Lampang

We have had quite a bit of family stuff to catch up with over the last couple of days and the next few, despite this I have managed to snatch a few hours out birding.This afternoon I visited Hang Chat Arboretum at Lampang in Northern Thailand, despite some nice habitat the only birds of note were two Rufous-winged Buzzard, 3 Asian Brown Flycatcher and 3 Taiga Flycatcher.

Later I  managed to bribe the grandson into showing me some tracks into some decent forest, scrub and around several lakes behind the market at Tung Kwian just north of Lampang, which I had picked out from google earth. Despite it being the afternoon a decent selection of species were seen including Barred Buttonquail, Black-eared Kite, 2 Bhraminy Kite, Black Baza, Burmese Shrike, 3 Brown Shrike, Rufous Treepie, 6 Indochinese Bushlark, 2 Richard's Pipit and 3 Eastern Stonechat.

I was surprised to see around 30 swiftlets low over Lampang city center, which looked like Pale-rumped/Germain's Swiftlet, these had no doubt been introduced as part of a nest farming operation.

During the six hour drive to Lampang yesterday, at least 10 Black-eared Kite were noted presumably all in the process of heading south, along with at 16 Painted Stork near Kampeang Phet.