Little Herons seem to be early this year!

3 hours ago, isanbirder said:

 

3 hours ago, isanbirder said:

Little Herons seem to be early this year!

A few fleeting glimpses without bins the past couple weeks alerted me I had a new species of dove and a new yard bird. Confirmed today #51 Red Turtle-Dove. Actually a pair and the male is constantly flying by with nesting material. 

Finally filled probably the biggest glaring hole in my yard list. #52 Plain Prinia 

Not in my yard, but just a few clicks down the road... about a dozen Common Redshank and 100 or so Lesser Sand Plovers. Winter visitors arriving... and thus the fun begins...

Got quite excited picking my kids up from school today. Just driving out past a row of trees and spotted a blue bird (I'm colourblind but ok with blue). I parked the car, did the fatherly thing of pointing the bird out then leaped out to try and take a photo but it flew off. Why was I excited? Because I'm in my 3rd decade here and never seen an indian roller before.

We've had this little fellow arrive in our garden this week. He appeared to be lost, and very young, so we are looking after him until he is stronger, before releasing him back into the wild. If anyone can tell us what kind of bird he is,  I'd appreciate it. He likes to eat fish !

White-throated Kingfisher. 

 

Thank you ! 

A few recent shots from the garden/patch which is fairly quiet with the rain we have been getting.

1. Asian Koel(F)

2. Black Shouldered Kite

3. Eurasian Tree Sparrow

 

 

 

^^^

I have a big collection of bird feathers. The tail feather from the Asian Koel is really beautiful !Evil looking eyes though

555 here's a couple recent pix of the male Evil-eyed Howler...GAO-WAO!

 

Getting birdy around here. Not from my yard, but again about two k down the road in an area of inland mangroves and fish ponds that i visit regularly but haven't been to in a couple weeks. Pacific Golden Plovers (early arrival winter visitors). Awful pics (attached) due to fading light but stunning birds, especially at this time of year when some are still nearly in breeding plumage. As far as other winter visitors: about a dozen Greenshank (in flight), one Spotted Redshank, three little Ringed Plover. 

 

Other notables: resident White-browed Crake with fledglings (photo attached). I have seen WBC here many times but can't remember ever getting pics of fledglings. 

 

Most exciting for me was a pair of Alexandrine Parakeet in flight (no pics). When I first moved to this part of Chonburi from Isaan five years ago, I used to see this species fairly regularly from my yard feeding on my neighbors Star Fruit tree, then suddenly they disappeared. We have Rose-breasted Parakeet near daily here, but I haven't seen Alexandrine in almost 3 years so today's sighting was welcome. 

 

Anybody else seeing early arrival winter visitors yet? 

 

Nice Goldens, AjarnNorth.

 

I don't get many waders on the paddies, but had a Common Snipe (by flight) today.... and the first Common Kingfisher of autumn.

 

Yesterday I had a big surprise, a Black/Black-eared Kite (I posted about it in the Isaan thread).  These don't usually arrive until October.  Two other birds on odd dates were a pond-heron in non-breeding plumage (sp. unknown) in early July, and a Little Heron (they don't breed here) at the end of July.

Mynah birds discovered a while ago the endless source of food from my dogs' kibble bowl, and its always entertaining to see them walk into the house/eat the dogs' food/fly out again.

 

Some of them are becoming v bold, and I had to laugh yesterday when one was sauntering out (normally they fly out), and stopped for a few seconds to watch the programme I was watching on TV!  

Mynah birds - the playground bullies.

I've noticed that the mynahs don't seem to bothered about the bread I put out (sometimes I put out mynah bird pellet food I bought) but they move on all the other species of bird that come to feed.

I usually throw out my old bread. Last week I bought one of those baht 30 large bags of crust offcuts. The birds don't seem keen so it'll be a trip to feed the mooban fish with the crusts.

Been putting slightly old bananas down (can't leave overnight as iit'll attract the field rats who love bananas) next the fallen half eaten mangoes the sqirrels drop down; both fruits seem to be popular with some of the birds.

Not in my yard, but just a couple k down the road where I go to look at waders here in Bangsaen, Chonburi. Ruddy Turnstone (next to a Lesser Sand-Plover). Only the second Turnstone I have seen. Robson Guide has them as "Quite strictly coastal," but the first one I saw and photographed was in Surin! Surin is about 400 kilometers from the nearest coast.   

Nice one, AN.

 

Not much in here yet, but the first Chinese Pond Heron was on 27th (28th last year) and this morning a party of 8 Black-winged Stilts were seen flying determinedly westwards.  Not uncommon, but a lovely sighting nevertheless.

Bird of the day, Eurasian Thick-knee. At the same fishponds referenced above. Shows up in the exact same spot between late August and early September every year for the last four years running. Great looking bird. Usually among a group of Pacific Golden Plovers, but today alone. Skulking and easily flushes, so these pics taken at long distance from the other side of the fish pond.

Just heard a very strange noise in the garden I'd not heard before. I thought it was a duck call which would have been unusual. Saw a cat on my garden wall so assumed the cat had grabbed some type of bird. The cat scarpered but the noise continued. Turned out it was a squirrel 'barking' or distress call. It made the sound repeatedly every few seconds for about 2 minutes while moving through the trees. Success, it was calling another squirrel. They met and the noise stopped. Tried to find the noise on youtube. The closest to it was the gruff barking noise in this video
https://youtu.be/eSv2JooWa-4

28 minutes ago, Bredbury Blue said:

Just heard a very strange noise in the garden I'd not heard before. I thought it was a duck call which would have been unusual. Saw a cat on my garden wall so assumed the cat had grabbed some type of bird. The cat scarpered but the noise continued. Turned out it was a squirrel 'barking' or distress call. It made the sound repeatedly every few seconds for about 2 minutes while moving through the trees. Success, it was calling another squirrel. They met and the noise stopped. Tried to find the noise on youtube. The closest to it was the gruff barking noise in this video
https://youtu.be/eSv2JooWa-4

Yes, there are a few strange sounding squirrels about. One sounds to me like someone trying to kickstart a motorcycle that won't turn over. The first time i heard it, in Surin many years ago, I spent nearly 30 minutes trying to locate it thinking I had surely come across a new bird! I eventually tracked it to the squirrel. 

 

A key wintering site for Critically Endangered Spoon-billed Sandpipers in the Bay of Bangkok is currently being filled in to make way for a solar farm. (Click link for more info...)

 

https://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=5828

 

Yesterday I drove to Khlong Tamru, an area at the west end of Chonburi about 25 minutes from my place. It's a location where Spoon-billed Sandpipers have been known to touch down in the past, and while I know they won't be anywhere in Thailand for some time yet I thought I'd start familiarizing myself with the area so I can spend some time there this "winter" and see what there is to see... As it turned out, pretty amazing area. Attached here is some of what I saw... Temminck's Stint was a first for me, unless someone can tell me that's not a Temminck's behind the Long-Toed.. IB, we saw Long-Toed together some years ago in Surin. Also a lot of P. Stork. Spot-billled Pelican,  Whimbrel, Greenshank, Redshank, LR Plovers, and etc. I will try and get out there every two weeks or so through winter this year. It's an area that promises to turn up something interesting but it's big enough that it will take some time to get to know...

Could well be a Temminck's, AN.  I'm in Chiangmai at the moment, and have no books with me, and it's a long time since I saw a Temminck's, but I seem to remember they were much more uniformly-coloured than Long-toed (which look more like small sandpipers than stints).  Also the leg-colour?

 

Good luck with the Spoon-billed, a favourite of mine since I saw my first alongside the road in Jurong, Singapore in 1963.  The prawn-ponds of those days are long since filled in, and I don't think anyone else has seen Spoon-billed in Singapore.  Subsequently I saw quite a few on the Mai Po Marshes in Hong Kong, possibly the best place to see them on migration.

On 9/3/2016 at 8:45 AM, AjarnNorth said:

 

A key wintering site for Critically Endangered Spoon-billed Sandpipers in the Bay of Bangkok is currently being filled in to make way for a solar farm. (Click link for more info...)

 

https://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=5828

 

Oh no! Awful news indeed. Gotta love how the Thai guy in the vid with PR says it will have zero negative environmental impact. Guess robbing the habitat of a critically endangered species doesn't count. The bird is already critically endangered primarily from LOSS OF HABITAT. 

 

From The Cornell Lab Of Ornithology:  Reasons for Decline: Most researchers believe that two factors are responsible for the Spoon-billed Sandpipers population decline: the elimination of migratory stopover habitat, particularly in the Yellow Sea region, and subsistence hunting on the wintering grounds.

We found this critter eating from the dog's food bowl. I make this twenty-one separate bird species compared to the four or five we had on the land when we bought it as a tired old cornfield. Can anyone identify the species?




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Juvenile Asian Barred Owlet?

 

Doesn't look keen on being photographed.

Looks like Marty Feldman

Yes, Asian Barred Owlet.

Couple of new birds for the patch list total now 57 since November 2015;

1. Brown Throated Sunbird-Juv Female final confirmed ID from Oriental Bird Club members

2. Asian Paradise Flycatcher probably female terrible photo shot when nearly dark and raining!

 

Plus a rather pleasing image(to me) of a Male Olive Backed Sunbird taken with my new Canon EOS 80D sporting my old Sigma 150-500mm lens.