Shore Bird Watching in Thailand

After a month of excitement for my trip to Tangkoko, I’m off again to Thailand for shore bird watching!

I took an early morning flight from Singapore to Bangkok with Singapore Airlines. They served a simple breakfast onboard using non-plastic cutlery, which I thought was great for the environment.

I can’t help but be amazed by the beauty of Kanchanaphisek Bridge, which I cross every time I drive through the Chao Phraya River.

My destination is a salt pan southwest of Bangkok, where I’m hoping to spot the critically endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper.

I can already see the fishing village from here.

It’s a huge area, and I’m looking for a very small bird.  

It’ll be tough to find them, but I’ll give it my best shot.

As I moved deeper into the salt pan, I saw flocks and flocks of waders.

I think the birds must have seen some raptors and took flight.

There were smaller sand plovers and bigger sand pipers among them.

Other than migratory birds, there are also many resident cormorant perched on the lone tree in the salt pan. I haven’t seen my target yet, but I’m keeping an eye out.

The records for this season’s arrivals of Spoonbill Sandpiper are only 2, so I need to have some luck to find them.

Pak Thale Shorebird Site Bird Watching Pt 2

This is the deco of the restaurant that we have our lunch - a whale! If you look carefully, there is a nest right at the opening of the whale.

 A pair of turtle dove have make this whale their home!

We continue our shore birds watching after our lunch. 

 These are Great Knot

 Mixture of Great Knot and Black Tailed Godwit.

 The tide is rising and the Black Tailed Godwit is shifting location and continue their feeding.

 More Black Tailed Godwit

 There are few Asian Dowitcher among the godwits.

 Nordmann's Greenshank appear much whither compare with others.

 A Marsh Sandpiper walking alone looking in the salt pan.

 Broadbill Sandpiper

 A tiny Red Necked Stint

 A not so common Chinese Egret.

We have another surprise when we spotted this Barn Owl in broad day light.

Migratory Birds Are Back to SBWR

With the arrival of September, so as the migratory birds. The waders usually start to come in from August. With the Hari Raya long week end, I decided to check out the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve.

To get to the reserve, we will need to cross the river through this main bridge. The weather today is good and perfect for a good birding trip.

The tide was high and this will means that I have higher chance to see the waders in a shorter distance. The birds are forced by the sea water to feed nearer to the shore.

Few Milky Storks rather stay dry high up on the tree branch.

From the Main Hide, saw a mixture of Milky Storks & Painted Storks feeding together.

 2 mud skippers swimming around instead of playing with mud...   :)

Yes. The migratory birds are back at the reserve.

 This Black Tail Godwit decided not to join the Red Shanks.

Hiding among the Whimbrels, not that difficult to spot the not so common Eurasian Curlew. The Curlew is much bigger than Whimbrels, can you tell the difference?

While walking over to the Mangrove Boardwalk, saw this squirrel lazying on the railing.

Follow the loud call, not difficult to pin point the location of Cicada.

I was told there are 2 reasons why Mullet jump out of water. They are either trying to escape from predator or they are taking in oxygen from the air above the water.

Saw something big swimming in the water but I have no idea what is it perhaps this is the one that caused alarm to the mullets.

Longkang Birding at Sembawang

Longkang is a Malay word, it means drain. The last time I came here was about a year ago. So much changes have taken place in this narrow park connector. A lot of new HDB flats has been built beside the connector.

Back to the longkang... Simpang Kiri is a canal or a river to be exact.

This canal end at Sembawang beach and I purposely choose this time (low tide) to come here. From experience, more activities can be observed during low tide.

 This Collared Kingfisher perch near the entrance.

 A rather common Spotted Dove walking on the now dry river bed looking for food.

 Another very common bird - Common Sandpiper

 A pair of Little Egret wading in the water try finding a best spot to hunt.

 This Grey Heron taking a break and just watch others busy feeding from the side of the canal.

 Another Collared Kingfisher with either worn out or dirty plumage.

Not far from the Collared Kingfisher, this White-Throated Kingfisher also waiting for best time to hunt.

With the tide going down, this part of the river is now low in salinity thus this myna taking bath in it.

There a lots of myna feeding on the mud flat. Guess what, the migrant - Purple Back Starling also feed side by side with the Javan Myna.

I didn't know Purple Backed Starling other than feeding on insects & fruits, they also feed like waders on the mud flat.

Birds are not the only one that is busy during low tide. Lots of  week end fisherman also taking advantage of the low tide to collect green mussel from the mud flat. Although Singapore is a small country, it is still possible to observe wildlife if you visit at the right time...

Thailand 2013 Birding Trip - Part 1

I have my 2013 first birding trip last week at Thailand. Like many other country of South East Asia, birding at Thailand during this period will have opportunity to watch both the resident as well as migratory birds.  Visit during this period will have higher chance of meeting with the less common & rare birds such as the one that appeared on the sign board that bring us to our intended birding site, Pak Thale Shorebird Site - Spoon-billed Sand piper! I was told that only 3 birds recorded this season!

Pak Thale is one of the best birding site I ever visited. The birding site sits right in the middle of huge salt pan along the Gulf of Thailand. This in return give bird watcher a opportunity to watch bird in anytime of the day as long as there are sun light (from sun rise to just before sun set) as this site is not affected by tidal changes and the water level is consistent throughout the day.

Salt are harvested when sea water evaporated.

Saw this huge flock of  Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata) from far before we even arrive at the site. I have never seen so many Eurasian Curlew before. I use to see only Whimbrel in Singapore!

We start with the more common birds - the Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos)

Marsh Sandpiper (Tringa stagnatilis) is also quite common in Singapore.

Bird that not so common in Singapore - Broad-billed Sandpiper (Limicola falcinellus)

Stints are some of the smaller shore birds, smaller than a plover - Temminck's Stint (Calidris temminckii)

Another stint that I saw - a Long-toed Stint (Calidris subminuta)

Common Greenshank (Tringa nebularia)

A very beautiful Sanderling  (Calidris alba)

Spotted Redshank  (Tringa erythropus) is quite common here, but not in Singapore.

Curlew Sandpipers (Calidris ferruginea) bigger birds in photo with bill slightly curved down.

One of the most beautiful water birds, with long pinkish/red leg - Black-winged Stilt  (Himantopus himantopus)

Common Snipe  (Gallinago gallinago)

Pintail Snipe (Gallinago stenura)

Numerous of terns and gulls can be found here too. Such as this - Common Tern  (Sterna hirundo)

Brown-headed Gull  (Chroicocephalus brunnicephalus)

Caspian Tern (Hydroprogne caspia)

Black-tailed Godwit  (Limosa limosa) with her super large bill.

Another uncommon encounter - Black-headed Ibis (Threskiornis melanocephalus). Very similar to Sacred Ibis that are now very common in Taiwan. Instead of black patch on tail, this Black-headed Ibis have grey patch on their tail.

Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) in non-bleeding plumage. My 1st time seeing this rare birds.

Another new bird for me, extremely beautiful shore bird that with a very unique bill - Pied Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta)

The bird of the trip will be this Spoon-billed Sandpiper (Eurynorhynchus pygmeus). It took us 2 days to find this beautiful bird. Managed only to take a record shot as the sunlight is really too harsh to take a proper photo.

Our list recorded more than 60 species at this site and they are just too many to be included in this post. You have to visit the site to look at yourself and be amazed by all the beautiful birds!