Petchaburi Province

Myself, Fred and Marian Rowe from the UK, David Bennet from Australia and our driver Uthai left Bangkok shortly after dawn, we headed straight for the eagle watchpoint at Nong Pla Lai, it was very quiet and after around one and half hours all we had seen was one very distant probable Greater Spotted Eagle, 20 Black Kite, 6 Bhraminy Kite, half a dozen Red-throated Pipits, a Purple Heron and a few standard open country birds.

Pacific Golden Plover
Laem Pak Bia

After checking into our hotel at Petchaburi and a leisurely lunch we head to the coast and spent a couple of hours birding around the research project at Laem Pak Bia. As usual there was plenty of birds and photo opportunities, waders present including four Ruff, 80 Black-winged Stilt,10 Spotted Redshank, 8 Wood Sandpiper, 6 Common Sandpiper and a Marsh Sandpiper. Around 50 Whiskered Terns fed over the pools, along with 2 Little and 2 Caspian Terns. A walk through the mangroves produce relatively little, apart from several singing Golden-bellied Gerygone and at the end of the boardwalk five Collared Kingfisher. Good numbers of waders flew out to feed on the mudflats as the tide receded with 500 Great Knot, 30 Common Redshank and smaller numbers of Whimbrel, Greater Sandplover, Bar-tailed Godwit and Greenshank.

Ruff and Black-winged Stilt
Laem Pak Bia

For the final hour and half of the day we headed towards Pak Thale, where within 20 minutes we had found and enjoyed excellent views of a Spoon-billed Sandpiper. Other waders included good numbers of Red-necked and Long-toed Stints and a few Curlew and Broad-billed Sandpiper.  

Fred and Uthai
Trying to Photograph Spoon-billed Sand