About 6.15am hundreds of what looked like herons flying North to South watched for a few minutes,sorry no pics but I guess this is annual, fascinating!

Impossible to be certain without pictures, but I should think they must have been Asian Openbills (storks rather than herons).

Egrets

A hundred or more took up camp between our place and the river ... plenty of scrub land and water to scavenge for food.

Yeah, could be egrets.

Egrets

A hundred or more took up camp between our place and the river ... plenty of scrub land and water to scavenge for food.

yes I saw them last night just before 6, and I am just a bit East of you over the river from Pa Daed.

like a massive group of homing pigeons circling but much bigger. pretty sure they were the white egrets.

The river bed near the flood gate is almost dry now and can walk across it; I see the birds there occasionally

Impossible to be certain without pictures, but I should think they must have been Asian Openbills (storks rather than herons).

Have seen several flocks of the Openbills going by in Mae Rim recently.

It should be easy enough for OP to tell the difference:-

Egrets. Predominantly white, and keep their necks tucked in when flying.

Openbills. Black and white/grey, necks sticking out in fight.

Does this help?

Does this help?

image.jpgimage.jpg

I got the same photos this morning. Two groups of 30 circling.

About 1m + wingspan. Wings grey and white. Neck projecting and legs projecting. Like vultures but i concur probably the openbills.

Yes, Openbills. And they often fly independently like that, not in a compact flock.