Paddyfield Pipit

A wander around Mae Sot Reservoir this morning produced a nice selection of birds including five or six CHESTNUT-TAILED STARLINGS which I don't get to see  too often, plus a selection of typical wintering warblers including at least four THICK-BILLED WARBLERS and two DUSKY WARBLERS, as well as three BROWN SHRIKES and several PADDYFIELD PIPITS.

Brown Shrike

Cyornis headache

I'm in Mae Sot this week, working each day but sneaking in a bit of birding at the reservoir before work. A nice selection of birds today included BLUE MAGPIE, four PURPLE SUNBIRDS, several PIED BUSHCHATS, one or two RADDE'S WARBLER and this tricky female Cyornis flycatcher... 

This flycatcher twice gave a sharp, almost scolding "tak" call, which (according to Robson 2004) reduces the options to either Blue-throated, or Hill Blue Flycatcher.  Given the bird's rather greyish lores and relatively pale, non-uniform breast with orange restricted to the breast (not extending onto the flanks), I think this bird is a female BLUE-THROATED FLYCATCHER.  However the top photo shows no evidence of a "strongly refescent" tail, which is noted as a feature by Robson.  This may be simply because the photo was taken in deep shade and the tail is out of focus, or possibly because this bird is of the race glaucicomans (split by some authorities as "Chinese Blue Flycatcher") though I'm struggling to reconcile the other features of that race (strongly orange breast with contrasting pale throat, brown-washed flanks - see this image) with the subject bird.  I've seen females of both Hill Blue and Blue-throated before, but not recently, so thoughts/suggestions/confirmation welcome!

EDIT, 3rd Oct 2011:  After seeing another migrant Cyronis at Suan Rot Fai I feel more comfortable with the idea of the mae Sot bird being Chinese Blue, most notably because of the pale throat.  I believe the bird linked to in the post above, seen by another observer in Suan Rot Fai in Sept 2008, is actually a Hill Blue, rather than a Chinese Blue Flycatcher (due to the lack of contrast between breast and throat).

Get your Rocks off....

Productive morning on the patch, with some different (but expected) migrants/winter visitors showing up. The best being a THICK-BILLED WARBLER and a BLACK-NAPED MONARCH.  

I had given pride of place  to a male WHITE-THROATED ROCK THRUSH that I discovered feeding in a secluded shelter belt, however upon returning home I looked at the record shots that I had taken of the bird and I am rather devastated to see that it appears to have a damaged right leg and foot.

 Crippling...

The fact that this stunning bird is seriously injured is very upsetting. It also throws significant doubt on the origin of the other two WTRT that I found in the park last year. At that time I considered the risk of captive origin, but I had no evidence so gave the birds the "benefit of the doubt".  However I now see no alternative but to remove this species from the patch list.  I just hope that this particular individual is able to survive. I often think about visiting Chatuckak weekend market to see what birds are being sold, but it is such a depressing experience that I have avoided doing so for a long time.  However, given this situation I will probably pay a visit in the near future.

Other padders seen this morning included 1-2 ARCTIC WARBLERS 8+ TAIGA FLYS, 5+ BLACK-NAPED ORIOLES, 3+ BLACK-CAPPED KINGFISHERS, 30+ BARN SWALLOWS and 6 PADDYFIELD PIPITS. 

Paddyfield Pipit

EDIT:  Phil Round has commented as follows...

"I don't think we have seen White-throated Rock Thrush in trade and on balance, notwithstanding your bird with damaged foot, I would guess these are genuine migrants. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, I would count them [as wild]....the timing is spot-on for migrants. We have also seen females at other sites around Bangkok."

Harrier hunting

 Sometimes, I wish I was a rice farmer...

After being asked for my opinion on an odd Marsh Harrier in the UK, and realising that I'd rarely looked closely at any harrier in Asia that wasn't a stonking male (!), I decided to use my free Sunday afternoon to go looking for harriers to improve my own knowledge.  I headed up towards Ayutthaya to the area where I had glimpsed a harrier spp as I whizzed past on the southbound journey from Mae Sot a few weeks ago.

I made a couple of stops en route and picked up a few interesting things including three distant BLACK KITES (too far off to tell if they where migrans or lineatus), three WOOD SANDPIPERS, a group of seven GREY-HEADED LAPWINGS, several BLACK-SHOULDERED KITES, large numbers of EASTERN YELLOW WAGTAILS, and a few PLAIN-BACKED SPARROWS.

When I got to the area where I had seen a single harrier last month, I soon picked up a very smart, but distant male EASTERN MARSH HARRIER, which was quickly followed by a two females quartering fields a little (but not much) closer, then a female PIED HARRIER.  A look further along this road produced brief but very nice views of a stunning male Pied Harrier as it belted over the road in front of me, hanging around just long enough for a couple of record shots.

Returning at dusk to the area where I had seen the other harriers it became apparent that I had found a roost - in the fading light a large number of harriers could be seen over one field - I counted at least 16 birds, most of which appeared to be Eastern Marsh (the light was very poor by this time). So a great afternoon - finding a harrier roost just 40 minutes drive from my central Bangkok home!

Sadly the views I got today were mostly of adult birds, so not very informative with regard to the bird in the UK, but I least I know where to look next time...

Dusky, and Dicks?

 

 Dusky Warbler

I did the patch for an hour or so this morning.  Cool, dry weather and a NE breeze means that the dry season has arrived, making birding much more comfortable.  Best birds this morning were three DUSKY WARBLERS (the first I've seen this autumn) with two in The Ramble and one elsewhere in the park.  Also seen were a single ASIAN BROWN FLYCATCHER, and three or more TAIGAS, plus at least four YELLOW-BROWED WARBLERS. Also seen were a pair of ASHY WOODSWALLOWS - nice to see since I only added this spp to my patch list a few weeks ago.

The same Dusky Warbler - in strong sunlight it looks completely different!

Frustration came when I found a group of PADDYFIELD PIPITS, with four visible in long grass - I started scanning through them to check for Richard's.  As I was doing so they got flushed by an Accipiter sp (probably Shikra) and at least six pipits went up, with one giving a far stronger and more strident, rasping call than the others...an unseen RICHARD'S PIPIT, with the call matching this one on Xeno Canto, but I'm loathed to patch tick it under these circumstances.  Let's call it a "probable"...

Suan Rot Fai this morning for a couple of hours, in much more agreeable weather, with a first taste of dry season cloudless skies and fresh breeze.

Birding produced small numbers of migrants - a couple of TAIGA and ASIAN BROWN FLYCATCHERS, plus an obvious movement of BLACK-NAPED ORIOLES.  Highlights of the morning were two ASHY DRONGOS, inlcuding one leucogenis, and a late YELLOW-RUMPED  FLYCATCHER.

 Asian Brown Flycatcher

Yellow-rumped Flycatcher - the black upper-tail coverts 

mean this bird is either an adult female of a first winter male.

Get your boots on!

I made a few stops on the drive back from Mae Sot yesterday, these included an hour looking for migrating raptors in the range of hills between Mae Sot and Tak, in the extreme west of Thailand.  Since the weather was less than perfect (lots of cloud, threatening rain and only a few patches of sun) there wasn't too much action, but what there was was quite interesting, with two separate ORIENTAL HONEY-BUZZARDS, one of which was behaving rather strangely as it seemed to be displaying whilst migrating: it would pick up a thermal and start circling, then would break into  series of strong, very labour-intensive wing beats (so intensive infact that it would trail its legs downwards) to gain altitude and would then drop on semi-closed wings in an undulting fashion at a 45 degree angle, ending in an upwards peak where it would close it's wings fully and stoop and high speed, then it would start flapping again until it picked up a thermal to circle on.  It did this four or five times over the course of 10 minutes, even continuing to do so whilst being mobbed by an accipiter spp.

The other interesting raptor I saw was much closer (see photos below). It looked to me like a Black Kite on structure (note the long tail and angular wings)  but seemed to have some plumage anomalies (relatively uniform dark brown underparts, reduced whitish patches on the inner primaries (not extending to outher primaries).  The tail was splayed as the bird was circling, and the tail appears to be heavily worn, so no fork is evident.  This bird had me confused for a while  - after initially thinking Black Kite I started to wonder if it was actually an Aquila eagle, but the tail is clearly too long and the bird too "dainty",  the carpel bars on the upperparts (see the poor quality pic below) are also consistent with Black Kite, however, in the same picture note the white "landing lights" on the shoulders and the narrow white rump. This bird is actually a dark phase BOOTED EAGLE, a species I have very little experience of, and only ever in light phase.  Interesting bird...ok, let's be honest..."confusing bird", but a good lesson learned!  I have to thank Sacha Barbato for inadvertently alerting me to the possibility of this bird being a booted eagle - I had forgotten that Booted occurs in Thailand,  Robson (2008) considers it to be a vagrant or rare passage migrant in much of Thailand, though Robert Candido  reports it as regular at raptor watchpoints on the Thai-Malay peninsular (eg Chumphon). Thanks also to Phil Round who has confirmed the ID.

Dark phase Booted Eagle

Further along on my journey back I stopped briefly at Bung Boropet, which was heaving with birdlife including BRONZE-WINGED JACANA, PURPLE SWAMPHEN, and STRIATED GRASSBIRD, LONG-TAILED SHRIKE, ORIENTAL PRATINCOLE, and a few YELLOW BITTERNS.

female Yellow Bittern

Whilst driving further south it was evident that migrating hirundines (especially RED-RUMPED SWALLOWS) and BLACK DRONGOS were being forced down by the frequent heavy rain showers.  The icing on the cake at sunset was a Harrier spp (probably Pied) quartering a field about 30kms north of Bangkok, but I was charging down the dual carriageway, looking into the sun so couldn't clinch it.