Watercock

A short visit to Suan Rot Fai before work produced two interesting birds, but alas only one turned out to be a patch tick (which brings my patch list to 110).  Bird of the day was a Watercock seen rather briefly at very close range (I came over the brow of a stream bank and the bird froze, but then legged it when I reached to switch from bins to camera).  I saw it badly a couple more times, but it was very easily spooked.  My thinking is that this bird probably followed the flood waters into the city and has stuck around since the floods have receded (I'm just hoping I can soon find a Masked Finfoot that has done the same thing!).

The other interesting bird was a raptor, an juv accipiter-type that sat in a tree for 10 minutes at first light, allowing me to get some pictures of it to capture the birds heavy set bill, strong-looking legs, small crest...and jessies and leg iron! Before I noticed the damming evidence of escapism I had been leaning towards Grey-faced Buzzard (though the crest doesn't exactly fit with that), but now that I know it's a wire-hopper I guess it could be non-native. I need to re-visit Crested Goshawk ID, but in the meantime  any comments on the pictures below gratefully received! EDIT Posted this on BirdForum and it was quickly nailed as a Crested Goshawk.

Note slight crest

Appears to have a gular stripe

only two dark bars visible on tail; bill deep and heavy

More run-of the-mill offerings this morning included two Brown Shrikes, about seven Taiga Flycatchers, one Black-naped Monarch, a pair of Yellow Bitterns, a pair of Painted Storks low overhead, 15+ Blue-tailed Bee-eaters and a single Thick-billed Warbler.

Painted Storks