Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Mae Sot, 6-8 Sept

Just spent a couple of days working in Mae Sot: very little time for any birding, but a petrol stop on the way up happened to be t a petrol station where there is a heron roost, so had Black-crowned Night Herons leaving, with various egrets and Chinese Pond Herons arriving, the adjacent wet field held a group of 7-8 migrating Wood Sandpipers. A pre-work wander in Mae Sot gave me nice views of a group of Pied Chats, chasing one another around the edges of a small reservoir, and a Crested Treeswift. The journey home yesterday was broken by a (very) brief stop at Thaksin Maharat NP, where I saw my first two Brown Shrikes of the autumn, and a Brown Needtail zipping over the forest at warp factor 7.

2 comments:

Thaibirder said...

I had my first Brown Shrike on the 8th at Uthai Thani. Then I had one here at home this morning on the 11th. Yesterday there was a male YR FC as well but too high for photographs.

I had a talk with Stijn de Win who was adamant that the lolas at Thaksin are Olive Bulbuls.
It would be interesting to hear more from you if you pass by there again. Perhaps they sound different from Buff-vented?

Peter

David Gandy said...

Thanks Peter, I'll be going to Mae Sot again in November, so hope to have time to stop at TMNP.

My knowledge of the Iola bulbuls is very limited, especially in determing how to identify Olive...I'm guessing eye-colour is key, but the sole photo of "olive bulbul" on the OB Images website shows a bird with rather greyish looking eyes...

Bulbuls...aaarggh!