Quality migrants

Burmese Shrike

Suan Rotfai 0615-0930 hrs produced  a good number of migrants, some of those that were present were of considerable quality.  These included only my second Burmese Shrike for the local patch, my earliest Thick-billed Warbler by a long way (my previous earliest was 6th October), the first Crow-billed Drongo I have seen on the patch for a couple of years (probably reflecting my long absences in September for the last couple of years), two Amur Paradise Flycatchers, my second Japanese Sparrowhawk for the patch (an adult female),  and my earliest Pale-legged/Sakhalin Leaf Warbler.  Other common migrants included a single Arctic Warbler, 10+ Brown Shrike and two Yellow-rumped Flycatchers.

1CY Amur Paradise Flycatcher

Arctic Warbler

Asian Barred Owlet

Black-crowned Night Heron

Forest Wag

I checked The Ramble at the north end of Suan Rotfai before work this morning.  My short visit was rewarded with a single Forest Wagtail and a pair of Yellow-rumped Flycatchers.

male Yellow-rumped Flycatcher

Chinese Pond Heron (note remnants of maroon on shoulder)

juv Little Heron

BB King

I was stuck at home all on Saturday with builders doing some repairs to our house, so I was none too pleased when photos started appearing on my Facebook news feed of a Black-backed Kingfisher that had been found on my local patch. There have been a couple of other records of this stonking little Kingfisher on my patch, the others that I am aware of also falling in mid-September and concerned one-day birds.

Needless to say, first light on Sunday morning found me checking out the area where "BB King" had been seen, but without success.  I'm always torn in these situations about how much I actually care about seeing "somebody else's bird", so after my initial search I headed off to other areas of the park to see what I could find.  Things were initially slow but then took a turn for the better when I found a male Siberian Blue Robin (my earliest autumn record by six days) which was followed by five Brown Shrikes scattered throughout the park, a pair of Arctic Warblers and a three Yellow-rumped Flycatchers - not a bad tally, autumn has officially arrived!

My return journey to the car park took me past the area where the Black-backed Kingfisher had been and I met a couple of photographers who had seen it within the last 20 minutes.  A little bit of patient scanning and a few minutes later I relocated it  - WHAT A BIRD!

Black-backed Kingfisher

OK, so the photo will not win any prizes, but the light was awful and I had other commitments that meant I could not dedicate as much time to getting better images. But, I think this picture pretty much does it justice as an outrageously gorgeous migrant to get on your patch, though you can't really see the ludicrous neon lilac rump and edges to the rear crown.

I went back to the park in the early evening to take my 7 year old god daughter biking. Whilst taking a break in an open area I saw a flock of circa 10 small "grey" starlings fly low over the park - presumably Purple-backed Starlings, but seen without binoculars...

Brown Shrike

 

Autumn passage in slo-mo

I did Suan Rot Fai yesterday morning, for the first time this autumn.

Rewards were thin on the ground, with just a single Arctic Warbler, a male Yellow-rumped Flycatcher, two small parties of Blue-tailed Bee-eaters and a migrant Common Kingfisher.

I checked the Ministry of Public Relations this morning, but it was completely devoid of migrants (as it was last weekend).  Thailand has experienced a very rainless wet season, so I'm wondering if this is having an impact on the volume of birds moving south.  I also read a report yesterday saying that there has been a very hot summer in the Russian far east, so wonder if that means that birds in the Russian Far East have had a poor breeding season?