My Christmas list

Spending Xmas and New Year in Bangkok, with various day trips lined up, intermingled with festivities.  New Year is the best time to be in the "Big Mango" because everybody else leaves and the weather is nice and cool (or at least it should be...)

I've got a few target species that I'm aiming to catch up with - some REALLY embarrassing gaps in my list, which most visiting birders will have seen.  I think I've become a bit complacent  about seeing a lot of things that occur in Thailand because I know I'm here for the long haul.

So below I present my Christmas list, with prospective locations, and justification (to myself!) for having never seen them...

Manchurian Reed Warbler - Royal Project @ Lam Pak Bia - I dipped them in Cambodia and have never looked for them n Thailand

Chinese Egret - LPB - I was a lazy sod when I lived in Krabi (spent all my time diving), and have never looked for them

White-faced Plover - LPB - Never looked for them.  There is one bird wintering at LPB, so hoping this should be pretty straight forward...

Rachet-tailed Treepie - Kaeng Krachan National Park- a rare bird in Thailand, and I've never connected at KK, which is the only site.  Finger's crossed...

White-fronted Scops Owl - KKNP - another  very rare bird (at least few staked out birds are known), which I have dipped twice, so fingers double-crossed...

Leopard -KKNP - OK, not a bird, but I know at least three people who have managed to see Leopard on the road in KKNP, so I have to hope!

Gaur - KKNP - another mammal, there is a regular stake out in Kaeng Krachan, where i have dipped in the past...

Limestone Wren Babbler - Wat Praput Tsa Noi - again, never looked for it...

Baer's Pochard - Bung Borophet - a real outside chance this one, but seen last winter at this site.  This duck appears to be in serious decline.

Austen's Brown Hornbill - Khao Yai NP - split from Rusty-cheeked Hornbill a few years back.  One of the Khao Yai birds I've always missed...

Siamese Fireback - Khao Yai NP - my most embarrassing omission as it is the national bird of Thailand and I've been to Khao Yai loads of times.  Not sure how I have missed it, but I have...

Japanese Thrush - KYNP - a rarity in Thailand, but a male has been seen ay KYNP in the last couple of weeks.

Mountain Scops Owl - KYNP - slippery customers often heard, seldom seen...never by me...hope I can change that!

I'm also going to be doing my patch a lot, so hoping to pull together a reasonable total of species seen...