hard to Swallow

First trip of the year to Suan Rot Fai this morning produced a nice selection of year ticks, with highlights being the female Chinese Blue Flycatcher (first seen in December), a Radde's Warbler and a Pale-legged Leaf Warbler all in "The Ramble".  The pale-legged surprised me as I have not seen one in mid-winter in the city before this week, but I also found one near my house yesterday.  I met a couple of local bird photographers who told me that the male Chinese Blue Fly from December is also still present.

Radde's Warbler

The other notable bird this morning was a Swallow spp that I saw for a couple of minutes in poor light soon after sunrise  - it was either a Red-rumped or a Striated (I think the latter because the rump was quite dark and I could not see any pale/reddish nape; the bird didn't quite seem to have the right proportions for red-rump and the flight seemed relatively "lazy" for a hirundine). Whilst Red-rumped is a common winterer in much of Thailand I have only seen them a few times in the city, meanwhile Round (2008) states that Striated is a short-distance migrant that might occur in the Central Plains as a non-breeding visitor. Rather annoying not to nail it as either spp!