AjarnNorth

Attached here is a King Cobra I caught in my yard in Chonburi a couple months ago. I prefer to catch and relocate them far away as opposed to just chasing them away which is usually only temporary. It's one of a few cobras I have caught in my yard, in addition to numerous reticulated pythons (one of which ate a kitten we'd recently found and were taking care of). A snake catching pole is easy to make and catching them is not all that difficult, though the pythons will grab on to anything they can and it can take as much as two hours to weaken enough to pry them loose. I'm lucking in that one of my two dogs is very good at locating snakes and alerting us to their presence while keeping a safe distance (thus far).

Automatic IDs from Photos... I knew the day would come. Only for US and Canada right now, but that is sure to change.

http://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/photo-id

Some day they will make bins that ID and etc. and so on.

How boring! Trust somebody to take the fun out of birding.

Agreed, IB. I suspect it will take a while for the technology to get past making suggestions on tough to ID pics and etc. but the day is coming. And beyond that you can even imagine a day where some kind of technology will be available well beyond that... some kind of drone will be able to sweep over an area and detect the species present below perhaps... and while it will take some of the fun out of it, it will be good for science overall. But you and i will be long gone by then anyway and we will have had our fun.

Automatic IDs from Photos... I knew the day would come. Only for US and Canada right now, but that is sure to change.

http://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/photo-id

Some day they will make bins that ID and etc. and so on.

4 Frigatebirds today here in Bangsaen, Chonburi. I have them as probable Christmas - which I have confirmed here in 2012 and a couple unconfirmed sights of since - but some pics vs. descriptions vs. images on OBC have me questioning possible Great.

Robson has Christmas as vagrant C Thailand and Round (BofBKK Area) also has them in C Thailand. So that's the probable ID. Three are clear Juvs and one is much darker on the underside but clearly not an adult either...

Anybody?

Looks like this one will be tossed into the THB.

I headed over to OBC images and compared the 2 side by side.

The Plain seems to have a duller/lighter supercilium as against the more distinct on the Rufescent but then some images for Plain did have very distinct supercilium too.

And to add more confusion, with the Rufescent, the tail feathers are white tipped but some images of the Plain also showed white tipped.

I'll have to take note of the call as suggested by AN.

Thanks guys.

On calls...

As a person who only recently bought a "smart phone" - a few nights ago around 8:30 PM I heard a bird call I was not familiar with. Went outside and recorded it with my phone. Surprised at the quality as the bird was at least 30 meters off. Took it home and went through the likely candidates in PD Round - birds that may be calling at night - found a call description that seemed to match - listened to recordings on http://avocet.zoology.msu.edu/ and made the match.

No big deal. Plaintive Cuckoo, a bird I have been seeing for years - in Isaan and here in Chonburi - but never ID'd by call. It called for two nights.

Have also used call IDs to ID and then spend hours waiting for and then finally get clear looks (and even one OK photo) of Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler.

Calls are fun to spend time on and sometimes that's all you have go on.

My guess on the above would be Plain but I could have that wrong. Getting the call would settle the matter quickly.

Time to look out for Dark-sided Flycatchers, in my experience the latest of the flycatcher migrants. I had one on 27th, and another today. Look for them at the extreme tops of trees; they like exposed perches, and often return to the same perch.

Also today at least three Brown Flycatchers in a loose group. Very late for me here. Two had the usual whitish throat, but one had no white on the throat at all.

I had a Dark-sided down here in Chonburi on 27 April as well. With another possible on 29 April though it was getting dark and that one may well have been an Asian Brown.

Nesting Update 2 from Chonburi:

In early April I posted pics here (above) of two Collared Scops-Owls nesting in a hollowed out tree but mentioned that I have seen this same tree raided by water monitors on a few occasions when it was host to Myna nests and etc. We've also caught, removed, and relocated four large pythons from the property in the last year and a half and while i haven't seen them raid that tree, they certainly can and do raid nests.

The owls began appearing earlier in mid April and were sometimes visible by 4:30 or so and so got some better pics (below). But last seen on 16 April I started to wonder if the nest hadn't been raided and while i can't say for sure that's my guess.

The day before yesterday my dogs cornered a monitor and I decided to catch it (pics below) and relocate it not just because of the nests but because I thought it would be best to move the monitor to an area with more appropriate habitat as my area is being built up very quickly.

Interesting to note (maybe) that while I heard no CSO call for the entire time they were right there, last night for the fist time in a couple months i heard the call.

Nesting Update 1 from Chonburi: Black-winged Stilts

As per pics posted above, the first BWS nest found is presumed to have successfully hatched 4.

A second nest (pic posted above) which was much closer to the water had two eggs when found on evening of 16 April and three the following morning. On 25 April early Am we had a huge amount of rain and the nest was inundated when i returned.

A third nest was found, two eggs (with a broken egg not far away) this one, like the first, in a more dry and elevated area.

Like Jack's BWS nests there were shell fragments in one of the old nests found (and also a plastic fork in the nest that was inundated which I imagine may have been mistaken for a shell).

Black-winged Stilt eggs first spotted by on 12 April hatched yesterday evening. On Thursday evening, still 4 healthy looking eggs. Then yesterday (Friday), arrived at about 5:30 PM and only two of four eggs in the nest still, with the parent birds making a ruckus and trying to chase us away. Shortly thereafter one of the two eggs began to hatch. By 5:45 it was nearly out of the egg and we decided to leave the area for a bit to give the parent birds time to help. Returned at 6:30 and chick seemed healthy and all traces of its egg and placenta and etc. were gone, presumably eaten by parent birds for protein and to not leave scent that may attract snakes or other predators. The remaining egg was beginning to hatch. Returned this morning and nest is empty, but parent birds still making a ruckus trying to scare away intruders. Presumably there are 4 healthy chicks somewhere in the mangroves and shrubbery nearby.

I've only seen B. Needletail once, in Kao Yai. Great pics. And yep, M Shikra. I have them nearly every day on my soi.

Went back to the same fishponds I have posted about above - the BWS nest of four, the RB Crake, the BWS nest of yesterday with just two eggs - returned this evening and the clutch of 2 was now 3.

Also had c. 100 Pacific Golden Plovers which I see often but had not seen in some weeks, and one Dusky Warbler, as well as the usual redshank, greenshank, SPs, and etc.

Also had the RB Crake again tonight, third night running, always in the same place about the same time. Slightly better pics tonight.

Om the subject of BWS nests and dry vs. wet placing, I was out again today to check on the nest my friend spotted four days ago (still 4 healthy looking eggs) and he spotted another nest. This one much closer to the water and wet. But clearly also another BWS clutch, though this one with only two eggs.

Strange you should mention leaf warblers, Jack!

I get very few here (not much habitat), but this morning I had a Dusky. Not a bird I see often... and mine never seem to go 'tic, tic', which they always did in Hong Kong (and in AjarnNorth's garden!). Maybe I'm misidentifying them, but I don't think so.

I'm still getting Brown Shrikes almost every day.

I saw only a few Dusky this year - but that i think more to time spent than anything else. A few at a swampy area next to my place of work and a few out in the fishpond area. And yes, they were tic tic more often than not, but not always.

IB, nice one on the Yellow WTs.

On the nests, I would have thought so too, IB, and said as much to my friend at first... nest seemed too dry... why not in a safer area and on wet vegetation. But we also found an empty nest nearby - also spotted by him - a bit closer to the water but equally dry.

While there yesterday to check on the eggs (status quo) had my first Ruddy-breasted Crake. Light was waning and photos are awful, but had great extended looks with the bins as the bird kept coming out from cover to "bathe."

Common enough and considering the areas i have done most of my birding this is a bird I should have seen some time ago (and perhaps have in a fleeting "What was that?" moment when you see a skulking bird for an instant before it disappears into cover). But always good to see something new!

Yep. Here is a BWS nest from Surin from four or five years ago. I had seen the bird sitting and presumed it was sitting on a clutch so I rowed out in a boat to have a look. Unfortunately, the water levels rose quickly over the next few days and the nest and eggs were submerged so did not survive.

Was birding an area of fishponds i regularly visit here in Bangsaen, Chonburi the day before yesterday with a friend and he spotted this nest/clutch of eggs.After some reading and comparing, I am 99 percent sure they are Black-winged Stilt eggs. We didn't see the bird on the nest but BWS are some of the most common birds to the area and breed there every year. Also, I had photos of a BWS nest in Surin to compare with. We visited again yesterday and the eggs are doing fine thus far, but the nest is pretty exposed and so they could become food for any number of predators. I'll be checking back there near daily and if they do hatch hope to get some pics of their first days.

These two Coppersmith Barbet are from when i lived in Surin but they are common throughout Thailand and you would certainly have them in Udon. When they call, look high in the trees. They will almost always be on or near the top.

We live in Udon Thani province and yesterday an Asian Koei (นกกาเหว่า) nohk gaa wao was in the yard. I'd heard them at a distance before but up close the cry was exceptionally shrill. I tried to get a photo but due to the foliage in the tree couldn't manage a clear shot.

Quite often I hear a bird that I have yet to see. It makes a call that sounds to me like the little rubber bulb horns that one sees on children's tricycles or the horn that push cart vendors sometimes toot as they make their rounds. It is a continuous "toot toot" and may last for several minutes. As was listening to it, I asked my wife what was making the sound and she said it was a bird. She doesn't know the name of the bird though. I realize that my description of the call is rather feeble but I am wondering if anyone might know what this bird could be? I looked back through this thread and didn't come across any posts that I thought answered my question. If I missed it, I apologize. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I am guessing tour tooting bird is a Coppersmith Barbet. Here is a link to some call recordings you can compare to.

https://macaulaylibrary.org/search?media_collection=1&taxon_id=12008484&taxon_rank_id=67&q=Coppersmith+Barbet