Where is all da scarce?

Fourth day of doing the patch at dawn for bugger-all reward.  Today was especially disappointing after a huge, violent storm dropped big amounts of rain on Bangkok last night, and I was expecting at least a small fall. BLACK-CAPPED KINGFISHER was again the highlight, and only a couple of BROWN SHRIKES and a few BLUE-TAILED BEE -EATERS provided further distraction.

Taiga Flycatcher is overdue for the autumn - can I really be bothered to try again tomorrow, what with a major work deadline looming??

Quiet weekend on the patch -  early morning visits on both Saturday and Sunday failed to produce much evidence of ongoing migration, with a complete absence of warblers/flycatchers.  Blue-tailed Bee-eaters, Brown Shrikes and at least 2 Black-capped Kingfishers provided the main highlights.

The best on offer for the camera were these rather juicy SMALL MINIVETS.

 Olive-backed Sunbird

Pretty quiet morning on the patch, just at a time when there should be at least a healthy sprinkling of migrants.  All I got in 2 hours before work were  BLACK-NAPED ORIOLE and ASIAN BROWN FLYCATCHER (both heard-only), at least five BLUE-TAILED BEE-EATERS, and two or three BROWN SHRIKES.  There were lots of resident birds about, but bugger all on the migrant front.  In desperation I took to photographing dross.

 Common Iora

Return of the King

A quick bash around the patch for the last hour of daylight was made worthwhile by the presence of a BLACK-CAPPED KINGISHER, my first of the autumn.  I don't know if this is a passage migrant or one of the birds that usually winters - either way it is a stunning migrant to see.

Otherwise rather quiet, with just one EASTERN CROWNED WARBLER and three BROWN SHRIKES.

 Indian Roller

Migrants and Malkoha

SRF  from 0730-1100 hrs was initially a bit of a wash out, with drizzly showers putting paid to my hopes of passerine activity...then the rain stopped and the sky brightened a bit - I scored ASIAN PARADISE FLYCATCHER, YELLOW-RUMPED FLYCATCHER and BLACK-NAPED ORIOLE all in one tree (!), then found another tree harbouring an ASIAN BROWN FLYCATCHER and an ARCTIC WARBLER.  Then the rain started again and the activity stopped.  I met up with Phil Round, and we glimpsed the Y-R FLY again (a female type).

Most unexpected bird of the day was a GREEN-BILLED MALKOHA, which I assumed was an escape for Chatuchak market, but which Phil advised me was probably a wild bird as there are a few spots in the inner city and greater Bangkok where they can still be found.  So I'll be taking that as a rather splendid patch tick!

Green-billed Malkoha

A new Spooner

Afternoon trip to Khok Kham with Tom Lees to seek out SPOON-BILLED SANDPIPER.

We commissioned Mr Tii's help in the task, and after much (too much!) searching Mr Tii came up trumps with just 20 minutes light left in the day.  The bird we saw appeared to be an adult in winter plumage - different from the 1st summer that has been seen on-and-off since late July - indeed this was the first time that Mr Tii had seen this bird.

Other notables today included 29 RED KNOT,  many hundreds of RED-NECKED STINTS (with one bird appearing to have retained full summer plumage), one BLACK-TAILED GODWIT, several hundred MARSH, BROAD-BILLED, and CURLEW SANDPIPERS, 3 TURNSTONE, 10+ LONG-TOED STINTS and many hundreds of LESSER SANDPLOVER (some still exhibiting faded summer plumage).  Non-waders included WHITE-WINGED BLACK TERN, WHISKERED TERN, COMMON KINGFISHER and BLUE-TAILED BEE-EATER.

Bee-eaters!

Suan Rot Fai 0610-0815 hrs again today.  On arrival things looked promising, with a flock of 9 BLUE-TAILED BEE-EATERS high overhead, however there was actually little other evidence of newly arrived birds.  I saw a couple of other bee-eaters (including one low overhead chasing dragonflies) and heard two BROWN SHRIKES, but saw little else.  The "starling tree" still held a few DAURIAN STALINGS and I was told by a couple of other birders that a Chestnut-tailed Starling had been photographed there yesterday afternoon - so it was actually been visited by 8 sturnidae spp yesterday.

Daurian Starling