Friday Nov 1st

On Friday I was joined by a couple of birders from Sweeden, we spent the morning around the temple and mid afternoon till dusk at the rice paddies, as it was their first time birding in Thailand and Asia virtually everything we saw was new for them, and despite the temple being much quieter than the previous day we eventually saw around 80 species.

Best birds at the temple were a flock of 16 Pin-tailed Green Pigeon, a perched Crested Goshawk  which allowed extended scope views, a pair of Orange-breasted Trogon, excellent views of Banded Bay Cuckoo, Bay Woodpecker and 2 Sultan Tit. Also present were Blue-throated Barbet, 3 Mountain Imperial Pigeon, 2 White-throated Fantail, Violet Cuckoo, 2 Grey-crowned Warbler and a dozen Brown-checked Fulvetta.

Brown-tailed Rat Snake

Whilst watching Crested Treeswifts and Brown-backed Needletails from the restaurant back at Malee's, a 2.5 meter Brown-tailed Rat Snake jumped out of a nearby tamarind tree and nearly into the restaurant causing quite a stir!

Wire-tailed Swallows
Chiang Dao by Fred Rowe

Despite the rice paddies being completely covered with waist heigh rice, we did manage to see most of the local specialties including 11 Grey-headed Lapwing and 6 Wire-tailed Swallow. As we walked along a track two Barred Buttonquail flushed in front of us and workers flushed several Pin-tailed Snipe and single Green and Common Sandpiper. Raptors included Rufous-winged Buzzard, Grey-eyed Buzzard and as we headed back to the car two Eastern Marsh Harrier. Towards dusk lots of birds were noted heading to roost including 29 Chestnut-headed Bee-eaters, 15 Little Green Bee-eater and 25 Chestnut-tailed Starling. Other species recorded included a Wryneck, Linneated Barbet, 5 Red-collared Dove, Long-tailed Shrike, Sand Martin, 3 Siberian Rubythroats heard, 4 Pied Bushchats, 8 Eastern Stonechat, 6 Black-collared Starling, 3 Dusky Warbler, 5 Richard's, 2 Paddyfield and 30 Red-throated Pipit.
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