Dartford Waffler

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 [...]

Way Kambas – Birding Indonesia

October 2nd, 2016

Nick

After getting back from leading an adventurous West Java and Sumatra birding tour I have been reflecting on some of the birds and locations we visited during our three weeks in Indonesia and without a doubt the highlight was our stay at Way Kambas National Park in southeast Sumatra.

Way Kambas protects some wonderful lowland habitats and here we found a large number of species that are doing badly throughout their range in Southeast Asia due to habitat destruction. Some of the highlights for me included Rufous-tailed Shama, White-winged Duck, Storm’s Stork, Malaysian Banded Pitta, Blue-rumped Parrot, Cinnamon-headed Green Pigeon, Oriental Bay Owl, Fluffy-backed Tit Babbler, Red-naped Trogon, Rufous-collared Kingfisher, Scarlet-rumped Trogon, Diard’s Trogon, Crested Fireback, Green Broadbill and Grey-chested Jungle-flycatcher.

Not only was our accommodation very pleasant but the birding was exceptionally good and in particular the night birding was awesome, thanks to the expert assistance of Hari Yono, our local guide. Read more »

Ringed Black-headed Gull | British Birding

October 1st, 2016

Nick

Once again I made a visit to Leysdown, on the Isle of Sheppey, to photograph gulls and shorebirds having enjoyed seeing a juvenile Pallid Harrier at nearby Harty Marshes. In order to get gulls to come really close I bought a portion of chips at a nearby fish ‘n’ chips shop and parked the car at the seafront. I then chucked the chips out of the car window, one by one, and large numbers of gulls quickly turned up to eat them. I noticed that one of the marauding crowd had a colour leg ring and knowing that the ringers who originally ringed this bird would value a report of one of “their” birds I took some photos of it through the car windscreen. Read more »

Birding Day at Oare Marshes – British Birding

August 29th, 2016

Nick

On a day as pleasant as today it is hard to stay indoors so I jumped into the car and headed to Oare Marshes where there are always lots of birds. Today turned out to be a one with huge numbers of waders resting and feeding on the East flood with well over 1000 Black-tailed Godwits and Dunlin, Common Redshank, Common Ringed Plover, Golden Plover and Northern Lapwing in the hundreds. However, perhaps the most notable sightings were numbers of Curlew Sandpiper and Little Stint higher than I have ever seen in UK; at least 29 Little Stints and 25+ Curlew Sandpipers. Read more »

Shorebirds in North Kent – British Birding

August 27th, 2016

Nick

One of the things I enjoy most when I am back home in Kent is visiting a few sites where there are large numbers of shorebirds that can easily be seen at close range; my two favourite sites for this are Oare Marshes and Shellness although there are plenty of other places such as Cliffe, Funton Creek and Elmley which also have good numbers of waders too.

Over the last few weeks I have visited these sites a few times and seen a good variety of species including Little Ringed Plover, Little Stint, Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank, Pied Avocet, Whimbrel, Green Sandpiper, Common Greenshank, Sanderling as well as great congregations of Oystercatcher at Shellness. This site is excellent for photographing shorebirds as they move fro their high-tide roost to feeding areas, although the light can be difficult to deal with; the following are photographs of shorebirds taken at Shellness and Oare Marshes over the last few weeks. Read more »

A Ringed Herring Gull – British Birding

August 27th, 2016

Nick

This morning I was photographing gulls roosting on a field at Leysdown, Kent, attempting to get good images of the two Mediterranean Gulls that were among the flock, when a Herring Gull with a very bright orange leg ring caught my eye. I could not read the code on the colour ring through binoculars so I tried to get some photographs of the ring. The first few photos I took of the bird did not show the code on the ring very well but fortunately it decided to move around a bit allowing me to get some images in which I the code can easily be read – S4MT. You can also see a metal ring on the bird’s right leg. Read more »

Phang Nga Mangroves – Thailand Birding

July 7th, 2016

Nick

Over the last few months I have made several visits to two mangrove sites in Phang Nga province; Ao Phang Nga National Park HQ and Ban Bang Phut. On both occasions the birding has been very rewarding and I have been able to find most of the species that occur in this habitat quite quickly, getting good views of them all. The unusual thing about these visits is that I have been able to find birds at any time of day, on my most recent visit on 2nd July I was able to find Mangrove Pitta a little after having lunch at around 1.45pm in extremely hot and humid conditions. Mangrove Pitta was followed by several other target birds including White-chested Babbler, Chestnut-bellied Malkoha, Ruddy Kingfisher, Black-and-red Broadbill and Streak-breasted Woodpecker, all between 1pm and 4pm.

I have found the birding and photographic opportunities at these sites between April and July to be very good, some of my photos, some more comments and checklists follow for these two mangrove birding locations.

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Bala Wildlife Sanctuary Wet Season Birding: Thailand Birding

June 22nd, 2016

Nick

I recently spent 4 nights at the Bala sector of Hala-Bala Wildlife Sanctuary in Narathiwat province on the Thai-Malaysia border. This is probably the best birding site in Southern Thailand but I have made very few visits due to the long distance from Bangkok, where I live, and the ongoing violence in the area that makes one think before going there.

In truth there has never been any violence in the immediate area of the wildlife sanctuary and although one has to travel through area where shootings and bombings do occur, the chances of being caught up in them are very slim, although it remains that there is some element of risk and on my recent visit there was a motorcycle bomb on the main highway just a few hours after I had passed through.

This wet season visit proved not to be too wet, with thunderstorms confined to the late afternoon and evenings, allowing myself and Jan Hillman to enjoy many excellent species with highlights including Rhinoceros Hornbill, Malaysian Honeyguide, Green Broadbill, Scarlet-rumped Trogon, Red-throated Sunbird, Buffy Fish Owl, Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher (Rufous morph), Helmeted Hornbill, Finsch’s Bulbul, Checker-throated Woodpecker and Rufous-chested Flycatcher.

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