Thailand Birding: Common Shorebirds at Pak Thale & Laem Pak Bia

It is mid May now and all but a few of the commoner shorebirds have left Thailand and returned to their breeding grounds further north. However, I spent some time this week reviewing some photographs of the commoner shorebirds that I took at Pak Thale and Laem pak Bia earlier this year whilst leading a photography tour: Photography Tour of Thailand, March 2013.

Here are some of the photos that I obtained on the tour.

Wood Sandpiper

Temminck's Stint

Little Ringed Plover

Common Greenshank

Red-necked Stint

Usually some of the commoner shorebirds begin to return by the end of July; these are the non-breeders and birds that have failed at nesting. This is a good time to see some species in their breeding plumage, particularly Curlew Sandpiper.

Often by August or September Asian Dowitchers begin to pass through and by end of September shorebird numbers are really increasing as migration gets into full swing. Every year we wait for some of the rarer birds to return and usually they have shown by the end of October; the most awaited species is Spoon-billed Sandpiper and hopefully it will arrive again this year even though its numbers are very low now.

By early November all the speciality species of shorebirds have returned to Thailand and Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Nordmann's Greenshank, White-faced Plover and others can be found regularly. If you need any help finding them contact me: nickupton@thaibirding.com

Thailand Birding: Third Time Lucky?

With the weather conditions seemingly still good for finding grounded migrants I made my third trip in three days to Nakorn Sri Kuan Kan park. Arriving early at around 6.30am things were pretty dead on the migrant front; overcast skies were creating very humid conditions and with no sun to bring out the insects, bird activity was low. However, I had a chance to try and photograph some resident birds while waiting and got some shots of Vinous-breasted Starling.

Vinous-breasted Starling

Pink-necked Green Pigeons were in evidence again and a Green-billed Malkoha was among a flock of 12 Asian Koels sitting out in the open in a bare tree.

It took until about 9am for things to liven up and then some migrants showed, but mostly the same birds as I had seen on the previous two days, although some new arrivals did turn up. Today the total for Forest Wagtails was 3 and they were associating with an Eastern Crowned Warbler, 2 Black-naped Orioles, 1 Ashy Drongo, 1 Crow-billed Drongo, 1 Asian Brown Flycatcher and a female Yellow-rumped Flycatcher - a nice little party of migrating birds!

Once again there were quite a few Eyebrowed Thrushes and I saw a few flocks with a total of around 60 birds; not quite as many as yesterday but enough to get good views of a few.

At another spot some birds from the previous two days were still in the same place, including 1 male Yellow-rumped Flycatcher, 1 female Yellow-rumped Flycatcher, 1 Pale-legged Leaf Warbler, 12 Ashy Minivets and an Asian Brown Flycatcher which was aggressively chasing away other small birds.

Asian Brown Flycatcher

From the top of the bird watching tower I was able to get close up views of Ashy Minivet, Eyebrowed Thrush, 4 Dollarbirds, Pink-necked Green Pigeon and Brown-throated Sunbird. Several Chinese Pond Herons in breeding plumage were to be seen too as were two Javan Pond Herons also in breeding plumage. This bird is quite something in breeding condition, in contrast to its drab winter plumage.

I also added 1 Black-winged Cuckooshrike, 6 Black-naped Orioles and a male Mugimaki Flycatcher to my migrant list before stumbling into a Black Bittern in a swampy patch which was followed by a Malayan Night Heron! Unfortunately I only got brief views of this bird, which I have seen once before at this park, but I saw enough to be sure of its identification.

Another nice morning in the park, but it was not third time lucky in terms of finding a "lifer".

Thailand Birding: Sri Nakorn Kuan Kan Park Again

With rain all night I decided that it should be a good morning for grounded migrants and so went back to the park again this morning.

In terms of seeing different birds from yesterday it was a little disappointing, I was hoping for a new arrival of birds, but there was a good variety of species and a few surprises.

Many of the same birds were in the same places as the previous day with 1 male Yellow-rumped Flycatcher and 2 females, 1 subadult male Mugimaki Flycatcher, 1 Forest Wagtail, 4 Asian Brown Flycatchers, 12 Ashy Minivets, 2 Black-winged Cuckooshrikes, 1 Radde's Warbler, 1 Arctic Warbler all feeding in the same spots.

Yellow-rumped Flycatcher

A few things were different though with a flock of 40+ Eyebrowed Thrushes landing in the trees around the bird watching tower. I watched them for a long time hoping to find something rarer among them but to no avail. However, the highlight of the morning was a fantastic Chestnut-winged Cuckoo which landed quite close to me giving me a great view and the chance to take a really bad photo of it.

Chestnut-winged Cuckoo

Amazing what photoshop can do; as poor as it is now this photo was much worse before a lot of work in photoshop - completely out of focus and dark!

After another short rain shower a few more migrating birds showed up including a few that I had not seen the day before; 4 Blue-tailed Bee-eaters, 1 Taiga Flycatcher, 1 Oriental Honey-buzzard flying overhead plus a female Mugimaki Flycatcher to join the subadult male.

Other migrant species that I saw this morning in the park were; Chinese Pond Heron, Drongo Cuckoo, Crow-billed Drongo, Ashy Drongo, Black Bittern, Dollarbird, Pale-legged Leaf Warbler, Hair-crested Drongos, Black-naped Oriole and Barn Swallow.

There were two other suprises in the park for me this morning too a Common Hill Myna and 2 Red-breasted Parakeets. It would be tempting to put them both down as of escaped origin but with strong winds last night with a storm the Myna could easily have been blown in, and a population of Red-breasted Parakeets are in the Dusit area of Bangkok - very close as the Parakeet flies!

Resident species included very many Pink-necked Green Pigeons and Koels plus Laced Woodpecker, Stork-billed Kingfisher, Lineated Barbet plus Collared Kingfisher and just as I was leaving the park a flock of 150+ Eyebrowed Thrushes emerged from the trees and continued their northbound migration.

Thailand Birding: Sri Nakorn Kuan Kan - More Migrants

With migration still underway I decided that another trip to Sri Nakorn Kuan Kan park was in order, particularly considering it is not far from where I live. I arrived a little too early, just before 6am, and found myself having to wait a little while for it to become light enough for birding.

By 6.15am, though, birds were active and close to the park gate I found the first of many passage migrants; 2 Eyebrowed Thrushes. I decided to get myself up the birdwatching tower early but on my way I got distracted by the many Pink-necked Green Pigeons that are always to be found in the park.

Pink-necked Green Pigeon

The top of the tower gives a good view over parts of the park and in half an hour I saw more migrant birds moving through and perched in trees; 2 Black-naped Orioles, 1 Crow-billed Drongo, 3 more Eyebrowed Thrushes, 3 Ashy Minivets, 1 male Japanese Sparrowhawk and 2 Dollarbirds.

When the activity started to die down I moved on to an area that always seems to attract birds and after a slow start I saw a singing Arctic Warbler, an Asian Brown Flycatcher and a male Green-backed Flycatcher. I have only ever seen the female of this rare bird before and interestingly that observation was in the same park almost exactly 2 years ago. I watched this bird for some time, failing to get even poor photos of it, before it was chased off by a male Yellow-rumped Flycatcher. A flock of 8 Ashy Minivets then showed up and a Black-winged Cuckooshrike gave itself away with its song, being joined by a second bird to feed with the minivets.

I decided to walk through some of the overgrown, swampy areas to see if any Black Bitterns had arrived and I had not walked more than 5 metres before flushing one into a tree.

I moved to another area with some trees that are always full of insects to see if that had anything different in store for me and this turned out to be one of the best spots in the park and I visited it three times finding 3 Asian Brown Flycatchers, 1 male and 2 female Yellow-rumped Flycatchers, 1 Drongo Cuckoo, 1 more Crow-billed Drongo, 1 Forest Wagtail, 1 female Black-winged Cuckooshrike, 5 Ashy Minivets and a female Mugimaki Flycatcher.

Between 8am and 9am things got a bit quiet but by hanging around I came across a second period of activity adding Shikra, another Forest Wagtail, Radde's Warbler, Pale-legged Leaf Warbler and another female Yellow-rumped Flycatcher to the migrant total; oh, and it is easy to forget that Chinese Pond Heron is a migrant too.

Chinese Pond Heron

I should also add that Sri Nakorn Kuan Kan park always has a few interesting resident species and Greater Racket-tailed Drongo, Vinous-breasted Starling, Stork-billed Kingfisher, Green-billed Malkoha and a pair of Laced Woodpeckers all showed themselves.

One final effort to see if any new migrants had arrived turned up a nice Indian Cuckoo which posed for a while - the first of the year for me - and the first Ashy Drongo of the morning, plus more Ashy Minivets, Asian Brown Flycatchers and several more Eyebrowed Thrushes flying overhead.

Indian Cuckoo

A pretty good morning of birding in the park!

Thailand Birding: Migrants at Sri Nakorn Kuan Kan Park

Yesterday morning I paid a visit to Sri Nakorn Kuan Kan park, close to where I live in Bangkok. This spot can be very good for migrants at this time of year so I was hoping for some good birds passing through. As it turned out, although there were quite a few migrant species to be found, there were not the variety of species that I was hoping for and have seen in previous years; perhaps I just missed the peak migration days or maybe it was that the weather was fine, allowing birds to continue their journey.

On of the nicest migrants I saw was this Black Baza, a species which can often be seen passing through here.

Black Baza

I was lucky enough to be standing at the top of the birdwatching tower when this landed in a tree quite close to me. For the rest of the morning I kept seeing it as it chased other migrating birds around, in particular, a flock of Ashy Minivets.

Ashy Minivet

This flock of about 20 Ashy Minivets spent the whole morning feeding on insects attracted to a flowering tree and this proved to be the best spot with 1 Yellow-browed Warbler, 1 Arctic Warbler, 1 Drongo Cuckoo, 2 Black-winged Cuckooshrikes, 1 Radde's Warbler and a female hepatic morph Himalayan Cuckoo also frequenting it.

Other migrant species I saw included 5 Chinese Pond Herons, 1 Black-capped Kingfisher, 20+ Black-naped Orioles, 2 Crow-billed Drongos, 3 Ashy Drongos, 1 Hair-crested Drongo, 1 Eastern Crowned Warbler, 1 Pale-legged Leaf Warbler, 2 Taiga Flycatcher, 3 Asian Brown Flycatchers, 2 Shikras and 1 Hainan Blue Flycatcher.

Not too bad for a morning in a park but I was hoping for more in the way of flycatchers. Still, there were also a few interesting resident birds to see also with 2 Stork-billed Kingfishers, 50+ Pink-necked Green Pigeons, 1 Green-billed Malkoha and 2 Red-billed Blue Magpies, although the latter must surely be from escaped origin?

Thailand Birding: Summit of Doi Inthanon

Recently I had the pleasure of a very relaxing day spent at the summit of Doi Inthanon. I was accompanying Pieter Verheij and Roger Marchant who are both very keen bird photographers and wanted to take high quality photos of birds that they could get close to - well, Doi Inthanon with its semi-tame species was perfect for that.

We spent almost the entire day at the summit and over the course of the day excellent photos of the following species were obtained; Grey-sided Thrush, Bar-throated Minla, Silver-eared Laughingthrush, Buff-barred Leaf Warbler, Green-tailed Sunbird, Snowy-browed Flycatcher, Blue Whistlingthrush, Dark-backed Sibia and Yellow-bellied Fantail.

I managed to get a few nice photos too, particularly of the tame Minlas which I almost stepped upon at one point.

Female Green-tailed Sunbird

Bar-throated Minla

Silver-eared Laughingthrush with nest material

Other birds which we managed to photograph but not obtain high quality images of were Blyth's Leaf Warbler, Ashy-throated Leaf Warbler, Pygmy Wren Babbler and Rufous-winged Fulvetta.

A few other birds seen but not photographed were White-browed Shortwing, Flavescent Bulbul, Golden-throated Barbet and Yellow-bellied Flowerpecker.

It was a very nice day, taken at a slow pace which gave me time to look at species in detail and see things in their plumage and behaviour which I had never before noticed.

Thailand Birding: Large Waterbirds at Pak Thale

Most mornings at Pak Thale there are huge congregations of large waterbirds, mostly egrets but over recent weeks more and more other species have been joining them. 

Up until a few weeks ago there had been hardly any Indian Cormorants or Painted Storks in the area but there has been an influx; I guess that they are moving to Pak Thale from their breeding colonies, mostly in Cambodia, having finished nesting.

On 27th a flock of Painted Storks kept flying around before joining a large number of egrets to feed in a pool and then several hundred Indian Cormorants came in from the sea. Also amongst these birds was one subadult Black-headed Ibis. However, although I looked closely, there did not seem to be any Milky Storks in the area.

Painted Storks in flight

I am expecting there to be an arrival of Spot-billed Pelicans soon and hopefully there will be a Milky Stork or another rarity to join them.

Thailand Birding: Black-headed Ibis

I got lucky a few days ago with some Black-headed Ibises very close to the road near Wat Khao Takrao, Petchaburi. Usually sightings of these birds, in this area, are fairly distant and often made worse by heat haze, but these two birds were very obliging.

Black-headed Ibis, adult & subadult

These birds are to be found in this area all year round, with adults and juveniles often seen; this often makes me think that they must be breeding in the area at some unknown waterbird colony - this is not as unlikely as it may seem with large areas of habitat available that is virtually unvisited by birders. A nearby lake known as Nong Pla Lai, and which has access restricted by a locked gate, is a likely site for any such waterbird colony.

On 17th February I found a total of 26 Black-headed Ibises in the Wat Khao Takrao area.

Thailand Birding: A Morning in the Rice Fields

This morning I spent a few hours birding in rice fields near the Nong Pla Lai raptor watch site in Petchaburi province.

Rice Fields, Petchaburi

I arrived at first light with huge numbers of Asian Openbills landing in the rice fields and a few Black-crowned Night Herons making the opposite journey. I spent a few hours birding a small part of the rice fields, only walking about 1 kilometre in total; this allowed me to see a number of skulking and secretive birds.

Some of the more interesting species I saw were;

Bluethroat - 5

Oriental Reed Warbler - 18

Black-browed Reed Warbler - 2

Watercock - 1 female

Common Snipe - 3

Eurasian Wryneck - 1

Streaked Weaver - 46

Asian Golden Weaver - 17

Baya Weaver - 80+

Ruddy-breasted Crake - 1

Grey-headed Lapwing - 1

Eastern Marsh Harrier - 1

Black Kite - 1

Black-eared Kite - 3

Purple Heron - 4

Plain-backed Sparrow - 9

Black-naped Oriole - 1

The numbers of Openbills were quite amazing; hard to believe that less than 20 years ago there was just one small colony in Thailand.

Asian Openbill Storks

The rice fields around Petchaburi are an interesting birding site and somewhere that many people spend too little time in, missing many nice birds such as Pink-necked Green Pigeon, Jacanas, Cotton Pygmy Goose, Greater Spotted Eagle, Pied Harrier and many others. In the past I have seen much rarer species here, including Blunt-winged Warbler, Yellow-breasted Bunting, Comb Duck, Great Bittern and others. Lots more could be found by those who spend time here.

Thailand Birding: Indochinese Bushlark

A few days ago I was looking for an Indochinese Bushlark just outside Kaeng Krachan national park for some visitors who had never seen one. After obtaining a few brief flight views of one bird in some scubby grassland a few minutes later one crossed the road in front of us and settled in the roadside vegetation.

We drew alongside it and the bird did not fly away allowing us good views which allowed us to notice that it was moulting heavily. I then got out of the vehicle to see if I could take a photo of the bird and was amazed that it did not fly away or run away, allowing me to take a number of photographs at very close range.

Indochinese Bushlark

We could only assume that as the bird was moulting it was in fact incapable of flight. Whatever the reason that it did not disappear, it gave me an opportunity to get close to it that I am not likely to ever have again.

Thailand Birding: Kaeng Krachan

Unseasonal weather continues in Thailand and we ran into overcast skies and mist at Kaeng Krachan which made the general levels of activity lower than would be expected. However, what we lost in activity we made up for with quality birds. The wet weather seems to have fooled some species into thinking the wet season is arriving and it is time to breed and this meant that we were able to get good sightings of Silver-breasted Broadbill and Black-and-red Broadbill, both species that are hard to find at Kaeng Krachan outside of the breeding season.

Some other excellent birds that we found were a pair of Bamboo Woodpeckers, Black-and-buff Woodpeckers, Black-throated Laughingthrush, Collared Babbler, Red-headed Trogon and Ratchet-tailed Treepie at Km 27.5 as well as Great Hornbills and White-handed Gibbons in a fruiting tree in the same area.

The White-fronted Scops Owls are still roosting in the same spot near stream 2 and two Tickell's Brown Hornbill nests are also active in the same area; we also found Black-and-yellow Broadbill in the same area.

Staying at Ban Maka provided a few interesting sightings too with Oriental Pied Hornbill coming to the bananas at the feeder next to the restaurant as well as a female White-shouldered Starling on a flowering tree and an Orange-headed Thrush hanging around the restaurant.

Oriental Pied Hornbill

Also in the garden at Ban Maka were a pair of Black-hooded Orioles busy making a nest, which made obtaining excellent views very easy indeed, and a Stripe-throated Bulbul nest right next to the restaurant - be careful not to disturb it please!

Stripe-throated Bulbul in the nest

So, despite less than optimal weather Kaeng Krachan is still providing birders with some great sightings right now; other interesting species that we saw in three days included Drongo Cuckoo, Wedge-tailed Green Pigeon, Hainan Blue Flycatcher, Blue-bearded Bee-eater, Golden-crested Myna, Heart-spotted Woodpecker, Rufous-bellied Eagle, Mountain Hawk Eagle and Orange-breasted Trogon; the bird spectacular at Lung Sin hide also contributed to a very memorable few days at Kaeng Krachan.

Thailand Birding: Pak Thale & Laem Pak Bia

The dreary weather in Thailand continues and we had to deal with drizzle, mist and low cloud today at Pak Thale and Laem Pak Bia. However, we did not let this stop us from finding 3 Spoon-billed Sandpipers at Pak Thale within 10 seconds of beginning our search!

We were able to watch these critically endangered birds for about 30 minutes before they moved on to another area to feed. Also at Pak Thale were 2 Far Eastern Curlew with the Eurasian Curlew flock (identifying them in flight is really the only way), 1 juvenile Black-tailed Gull, 1 Dunlin, 3 Red Knot with a large group of Great Knot, 3 Pied Avocets and a Mangrove Whistler in nearby mangrove trees.

Long-toed Stint

Moving on to Laem Pak Bia we managed to beat the mist and find a total of 39 Nordmann's Greenshank hanging out with Grey Plovers and Great Knots. A flock of 43 Pied Avocets was an unusually high number and more than 50 Asian Dowitchers were seen in the same pool that they have been in for more than a month.

Our afternoon boat trip to Laem Pak Bia sand spit was pleasant and quite successful with a first winter Heuglin's Gull, 1 Lesser Crested Tern, 8 Great Crested Terns, 5 Malaysian Plovers, a male and female White-faced Plovers (alone, not together), 2 Chinese Egrets, 3 Pacific Reef Egrets keeping everyone happy.

Unfortunately, bad weather meant that we had a less than satisfying ending with no sign of any Indian Nightjars where they are usually common.

Thailand Birding: Khao Yai

From 27th to 29th January I spent time at Khao Yai national park with a group of birders from UK. Despite the terrible unseasonal weather which resulted in a lot of rain and poor visibility, we managed to see a lot of good birds.

The very obliging White-throated Rock Thrush and Mugimaki Flycatcher at the Boonson Lekagul camp entry road were a very good start to our first day, but there was no sign of any Orange-headed Thrushes at Pa Gluai Mai campsite. Presumably the wet weather means that the thrush no longer needs to hang around the damp spot behind the toilets.

White-throated Rock Thrush

Over the rest of our time in the forest our highlights were a hard-earned male Blue Pitta which was all the better for the long period of anticipation in seeing the bird, Red-headed Trogon, Collared Owlet, Van Hasselt's Sunbird, female Banded Kingfisher, Dusky Broadbill, Long-tailed Broadbill, Banded Broadbill, Great Hornbill, male Silver Pheasant, several Siamese Fireback Pheasants, Black-and-buff Woodpecker and Heart-spotted Woodpecker.

In addition to our bird sightings we had several elephant sightings including one while we were on foot and a stampeding herd of 13 elephants crossing the road in front of our vehicle; three Pileated Gibbons were also a welcome sighting.

Thailand Birding: Doi Inthanon Summit

The summit of Doi Inthanon is always a lovely place, with its mossy, fern-covered trees and fantastic birds. On 24th and 25th January I made a couple of visits to the summit where it was really quite cold in the early morning and late afternoon.

On both visits the regular species were seen quite easily; Rufous-winged Fulvetta, Bar-throated (Chestnut-tailed) Minla, Silver-eared (Chestnut-crowned) Laughingthrush, Yellow-cheeked Tit, Dark-backed Sibia, Flavescent Bulbul, Ashy-throated Warbler, Yellow-browed Tit, Mrs Gould's Sunbird and Green-tailed Sunbird. However, over the course of the two visits, quite a few less common and harder to find species were also seen, including this very confiding Eurasian Woodcock.

A flock of about 20 Common Rosefinches were seen at the car park in the early morning, including some beautiful males, but I was most excited about a male Brambling that we saw on the boardwalk as it was a bird that I had not previously seen in Thailand.

Other highlights on our two visits were 2 Dark-sided Thrushes foraging amongst the leaf litter, 2 male White-browed Shortwings, 2 Ashy-headed Woodpigeons to add to the Speckled Woodpigeons we saw on the way up, superb views of a singing Pygmy Wren Babbler, 2 Rufous-throated Partridges that we called in behind the toilets, a Northern White-crowned Forktail, a male Snowy-browed Flycatcher and a male Yellow-bellied Flowerpecker.

All in all, a very successful two trips to the summit of Doi Inthanon.

Thailand Birding: Doi Lang

I have just spent three days at Doi Lang in Chiang Mai province and thought others would like to know of some of the amazing sightings from the location. Now that the breach in the road has been repaired and that the mountain is accessible from Fang, there is even better birding on the mountain than before. On the road up from the Fang side there is a lot of great pine forest and we saw Mrs Hume's Pheasant and Giant Nuthatch on the way up. This forest is good for flycatchers and we found Ultramarine, Sapphire, Pale Blue and Slaty-backed Flycatchers. However, it is the photographic stakeouts that make for a spectacular visit.

Large Niltava

I took this photo of a male Large Niltava using a cheap point-and-shoot camera from a distance of about 1 metre as the bird came down to take mealworms. At the same spot I was mobbed by Dark-backed Sibias and also was able to photograph Himalayan Bluetail and Eyebrowed Thrush from a similarly short distance.

Eyebrowed Thrush

Himalayan Bluetail

Other birds that came to this feeding spot at the upper checkpoint on Doi Lang included Silver-eared Laughingthrush, Spectacled Barwing and Blue Whistling Thrush.

Spectacled Barwing

Further down the mountain some photographic hotspots have popped up with access from the Fang side with birds such as Spot-throated Babbler, Siberian Rubythroat, White-gorgetted Flycatcher, Rufous-gorgetted Flycatcher, White-bellied Redstart all coming down to take mealworms, but it is the Rusty-naped Pitta and Spot-breasted Laughingthrushes which are the main attraction - both are fairly tame and can easily be observed and photographed after supplying mealworms.

Spot-breasted Laughingthrush 

These last two species are next to impossible to see under normal conditions so it is a real treat to be able to observe them out in the open - thank you to the Thai photography community for having the patience to create these bird hotspots and sharing them with everybody.

Other interesting birds we saw were Spot-breasted Parrotbill, Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-babbler, White-browed Laughingthrush, Crested Bunting, Mountain Hawk Eagle and Slender-billed Oriole, all of which contributed to an excellent visit.

Thailand Birding: Boat Trip at Bueng Boraphet

Last week I took a boat trip on the lake at Bueng Boraphet to see the large numbers of waterbirds that occur there. At the "Nok Nam Park" on the southern side of the lake Mr Phanom has been taking birders and photographers out for many years and he always knows what is to be seen on the lake.

Our trip was spent mainly taking photographs of the commoner waterbirds; I have been out on the lake many times but it is always a beautiful sight to see so many birds amongst the colorful water lilies and lotus flowers.

I am not really a photographer but many of the birds were so close that I was able to get a few nice pictures using just a point-and-shoot camera.

Intermediate Egret by Nick Upton

I have used the above photograph as one of many updates to the Bueng Boraphet page on thaibirding.com.

On this visit we were able to see a large number of migratory ducks which had recently arrived; 1200 Northern Pintail, 800 Garganey, 9 Common Teal, 2 Ferruginous Pochard and 1 Tufted Duck; perhaps a rarity will turn up soon.

Thailand Birding: 2012 Year List

Every year I keep a record of the number of species I see; I don't go chasing birds for my year list but it is interesting to record what I see from year to year.

In 2012 I ended up with a total of 743 species having spent 3.5 months in UK and the rest of the time in Thailand.

I managed to get a few new species in 2012 which included Mew Gull, Northern Boobook, White-browed Fantail, Red-crowned Barbet, Balaeric Shearwater, Great Grey Shrike, Shorelark, Little Auk, Red-breasted Goose, Spot-breasted Laughingthrush and Slaty-legged Crake.

For my Thai list I also added Mandarin Duck, House Crow, Red-crested Pochard, Black-legged Kittiwake and Copper-throated Sunbird.

Currently, my 2013 year list stands at one species - this Peaceful Dove on the street in Bangkok as I went for lunch this afternoon!