15th April 2010 - morning

Morning at Suan Rot Fai produced more migrants/late winterers including four or five Brown Shrikes, Two or three Black-naped Orioles, two Asian Brown Flycatchers and stunning views of this breeding plumaged Taiga Flycatcher...

...aswell as a better-than-normal opportunity to photograph a Thick-billed Warbler...

I also got great views of a couple of breeding plumaged Javan Pond Herons that were buzzing around the main lake.

10th April 2010 - Suan Rot Fai

A walk around the patch in the late afternoon heat (more than 35 celcius!) to look for migrants was disappointing, with just single Taiga Fly, Asian Brown Fly and brief views of a Brown Shrike.

Perhaps the highlight was this obliging Asian Koel (usually hard to photograph).

14th April - Khok Kham

Afternoon at Khok Kham in the hope of scoring Asiatic Dowitchers on passage and in fine plumage - failed on that count (Mr Tee had seen one in the morning), but lots of waders in equally fine plumage to compensate.  Most notable was a large flock of Knot spp, including at least 50 Red Knot feeding and a another 300 knot spp roosting at a distance that made specific ID difficult, though most appeared to be Reds.  It seems to have been a good winter for them in this part of Asia (numbers are normally much smaller).  Rarest bird of the day was a breeding plumaged Little Stint, there were lots of Red-necked Stints around too, but none close enough to photograph.

Little Stint

There were also good numbers of Whiskered Terns around, most of which had attained breeding plumage, plus small numbers of White-winged Black Terns which were well on their way to doing the same.

Whiskered Terns

WWBT

Boobook on the patch

Visited Suan Rot Fai before work for the first time in a very long time (more than 2 months in fact).

Still some winter vistors about - three ASIAN BROWN FLYCATCHERS, one very smart TAIGA FLYCATCHER with red throat and a one, perhaps two BLACK-CAPPED KINGFISHERS.  Larger than normal numbers of BLACK-NAPED ORIOLES and BARN SWALLOWS suggesting migration.

The most interesting record today was this BROWN BOOBOOK in "The Ramble".  Not sure weather to consider it as a genuine record or a probable escape from Chatuchak Market - Round (2008) notes that the species is found in parkland, but indicates that most Bangkok records are mid winter...

Perhaps I'll just tell myself it's a migrant!

 Not bad for iso 3200 on the D90

EDIT: 2nd October 2011.  In the light of new identification features being determined this bird has now been identified as a Northern Boobook.  for more information see the post here.

22nd March - Unmasked!

Whilst at Fraser's Hill I made the mistake of checking my email one evening.  There waiting in my inbox was a message from Peter Ericsson with the news that a MASKED FINFOOT was at Khao Yai. Once I'd picked myself up off the floor, I resolved to go for it upon return to Thailand - these birds used to be gettable in Krabi's mangroves, but that was the best part of 15 years ago; in the seven years I have lived in Thailand I have only heard of one record, and I seriously considered twitching one in Singapore earlier this year.

After re-organising a few personal and office plans, Chris and I lept into the hire car and embarked upon my first Thai twitch: Bangkok-Khao Yai-Bangkok in eight hours, and Finfoot firmly under the belt!

A big bird - in every sense!

21st March - Khok Kham

A late afternoon visit to secure Chris a few more year ticks before heading to New Zealand was semi-successful...the waders were widely spread and we consequently failed to find the Spoon-billed sandpiper, however we did find a LITTLE STINT, which is a good local rarity, plus a small group of c.10 of ASIAN DOWITCHERS.  There was also a very impressive flock of GREAT and RED KNOT - perhap 500 birds strong, and with Red Knot accounting for approximately one third of the birds.

Many of the Waders were attaining summer plumage, so it was great to see summer plum R-n Stints and Broad-billed Sandpipers!

14th - 20th March: Fraser's Hill, West Malaysia

My first vist to Fraser's Hill, with my old friend Chris Collins, provided me with a dose of reality and a fistfull if Sundaic lifers.  Obviously I'd been hoping for Mountain Peacock-Pheasant, Malayan Whistling-thrush, Cutia, Rusty-naped Pitta and Marbled Wren Babbler...well we scored one-and-a-half of these, getting excellent views of Marbled Wren-babbler  about 1km above The Gap, and finding a Rusty-naped Pitta on the Telekom Loop (if travelling anticlockwise around the Loop, the bird was down the slope just after the house called "Green Acre") which responded to playback on three days bet never showed itself.

 Silver-eared Mesias are very common around the town of Fraser's Hill

 White-thighed Langur - supposedly common, but we only encountered one group.

Nobody we met had seen the other targets recently, so after initial, fruitless attempts, we elected to try for some of the birds that are seldom-seen at Fraser's,  but (my) muched hoped-for lowland birds.  this meant we spent a coule of days driving Highway 55 below the Gap, stopping  where the forest looked promising and playing Collared Owlet calls to solicit  interest amongst the passerines; and scanning over vistas for raptors and hornbills.  This strategy worked very well, securing us excellent views of three Helmeted Hornbills 1 km below the Gap, as well as brief views of a group of c. 8 White-Crowned Hornbills - incredibly these two difficult species were seen from the same lay-by on the roadside (on different days, but presumably visiting the same fruiting tree), as were a total of about 15 Wreathed Hornbills.  We also picked up a number of Great Argus calling  deep in the forested valleys, a pair of Rhinocerous Hornbills,  and a Maroon-breasted Philentoma. This road also gave us excellent views of Rufous-bellied Eagle, Black Eagle and a healthy passage of Oriental Honey Buzzards (up to 25 birds visible at one time on our last day).

 We came across three different pairs of Red-bearded Bee-eaters
during the week, one pair gave exceptional views whilst food passing.

The first of these bee-eater pix was taken with my 300mm  f4 +1.4 TC, whilst the lower image was taken with a 600mm f4, lent to me by a very kind bird photographer from Hong Kong who had spent a few hours staking out this bird.  I think my little lens holds up quite well considering it cost one sixth of the price!

 Malaysian Laughingthrush is a fairly recent split from Chestnut-crowned.  They are reasonably common around the Upper Gate.

 Orange-bellied leafbird, with a problem.

Long-tailed Broadbill

Blyth's Hawk-eagle

 

Mountain Imperial Pigeons

Streaked Spiderhunter

Brown Needletail squadron