12th-13th March 2017
Pak Thale / Laem Pak Bia
Picked up at 5am by our guide, Nick Upton, we departed Bangkok in the dark arriving approx. 2 hours later at the salt pans at Pak Thale on the west coast. Within a few minutes of arriving we were watching 4 Spoon-billed Sandpipers feeding at close range. This area is the premier birdwatching site for shorebirds in Thailand with a large area of salt pans, mudflats, mangrove remnants and a sand spit. The rest of the morning was spent at the salt pans where staggering number of waders were to be found. Nick quickly found target species including 64 Nordmann’s Greenshank,12 Asian Dowitcher and 2 Far Eastern Curlew which we were able to identify amongst a large flock of Eurasian Curlew when they were flushed and flew across the salt pans in front of us. Other species seen included 6 Red-necked Phalarope, Marsh Sandpiper, Terek Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpiper, Broad-billed Sandpiper, Common Redshank, Spotted Redshank, Lesser Sand Plover, Kentish Plover, Red-necked Stint, Long-toed Stint, Common Greenshank, Pacific Golden Plover and many egrets and terns.
In the afternoon we took a boat out to the Laem Pak Bia sand spit. A cooling breeze welcomed us to the spit where Malaysian, Greater and Lesser Sand Plover were seen with Sanderling frequenting the water’s edge and a huge number of terns including Crested, a single Caspian and White-naped Tern loafing on the spit. Another target bird, Chinese Egret was spotted along with a flock of Great Knot.
Nick explained to us that the salt pans had been put up for sale so the future of this fantastic habitat is at risk, something we found repeated in many of the locations we visited.
We finished our first day at Laem Pak rubbish pit, which was far from rubbish for birds! A quartet of starlings, Brahminy, Rosy, Chestnut-tailed and White-shouldered were seen with Green Bee-eaters flying overhead.
These images are best viewed by clicking on them to enlarge.
 |
| A taster of the area. Lots of waders everywhere!! Here mostly Lesser Sand Plovers. |
 |
| Some very smart Lesser Sand Plovers and a Curlew Sandpiper. |
 |
| An interesting wader ID challenge! Includes Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Red-necked Stint, Curlew Sandpiper and Lesser Sand Plover. |
 |
| Spoon-billed Sandpipers - One of the four seen was wearing a white leg flag. It was ringed at ?????????? |
 |
| Spoon-billed Sandpipers - The main target bird of the trip |
 |
| Spoon-billed Sandpipers |
 |
Mainly Eurasian Curlew with one or two Far Eastern Curlew, plus some smaller waders.
This was the only view we had of the target bird! |
 |
| Far Eastern Curlew and Eurasian Curlews. Not the overall brown, rather than grey tone to the Far Eastern. Also the dark rump and more heavily streaked underparts. |
 |
| Long-toed Stint (Lesser Sand Plover in background) - We only saw a few of this species. |
 |
| Red-necked Stint - Very common. |
 |
| Red-necked Phalaropes - Seen in the same pool as the Spoonies! |
 |
| Broad-billed Sandpiper - Only a couple of sightings during the wader birding days. |
 |
| Over 64 Nordman's Greenshank were very distant with a lot of heat haze. But pleased to see another of our target species. |
 |
| Asian Dowichers - Very distant birds. Approximately 12 were present. Another target bird ticked off! |
 |
| Marsh Sandpipers - Feeding in a tight flock. |
 |
| Marsh Sandpiper |
 |
| Curlew Sandpiper - Good numbers seen. |
 |
| Pacific Golden Plover - Several seen but usually fairly distant. |
 |
| Spotted Redshank - A common species. |
 |
| Spotted Redshank |
 |
| Sanderling - Only seen on two birding days. |
 |
| Black-winged Stilt - Amazing legs! |
 |
| Black-winged Stilt - A very common species |
 |
| Red-wattled Lapwing - Our daily bird. Very common. |
 |
| Oriental Pratincole - Good numbers seen in a few locations. |
 |
| Lesser Sand Plover - Large numbers were present. |
 |
| Greater Sand Plover |
 |
| Kentish Plover |
 |
| Red-necked Stint |
 |
| Red-necked Stint |
 |
| Great White Egrets, Little Egrets and an Intermediate Egret in a deeper pool near the salt pans. |
 |
| Chinese Pond Heron - A common species, seen daily. |
 |
| Painted Storks - Good numbers seen over several days. |
 |
| Little Cormorant |
A short distance away from the salt pans we found a few non-wading birds.
 |
| This Wryneck was a surprise. |
 |
| Brahminy Starling - A scarce bird in Thailand, this bird was well away from it's normal range and close to a rubbish tip. |
 |
| Rosy Starling - In the same tree as the Brahminy Starling above. |
 |
Rosy Starling and Asian Pied Starling sharing a bath! Also near the rubbish tip.
 |
| Common Iora |
|
 |
| Yellow-vented Bulbul |
 |
| Chestnut-tailed Starling |
12th March - This section is of birds seen on a boat trip out to an island at Laem Phak Bia. The island is just separated from the coast and is accessed by boat along a mangrove lined river.
 |
| Impressive numbers of Terns on the beach. |
 |
| Black-naped Tern - Somewhat unexpected but a welcome sight! |
 |
| Common Terns and Brown-headed Gulls with a single Caspian and Greater Crested Terns |
 |
| Great Knot on the tide line with Common and Little Terns |
 |
Malaysian Plover and Little Tern. The former was one of the target birds on the island.
Unfortunately we could not find any White-faced Plovers |
 |
| Brown-headed Gulls with a single Caspian Tern |
No comments:
Post a Comment