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.

Thailand Birding: Wet Season Birding

The large majority of birders visit Thailand in the dry season (November to April). Why is this?

Well, firstly, there is a far higher number of species present in the country during the dry season due to the visiting migrants from China and Siberia and the largely dry and sunny weather is an attraction for many people. However, it may also be because many books and websites have always labelled the dry season as the “best” time to be birdwatching in Thailand. But best for what?

The dry season is most certainly the time to visit Thailand for migrant species, particularly shorebirds and specifically Spoon-billed Sandpiper. However, for many of the resident species that live in forests, the dry season most certainly is not the best time for birding in Thailand.

Species such as broadbills, pittas, woodpeckers, forest kingfishers and others, are all far easier to find in the beginning and mid wet season, when they are breeding, than in the dry season.

Black-and-red Broadbill on a nest by Alex Vargas

On a recent 3 days trip to Kaeng Krachan we saw 6 species of broadbill, 12 species of woodpecker, 3 species of pitta, 2 species of trogons, Grey Peacock Pheasant, Kalij Pheasant, Banded Kingfisher, Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher, Ratchet-tailed Treepie and many other tough species - this collection of birds could not be expected during a dry season visit to Kaeng Krachan.

Very few birders head to northern Thailand outside of the dry season but a recent wet season visit I made turned up Giant Nuthatch, Spot-winged Grosbeak, Pygmy Wren Babbler, Eyebrowed Wren Babbler, Spot-breasted Parrotbill, Lesser Rufous-headed Parrotbill, Grey-headed Parrotbill, Lesser Cuckoo, Lesser Shortwing in abundance and many other hard-to-find birds.

It has to be admitted that the dry season is the best time for general bird abundance, migrants and certain target birds, but birdwatchers who have been to the region several times and are still looking for many of those tough forest species should consider making their trip in the period May-July when a lot of great birds can be found.

If you are a birder who is looking for difficult resident species contact me and I can let you know whether the wet season might be a better time to look for them than the dry - nickupton@thaibirding.com

Thailand Birding: Three New Species For Thailand

This morning I was alerted (sadly too late) to the presence of a Sooty Gull, which had been photographed at Bang Poo. This is the third new species for Thailand that I have been recently been made aware of with the other additions being Sunda Pygmy Woodpecker which was photographed in Satun province on the Malaysian border and has long been expected to occur in southern Thailand, and Northern Boobook which was caught and ringed at Laem Pak Bia by Phil Round in April 2011; this is a recent split from Brown Hawk Owl.

Click the picture to watch Sunda Pygmy Woodpecker in Thailand on Youtube

With large parts of the country being underwatched or not watched at all, the lack of coverage of the seas around Thailand and the possibility of rare migrants turning up, there are undoubtedly more species to be added to Thailand’s growing bird list.

A new round of splitting will also result in a number of additions to the new Thai list which is under consideration.

However, it should also be noted that Tawny Eagle and Pink-rumped Rosefinch have both been removed from the Thai list and there are likely to be a few others removed when the records committee next reviews them.

Thailand Birding: Maroon-breasted Philentoma

Alex Vargas recently took this photograph of a female Maroon-breasted Philentoma in the vicinty of Km 36 at Kaeng Krachan national park. He also saw the male well, through binoculars but only managed to obtain images of this female.

Maroon-breasted Philentoma is known from Kaeng Krachan but is very seldom seen, in fact it is seldom seen anywhere in Thailand - I have seen a pair just the once myself, at Krung Ching.

In this photo it is difficult to see the dark wash to the breast that field guides indicate the female should have, this may be down to the light conditions or the fact the field guides make more of this feature than is really visible.

Interestingly, Phil Round had this to say about the species;“The easiest place I know to see it, though, is (ironically) at its northerly known limit, at Phu Tho, Thongphaphum District, Kanchanaburi - a good 2 deg N latitude N of Kaeng Krachan. There there is some nice accessible evergreen forest at the base of limestone crags, which also holds Ferruginous Partridge and tons of other good birds. Nobody ever goes there these days since Kaeng Krachan was “discovered” some 20-plus years ago, but I visited the site last in May 2009 and saw a pair of philentomas just as easily as before.”

Alex has several more photographs of the bird here - Female Maroon-breasted Philentoma.

Thailand Birding: Year List 2010

As an avid keeper of bird lists I have just tallied up my Thai year list for 2010. Whilst at 623 species for the year, it was short of 2009's total, I did see some species that were long-awaited in 2010.

Highlights for me were two Himalayan Griffons circling low over the summit of Doi Inthanon and a four sightings of Silver Oriole - all in the same tree over the space of 11 months at Kaeng Krachan.

Two night birds were very satisfying too; Mountain Scops Owl at Nam Nao and 2 Hodgson's Frogmouths at Doi Ang Kang. These were both species that I had heard so many times and come so close to seeing on several occasions.

Other highlights included Masked Finfoot, Golden Bush Robin, Java Sparrow and Rufous-throated Fulvetta.

Off to start my 2011 year list right now!

Thailand Birding: Finding A Java Sparrow

Although I have lived in Bangkok for years I have never taken the effort to go and track down any of the city’s Java Sparrows; there has long been a self-sustaining population of this species, originating from escaped caged birds. However, beyond the vague instructions of “the Don Muang area” I have never known where to look for Java Sparrows

.
Java Sparrow by Peter Ericsson

Don Muang is the name of Bangkok’s old international airport, which is only really used for some domestic flights these days - it is in the north of the city. The area is really busy and I live quite far away, so the prospects of hunting these birds down in residential areas and along busy roads was never one that I relished. However, during a phone conversation with Phil Round yesterday, I finally remembered to ask him where I should look for Java Sparrows and he gave me details of a specific place to look that was easy to find.

With the encouragement of my wife, we went and had a look yesterday afternoon. The location is a small compound of apartments belonging to the airforce, right next to the Amari Airport hotel - easy to find. The hotel is on the opposite side of the road from the airport and there are signs for it in English after you have passed the domestic terminal and are about level with the international terminal. You can park in the car park of the Amari hotel, exit the car park and turn right, walk down the street for about 50 metres and you will see the apartments in a leafy compound.

We checked in with security, who made a bit of a song and dance about letting us in, but after a bit of a chat we entered. Java Sparrows were not obvious. After a bit of a search I spotted a pair, high up on a building, sitting above a ventilation window. Soon another pair joined them and the four of them spent a long time just sitting, preening and flitting about, occasionally disappearing beyond the boundaries of the compound but always coming back quickly. After about 30-40 minutes of watching them we left them to their business.

I understand that Java Sparrows are listed as Vulnerable by Birdlife International with a population of only 2,500-10,000 individuals in its native range, Java and Bali. Due to trapping and increased use of pesticides, Java Sparrow populations are declining; the population in Bangkok may be of significance in this light.

Thailand Birding: Asian Golden Weaver

The large majority of birders visit Thailand between the months of November and March, which is a great time for winter migrants but not so good for resident birds.

There are a few birds in particular which just are not present in the dry season or not at their best. Asian Golden Weaver is one of the latter; through the dry season months it is in non-breeding plumage and rather dull, but in the breeding season (late March to August) the male is one of the most fabulous birds of the wetlands.

Asian Golden Weaver by Alex Vargas

Over the last few months I have been seeing small nesting colonies of Asian Golden Weavers regularly at Muang Boran Fishponds near Bangkok and Tung Bang Jak near Petchaburi. They make small, ball-shaped nests in emergent vegetation such as Typha whilst their relatives, Baya Weavers, make pipe-shaped nests in trees and Streaked Weavers make a ball with a pipe in emergent vegetation.

Anyone heading to Bueng Boraphet from March to August should also easily see this species by going to the crocodile enclosure at the fisheries research station on the north side of the lake, where they breed, their nests protected by crocodiles.