Common Shelduck

Common Shelduck

8th-11th January was spent birding along the coast between Pak Thale and Leam Pak Bia with Fred and Marian Rowe, as usual plenty of waders in the area, but the rarest birds we saw were two Common Shelduck and Pak Thale, a Thai rarity but a very common species for us back home.

Long-toed Stint by Fred Rowe

High water levels made finding Spoon-billed Sandpiper tricky and eventually after much effort we found two, including a leg flagged bird. We did see see 27 Red-necked Phalarope and one a small pool near the sea we recorded 18 species of waders including large numbers of Terek Sandpiper, Leser Sandplover and a few Great Knot. During a morning's birding at saltpans near Leam Pak Bia we recorded at least 16 very distant Nordmann's Greenshank, 24 Pied Avocet and a Chinese Egret, the first time I have seen this species away from the nearby sandspit.

Mixed Waders Pak Thale

We took the obligatory boat trip out on to the sandpit at Leam Pak Bia with Mr Deang, one of the first birds we saw just a few meters from his house was a Chinese Egret, followed a short while later by a second and a third on the sand spit. It did not take long once at the sand spit to find several Malaysian Plover and two White-faced Plover. Birds in the tern/gull roost here included a single Pallas's Gull, 2 Hueglin's Gull, 70 Greater Crested Tern and good numbers of Little and White-winged Black Tern. On the boat trip back, we were surprised to see a Slaty-breasted Rail swimming near the boat.

White-faced Plover

The research project at Leam Pak Bia was fairly quiet, but we did see at least 4 Ruff and several Ruddy-breasted Crake and Slaty-breasted Rail and 330 White-shouldered Starling came in to roost.

Eastern Marsh Harrier

A visit to an area of rice fields inland from Pak Thale added a number of additional species to list, with the best being a stunning male Pied Harrier which gave excellent views for 15 minutes as it hunted over fields just in front of us. Also in the same area were up to 4 Eastern Marsh Harrier, 1-2 Greater Spotted Eagle, Watercock, Yellow Bittern and  very many Zitting Cisticola.