Daytrip 4th of May, 2019

I was asked by Nick Upton at www.thaibirding.com to do a daytrip with Timothy Gotsick. Timothy gets to travel the world through his work and was on a very brief stopover in Bangkok on his way to China from India.

So, pick up at 5:30. It is getting bright already at that time now on cloudless days. But waking up at 30C isn’t exactly cool!

A drive of little over and hour saw us at Bangpra Non Hunting area, a large water reservoir, in Chonburi on the Eastern side of the Inner Gulf of Thailand. Enroute a group of half a dozen Spot-billed Pelicans flew across the highway.

http://thaibirding.com/locations/south_east/bangpra.htm

The area was rather green and must have been receiving rain of late. The water level was quite low though and will remain so for another month I was told when they will flood the surrounding grass and scrub areas again.

For someone like Timothy this type of area with a variety of habitats provide great opportunity to work up a solid day list of birds.

Thousands of Asian Openbills were in the area but only a handful of Painted Storks. But best of all a group of 4 Lesser Adjutants. One can argue of their origins but these birds are found in the wild and are very approachable.

Now that the grass areas are exposed some birds have come back to inhabit it such as Indo-chinese Bushlark, Zitting Cisticola and Paddyfield Pipits. No buttonquails though that used to be such a highlight years back.

From the woody area surrounding the reservoir we heard a few Blue-winged Pittas but never got close to any. They are recent arrivals from Indonesia coming to breed in Central Thailand. In this part we had a Freckled-breasted Woodpecker, Racket-tailed Treepies, Coppersmith and Lineated Barbets as well as a nice group of White-crested Laughingthrushes. Many Greater Racket-tailed Drongos as well.
A nicely perched male Shikra in a dead tree with a Pied Imperial Pigeon nearby. The pigeon a first for me at this site.

It was a bit surprising to see nesting Little Terns. Then again it isn’t very far to the seaside where breeding habitat might be reduced now?

It soon got unbearably hot and since we had seen the majority of birds expected we got in the car for a short drive and change of habitat.

I was hoping to get on to Chestnut-capped Babbler and no sooner had I driven in to the little road I often see them but they were calling. They proved to be co-operative and easily lured in. As the morning went on we had several encounters with this species as they are active and about to breed.
Another little charmer in full breeding plumage that responded well, Bright-headed Cisticola!
Several Lesser Coucals showed wonderfully and the common Plain Prinia had company of Grey-breasted Prinia which is another cute little bird.

Many other common birds of course such as Green Bee-eater, Ashy Woodswallow, Sooty-headed Bulbuls, Common Iora, Red-wattled Lapwings, Indian Rollers etc.

I then drove closer to the now green and lush looking hills past Khao Kaew zoo. The area here, just south of the zoo is not heavily populated and the feeling of serenity is quite evident.
As we got closer to the hills the sounds of Blue-eared Barbets started being heard. We never actually got to see any but we sure heard several. However there were several Blue-winged Pittas in the area and one of them put on a performance to introduce Timothy to the magical world of Pittas!
A male Common Flameback and a close encounter with Racket-tailed Treepies was another nice happening. Then we got some great views of an adult Crested Serpent Eagle circling the hills while letting out its far reaching cry.

A quick drop by to a nearby waterfall gave us a Hoopoe on the wire, a singing confiding Black-crested Bulbul and a brief view of Bar-winged Flycatcher Shrike but it was about to rain and things were quiet so we decided to call it quits for the area as it also was now late morning.
We stopped for a nice lunch at the seaside. It was named Sea Breeze and we can attest to a very accurately given name. So nice in the sweltering heat!


Bangpoo

http://thaibirding.com/locations/central/bang_poo.htm

It wasn’t part of the original plan but since I thought we had enough time for our planned afternoon birding I thought it might be worth a visit.

I did not expect to see the Brown-headed Gulls that visit here in the thousands as they leave to breed in China. But I was wrong as there were about 50 of them still around. Most of these not in breeding plumage so I assume they were not adult birds. One Black-headed Gull was in amongst them.
There were actually a few waders around but not much diversity: Black-tailed Godwits, Pacific Golden Plovers in breeding plumage, Lesser Sand Plovers looking good and that was it for the shorebirds.
The watchtower in the hinterlands gave almost nothing but Timothy added 10 new species for the day.

Lat Krabang paddies.

The late afternoon was reserved for my homepatch. The afternoon is definitely not on par with the morning but it still yielded over 50 species. Some of these rather classy birds: Watercock, White-browed Crake, Red Avadavat, Asian Golden Weavers, Oriental Pratincoles, Lesser Whistling Treeducks, Chestnut-tailed Starlings and Black-browed Reed Warbler being some of them.

There is a colony of atleast 100 Indian Cormorants mixed with several Black-crowned Night Herons. Always a lot of activity in the colony.

Flocks of up to a hundred birds of Scaly-breasted and White-rumped Munias were feeding on the now ripening rice.

There were more birds seen aside from mentioned above. A total of 101 for the day which I thought was pretty good bearing in mind that most migrants have left already. It also coincided with eBird Day and both Timothy and myself use eBird for record keeping so that was a fun stimuli. 45 lifers for Timothy!

I dropped Timothy off at his nice hotel near the airport but first he invited me for a couple of beers. Yes, it felt very good to wind down in such fashion!