On another cold Monday morning I picked up Ian and Jake for yet another ‘Eade’ tour, this time to Thailand. Having been before with Ian (and Chris Glanfield) visiting the central parts, we are targeting just a few species here before venturing into the unknown to the northern parts of Thailand, all in all a solid three weeks of birding. Unfortunately Jake can only join us until the 1st of Feb.
Anyway after a long flight (stopping half way in Dubai) we quickly went through immigration, got our bags and swiftly got our monster of a hire car. Only once did I slam the break thinking it was the clutch so all in all a promising start with the car. Things were going well despite my anxiety about what things could’ve gone wrong, and the ‘going well’ continued with a cracking selection of species seen on our first day.
We started at Pak Thale, and despite the tide being out, over two visits we hit the jackpot with a lovely Chinese Egret. This was a big target for me and Ian and later on in the afternoon and a second visit yielded the mega Spoon-billed Sandpiper, and not just one, but two birds including one that was flagged. Despite them flying off when initially viewed at a distance, we quickly located both birds really close and enjoyed simply stunning scope views. Despite not being a lifer, this was a memorable occurrence.
In the afternoon we persuaded Mr Daeng to take us on his boat and out onto the sand spit. Thankfully he did as this saves us a lot of time tomorrow, and again we done really well, with the undoubted highlight being the unique, but un-tickable White-faced Plover, with a steady supporting cast of a pair of Malaysian Plovers also showing well. This was our last Wader of the day, and our 30th Waders species for the day.
Last but not least with all of us sleep deprived and severely dehydrated, we finished off at the abandoned building where just before dusk, no less then 6 Indian Nightjars started calling, with two showing nicely in the torchlight. The first of probably twenty-one Fried Rice with something for dinner was had on the sandy beach nearby, and we checked into the Squid Hotel, that held more Crickets and Spiders then anything else.
Highlights for the day are as follows, with the lifers having a (L) next to the species name. Next few days I’ll be out of any signal so don’t expect much until the 27th.
Little Cormorant - 40
Intermediate Egret - 1
Chinese Egret (L) - 2
Pacific Reef Egret - 1
Striated Heron - 4
Brahminy Kite - 5
Kentish Plover - 5
Malaysian Plover - 2
White-faced Plover - 2
Lesser Sand Plover - 2500
Greater Sand Plover - 1500
Spotted Redshank - 30
Marsh Sandpiper - 50
Terek Sandpiper - 4
Great Knot - 8
Red-necked Stint - 300
Long-toed Stint - 3
Spoon-billed Sandpiper - 2
Broad-billed Sandpiper - 20
Greater Crested Tern - 5
Indian Nightjar - 2 + 4h
Collared Kingfisher - 6
Oriental Reed Warbler - 1
Indochinese Bushlark - 3
Plain-backed Sparrow - 3
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| Red-necked Stint at Laem Pak Bia |
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| Temminck's Stint (left) & Long-toed Stint (right) at Laem Pak Bia |
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| Marsh Sandpiper at Laem Pak Bia |
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| Intermediate Egret at Pak Thale |
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| Mudskippers at Laem Pak Bia |
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| Spoon-billed Sandpiper at Pak Thale |
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| Chinese Egret at Laem Pak Bia |
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| 'White-faced Plover' at Laem Pak Bia |
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| Malaysian Plover at Laem Pak Bia |
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| Part of the Pak Thale saltpan complex |
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| Our trusty vehicle that ended up doing 2579 miles for our trip. |
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| All Laem Pak Bia area |
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A cheeky selfie with Mr Daeng who as usual found us the
birds we wanted to see.
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