Feeding Frenzy at Samut Sakhon | Birding in Thailand
A beautiful sunrise, thousands of birds, the sound of the sea; all the ingredients for one of the world’s birding hotspots, but in reality this is the atmosphere I was able to enjoy on a short morning excursion from Bangkok when visiting the “Red Bridge” coastal boardwalk in neighbouring Samut Sakhon province. Rather than being [...]
Birds in a Park in Bukhara | Birding in Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan is one of those countries that is great for birding and at the same time extremely interesting in touristic terms too; an ideal place to travel with a non-birding partner and then to find time to go birding in locations near the tourist spots and to visit some really spectacular scenery. In late April [...]
Top 5 Birds of Vietnam Birding Tour 2025 | Birding in Vietnam
Vietnam is the country in mainland Southeast Asia with the highest number of endemic species and the best place to see a number of regional endemics too as well as a fantastic supporting cast of more widespread birds. Leading the Calidris Birding Tours trip to Southern and Central Vietnam in March/April 2025 gave all participants [...]
A Day Birding in Qatar | Birding in Qatar
My annual migration between Thailand and UK has not only seen the cost of direct flights rise dramatically but I have grown very tired of sitting on a plane for twelve hours, if only I was able to make the journey under self-powered flight like a Bar-tailed Godwit! Indirect flights are, of course, a solution [...]
Parakeets & Peafowl | Birding in Thailand
One thing I have learned over the years that I have been bird watching is that there are many different ways for people to enjoy birds. I started birding by going on long country walks in England with birds being perhaps the most accessible category of wildlife to enjoy along the way. Friends of mine [...]
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 »
East Coast Gulls | South Korea Birding
January 30th, 2017 Nick Earlier this week, as part of our winter birding tour of South Korea, we spent a few days travelling down the East coast of this East Asian country, stopping in many harbours and bays to look for seabirds and a number of gull species. The sheer numbers of gulls was mind-blowing, with around 50000 in just one bay, including around 10000 loafing around on the beach and we kept shaking our heads in amazement of the spectacle. Of course we also took time to identify and understand the East Asian species as well as try to pick out a few rarities which we did successfully. The large numbers of these birds on the beach gave us plenty of opportunities to photograph them and birds in large numbers, like this, is one of the pleasures of birding Korea.
Details of the next trip can be seen here – South Korea Winter Birding Tour.
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Watching Cranes in the Citizen Controlled Zone | South Korea Birding
January 22nd, 2017 Nick One of the highlights of winter birding in South Korea is birding near the DMZ, specifically watching cranes emerge in the morning. On the second day of this year’s South Korea winter birding tour we spent almost the whole day on the South Korea/North Korea border, spending much of our time in the Citizen Controlled Zone, having obtained special permission to enter this area of high military presence. This area of the Cheorwon Plain is the main wintering area, in Korea, of Red-crowned Crane with also large numbers of White-naped Crane and our expectation was to see large numbers of these birds as well as a host of other top quality wintering species, including Raptors, Buntings, Finches and Wildfowl.
Details of the next trip can be seen here – South Korea Winter Birding Tour.
