Excellent day's birding with Richard White at Pak Thale and LPB, with at least four SPOON-BILLED SANDPIPERS, and more than 30 other species of wader seen, including GREAT KNOT, LONG-TOED, TEMMINCK'S and RED-NECKED STINTS, plus MARSH, WOOD and COMMON SANDPIPERS, with both SANDPLOVERS, PACIFIC GOLDEN, GREY, KENTISH, MALAYSIAN and WHITE-FACED PLOVER. We also saw DUNLIN and SANDERLING, neither of which I had seen in Thailand before, but we missed Nordmann's Greenshank and Far Eastern Curlew, both of which are currently present in the area.
Other goodies included three CHINESE EGRETS, GREATER PAINTED- and PINTAIL SNIPES.
Long-toed Stint
Temminck's Stint
Marsh Sandpiper
Grey-headed Lapwings (rare at Lam Pak Bia)
LPB sand spit held good numbers of terns - GREATER and LESSER CRESTED, CASPIAN, WHISKERED, GULL-BILLED, LITTLE and COMMON, plus one PALLAS'S GULL (probably the same bird that I photographed in late December)
Common Tern
Whiskered Tern
Lesser Crested Tern
Greater Crested Tern
Phil Round alerted me to the news that there was a skua spp. that had been taken into care by Mr Daeng (who runs the boat out to LPB), after some discussion we agreed to take the Bird back to bangkok, so that it could be rehabilitated at Kasesart Vet School. On seeing the caged bird, we agreed that it was a POMARINE SKUA, and this has since been confirmed by measurements.
On the way back to Petchaburi, with skua in box on the back seat of the car (a car pom?), we fluked a GREATER SPOTTED EAGLE circling low over the road, seemingly looking for a roost site. The mixed scrub and rice paddies between the inner gulf coastline and Petchaburi is an important area for wintering raptors, and probably deserves more of my attention.
Greater Spotted Eagle
