[tombac]

5 Spooners today PT. No signs of the Milky Storks. Only 6 Painted at LPB. Two Black-headed Ibeses at Wat Takrao.

[Marcus Lawson]

A cracking four day trip to Thailand with the principal aim of getting Spoon-billed Sandpiper - we managed to find two at Pak Thale on the 8th as well as the Black-faced Spoonbill, Eastern Curlew, 58 Nordmanns' Greenshank, 2 Red-necked Phals and a Dunlin The Eastern Curlew was viewable from the small hut out on the salt-pans after you've turned right at the Spoon-billed Sandpiper sign. At LPB sandspit the pair of White-faced Plover showed well in windy conditions as well as four Malaysian Plover and two Chinese Egret were along the mangroves on the way out. There was no sign anywhere of the Milky Stork - beware a leucistic Painted Stork which has been around for a few years. We couldn't find Asiatic Dowitcher nor the Long-billed which has been seen intermittently this winter. At the King's Project three Painted Snipe performed superbly towards dusk and three Purple-backed Starling dropped in briefly with a large flock of White-shouldered Starling, we also caught up with three Indian Nightjar here - a great way to end a day on which we saw 40 species of wader

At Kaeng Krachan it was hard going but we did bump into the Shetland lads - which was nice

Many thanks to Nick Upton for his superb guiding, highly recommended.

All the best,
Marcus

[James Eaton]

Out of interest, does anyone have any close up photos of the Milky Storks? I'm keen to compare them with some of the Cambodian breeders...

Cheers,

James

[rockfowl]

Originally Posted by James Eaton

Out of interest, does anyone have any close up photos of the Milky Storks? I'm keen to compare them with some of the Cambodian breeders...

Cheers,

James

Not close-ups James, but a shot here - http://thaibirder.blogspot.com/, I'll have a trawl, I saw some on one of the Thai birder/photographer's websites

Some interesting stuff here including a report of around 400 Dowitchers at Bang Kutt, which is remarkable! - http://shorebirder-waderworld.blogspot.com/

[gandytron]

Up to 6 Spooners at Pak Thale today, with 6 Nordmann's 1km north of the Kings project. At the King's project itself, the Lb Dowitcher showed v.well. Some pix on my blog entry here

[rockfowl]

Originally Posted by gandytron

Up to 6 Spooners at Pak Thale today, with 6 Nordmann's 1km north of the Kings project. At the King's project itself, the Lb Dowitcher showed v.well. Some pix on my blog entry here

Nice Dave, never managed to bump into the LBD, the Asian's were hard enough.

[ChinaBirds]

With thanks to Dave Gandy (gandytron) had a wonderful day at Pak Thale and the surrounding countryside today. 95 species seen but the highlight has to be the 6 Spoon-Billed Sandpipers. A full update will be provided on my year listing thread.

Cheers
Nick

[portnoy58]

Nice to see you today Dave and to meet you Nick. At the end of the day we saw 3 Spoonbill Sandpipers at Pak Thale and a number of Dunlin, possibly four, including this one which is starting to show its breeding plumage . Another birder reported seeing the Milky Storks to the south of the abandonned building.

[gandytron]

Thanks Gerry, good to see you too. We finished the afternoon at Nong Plai Lai raptor watchpoint, where we picked up two Greater Spotted and one juv Steppe Eagle as well as 30+ Black Kites.

Best wishes

Dave

[ChinaBirds]

Great to see you Gerry, thanks to you and Phil for making me so welcome at the Royal Project, wonderful to see so many birds at close quarters

Cheers
Nick

[gandytron]

Still two Spoon-billed Sandpipers at Pak Thale on Saturday morning (9th April). One in partial breeding plumage.

[tombac]

Also 2 Milky Storks 11.4 close to the entrance to PT.

[gandytron]

for anybody interested, I've just posted some record shots of the partial breeding plumaged Spoon-billed Sandpiper that I saw at Pak Thale on Saturday (9th April).

The pix are here: http://electricbirding.blogspot.com/...0th-april.html

[halftwo]

Well, Thai birders & visitors to the site: it's getting towards that time of year again & I have another trip planned (4th-14th December) during which I want to get to grips with Spooners and other goodies at Pak Thale, as well as visit KK again.

February's disastrous holiday meant that I almost did no birding, so I'm keeping fingers crossed for this one.

So any updates and info gratefully received here.

Thanks folks...

H

[James Eaton]

Originally Posted by tombac

Also 2 Milky Storks 11.4 close to the entrance to PT.

Do you happen to have any under-wing photos of this bird? Keen to find out if I can id this individual from the Cambodian population... thanks!

James

[revs45]

Originally Posted by halftwo

Well, Thai birders & visitors to the site: it's getting towards that time of year again & I have another trip planned (4th-14th December) during which I want to get to grips with Spooners and other goodies at Pak Thale, as well as visit KK again.

February's disastrous holiday meant that I almost did no birding, so I'm keeping fingers crossed for this one.

So any updates and info gratefully received here.

Thanks folks...

H

Good luck, hope the record flooding in and around BKK has subsided by then, you should be alright though, we last went in Dec 2010 and recall there being serious flooding in October of that year as well, all was more or less fine by the time we left mid December.
We went after Gurney's Pitta last trip but in Dec '08 picked up my lifer Spoon-billed Sandpiper at Pak Thale, "needle in a haystack" comes to mind

[gandytron]

Rains are indeed bad at the moment - I was supposed to drive to NW Thailand this morning but had to postpone by trip due to the flooding.

Spooners not normally back until the end of October, so watch this space.

I think there has already been a w-f plover seen at LPB.

Best wishes

Dave

[halftwo]

Thanks, Dave.

Lovely blog, btw. Good work on the Ninox.

[gandytron]

Originally Posted by halftwo

Thanks, Dave.

Lovely blog, btw. Good work on the Ninox.

Thanks H2,

Suspect the Ninox is overlooked, but nice to get one in early!

Dave