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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Larry Sweetland" data-source="post: 1168970" data-attributes="member: 27337">Robert Bruce and the spiderOk then <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />Saw a few more things before leaving Khao Lak, most notably a Japanese Sparrowhawk heading north, Golden-bellied Gerygone, weirdly enough the trip's first Turnstones and great views of Barred Buttonquail and Watercock. The buttonquails were of the odd local race that really had me going until I saw them well. The colour of the underparts was very much suggestive of Yellow-legged BQ when not seen well. Oh well.So on to Krabi. Here our bad luck has continued. We were conned by a local boatman who seemed really knowledgeable that it was a good time tide-wise to go out to view the waders and egrets at the river mouth. It wasn't. It was effectively a waste of money. There were huge expanses of mud as we rounded into the open sea, and wading birds were so sparsely scattered that we argued to return early for a reduced price. He knew the score all along and he's a c#@^. We did manage some Terek Sandpipers, A Brown-winged Kingfisher, a Pacific Golden Plover, a few Common Terns, some other commoner waders and, rather frustratingly, a distant probable Chinese Egret and a probable flying Nordmann's Greenshank. The only Kentish Plover we saw even had the audacity to have a dark loral line.Luckily my mum was Scottish, and told me the tale of Robert Bruce and the spider at a very early age. So in his name and in the words of the punk band Discharge : "never surrender never give in never let the enemy win".If any Chingrets or Norshanks are reading this... you may be laughing now, as you did at Pak Thale. But it's not over yet.617 Turnstone618 Japanese Sparrowhawk619 Golden-bellied Gerygone620 Bar-tailed Godwit621 Brown-winged Kingfisher622 Terek Sandpiper623 Common Tern624 Pacific Golden PloverWe're going to be in the Krabi general area for a couple of weeks now, until we can go back to Ko Similan, so if anyone's got any recent gen for any of the sites near here (eg Gurney's Pitta sightings etc) it would be well appreciated.</blockquote>

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