Of Monarchs...

Lovely visit to Suan Rot Fai this morning, with "chilly" dawn temperatures (but still not cold enough for long sleeves!). The dry season is making it's presence felt now, with significant leaf drop from the trees - combined with the cool temperatures this almost felt like an autumn day in England! Birding was disticntly better than any autumn day could produce in the UK however, with two patch ticks - first a female BLACK-NAPED MONARCH picked up on call and watched flycatching in the foliage for a few minutes at sunrise, and secondly a THICK-BILLED WARBLER also picked up on call ("tacking" continuously) and watched for 10 minutes moving slowly through riverside vegetation. Other migrants/winterers includes 4 Brown Shrikes, 5 Yellow-browed Warblers, 8 Asian Brown, and 15+ Taiga Flys, and three large pipits (Paddyfiled/Richard's but not seen well).