Beung Bhoraphet

All day Saturday and Sunday morning were spent birding at Beung Bhoraphet Lake near Nakhon Sawan, our initial plan was to do a boat ride on the Saturday morning and then bird around the waterbird park which is usually excellent. Arriving to catch the boat at Nok Nam Park (waterbird park) we arrived to find the site looking more like a building site rather than a nature reserve, with major dredging taking place and the spoil being dumped on the bunds around the nature trail, for flood prevention, another great bit of pointless habitat destruction as they could never store the amount of water which would have prevented the 2012 floods.

Ruddy Shelduck

Instead we did two three hour boat trips on the Saturday and visited the northern shore on the Sunday morning. Birding was relaxed with many 1000's of water birds present, both Fred and Marion thoroughly enjoying the day and Fred getting some excellent photos. There were a few ducks amongst the usual Lesser Whistling Ducks, including three very obliging Ruddy Shelduck, as well as at least 1500 Garganey, 6 Northern Shoveler, 5 Ferruginous Duck, 5 Eurasian  Teal, 2 Tufted Duck and 2 Pintail. Noted amongst the many thousands were 40 Glossy Ibis, 35 Oriental Darter, 30 Purple Heron and a single Black-headed Ibis. Three White-browed Crakes showed well as the ran across the water lilies, along with hundreds of Pheasant-tailed Jacana, Purple Gallinule and smaller numbers of Bronze-winged Jacana, Moorhen and Coot. At least 50 Oriental Pratincole were feeding over the lake and surprisingly two Small Pratincole also flew over.

Purple Gallinule

Additional species present included 6 Yellow Bittern, Cinnamon Bittern, Watercock, 3 Eastern Marsh Harrier, 3 Black Kite, 150 Whiskered Tern, Brown-headed Gull, 4 Pied Kingfisher, Freckled-breasted Woodpecker, Striated Grassbirds, Oriental and Black-browed Reed Warbler, 70 White-shouldered Starling and 2 Chestnut Munia.