Astonishingly good patchwork!

Not quite sure what has happened this week - perhaps it is a hangover from the strange, lethally stormy weather that Thailand experienced last week, perhaps I just have not done my patch hard enough in Aprils past (certainly true), but this morning I had FOUR patch ticks, and all of them pretty uncommon passage migrants.

I know it's a good day on the patch 

when it starts with these two!

Firstly I went to look for the Narcissus Flycatcher but drew a blank, however in the same trees where I had seen it were a cracking male Mugimaki Flycatcher (patch tick no. 1) and two luminous male Yellow-rumped Flycatchers.  Close by I found a Forest Wagtail feeding on the ground. Whilst still looking for the Narcissus I noticed two "raptor-like" birds distantly, and flying away from the Ramble...last night I read that yesterday had seem a massive northward movement of Black Bazas near Hua Hin, and as I scuttled out of the woodland I found that these birds were indeed Black Bazas (patch tick no. 2), in fact there were four birds, and they were circling low over the Park and started to climb - amazing to see my favourite raptor with the Ericsson Building in the background!   Later on I walked back to my usual entry/exit point when I realised my attention has slipped due to the increasing heat.  I mentally berated myself for not checking a patch of trees that have been productive in the past and walked back a few meters to view them, sure enough patch tick no. 3 appeared in front of me: a stunning male Blue-and-white Flycatcher! After admiring him for a while I moved on, only to flush a large, rufous cuckoo - it perched up long enough for me to see it through my bins and get some record shots - a female Oriental Cuckoo (patch tick no. 4).

 Didn't we just meet in Sabah?!

Oriental Cuckoo

In addition to that lot I picked up a very smart Pale-legged Leaf Warbler, a couple of Asian Brown Flycatchers and a single Taiga Flycatcher, plus I found well behaved Yellow Bittern and Black-capped Kingfisher for photo love-in sessions.

Yellow Bittern

Black-capped Kingfisher (apparently dancing)