Thailand Birding: Day Trips to Laem Pak Bia/Pak Thale

The Laem Pak Bia/Pak Thale area of Petchaburi province has established itself as the best shorebird site in Thailand and one of the best in the world. What is impressive about this site is:

1. The Size
2. The sheer number of birds
3. The variety of species
4. The quality of species

Recently, I have been to this area 6-7 times and each time have seen 85 species plus, including a number of very rare birds and a few that are uncommon. It is not that unusual to see more than 100 species in a day.

On the 8th December I spent the day at Laem Pak Bia/Pak Thale with Des and Tina Langford from UK and we had an excellent day starting with Nordmann's Greenshank (it's good to get this bird early before work on the salt pans flushes them away) and then moving on to look for Spoon-billed Sandpiper in it regular location (also good to see this bird early for the same reasons). This bird took some time to find and it was getting tot the point where we thought we might not see it; fortunately as things were getting desperate we found 1 bird on the last pool we looked at.

The Sand Spit We hired a fishing boat to take us out to Laem Pak Bia sand spit which is a great place to find Malaysian Plover. This is a non-migratory shorebird with a restricted range; confined to sandy beaches in Southeast Asia. As sandy beaches in South East Asia suffer from development pressure from the tourist industry, this species is threatened. The boat trip takes about 30-40 minutes to get to the sand spit and Malaysian Plover is easy to find. White-faced Plover is also usually present but often requires a lot more effort to locate - we found one in a roosting flock of Greater Sand Plovers, Lesser Sand Plovers, Kentish Plovers, Curlew Sandpipers, Sanderling and Red-necked Stints.

Freshwater Wetlands The Petchaburi region has a lot of freshwater wetland areas too and a short distance from the main shorebird sites are a small area where a good number of species can be found. From the main crossroads near Hat Chao Samran one should drive back towards Petchaburi and take the first right hand turning (about 1km). This turning is for a temple and as one approaches a village there are some nice reedy areas on the right of the road. Here we found Painted Stork, Asian Openbill, Black-faced Spoonbill, Purple Heron, Pied Kingfisher, Eastern Marsh Harrier, Ruddy-breasted Crake, Oriental Reed Warbler and Greater Painted Snipe.

Also in this area was a very strange Little Egret with some sort of aberrant plumage.

The King's Project This area is great for seeing lots of birds at very close range. Lots of egrets, herons and shorebirds such as Pintail Snipe and Ruff can be seen easily. One must enter before 6pm but between 5pm and dark large numbers of birds come to roost in the nearby mangroves. In the region of 10-15000 Black Drongos sometimes pass through and in the winter there are always small flocks of White-shouldered Starlings too. We saw around 150 White-shouldered Starlings and some other good birds we saw were Oriental Reed Warbler, Ruddy-breasted Crake, Caspian Tern, Black-crowned Night Heron and Collared Kingfisher. Indian Nightjar can be found here too. Upon entering, one is sometimes given a brochure which explains what the purpose of this area is.

Conclusion Whether you are with a guide or choose to go independently, birders will find that Laem Pak Bia/Pak Thale gives a great day's birding. Indeed, many experienced and well-traveled birders have told me that it was their best day ever! Most people visit for just 1 day but I am increasingly often spending 2 days in the area and by visiting a variety of habitats can see in excess of 130 species over the 2 days. I would suggest that more people take their time in this area and find many species that they did not expect on their Thai birding holiday.

Thailand Birding: Some Notes on Birdwatching in November

Throughout November I was away from home most of the time, visiting some of Thailand's best birdwatching locations with a number of visitors who provided some excellent company. The sites visited in November included Khok Kham, Laem Pak Bia/Pak Thale, Tung Bang Jak, Kaeng Krachan, Doi Inthanon, Doi Ang Kang, Huay Tung Tao and Doi Lang. All of these sites provided some of their specialities and one or two surprises.

November is a time of year that I have not done much birding in the past, so there were a few things I discovered that I will pass on here to others.

Generally, resident forest birds were rather quiet and difficult to find; this was particularly true around Ban Krang at Kaeng Krachan where woodpeckers, broadbills and kingfishers were almost impossible to locate. Local birders and rangers told me that they hadn't seen a broadbill for more than a month, however, towards the end of the month I did hear a pair of Banded Broadbills calling.

Despite resident birds being rather trickier than at other times, migratory birds were more rewarding. Although November is a little early for large numbers of migrants to be present, "falls" of migrants were quite obvious and it was interesting to turn up species that are either scarce passage migrants or winter visitors that were more active than normal because they had just arrived. At Doi Ang Kang, Bush Warblers were rather more active than at other times, with Aberrant Bush Warbler and 2 Manchurian Bush Warblers being seen. Perhaps they were busy feeding up after their long journey.

In the north Thrushes were beginning to arrive in small numbers and 2 Eyebrowed Thrushes were seen, 1 Dusky Thrush and 2 Black-breasted Thrushes. Also the Dark-sided Thrush had recently shown up at Mr Daeng's at Doi Inthanon and there was an arrival of caeruleus Blue Whistling Thrushes at Doi Inthanon on the 12th November.

In the lowlands things were exceptionally quiet at Huay Tung Tao with many of the regular birds being absent. There was no sign of Purple Sunbird, Lineated Barbet, Rufous-winged Buzzard, Bright-headed Cisticola or Chinese Francolin but the Wire-tailed Swallows were present.

November also saw the return of Nordmann's Greenshank & Spoon-billed Sandpiper to Pak Thale and Laem Pak Bia, with 1 Spoon-billed Sandpiper turning up at Khok Kham on 28th October. Any visitors coming to Thailand at the end of October/beginning of November would do well to visit Khok Kham as the bird always seems to turn up there first.

In the freshwater wetlands weavers and jacanas were in short supply, but plenty of other birds were to be found such as Reed Warblers, Spot-billed Pelican and Black-headed Ibis.

I hope that these random notes will be of some assistance to birders planning their trips to Thailand in the future.

Thailand Birding: Birds on the Balcony

Today I received an e-mail from Jorgen Eriksson with a very nice photo of a Blue Rock Thrush attached (see below).

Apparently this bird made Jorgen's back yard in Bangkok its winter territory last year and now it has returned for a second year. I am constantly amazed at how many species can exist in such an urbanised area as Bangkok, a sentiment shared by Jorgen in his e-mail to me. In fact, Bangkok has quite a high level of biodiversity due to its fairly haphazard development; many areas have patches of wasteland and unkempt corners and these along with small yards, balconies with plants and a few parks creates a number of foraging opportunities for birds.

Even in an area as busy as Sukhumvit and its side roads birds such as Plaintive Cuckoo, Plain Prinia, Brown Shrike, Common Iora, Scaly-breasted Munia, Olive-backed Sunbird and Coppersmith Barbet can be found.

Particularly at this time of year, when migration is in full swing Leaf Warblers, Flycatchers and Shrikes often turn up in gardens of shopping centres, restaurants, embassies as well as Bangkok's parks, making it worth keeping ones eyes open even the most central areas of the city, indeed, Bangkok is one of the best places for watching House Swifts in huge flocks an hour or so before dusk - try standing on Chidlom Skytrain station at 5.30pm and watch the House Swifts swooping around in front of you.

However, if you see any Weavers flying around in central Bangkok they were certainly victims of the release-birds-to-make-merit trade: Weavers for sale on Sukhumvit Road.

Thailand Birding: Autumn Migration & Phuttamonton Park

Autumn migration is in full swing now and I have had a number of people sending reports of passage migrants in parks in Bangkok recently, including a Brown-chested Jungle Flycatcher in Suan Rot Fai. With reports of Yellow-rumped Flycatchers and Tiger Shrikes from a number of locations I decided to get out and look for some passage migrants myself.

Although Suan Rot Fai seemed to be producing some good birds and with a report of Grey-backed and Tiger Shrike in Lumphini Park heading to one of Bangkok's parks seemed like the thing to do, but then I remembered Phuttamonton. This is a huge park just outside the western bounds of Bangkok in Nakorn Pathom province and although it is largely manicured, it is so big that one can always find some unkempt areas that could attract passage migrants.

Resident Birds Phuttamonton Park is not particularly rich in resident species, playing host to mostly very common birds such as Common Myna, White-vented Myna, Cattle Egret, Indian Roller, Red-wattled Lapwing, Large-billed Crow, Paddyfield Pipit, Black-crowned Night Heron, Pied Fantail and Oriental Magpie Robin. Whilst I saw all of these there were a few other species that can always be found here that made for a fairly interesting day list. I found 3 Racket-tailed Treepies and a number of Green-billed Malkohas in mature open woodland as well as good numbers of Greater Racket-tailed Drongos, but probably the most interesting residents that I found were two groups of Small Minivets and Lineated Barbet; the Minivets were very obliging and I had excellent views. The Barbet is not that abundant at Phuttamonton but I had excellent views of one and heard a couple more; Coppersmith Barbet, however, is very common here.

 

Lineated Barbet by Johan Svensson

Migrant Species Whilst the residents were nice to see, it was migrants that I had made the trip for. At first it was slow with a few Asian Brown Flycatchers and Eastern Crowned Warblers but when I found some overgrown parts of the park I ran into a couple of mixed groups of migrating birds. In fact, every time I found a part of the park that had rough undergrowth remaining under the trees, there were migrants to be found. 

At the first spot I found a few Asian Paradise Flycatchers which were aggressively chasing a number of Eastern Crowned Warblers and an Arctic Warbler. Also a Crow-billed Drongo was getting a lot of aggressive attention from resident Black and Greater Racket-tailed Drongos. 

At a second stop I found 3 Pale-legged Leaf Warblers, detected by their "tink" call, along with a Plain-tailed Warbler, a Forest Wagtail and more Eastern Crowned Warblers and Asian Brown Flycatchers. 

However, when I found an area of bamboo gardens I found lots of birds. This area was swarming with mosquitos and I got badly bitten, but that is of course what had attracted the migrant birds. Here I found Siberian Blue Robin, Ferruginous Flycatcher, Chinese Blue Flycatcher, Hainan Blue Flycatcher, Taiga Flycatcher, more Asian Brown Flycatchers and Asian paradise Flycatchers, Yellow-rumped Flycatcher and more Eastern Crowned Warblers and Pale-legged Leaf Warblers - far more migrant species than I had expected.

 

Ferruginous Flycatcher by Peter Ericsson

Summary of Migrants Seen Here is a summary of all the migrant species I saw at Phuttamonton on 24/09/09. 

1 Ferruginous Flycatcher

1 female Yellow-rumped Flycatcher

1 female Chinese Blue Flycatcher

1 male Hainan Blue Flycatcher

10 Asian Brown Flycatchers

1 Taiga Flycatcher

6 Asian Paradise Flycatchers

1 female Siberian Blue Robin

1 Crow-billed Drongo

4 Brown Shrikes

1 Forest Wagtail

1 Arctic Warbler

5 Pale-legged Leaf Warblers

11 Eastern Crowned Warblers

2 Plain-tailed Warblers

20+ Yellow Wagtails

1 Chinese Pond Heron (Still in partial breeding plumage)

Many Barn Swallows

The One That Got Away One other interesting bird I saw was a White-crested Laughingthrush. This is one of my favourite species and I am always happy to see it but one doesn't really expect to see it in a park. This bird was alone, something that almost never happens to Laughingthrushes, and had no tail. Of course it was an escaped cage bird and, judging by its lack of tail and the nearby efforts of some workers to call it into be retrapped, it hadn't been free for long. Considering the terrible conditions that most birds are kept in in Thailand I hope that this one finds success in its freedom as many other White-crested Laughingthrushes have in and around Bangkok where there are a number of feral colonies.

Thailand Birding: Chulachomklao Fort

This morning I took a visit to Chulachomklao Fort at the river mouth of the Chao Praya in Samut Prakan province. There are some mangroves at this site but actually the location consists mainly of gardens, scrubland, wetland patches and buildings serving the Navy, in fact there is a pre WW2 warship there, many naval guns and a fort that fought a skirmish with the French Navy in the 19th century: Chulachomklao Fort.

However, it was birds I was after but things didn't turn out quite as well as hoped. Although there is a reasonable bit of mangrove boardwalk, which is in good condition, there were few birds in evidence. A few Pied Fantails, a couple of Golden-bellied Gerygones and lots of Collared Kingfishers were about all that was to be seen. Despite playing the call of Mangrove Whistler I neither saw nor heard one, although there seems to be enough mature mangrove remaining to support a few pairs. Common and Dark-necked Tailorbirds were also easily seen and as I was leaving the mangrove boardwalk I happened upon an Eastern Crowned Warbler - a passage migrant.

A Few Migrants
Indeed, the whole site has great potential for passage migrants, situated as it is at the mouth of a major river. Unfortunately I arrived too late in the day to pick up much migratory movement, although I did come across a few common migrants including 1 Brown Shrike, 3 Common Kingfishers, 2 Black-capped Kingfishers and a few waders; 3 Long-toed Stints, 5 Wood Sandpipers, 6 Common Sandpipers and 2 Little Ringed Plovers. Also worth noting was that out of 20-30 Pond Herons seen only 1 Chinese Pond Heron was still in breeding plumage and just 1 Javan Pond Heron - all the others were in winter plumage and unidentifiable.

Chinese Pond Heron

A few flooded areas of grassland produced a few nice birds including some more migrants, 3 Yellow Wagtails, as well as a few Great Egrets, Little Egrets, Cattle Egrets and 1 Intermediate Egret. Also in this area were 3 Blue-tailed Bee-eaters, an Indian Roller, 1 White-throated Kingfisher and a Paddyfield Pipit.

Although the birding was not spectacular, there were enough birds to make it interesting and alongside the ship, the fort and a decent seafood restaurant, this site is worth a visit - even if for just the once.

A pier goes out into the river but even just 1 hour before low tide there was no sign of any mud being exposed although the view out to sea produced many Whiskered Terns, Little Cormorants, a few Indian Cormorants and lots of Great Egrets.

By 1pm I decided it was time to quit and go home, but I always seem to find myself hunting down more birds and in this way I came across a Black-crowned Night Heron and 2 Brahminy Kites.

Public Transport
Public transport to this spot does exist but it would involve such a convoluted set of connections that I don't recommend trying. Come here in a taxi or your own vehicle and stay for a nice lunch.

Lots of Common Species
Although I didn't find many notable birds at Chulachomklao there were lots of birds to see. Brown-throated and Olive-backed Sunbirds were both common as were Oriental Magpie Robin, Streak-eared Bulbul, Scaly-breasted Munia, Asian Koel, Common Myna, White-vented Myna, Asian Pied Starling, Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker, Eastern Jungle Crow, Spotted Dove etc.; all the species that are common in any open-country and park situation.

Other Wildlife
Apart from birds I saw a number of large Water Monitors and two small parties of Long-tailed (Crab-eating) Macaques that were very nervous of humans - probably used to navy personel throwing stones at them. Additionally I happened upon a small green snake which fell out of a mangrove tree onto my shoulder before flicking itself off into the water: I don't know if it was me or the snake that was more shocked. One other bit of (unwelcome) wildlife were a lot of aggressive mosquitos.

Thailand Birding: Mangroves at Samut Sakorn

This morning I decided to pay a visit to the Mangrove Research Centre at Samut Sakorn in hope of finding it a good place to see Mangrove Whistler. Having read in Phil Round's  "The Birds of the Bangkok Area" that both this species and Asian Dowitcher were frequently seen at this location I had high hopes, however, finding the site didn't prove so easy.

This location is situated to the west of the Tachin River and after crossing it I found the correct turn off. After this I got a bit lost but eventually discovered that the route in is not so convoluted after all. In time I will create a page, with full directions, for this site on the Birdwatching Locations directory on thaibirding.com but for now this image from Google Earth will have to suffice.

Once at the research station I was looking forward to walking on the mangrove boardwalks. However, they are in a treacherous state of repair and in fact have closed signs boarded across them. With a little trepidation it is possible to walk a short distance along one section but even this involved tiptoeing across lots of weak and broken boards; anyone weighing over 75kgs should not attempt it at all.

Still, the mangroves were quite birdy, which was something of a surprise to me as I usually find mangroves to be somewhat sterile. Golden-bellied Gerygone, Common Tailorbird, Pied Fantail, Collared Kingfisher and Common Iora were all very common and numerous. Whilst walking to the shore I also saw Oriental Magpie Robin and a single Racket-tailed Treepie in mangroves.

Unfortuantely the tide was a long way out and shorebirds were quite distant. Through my 'scope I could see hundreds of Common Greenshank, Common Redshank along with a few Eurasian Curlew, 50-70 Whimbrel and around 200 Black-winged Stilts. Also present were large numbers of Javan Pond Heron, Little Heron, Little Egret and Great Egret. On the water's edge a huge flock of Whiskered Terns contained a few White-winged Terns still in partial breeding plumage and at least 3 Gull-billed Terns. There were no Asian Dowitchers.

In fact I was more interested in Mangrove Whistlers than Dowitchers as I know this is a good spot for the Dowitcher - I just timed the tide wrongly and got a bit unlucky. So, I did my best with the mangrove boardwalk but had to turn around after a few hundred metres due to its terrible state. However, I managed to run into quite a few birds including a flock of Oriental White-eyes, a male Brown-throated Sunbird, lots of Golden-bellied Gerygones and Pied Fantails followed by my target; 2 Mangrove Whistlers being very confiding. As I watched these, a flicker of yellow caught my eye and I turned to see a male Yellow-rumped Flycatcher performing nicely quite close. With the departure of these birds after about 10 minutes and the collapsing walkway I decided it was time to take a few photos and go home for lunch.

As I walked around taking photos I ran into a few more birds including large numbers of Germain's Swiftlet and Blue-tailed Bee-eaters overhead, a Brown Shrike, several Barn Swallows, a Common Kingfisher, 2 Streak-eared Bulbuls and some Spotted Doves.