Thaibirds and more

 The weather is very hot now and some sporadic rains have started to fall. The Spoon-billed Sandpiper is getting ready to leave for breeding grounds in Northern Siberia. On this morning myself and Bengt Legnell, an old friend from Sweden, were blessed with a couple of hours of viewing 3 individuals at Paktaley, Thailand.  2 of the birds were in winter plumage but the 3rd one was pretty far into summer plumage. I never got close enough for good images as there was a wide canal between us and the next dyke by the birds. The birds were feeding frantically as though they couldn't get enough.  Another season with the Spoonie has gone by. May they be blessed on their breeding grounds and come back here in Thailand again in mid October!

 This place is easily one of my favorite birding spots. A lot of nice birds from both the North and Central region and often there are interesting mixed flocks of song birds. Another feature of late are the permanent hides by water holes. Here one has a good chance of seeing and photographing cryptic skulking birds of the forest. Here is the Streaked Wren Babbler. Buff-breasted Babbler was a photographic lifer for me. An easily overlooked bird as it also is a real skulker. Eye-browed Wren Babbler is a tiny bird seldom seen but also readily came in to the meal worms.  Rufous-browed Flycatcher has a soft musical song but loves it in the shade of the dark forest so seeing it like this was a treat.

 I spent 3 hours on a boat at Beung Borapet, Nakorn Sawan, some 240km North of Bangkok. A boat can be hired for 500Baht/hour and with Mr Panom, the boatman, you can be assured that any present ducks will be found. The resident Cotton Pygmy Goose is rather abundant in the area. A handsome male to the right.  Diving ducks are always of special interest and Ferruginous Pochard is one of the more striking. Here is a female with her dark eye. These birds are found in small numbers and are winter visitors. 3 drakes in pursuit of a lone female. The drakes have white eyes.   There were a few thousand Gargany in the lake. These are migratory dabbling ducks that are common visitor to BB. A few Gargeny in flight. The floating vegetation (mainly Lotus flowers) hold good numbers of Pheasant-tailed Jacanas. Only a few were in breeding plumage.  Purple Heron is also a common waterbird.  Striated Grassbird/Warbler is easy to see around the lake. It has a musical