A.W.Birder: Always on the lookout for fine birds...

Tuesday, 22 January 2019

Thailand 2019 - Week 1

The first week of my time in Thailand was pretty amazing, c250 species including some amazing birds. See what you can do in one week below...

The first stop I made was at the famous section of coast between Pak Thale and Laem Pak Bia. Famous for its Spoon-billed Plover overwintering population. I was very pleased to find one of these incredible, unique and Critically Endangered shorebirds in among thousands of other birds.

Spoon-billed Sandpiper - very much a record shot (phone-scoped)

It wasn't all about the one species, though and I had at least 45 species of shorebirds in the few days I was in the area. Some of the better birds (from a World and Thai perspective) included Nordmann's Greenshank, Asian Dowitcher, Far Eastern Curlew, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (national rarity), Collared Pratincole (a national mega rarity - this was the 3rd record), White-faced Plover, Oriental Pratincole (our of season record), Terek Sandpiper, Malaysian Plover, Grey-headed Lapwing, and Pheasant-tailed Jacana. I also had several Chinese Egrets.

White-faced Plover - is not a Kentish Plover!

Got some other really great birds in the rice fields and mangroves near here too, such as Yellow-breasted Bunting (Critically Endangered), along with Mangrove Whistler and Golden-bellied Gerygone.

Mangrove Whistler - not the most colourful, but a decent record. For some colour keep reading.....

After leaving the coast I moved inland to the area around Kaeng Krachan. Some of the highlight birds from here included:Tickell's Brown Hornbill, Oriental Pied Hornbill, Black-and-Red Broadbill, Red-breasted Parakeet, Kalij Pheasant, Jerdon's Baza, Black Baza, Mountain Hawk-Eagle, Black-thighed Falconet, Slaty-legged Crake, Bar-backed and Green-legged Partridges, Siberian Rubythroat, Siberian Blue Robin, 4 species of 'Blue Flycatcher', Orange-headed Thrush, White-crested, Greater Necklaced, and Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrushes, and Spot-winged Starling (a rarity - I found a flock of 50 of them!).

Lots of time spent in hides watching and photographing some amazing birds. A few pics below....

Siberian Rubythroat - a great view of this skulker!

Bar-backed Partridge

Blyth's Paradise Flycatcher

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater

Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush

Kalij Pheasant (male)

Kalij Pheasant (female)

Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrush

Orange-headed Thrush

Oriental Pied Hornbill

Siberian Blue Robin

Slaty-legged Crake

Spot-winged Starling

Streak-breasted Woodpecker

Sultan Tit

White-crested Laughingthrush

White-rumped Shama

Thanks to Birding Ecotours for sending me to these amazing locations! 2020 anyone????

Tuesday, 8 January 2019

A Big Aussie Twitch - Citrine Wagtail

I've been lucky to spend Christmas and New Year with my friends Dave and Sue in Adelaide this year and the day after Boxing Day whilst enjoying watching India stuffing Australia in the cricket Dave got a message from a birder with a report of a Citrine Wagtail in the town of Whyalla, about four and a half hours to the west of Adelaide. Now this is a serious Australian MEGA, with only 4 previous (accepted) records, one other of these records was also in South Australia.

Once we got a back of camera photograph of the bird, and confirmed the record was current etc we all jumped in the truck and so started my final twitch of 2018!

Five hours after setting off from Adelaide we stepped out of the vehicle and right into an oven. It was baking hot, 45oC and blowing a gale (so felt a lot hotter). We set off out in different directions around the wetland composed of several small waterbodies hoping to find the bird. After a short while of searching the various pools Dave and Sue located the bird on one of the back pools. After a few nervous minutes after it had vanished before I could get across from where I was, the bird suddenly appeared and we then spent the next hour or so enjoying great views of the 5th for Australia.

The Citrine Wagtail was a very worn 1st-winter bird and seemed happy enough finding plenty of food along the lake shore. It would occasionally fly about and was heard calling several times.

5th for Australia Citrine Wagtail.

We had a nice selection of other birds whilst looking for the wagtail, such as Australian Spotted Crake (pic below) and Wood Sandpiper.

Australian Spotted Crake

After grabbing some dinner in Whyalla we drove back to Adelaide, arriving back home near mid-night. What an awesome and exciting day! Huge thank you to Dave and Sue for all their driving! (and of course for having me for Christmas and New Year!)

Monday, 7 January 2019

Thailand 2019

I'm going to be heading over to Thailand from Australia in a couple of days and am getting very excited about the numerous really cool birds that will be on offer... Here are a few of the species I'll be looking for....

Spoon-billed Sandpiper - this will again be one of my big targets while I'm in the country. Look below for a whole load more awesome birds!

Giant Nuthatch

Hodgson's Frogmouth

Kalij Pheasant

Long-tailed Broadbill

Mrs Hume's Pheasant

Siberian Blue Robin

Siberian Rubythroat

Silver Pheasant

Silver-breasted Broadbill

Banded Kingfisher

Black-breasted Thrush

Great Hornbill

Common Green Magpie

Rusty-naped Pitta

Ultramarine Flycatcher

White-tailed Robin

Saturday, 5 January 2019

First Birding of 2019

Today I went birding for the first time in 2019 (I'm currently in Adeliade, South Australia). I'd seen a paltry 20 species in the first few days of the year, but that was without leaving my friends house as I'm currently busy sorting out logistics for Thailand, India, Australia, West Papua, Sulawesi, Java, and New Zealand tours for this year.

Garden birds over the last few days have included New Holland Honeyeater (my favorite), Common Bronzewing, Galah, Long-billed Corella, and Black-shouldered Kite.

Today however we headed out to the Toderol Game Reserve about an hour south of Adelaide. This is a shorebird mega site and we had a great list of species. Highlight birds were the two Long-toed Stints we found, along with a Pectoral Sandpiper, and many other shorebirds such as Pacific Golden Plover, Marsh Sandpiper, Common Greenshank, Curlew Sandpiper, Red-capped Plover, Red-kneed Dotterel, Red-necked Avocet, Royal and Yellow-billed Spoonbill, Glossy Ibis, Swamp and Spotted Harriers, Black-tailed Nativehen, Elegant Parrot, Pink-eared Duck, and Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo - along with many more!

For a full list of sightings take a look at my ebird Checklist: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S51326819

Long-toed Stint. One of two seen during the morning.

Pectoral Sandpiper.

Marsh Sandpiper.

Wednesday, 2 January 2019

2018 Year Summary

I had every intention of updating the blog more frequently during 2018 but in reality I was just too busy birding! Had some great trips, here are some links to the trip reports with some photos below. Ended the year on 2,241 species I think, give or take.... I also started using ebird this year... follow me there: https://ebird.org/profile/NjE1MzA1/world Best wishes to everyone for 2019...