Thailand Diary

Mike Passant · Status: Offline

RE: Thailand Diary

Mike Passant · Status: Offline

Thursday, Feb 16th,

The morning started at 6.15 with a 30 minute spin on the racing bikes, followed by a full session with the vegetable watering, after which Barb and I headed for the forest, which initially was pretty quiet apart from a fly-over Indian Roller. Later she did pull back Ashy Minivet and Pale-legged Leaf Warbler (in the same little corner as yesterday;- same bird?) followed by several Taiga Flycatchers, all of which showed really well, though Raddes Warbler was neither heard nor seen. Perhaps I'm expecting too much, as this morning I found nothing new, but I guess it's inevitable that new species will get harder to find. The usual support cast of Bee-Eaters and Fantails etc were present but now we seem prone to taking them for granted.

This evening we had a stroll by the riverside, setting off at 16.45 with just one pair of bins and no great expectation. Common Ioras, Streak-eared Bulbuls, Green Bee-Eaters and the inevitable Pied Fantails were buzzing around when we stopped to study a particularly close and obliging Plain Prinia. There are allegedly four Prinia species hereabouts, but search as we may, this is the only one we have found so far. Suddenly from a few feet ahead on the grassy path, a small bird flew very low ahead and landed again some 15 feet further on towards the waters edge, where it commenced a fairly rapid repeated nervous low "chacking."

I couldn't see the bird which was a little down the banking, so edged closer guided by its calls, and repeated as best I could with a quiet clicking noise with my tongue. The grass only four feet ahead was moving, as if it had come closer, but it was too tall for me to see the bird behind it, but then it moved away onto a twig just in my line of sight and below me, showing a graduated tail and a mass of streaking along head and uniform mantle and upper tail - Lanceolated Warbler, here a common winter visitor but which had eluded me for the last ten days. So a "blank" day was flukily avoided, though Barb missed this by not having bins to hand.

I only ever before saw this species in China in 2002, and as I have never been to Fair Isle, this remains one of the commoner species I "need" for Britain, though I know that a certain J W Rayner, (surely in league with Satan), has seen one at Filey.

Best Wishes,

Mike P

Mike Passant · Status: Offline

Still Wednesday, - late morning,

I took a longer walk along the riverside later, (despite the hot sun) as there are intermittent shady spots from which to scan and it was nice to be able to do a full circuit joining up with the little forest section with which I'm now pretty familiar.

From various spots along the route, among the treetops it was possible to see the 30 metre high water tower in Paul's vegetable garden as a direction aid.

Annoying small flies seemed to be competing with each other to land in my eyes, but as consolation I found a new mix of small birds just yards within the forest edge. First addition was a Pale-legged Leaf Warbler, readily identified not just by its pale legs and single wing bar, but by its solid grey crown contrasting with olive green mantle. Almost next to it in the same sapling were two Ashy Minivets and nearby a Grey-headed Flycatcher, (a common Asian species) but with the previous two species all new for my Thai list, to which I've added 57 species thus far.

It's great fun doing all this in an area largely neglected by birders, and I wonder just what the potential might be once migration is underway.

Cheers,

Mike P.

Mike Passant · Status: Offline

Wednesday Feb 15th

The last two mornings have yielded close encounters with Raddes Warbler, easily found by listening for its gentle but persistent "tuc"calls as it forages in low vegetation. Also several Taiga Flycatchers and the Brown Flycatcher seem to haunt the little corner of forest edge which has become one of my "must check" spots from 7 am onwards.

This morning was quieter, though I did manage scope views of a skulking Greater Coucal; I'm more interested though in finding Lesser Coucal which along with many other species still eludes me. Of these latter, I'm still hopeful of bumping into Lanceolated Warbler and Two-barred Greenish, both of which should be here.

Walking home for breakfast, I met with a Flycatcher which attracted me initially with its sharp repeated "tic" calls. The bird was some 15 feet up in an open tree with its back to me. I managed to see a blue upper tail, duller bluish mantle, White vent area, and a black face before it exited stage right into the denser forest.

Studying the field guide, the commoner option is Hainan Blue Flycatcher, the less common would be the bigger Blue and White Flycatcher, both make "tic" calls, though Hainan Blue is described as a harder note. On plumage, a front on view of the breast easily splits the two, so I have to build upon what I saw before it can count.

Walking through the rice fields on the dividing bund, I checked a lump on a horizontal branch which turned out to be Asian- barred Owlet, a species which I have seen many times before, but this individual made my morning, being my first Owl of any kind in Thailand, and which obligingly stuck around in time for me to check the finer points in the scope.

My only previous birding in the country was a very successful week spent in the spring of 2001 when I came out with a pal specifically to see Gurney's and other species of Pitta down in the south, with a good sample of Trogons, Kingfishers and Woodpeckers, so my list for the country is pretty modest as we didn't bomb around chasing numbers, but quality species instead, though we still failed to find either Finfoot or the Malaysian Rail -Babbler.

Best Wishes,

Mike P.

-- Edited by Mike Passant on Wednesday 15th of February 2017 09:04:41 AM

Mike Passant · Status: Offline

Monday 13th Feb.

I went out at 6.30 a m alone as Barb fancied a lie in after the previous night's partying.

An hour and a half mooching quietly around the forest section some 300 metres from the farm perimeter, yielded 18 species, which is not a bad score for here; the usual regular culprits being Brown Shrike, Dusky Warbler (which showed really well), and Brown Flycatcher. A few new additions to my local list were Green-billed Malkoha, and a pair of Ashy Drongos chasing about, with 2 Black-collared Starling flying out from the farm trees.

I heard what seemed to be a Yellow-browed Warbler calling, and traced it to a small phylloscopus, sporting what appeared to be only a single wing bar; - an altogether rather dull individual, which on appearance would make a better fit for Hulme's Yellow-browed Warbler, (which shouldn't be here and which of course calls differently). I didn't get a chance to check the tertials before losing the bird altogether, which was frustrating. Two-barred Greenish and Arctic Warblers winter here, but Yellow-browed is very common in the winter and on call it probably was a dull/ worn one of these, but I should wish to see more before it makes the list.

Later we drove the 40 Klms. to the hilltop stunning temple and forest park at Pha Nam Yoi. This is jaw droppingly impressive, (google it and you'll see what I mean) and I added at least a new trip species as well, - a male Blue Rock Thrush. I would have dearly loved to spend a few hours of early morning birding here, as much of the forest looks very tasty, like a residual island patch of primary forest.

This evening I managed 40 minutes more in the local forest patch and found Black-crested Bulbul (common), to pad out the local list a bit more, and pleasingly a Taiga Flycatcher, which I enjoyed for 10 minutes or so.

Best Wishes,

Mike P

Mike Passant · Status: Offline

Today, Sunday Feb. 12th we drove east to the Mekong River, some 80 Klms. from the farm (itself just up the road from Kut chum), our target species being Mekong Wagtail, the "new" species described relatively recently in 2001. Although we had our passports with us and should have loved to have crossed into Laos, there were no legitimate crossing points. We reckoned that the local fishermen would have taken us across for buttons, but suspected that the cost of the return trip might be much higher.

On checking the first site, I heard a wagtail call, located the bird on the muddy shoreline below our vantage point, and saw 2 birds, - both leucopsis (Amur Wagtails); - old friends to Paul and me from the famous Co. Durham bird of some years ago, but not our target on this occasion. Undaunted, we carried on scoping, finding 2 Little Ringed Plover, a single River Lapwing, and a scatter of 3/4 Common Sandpipers.

We then spent another two hours driving north along the river's western shore and finding just a few more Amur Wagtails, which seemingly winter here in considerable numbers. Barn Swallows, Little Egrets, an Ashy Woodswallow and a few noisy Yellow-vented Bulbuls made up the very modest species range. I thought that I had a Plain Martin on breast pattern but according to the field guides only Sand Martin is here, so I left this unidentified.

We took to long distance scanning of the Laos side of the very wide river as that seemed to have fewer fishermen about, and there was also a possibility of Small Pratincole and Great Thick-knee both of which would also be new birds for our Thailand lists but this added nothing. To cut a long story short, the highlight of the day was probably the Mekong River itself, with its numerous rocky and sandy islands, and though we dipped on the Mekong Wagtail we still had a good day with some spectacular temples explored en route.

Earlier in the week, we had taken to early morning rides on the racing bikes, going out into the countryside with highlights being Indian Roller, several encounters with the always impressive Black-shouldered Kites hovering close to the highway, with a few Brahminy Kites, (much scarcer here then in the areas to the south closer to the sea). My early morning (6am) riverside walk by the farm on Saturday 11th. had produced something of a thrill to encounter some 40 or so Little Green Bee Eaters leaving their communal roost. Both in the mornings and evenings, a Shikra has flown over the farm, out of and into its roost nearby.

Tomorrow morning Barb and I shall hope to visit a small but inviting forest section only some few hundred metres from the farm which we briefly sampled a few days ago and in which found quite a selection of butterflies.

Best Wishes,

Mike P.

-- Edited by Mike Passant on Sunday 12th of February 2017 07:01:38 PM

-- Edited by Mike Passant on Sunday 12th of February 2017 07:04:25 PM

Mike Passant · Status: Offline

we've now been here a week of what is essentially a family visit involving socialising, sight seeing, working on the farm, with some birding when the opportunity presents itself.

A few common species were frequenting the garden of the Bangkok house, with Pied Fantails zipping around in typical fashion, all but landing on me in response to my squeaks.

In the local park we found several Openbill Storks, a nice but furtive adult Yellow Bittern, numerous Common Koels, Chinese Pond Herons, and honking Large-billed Crows to kick start our listing. Copper smith Barbets, a White-breasted Waterhen, were outnumbered by the very common but showy Oriental Magpie Robins. Overhead, Swiftlets defied confident identification, but were probably of the Edible-nest species.

Friday saw us heading south out of Bangkok's nightmarish traffic congestion for a night in a beachside hotel at Cha-Am.

En route, the plan was to spend a couple of hours checking through the waders at Tak Thale salt pans for a hoped for Spoon-billed Sandpiper, likely to be knocking about with the numerous parties of Red-necked Stints.

When we finally found the correct site, we were already behind schedule, as we needed to secure beds for the night, knowing that many Thai families come down here for the weekend to escape the city. It was therefore with some relief that we finally located our target bird within minutes of having to give up.

Other species present were numerous Black-winged Stilts, Bar-tailed Godwits, Marsh Sandpipers, Kentish Plovers, Sandplovers, (we had neither time nor patience to devote to splitting Sandplovers), Greenshanks, (no Nordman's, which anyway we had seen before), a Curlew Sandpipier, a Whimbrel, a Long-toed Stint and a Spotted Redshank.

On Sunday Paul drove the 700 kilometres (11 hours) north-east to Isaan, where they have the farm.

En route, we took in the temple at Wat Phra Phutabath Noi for the Limestone Wren-Babbler, this being an easy site for this species.

I have now started a new list for the farm area. This is not prime birding country, as the land is given over to rice farming, and birds have traditionally been seen as a food source, and are quite wary accordingly.

Nevertheless, sandwiched between farming chores (i.e. helping to install an improved irrigation system for the vegetable garden) I have so far managed several quality species from a European perspective: Brown Shrike, Brown Flycatcher, Thick-billed Warbler, Dusky Warbler in addition to more exotic but common resident species.

More to follow,

Best Wishes,

Mike P.