Thailand Birding: Black-headed Ibis & Other Large Waterbirds

Black-headed Ibis is a very uncommon bird in Thailand, but, like many other large waterbirds, they are increasing in number.

In the past many large waterbirds, such as storks, ibises, pelicans, herons etc. were very common birds but years of agricultural intensification and persecution wiped many of these species out or made them very rare in Thailand. Fortunately, as persecution is not the problem it once was and many of these birds are making a comeback.

Black-headed Ibis seem to frequent the Petchaburi region virtually all year round. Most often they can be found in the region of Wat Khao Takrao, but more and more frequently I see them on a large muddy field outside Wat Komnaram, near Pak Thale. Throughought the dry season 2010-2011 one bird was present for a long time and on 25th October 2011 I found 6 birds feeding at this location. A week later, on 3rd November, I found 18 Black-headed Ibises feeding close to the road at the same location; here is a video clip of some of them.

On both 25th October and 3rd November 1 Milky Stork and several Painted Storks were also to be seen at this site, further highlighting the recovery of large waterbirds. In fact such is the recovery that Painted Storks are now fairly commonplace in the Laem Pak Bia/Pak Thale area, Asian Openbills are common throught much of the country and Spot-billed Pelican occurs in every increasing numbers in the wet season.

Other large waterbirds that have increased in number over the last 10 years include Purple Heron, Oriental darter, Glossy Ibis and Indian Cormorant. Watch out too for Sarus Crane, a small number of which have been reintroduced in Buriram province.

Good news for large waterbirds!

British Birding: Six Weeks Back Home

From the middle of August to the end of September 2011 I spent six weeks staying with my family in southeast England. Whilst many British people head to Thailand for some warmth it was nice for me to get out of the humidity and heat for a while and experience some cool weather; in fact apart from some very windy days, the weather was actually pretty good for most of my stay.

Catching Up With Common Birds
Every year, when I return to Britain, one of the first things I do is head down to my old local patch along the Darent Valley in Kent. It is a pleasant area, but in terms of birdlife it is not particularly special, although a good number of the commoner birds can always be found. It is always fun to catch up with species such as Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Chaffinch, Goldfinch and other similar species. People who visit me in Thailand always comment on the colourful birds, but Britain has plenty of colourful ones of its own and for people, like me, who don't see them all the time, the species just listed are great.

Finding Summer Visitors
I always seem to get back to Britain at the very end of summer/beginning of autumn and it is a very challenging time to find many of the summer visitors. Finding Reed Warbler is always a challenge at this time but I did manage to see a few of these. Chiffachaff, Blackcap and Whitethroat were easy enough but Willow Warbler, Garden warbler and Lesser Whitethroat were a bit of a challenge although I did find them. Birds I missed out on this year though included Sedge Warbler, Common Redstart, Spotted Flycatcher and Pied Flycatcher!

Uncommon Resident Species
Every year it seems that British birds that were formerly common get rarer and rarer. Much is said about conservation efforts in UK but it seems that it is only waterbirds and raptors that are doing okay; farmland and woodland species seem to be vanishing fast. With this in mind I was pleased to see my first Bullfinch for a few years, even if it was a juvenile. I also managed to find Black Redstart, Marsh Tit, Cetti's Warbler (one that seems to get more common), Corn Bunting, Turtle Dove and Whinchat.

Some New Birds - Seabirds!
Spending most of my time in Thailand means that I hardly see any seabirds. So it is always interesting to look for these birds when I return and for this group I always end up in UK at a good time!  At Dungeness I saw a wide variety of gulls including Yellow-legged, Little, Mediterranean and Glaucous Gull which was a long-awaited bogey bird for me. Also at Dungeness I saw my first Long-tailed Skua as well as great views of the commoner Arctic Skua plus Black, Arctic and Sandwich Terns.

Glaucous Gull approaching second winter plumage

Photo by Nick Upton

I also spent some time in East Yorkshire and at Flamborough I managed some more nice seabirds (at least for me as I rarely get the chance to find them); Kittiwake, Red-throated Diver, Manx Shearwater, Guillemot, Razorbill as well as hundreds of Gannets.

Twitching!

I am not normally one to go twitching but the chance to see two lifers in one go tempted me to make the drive to Graffham Water one morning. Whilst the result was nice; adult Sabine's Gull and Grey Phalarope right next to each other; the feeling was one that was less than satisfying and it reminded me why I am not a fan of twitching - drive a few hours, spot the crowd of birders, there it is, watch for a while and leave.

Some More Good Birds

My trip also resulted in a number of other species that I was pleased with; Song Thrush - getting rare in my area; Yellowhammer - tough to find at the end of summer;  Lapland Bunting - only the second time I have seen this one; Goosander - first one I have seen for 7 years!; Eider Duck - first for 4 years; Bearded Tit - a bird I see once per year and is always hard to see in the windy conditions of late summer/early autumn; Red Kite - first one for 4 years; Siskin - first for 4 years; Purple Sandpiper - a once a year bird; Rock Pipit - first one for 4 years; Raven - first for 5 years; Water Rail - a bird I see once a year.

A Finishing Flourish

At the end of my stay it was getting tough to see something new without travelling far away. However, a Pallid Harrier was reported at Cliffe. Not wanting to join the twitch I came up with a different strategy. The bird was roosting in some reeds and then heading out down the Thames. However, the news was getting out and I figured that a large group of birders would wait for the harrier on an observation mound which the bird would have to pass if it were to follow its morning routine. I also figured that the twitching crowd would make enough noise to make the bird turn around and head off towards Shorne marshes. With this theory I took a train to Gravesend, walked out onto Shorne marshes and got lucky. The juvenile Pallid Harrier actually flew within 30 feet of me at head height towards Gravesend, then turned around and came back, chasing a skylark but failing to catch it.

What a result!

I also saw some other nice birds on my 15 MILE WALK; Yellow Wagtail, Whinchat, Hobby, Marsh Harrier and many Wheatears.

In total I saw 154 species in six weeks in England without travelling very much.

Birdwatching in Britain: My Trip Back Home

Back in Thailand I have been going over my notes from my recent 5 week visit to England. It wasn’t really a birding trip, just a visit home, although I did go out birding a fair bit.

In total I saw 129 species. The best of which I suppose were Red-backed Shrike, Great Egret and Glossy Ibis in terms of their rarity in UK. For me though, the highlights were some of the more common British species that I only get to see when back home.

I always enjoy seeing Treecreepers and I only saw a few on this visit which made the sightings even nicer. I got great satisfaction out of a flock of 5 Corn Buntings near my home - birds which breed in that area but in late summer are hard to find. 3 Yellowhammer sightings, all within a short walk of home, were lovely and some summer visitors which I haven’t seen for years; Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat and Cuckoo were great too.

Visiting some locations that I used to visit regularly is always nice too and a few walks on my old local patch along the Darent Valley, in Kent, were very enjoyable and turned up some nice birds in Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Grey Wagtail, Hobby and the ever-increasing Ring-necked Parakeet.

Birdwatching in Britain: Glossy Ibis

There seems to have been a mini invasion of Glossy Ibises into Britain over the last week with around half a dozen birds present. Last Thursday I caught up with one at Stodmarsh in Kent, the first time I have seen this species in Britain. However, I have seen plenty of them in India and Thailand where, at Bueng Boraphet, they seem to be increasing in numbers quite rapidly.

The amusing thing for me was that while quite a number of bird watchers were all concentrating on this UK rarity I was more interested in some of the commoner British species; I was particularly happy to see Cetti’s Warbler and Reed Warbler, birds that I hadn’t seen for over 2 years.

The Glossy Ibis was a nice bird to see, but it was a bit far away to photograph, instead here is a photo that I took in Thailand back in March.

Glossy Ibises
Photo by Nick Upton

Birdwatching In UK: A Day at Dungeness

Back in the UK it is always nice to catch up with some birds that I haven’t seen for ages due to being in exile in Thailand. Having been back for a few weeks and already met up with most of the commoner birds I decided to head to the shingle headland of Dungeness on a hot, sunny day yesterday.

I didn’t get there at prime time, arriving somewhere around 10.30am but there were still some nice birds to see on the RSPB reserve. With migration beginning now in earnest there were lots of Whitethroats, Wheatears and Chiffchaffs to be seen and a couple of Whinchats were also amongst the migrant flocks. The star though was an incredibly tame Red-backed Shrike. This species was once a common breeder in Britain but is now pretty much relegated to passage migrant. This was only the 4th one I have seen in Britain and even managed to get a couple of photos.

Red-backed Shrike
(Photo by Nick Upton)

Red-backed Shrike

(Photo by Nick Upton)

Another very uncommon species that was present at Dungeness was a Great Egret, only the second I have seen in UK but a very common bird back in Thailand. However, several Marsh Harriers, a Hobby, a Sparrowhawk and a Sedge warbler were nice birds to see.

Seawatching

After leaving the RSPB reserve I spent an hour outside Dungeness nuclear power station watching sea birds on the warm water “patch”. In that brief time I managed to see a number of species that I haven’t seen for quite some time; these included 1 Arctic Tern, several Sandwich Terns, 1 Arctic Skua and 1 Great Skua but in the warm sunshine I started to feel sleepy so left for a cold drink.

Back on the Reserve
I had an hour left before I needed to go home so I went back to the RSPB reserve where I had heard a Black-necked Grebe had been seen. Sitting in a hide it didn’t take long to locate this bird which had only a little of its black neck remaining but it put on a good show. 2 Black Terns were also great to see and Ruddy Duck was another year tick for me.

All in all I had a really nice day at Dungeness and this is a really good time to visit. 5 Clouded Yellow butterflies were also really nice to see although rather frustrating as just as I was about to press the botton on my camera to photograph one, it flew away. That’s wildlife I guess.

Thailand Birding: Yonok Wetlands

It has been a long time since I have written anything about the Yonok Wetlands project, instigated by Mick Davies and Dowroong Damlamajak, near Chiang Saen. The reason for this is not my lack of support for the project, just that I have been very busy; however, it is now time for me to point out some of the good work that Mick and Dowroong have been doing.

Yonok Women's Group
Dowroong has set up the Yonok Women's Community/Conservation Group centred around the village of Ban Huai Nam Rak which meets on a regular basis to spread the conservation message at community events such as festivals and fetes. The group works at creating a community spirit and encourages this to spread to local conservation issues. Perhaps their greatest success is persuading local markets to stop the sale of wild birds as a food item, something which has had a major impact on the level of bird trapping in the area.

Harnessing the energy of local women's groups to further conservation of the Chiang Saen area is an excellent move and this strategy has been one that has been proven to work well. In Kenya Wangarai Maathai initiated the idea of the planting of trees with women groups in order to conserve the environment and improve the people's quality of life. She has since gone on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 and to become Kenya's Assistant Minister for Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife. Perhaps Dowroong can go on to do the same in Thailand?

Hunting on the Mekong
Mick and Dowroong's vigilance identified that hunters from Laos crossing into Thailand was a serious issue for bird conservation along the Mekong at Chiang Saen. With assistance from the local unit of the Thai Royal Navy, this problem has been addressed and an increase in waterbirds along the Mekong was immediately noted.

The full story on this, with photographs, can be read in Mick's own words here: Laos Hunters Invade Thailand.

Chiang Saen Lake/Yonok Wetlands & Ramsar Convention
Mick quite rightly questions the value of the Ramsar Convention and its application in Thailand. It seems that the local Ramsar representative in the Chiang Saen region is one of the biggest culprits in encroachment into wetland habitats having turned an area of Yonok wetlands into an area for private rice cultivation. It appears that this representative is to face prosecution for these actions - "This RAMSAR guy is currently facing prosecution for stealing YONOK WETLAND "LAND" for rice planting for his personal gain" [Quote from Yonok Wetlands website].

The Ramsar Convention is essentialy a voluntary conservation treaty that any nation can sign so long as it complies with a few commitments such as designation of Ramsar sites, the "wise use" of wetlands, establishment of reserves and the training of wetland researchers and the consultation with other nations in regards to trans-boundary wetlands. These commitments are rather poorly defined and open to a wide variety of interpretations. On top of this there is little in the way of enforcement. This comes from the Ramsar Convention website;

"The Ramsar Convention is not a regulatory regime and has no punitive sanctions for violations of or defaulting upon treaty commitments – nevertheless, its terms do constitute a solemn treaty and are binding in international law in that sense. The whole edifice is based upon an expectation of common and equitably shared transparent accountability. Failure to live up to that expectation could lead to political and diplomatic discomfort in high-profile international fora or the media, and would prevent any Party concerned from getting the most, more generally, out of what would otherwise be a robust and coherent system of checks and balances and mutual support frameworks. Failure to meet the treaty’s commitments may also impact upon success in other ways, for example, in efforts to secure international funding for wetland conservation. In addition, some national jurisdictions now embody international Ramsar obligations in national law and/or policy with direct effect in their own court systems."

Recent Sightings
Mick and Dowroong regularly update their recent sightings page and it nearly always contains records of birds which are very scarce in Thailand. They regularly see species such as Jerdon's Bushchat, Long-billed Plover, River Tern, River Lapwing, Grass Owl etc. Take a look at their sightings page and if the birds on there whet your appetite then maybe you can visit them to help in their conservation efforts.