Another Thick-bill...

Early morning in Suan Rot Fai produced a few photo ops and a Thick-billed Warbler (too quick for the camera)...

White-throated Kingfisher

Pond Heron spp...I suppose I'll have to start identifying these to species as they begin to attain summer plumage shortly...yawn!

Very nice Taiga Fly with red throat

Terribly exciting upper tail covts

ABF

Rather smart Brown Shrike

Kingfishers and Bee-eaters

Morning trip to Suan Rot Fai on Valentine's Day gave great views of Blue-tailed Bee-eaters hawking insects in the early morning sun. This shot taken with 300mm lens, without teleconverter. I may try to go back early on another morning to dedicate some time to trying to get better shots.

Also this Black-capped Kingfisher hung around long enough to get a few images - not great, but think I need to use a hide to have any real chance of getting good quality images.

Other birds seen included one female Black-naped Monarch, two Taiga Flycatchers and one Open-billed Stork (a patch tick) circling overhead.

Lumpini Park

Went out to Lumpini on 8th Feb to photograph the Water Monitors, loafing around between the joggers/children/aerobics classes....

Little Heron

I had never appreciated, until now, just what a fine set of claws Water Monitors have

Subliminal birding references in modern music #1

Just found that if you listen to the track "Suntoucher" on Groove Armada's album "Goodbye Country (Hello Nightclub)", there is what sounds like a European Nightjar churring in the background for the first 1 min 10 seconds...

Goodbye Country (Hello Nightjar).

AsBO

AsBO....Anti-social Behaviour Owlet?

First trip this year to Suan Rot Fai, greeted within seconds of arrival by a Black-capped Kingfisher (with a second bird seen later), then the discovery of a fruiting tree filled with Black-naped Orioles and Coppersmith Barbets.

The park is amazingly dry now; no rain of any significance has fallen in Bangkok since November, and wet season doesn't begin until April, so I expect it to be semi desert by late March (note to self: check fairways for Cream-coloured Courser on next visit).

Bird of the day was a THICK-BILLED WARBLER (seen rather badly), with other goodies including a stunning male BLACK-NAPED MONARCH, and nice views of ASIAN BARRED OWLET (see above). The only phylloscs were two Yellow-browed Warblers. Flycatchers included 4+ Taiga and one Asian Brown.

My very local, local patch

With time limited for going birding in recent weeks, I've elected to sack it off and just go to stretch my legs on the only patch of green accessible within walking distance of the house - a walking track open to the public in the Ministry of Public Relations (does that mean "Ministry for Censorship?!!). It's given me a few birdy moments - with Black-naped Orioles, Taiga Fly, Yellow-brows and a wintering Brown Shrike all within 5 minutes of the house. However in the last couple of days this site has excelled itself, with a BLACK-CAPPED KINGFISHER perched atop on of the ministry out-buildings (next to a lilly pond) on 23rd, and this morning a PEREGRINE being hassled by Large-billed Crows on the radio tower. Fantastic!

The mid-winter slump

There is no excuse for a mid-winter slump in Thailand, unless of course you have something very big to preoccupy you. In my case there has been a major preoccupation in recent weeks - namely the planning and celebrating of our wedding last weekend...so birding has been on the back-burner. The little bits I have done however have been very high quality - a days diving off Koh Phi Phi on 30th December produced at least two female CHRISTMAS ISLAND FRIGATEBIRDS amongst a wheeling group of LESSER FRIGATEBIRDS around Koh Bida Nok during our surface interval - the Xmas birds were quite easy to pick up on size, once we had our eye-in (greater frigatebird is also a possibility in this area, so plumage features need to be observed carefully).

Then a morning walk around the resort we stayed at on Koh Samet produced excellent views of a male WHITE-THROATED ROCK THRUSH on 13th January.