Thaibirds and more

Sharen and George requested a morning at some nearby city park. We opted for this little visited park in Samut Prakan. The park is surrounded in greenery, swamps, mangroves, banana plantations and in vicinity of the sea. Not a lot of people in the early morning gave us the advantage of being alone on the bird watching tower where we did the bulk of our birding. Some regular park birds showed but several species that otherwise are not easy in the city but more rural secondary growth showed. Several Greater Racket-tailed Drongos. 3 Black Bazas was a happy surprise. Several Black-naped Orioles and many Pink-necked Pigeons. Black-naped Monarch, Pale-legged Leaf Warbler, Black-winged Cuckoo Shrike were other good ones. Still, the Coppersmith Barbet managed to steal the show for my Karen and George as they simply couldn't get enough of it!                                          Bla...

I had the pleasure of taking Karen and George Sherman for a day of birding to the prime birding area of Paktaley, Lampakbia and the paddies of Petchaburi. It  had rained massively the day before and when I met them at their hotel the skies were all dark with rain filled clouds. We bravely set off anyhow and amazingly enough didn't encounter any rains at all throughout the day. The salt pans were flooded though and it was impossible to walk the dykes. Thus we didn't have a real chance to look for the Spoon-billed Sandpiper. Karenn and George were easy to please anyhow and as we kept birding the fields and the pans we ended up with a day count of almost 100. Most of these birds were new for both of them. I managed to pick up a few pictures along the way and here are some of them starting with the quite numerous Black-tailed Godwit.      It isn't often I get a chance to get fairly close to Ruddy Turnstone but this one was quite co-operative.   ...

For some reason I tend to neglect my blog. I think it is because I  find the software not user friendly enough.  The text is hard to place and so are the pictures.  Since I last posted I have been to both Sweden for a month and parts of Indonesia.  Now is the rainy season and a good time to take care of other matters before the dry season begin and birding starts up again.  Anyway, I was out yesterday visiting some wet lands. Joe Gilmour from Australia was on a business trip to Europe. He took his son with him as it was school break. On the way back they passed through Bangkok. He asked his son what he wanted to do. 'Birding' was the reply. We spent half a day in wetlands and saw 68 species of birds. Not bad for wet season. Best of all, we beat the rains!  Good to be out again!                              Male Common Kingfisher always is a treat.   ...

As usual I have neglected to post on my blog. It seems that Facebook takes priority these days along with my pbase account. Anyhow, here is a little something. These are amazing wild oxen found free roaming in the tropical forest of Thailand: How do they grow that strong only feeding on planst? Gaur! The master of the tree tops: Gibbons.....these are incredible strong animals well adapted for a life in tree tops. They also live of plants and fruit.....amazing, isn't it? On the forest floor. A Ferruginous Partridge is carefully viewing the road before crossing the road. Just too bad I didn't manage to focus correctly.  Male Banded Kingfisher with prey for its young. Simply gorgeous looking bird!  The only place in Thailand to see Ratchet-tailed Treepie and with a tail like that it makes it a rather special bird. Unlike other treepies this one prefers it inside the thick forest.  The Rufous-browed Flycatcher has its strong ho...

The Small Pratincoles breed on the exposed river bed. Such great flier they are.  The Red-throated Pipit was a 1st time photographed species for me. 

The banks of the Maekong river by the Golden Triangle is a great place to visit in the dry season when the  water levels are low. This time I decided to set up a blind and see what would come. This strikingly yellow Citrine Wagtail showed up. It is the less known Motacilla citreone calcarata race that some people also call the Himalayan Citrine Wagtail. It has a black back as opposed to the grey of the nominal race. I watched it for almost an hour as it kept feeding on small aquatic invertebraees.

Here is the reason I did a 48 hour stint: Spot-breasted Laughingthrush. Ever since I 1st saw it with  Bob Sothman  a couple of years back (my only time) I have dreamed of getting a picture of it since it has never been photographed in the wild and was missing in the OBI database. So when Mr Kamron told me of his find I simply 'had to go'..............I couldn't find a car to hire though in Chiang Mai since it was long weekend. I gave up the idea of going and went to Baktaley and the waders. While watching the Spoonies the phone rang and my dear wife informed me she had found a car for me. Wammo! Got the flight and off I went....and here is my hero! Spot-breasted Laughingthrush is an extreme skulker but had been lured into view with the help of meal worms. Now a couple month later it is still habituated and 'checking in' for some worm hand outs! 2.11.0.0