Oriental Cuckoo

For the first time in a week I hit the local patch on Sunday morning, one of the first birds I saw when turning down the track was a Chestnut-winged Cuckoo which I guess was different from recent birds. Fewer Black-naped Orioles were present with just two noted. A dozen Whiskered Terns fed over the fish ponds including several nearly in full breeding plumage. In a soon to be cleared area of scrub, two migrant Oriental Cuckoo's were present along with a Two-barred Greenish Warbler, four Yellow-vented Bulbuls and a Siberian Rubythroat.

There were more waders than previously due a fresh release of water onto to several paddies, with a single Spotted Redshank, 125 Marsh Sandpipers, three Green Sandpipers, 30 Wood Sandpiper, 20 Little-ringed Plover and 150 Black-winged Stilts. Migrant warblers seemed to be much reduced in number with low totals of Dusky, Black-browed Reed and Pallas's Grasshopper Warblers. Also present were six Yellow and three Cinnamon Bittern, a Baillon's Crake, Bluethroat and 30 Blue-tailed Bee-eaters. In scrub and trees outside the house a flock of nine Ashy Minivet was a nice surprise.