Breakfast Before Trip to Bung Boraphet

After another day of gulls & terns at Pak Thale, we move to Bung Boraphet for our next birding trip. We arrived at night and didn't expect to have problems getting a room for a night. Most of the hotel at the town area are taken up! We only managed to get a room after 2 hours of hotel hunting!

We wake up early and check out from the hotel at 6.00am. We were driving around to look for breakfast & saw this "kue chap" (broad noodle with soap, 粿雜) 

The ingredient of kue chap including meat & egg.

I get myself a bowl and buy additional "you tiao" （油條）.

Main ingredient of "you tiao" is flour. This scene like this are vanishing from street of Singapore since 70's.

You tiao in Singapore are now mass produce from factory and no longer on the street such as this.

Once the dough are deep fry, is ready to serve. You tiao is best to eat when is still warm & crispy.

After the fulfilling breakfast, we go to Bung Boraphet for our birding trip. The main attraction of Bung Boraphet is the reservoir. You may charter a boat to bird on the reservoir that is as big as Singapore!

Other than the reservoir/lake, there is also a trail that you can explore.

The only know area for White-eye river martin is Bung Boraphet. The ststus of this bird is now unknown and may be extinct.

Write up on the river martin.

SOme of the very nice mural on the monument of River Martin.

What a nice sun-rise over Bung Boraphet. Can't wait to jump onto our boat to explore this beautiful reservoir... (to be continued)

Pak Thale Shorebird Site

After a night of good rest at Highway Star near Bang Ta Boon, we continue our birding to Pak Thale. I was here last year for the Spoon-billed sand piper & I don't mind to come back over & over again.

Even the road sign also use the famous Spoon-billed sand piper.

From the number of fish that was drying under the sun along the road, this show that Pak Thale is also a fishing village.

It was low tide whe we arrived. This will means that the birds will be feeding very far from the shore. We met some fisherman that just came back with their catches.

A variety of fish & prawn on top & some crabs at the bottom.

While walking on the sea shore, I saw a file snake.

Look at what I found on the shore! An apple snail that is bigger than my watch! I don't know how a fresh water snail can end up at the sea shore.

Since the birds are feeding far from the shore, I can only take some flight shots when they flew pass me once a while. A flock of Common terns happens to fly closer to the shore.

Eurasian curlew was quite far from the shore.

Well, looks like is quite common that not every hunting effort is successful. This tern caught a crab and loose it before consuming it.

Finally some birds that allow us to approach slowly & have a clear shot - a whiskered tern.

Common Red Shank.

Marsh sand piper

Common Sandpiper

Grey heron

Mixture of Broad-billed sand piper & Curlew sand piper.

Really need to boost up my knowledge on gulls & terns. Been seeing so many gulls & terns these few days & still having trouble id everyone of them...

Thailand's fishing village - Bang Ta Boon (3)

This must be one of the very "tough" birding trip I ever had! Not that the journey is tough but to id the birds that I saw really not an easy job. Most of the birds' id below are based on my best judgement, hope I got the id right.

The very first bird that we saw was a very familiar Little Cormorant (Phalacrocorax niger)

There are lots of pole and pillar from the kelong (fishing farm) along the way, that make birding so much easier. I have not been able to get so close to this Lesser Crested Tern (Thalasseus bengalensis) before.

So as this Greater Crested Tern (Thalasseus bergii).

This is my first time seeing a Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea).

Whiskered Tern (Chlidonias hybrida) just landed on one of the pole.

A very smart Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) riding on a shoe sole!!

I seen this Brown-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus brunnicephalus) yesterday at Bang Pu too.

Another close look at Brown-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus brunnicephalus)

Since this is a birding trip, seeing these dolphin is a bonus!

Not just dolphin, I have dpouble bonus! Is a pair of Bryde's whale!

Heuglin's Gull (Larus heuglinii) - saw it at Bang Pu too.

This looks like a Heuglin's Hull but bigger in size. I can only guess this is a Mongolian Gull (Larus mongolicus) anyone can confirm?

Little egret are waiting for easy meal at the floating fish farm.

A Gret egret with grey heron & brown-headed gull at the background.

This is one of the place that you can take lots of hunting shot! This Brown Headed Gull caught a fish but dropped it at the end as the fish is just too big perhaps.

This is the trail of my trip after export my GPS log into Google Earth.