Thaibirds and more

Wet season visitors! The dry season of the year, Nov – March, sees a great influx of western tourists to Thailand as well as thousands upon thousands of migrating birds, fleeing the cold Northern Hemisphere. Once winter in Siberia and Northern China has ended these birds return to their breeding grounds. This migration follows a North – South, South – North pattern. Some of the migrating species simply pass through Thailand and continue on to the Islands of Indonesia whereas others settle for the ‘winter’. This time of year, Nov– March , also sees a steady stream of foreign bird watchers visiting Thailand to not only see the resident birds but the added bonus of many a sought after bird from Northern Asia. Then in April, when migratory birds have left and with them the foreign visiting bird watching community, something exciting happens. In a reverse migratory pattern the Blue-winged Pitta and the Hooded Pitta start to inhabit many a forested area of Thailand. Where do they come from?

This is probably my own personal 'least interesting wader'. They are here in good numbers during winter. During hightide they roost in salt pans spending most of their time standing still or sleeping. I find it very hard to separate the birds when only one bird seen. Easiest is when several birds are closely together. The Lesser seem to dominate in the pans whereas Greater dominate out on the sand spit. Apparantly Greater prefer small crabs to feed on (and there is plenty) but Lesser prefer smaller wormlike creatures found in the pans and the mudflats. Here is a Lesser. They often have a 'hunched' appearance. Here with a Greater. Note the distinct difference in size, bill and posture. Literature tells me that the race of Lesser found in Thailand: Charadrius mongolus schaeferi, has the longest bill of the Lesser Sand Plovers. The nominate race of Greater found in Thailand has the shortest of the Greater races. Greater in breeding plumage also has white in the otherwise b

This morning I paid a visit to Khok Kham, Samut Sakorn with the intention of photographing some shorebirds. I ofcourse hoped to find and get close to this rather uncommon bird: Asian Dowitcher. The salt pans were full of little calidrises and I managed many shots of them. It wasn't until the tide started to go down that I drove off to the newly opened up mangrove research/conservation centre. A nicely paved road in between some deeper pans helped me to slowly creep up on these larger shorebirds. Later on I went to the boardwalk and saw a couple of Asian Dowitchers in breeding plumage but they were backlit and too far away. Still, these are easily my best shots of the Asian Dowitcher. Here together with Common Redshank and Black-tailed Godwits.