My very local, local patch

With time limited for going birding in recent weeks, I've elected to sack it off and just go to stretch my legs on the only patch of green accessible within walking distance of the house - a walking track open to the public in the Ministry of Public Relations (does that mean "Ministry for Censorship?!!). It's given me a few birdy moments - with Black-naped Orioles, Taiga Fly, Yellow-brows and a wintering Brown Shrike all within 5 minutes of the house. However in the last couple of days this site has excelled itself, with a BLACK-CAPPED KINGFISHER perched atop on of the ministry out-buildings (next to a lilly pond) on 23rd, and this morning a PEREGRINE being hassled by Large-billed Crows on the radio tower. Fantastic!

The mid-winter slump

There is no excuse for a mid-winter slump in Thailand, unless of course you have something very big to preoccupy you. In my case there has been a major preoccupation in recent weeks - namely the planning and celebrating of our wedding last weekend...so birding has been on the back-burner. The little bits I have done however have been very high quality - a days diving off Koh Phi Phi on 30th December produced at least two female CHRISTMAS ISLAND FRIGATEBIRDS amongst a wheeling group of LESSER FRIGATEBIRDS around Koh Bida Nok during our surface interval - the Xmas birds were quite easy to pick up on size, once we had our eye-in (greater frigatebird is also a possibility in this area, so plumage features need to be observed carefully).

Then a morning walk around the resort we stayed at on Koh Samet produced excellent views of a male WHITE-THROATED ROCK THRUSH on 13th January.

Quick SRF visit pre-work produced another (or the same) Black-naped Monarch, 6+ YBWs, several Black-naped Orioles, three spp of Kingfisher (Common, Black-capped & Smyrna) and three Brown Shrikes.

Airport crisis seems to be over...phew!

Of Monarchs...

Lovely visit to Suan Rot Fai this morning, with "chilly" dawn temperatures (but still not cold enough for long sleeves!). The dry season is making it's presence felt now, with significant leaf drop from the trees - combined with the cool temperatures this almost felt like an autumn day in England! Birding was disticntly better than any autumn day could produce in the UK however, with two patch ticks - first a female BLACK-NAPED MONARCH picked up on call and watched flycatching in the foliage for a few minutes at sunrise, and secondly a THICK-BILLED WARBLER also picked up on call ("tacking" continuously) and watched for 10 minutes moving slowly through riverside vegetation. Other migrants/winterers includes 4 Brown Shrikes, 5 Yellow-browed Warblers, 8 Asian Brown, and 15+ Taiga Flys, and three large pipits (Paddyfiled/Richard's but not seen well).

Is it a bird? is it a plane...?

...well it certainly isn't a plane!

Opened the bedroom blind at dawn this morning to find an Asian Open-billed Stork thermalling in the distance, it made a couple of turns and then came straight over the house. I've seen one from one of the downtown skytrain station platforms once before, but otherwise they seem pretty uncommon in the inner city, and this was a garden tick.

Given the fact that both Bangkok airports are closed by protests, it seems that this bird will be the biggest thing in the city's skies today!

25th November 2008

Another dead Siberian Blue Robin in my front yard when I got home from work, this time an imm. male. I'm trying to work out how common these things are around my house (I've never found a dead Oriental Magpie Robin, and they are all over the place), or perhaps they are just good at finding cats...

Spooner

'nuff said...

Pete Simpson, and old mate from my early twitching days turned up in Bangkok a few weeks back, on his way to Doi Inthanon and the other joys of the north. I promised that upon his return I'd have some gen for him on the presence/absence of SPOON-BILLED SANDPIPERS in the Gulf of Thailand this winter, and so was pleased to learn last week that Sp-bS had been seen both at Khok Kham and Pak Thale. Pete duly reappeared after gripping me with a few of my DI bogeys, and I offered to take him out to see the Sp-bS...I owed him that at least - the poor guy had driven me from Surrey/Kent to see the Roller at East Budleigh, and a Black Duck near Glasgow (perhaps the most pointless twitch of all time? No, I was introduced to the Stone Roses en route) in the late 1980s - and we spent this afternoon watching a single Spoon-billed Sandpiper in the company of the now famous Mr Tee at Khok Kham.

Mr Tee also told me that there are currently 8 Spoon-billed Sands at Pak Thale, plus five Nordamann's Greenshank.

Other waders seen today included RN Stint, LT Stint, Broad-billed Sand, Curlew Sand, both Sandpolvers, Pacific Goldie, and Black -winged Stilt...