Made a morning trip to Bang Poo which didn't yield too much as the tide had already dropped quite a way by the time I got there. Best was a
Spot-billed Pelican high overhead, and three
Wood Sandpipers on the scrape. The falling tideline held several
Greater Sand Plovers, whilst the brackish lagoon had constant stream of
Barn Swallows on groups of 2-3 birds heading west along the gulf coast.
This evening I headed to the high tide roost at Khok Kham, which was much more productive. I ran into Mt Tii and he helped me to locate the right pool, which held probably 2,000 waders. The bulk of these were
Black-tailed Godwits, but the flock also held many
Asian Dowitchers, I counted 124 Dowitchers in the fading light, but there were certainly more present as I didn't have time to thoroughly check the most densely packed part of the flock. There were also smaller numbers of
Great Knot, and a small party of
Red Knot present, with flocks of
Eurasian Curlew passing over, and groups of
Red-necked Stints and the occasional
Common Greenshank here and there. It's great to see that wader passage is well under way!
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| Asian Dowitchers |
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| Red-necked Stints |
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| euhinus Common Redshank |
On the way back to the car I almost stepped on a small
Monocled Cobra that was lying in the path - I didn't notice it (it looked like a stick!) until it moved when my leading foot was about 18 inches from it - at which point it reared up and hissed at me. I must admit that the middle of the salt pans was not really the kind of place I'd expected to run into one of these things, but I felt pretty stupid for having my guard down (my mental "snake radar" is normally more engaged when birding in forest) and there was I happily wandering about in shorts and sandals! Just goes to show that cobras are highly adaptable and should probably be regarded as being present in most habitats in Thailand.
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