A little late up, I could not face a walk around the patch in the baking heat, so decided to have a drive around locally, to see what I could find. I concentrated along the Pa Mok/Suphaburi Road, apart from a few villages, long stretches either side of the road are dominated by huge open areas of rice paddies, marshes and scrub. Huge numbers of Open-billed Storks were present, with at least 5500 estimated, some of which were carrying nesting material. Several hundred egrets were also noted during the morning including many breeding plumage Eastern Cattle Egrets. Raptors seen included at least nine Black-shouldered Kites, six Black Kites, four Eastern Marsh Harriers, single Shikra, Black Baza, Kestrel and Bhraminy Kite.
Fish ponds along the way held at least 2000 Lesser Whistling Ducks, 20 Little Grebes, nine Purple Gallinules, several Pheasant and Bronze-winged Jacanas and a smart Yellow-eyed Babbler.
Black-winged Stils were the commonest waders with at least 500 in three flocks, additional waders included 150 Oriental Pratincoles, 13 Grey-headed Lapwings, small numbers of Wood and Marsh Sandpiper and Little Ringed Plovers. Also seen during the morning were two Pied Kingfishers, several Lesser Coucal, 30 Blue-tailed Bee-eaters and good numbers of common open country birds.
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