Thaibirds and more

 Banded Kingfisher is one of those 'must see' birds in the forests of tropical SEA. It likes to sit motionless in upper or mid story level and is most frequently detected by its diagnostic call. The male is lovely blue, brown, white and adorned with a strikingly red bill. The birds like to raise its crown though I have no idea as to why except for the obvious beautifying aspect. The female is all brown making it look like a different species. These birds do not feed on fish but lizzards, frogs, scorpions, chicadas etc etc. This pair was nesting and so I was able to get some shots at a decent range. The nest was inside of an abandoned ball shaped ant nest.

At around 11:10 am 29th of March, 2017,  Nick Upton graciously posted a finding of Oriental Plover on a secluded beach 3 hours drive  from my home. Now this is a top top bird and very difficult to see in Thailand. I thought of my options and by 11:30 had decided to go…..at 11:45 it unexpectedly started to rain hard with strong winds. Having had weird weather for a few days it served as a damper on my enthusiasm. Then after lunch my wife reminded me I had to take our youngest son to the  Embassy the following morning. Ouch, what to do but to take it on the chin! I kept thinking of the bird throughout the day and kept getting,  ‘who is kept by the Word of God and prayer’. Now that is a Scripture which might not be specific about a bird but it kept coming to me and I started to think I should give it a go after the Embassy visit.  As usual  God speaks in a still small voice, an inner conviction or a hint. Rarely is the voice yelling nor is he bashing me on the...

There are so many 'hidden' jewels inside the deep forests of the Earth. Our part is the digging, the seeking, the going, putting oneself in the situation to make things possible for the 'miracle to happen'! I had 4 major targets for visiting Southern Vietnam and one of them was the Orange-breasted Laughingthrush, an endemic to South Annam. Having seen and photographed its closest relation, the Spot-breasted LT some years ago made this even more special. Our local guide, Tim , had a spot where he knew the birds would frequent at times. We positioned us in a small hide and waited. Nothing showed till 8:30 so we set a 'deadline' at 9 am. At 8:55 the miracle happened!  It was very dark so I had to shoot at ISO6400 with 1/40s shutter speed. Orange-breasted Laughingthrush!

Something I wrote 16 years ago! A Bangkok Morning Concert, March 2000 "Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day, Oh what a beautiful feeling, everything's going God's way" These words from the familiar song I feel are very applicable to the sounds I encounter on a daily basis around our house here in the northern outskirts of Bangkok in the middle of March. As is the case everywhere else in this buzzing city full of people and noise, the sounds of roaring engines, be they motorcyles, cars, buses or airplanes are ever present in their quest to overpower one another. Incredibly enough so are also the natural sounds and wonders of God's little creatures. One just need to listen and tune in! It all started this morning at 4 a.m. Pied Fantail Flycatcher is starting its song way too early. Who changed its body clock? Whatever the reason may be, this active little creature with its ever fanning tail took charge of my day. The song is v...

Watercock  Mid August isn't the best of months for raking up a long list of species in the field. But it is a lovely month with dramatic skies, green fields and local birds still being busy about. The Watercock is a bird that often doesn't show well and though it was rather distant we still got good looks of a breeding bird.  They have a booming sound and a nice contrast with their green surroundings. Still need a good image of this species. Purple Heron All you often see of the Purple Heron is a 'periscope' sticking out from tall rice plants.  Streaked Weaver There seemed to be Asian Golden Weavers just about everywhere. There breeding cycle last several months and I wonder how many sets of chicks each pair raise. Baya Weavers were also abundant but the one I enjoyed the most was Streaked Weaver. This time they seemed to  breed mixed in with Golden. In years past I have seen them in more distinct species designated colonies b...

Everyone knows Blue Pitta is difficult. Now multiply that by 5 and you are getting towards the difficult degree of Eared Pitta. A lot of my pictures I get while birdwatching. In other words, opportunistic photography. But when it comes to Eared Pitta, the opportunity only comes when there is a stake out and a blind set up.  I spent 6 hours with this bird and in spite of the birds coming and going only got a handful of acceptable images. The bird showed extremely well but in difficult light and always on the move. Very challenging. Well, here is the male. His colors are a bit more intense then the female. He also did the bulk of the job of finding worms for the chick as the female spent time in the nest. She did come out but only a couple of times. Here she is on her way back into the nest. It was amazing how quickly those worms were digested. The residue had to be removed frequently!

Short-tailed Parrotbill 16-25 th of March 2016 By Peter Ericsson Email: pkknjj@yahoo.com No more bookings for 2 nd half of March gave me an excellent opportunity to do some birding on my own. For so long I have wanted to see the two specialties of Poo Suan Sai National Park in Loei province. Having visited it twice but only briefly so had not yielded neither Short-tailed Parrotbill nor Rufous-throated Fulvetta.  I had heard of the drought in the park with resultant visits from the Parrotbill to a small man made waterhole.   The drive was long but on good roads and took me the better part of the day. I did manage to arrive at 3 pm and immediately arranged to visit the hide. One of the rangers has taken upon himself this little project and for a small fee let’s one use the hide. The hide was made inside of a rather large water pipe and made me feel like I was sitting inside a 2WW bunker. It was dark and most of the birds coming in were small little brown ...