Work commitments made it hard for me to make visits to Mae Sot reservoir (my "patch away from patch"), but staying at a small resort in the middle of town, with my room backing onto a field, did pay dividends in the form of three (common) year ticks - Little Bee-eater, Cinnamon Bittern and Slaty-breasted Rail. The rail is something I see rarely, but this one was strutting about in the open, two mornings in a row.
Slaty-breasted Rail
On the drive back to Bangkok I stopped at Bung Borophet for an hour, my target being to catch up with Black Bittern, one of my favourite wet season migrants. Sure enough I scored one with ease, getting excellent, but brief views (hence no photo), plus several Oriental Pratincoles, Black-headed Munia, Painted and Open-billed Storks, another Cinnamon Bittern, a pair of Fulvous-breasted Woodpeckers and several pairs of Baya Weavers constructing nests.
Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker
Baya Weaver nests and bees nest - is there some kind of symbiosis going on here?
