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.