Patch Ticks

The local patch at Suphanburi, was full of birds yesterday and I managed to record a total of 93 species which included three, possibly four new birds for the site.

Perhaps the biggest surprise among these was a Common Starling though, a familiar bird back home, in Thailand it is a scarce if not rare winter visitor and a species I have seen once before in Northern Thailand at Chiang Sean. The other new species included an Eastern Buzzard, Large Hawk Cuckoo and possibly Lesser Coucal, but I am not sure if I have seen this species previously here, I will have to check back through my notebooks.

Grey-headed Lapwing by Micheal Rooney

Up until a few weeks ago water levels on the site had been very high, but as levels have began to fall over the past couple of weeks, large numbers of waders have moved onto the site, most impressive among these was an exceptional count of at least 351 Grey-headed Lapwing which was over three times higher than the previous best count. Other waders included 350 Black-winged Stilt, 164 Little Ringed Plover, 4 Temminck's Stint, 3 Common Sandpiper, 4 Common Greenshank, 25 Spotted Redshank and 230 Wood Sandpipers.

Other waterbirds included 16 Yellow and 2 Cinnamon Bittern, 2 Purple Heron, 3 Ruddy-breasted Crake and a single Watercock. I made an effort to count as many over the overwintering warblers as possible resulting in some impressive totals which included 18 Dusky Warbler, 41 Black-browed Warbler, 70 Oriental Reed Warbler, 9 Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler and 4 Lanceolated Warbler.

Other species noted included: Pheasant-tailed and Bronze-winged Jacana, Whiskered Tern, Eurasian Wryneck, Ashy Drongo, Red-rumped Swallow, Siberian Rubythroat, Red-throated Pipit, Baya, Golden and Streaked Weaver.

A full species list can be found on Ebird http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S33010372