A day trip with a Spanish couple upon request.

It meant back to Bangpra, Chonburi. It is such a lovely green area with both good birds and nice scenery in a varied landscape.

Our first stop gave us a herd of Water Buffaloes wallowing in the mud. There are still some buffaloes around in the country though a lot less then when I first arrived here. With them there were many Cattle Egrets, Great Mynas, Red-wattled Lapwings with a surrounding cast of Indo-chinese Bushlarks, Paddyfield Pipits, Indo-chinese Rollers, Black-collared Starlings and a few Green Bee-eaters.

A little further down the road we had a displaying Golden-headed Cisticola in breeding plumage. No Yellow-eyed Babbler about this time though. On the wires were many Ashy Woodswallows. Sooty-headed, Streak-eared and Yellow-vented Bulbuls added to the charm as did Common Ioras.

Further down the road we did a little walk. Here we saw a Northern Treeshrew and to my surprise a Striped Ground Squirrel. Butterflies were coming out and birds were singing. Several repeats from the first two spots but also a Eurasian Hoopoe, singing Lineated Barberts, Germain's Swiftlets, Common Hill Myna (so nice to see good numbers of them) and to my surprise a pair of Golden-crested Mynas. A first for the province for me of a bird not seen often anywhere.

Good views of Red-breasted Parakeet and a group of 4 Vernal Hanging Parrots landed in a tree.

There was a fruiting tree and suddenly A Pied Hornbill crashed the party of feeding Coppersmith Barbets and Bulbuls. The bird caused no small stir and my Spanish visitors got very excited!
Then an Asian Barred Owlet gave great views. Diurnal owls are great!

Off we went towards the nearby hills. Again, more quiet then usual but still a few different species about. Blue-throated Bee-eaters provided some color, a Racket-tailed Treepie gave good views and Chestnut-capped Babblers were very inquisitive when using playback.

From the hills we heard Banded Bay Cuckoo, Dark-necked Tailorbirds, Greater Racket-tailed Drongo and a Greater Flameback. But it was unusually quiet. Past breeding season and dark skies might have played a role.

A brief visit to the reservoir of Bangpra followed (brief as it was Sunday and a lot of people about which affected bird actitivties).
Best birds were a couple of Lesser Adjutants, a flock of White-crested Laugingthrushes and a Stork-billed Kingfisher.

Then time for lunch and a cold drink. Funny how Spanish people don't eat chili. As a kid I thought Spanish food to be exotic but my few encounters with people from Spain has been that they seriously avoid hot chilies. Nevertheless, the Green Papaya Salad was to their delight inspite of it being served without that little extra bite!

The Urn baked chicken was very tasty as well.

We then drove back in direction of Bangkok for a visit at some salt pans. Today it was high tide and there were a lot more birds in the pans then a few days back. In a flock of Black-tailed Godwits we spotted 6 Asian Dowitchers. A top of the line bird.

A couple of Little Stints in breeding plumage helped us to tell them apart from the more numerous Red-necked Stints.

Other birds: Marsh, Wood and Curlew Sandpipers, Little Ringed Plover, Greater and Lesser Sandplovers, Common Redshank and Ruff. In the middle of the pan on some sticks a couple of Gull-billed Terns, Whiskered Terns and a single White-winged Tern. Add to that a Little Tern in flight. A few Painted Storks were nice as we previously only had seen Openbills.

In some bushes nearby the Golden-bellied Gerygone was singing away and a few Swinhoe's White-eyes were briefly seen.

We were scheduled to visit a couple more sites but an upset stomach made it necessary to go back to Bangkok earlier then planned. Still, it was quite a good day and Arthur Massana, the birder of the two was more then pleased.

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