Rosy Pastor

There was no sign of the European Starling Saturday morning, but bizarrely in the same area an immature Rose-coloured Starling was present with the same flock of Pied Mynas, the second new Starling for the patch in a week! Though slightly more common than European Starling, it is still a scarce/rare winter visitor to Thailand, with the only other one I have seen being at the rubbish dump at Leam Pak Bia in 2014.

Pied Myna by Fred Rowe

A smart male Cotton Pygmy Goose was also noted, this used to be much more frequent up to a few years ago, but has become scarce since the conversion of several fish ponds to rice paddies. The Eastern Buzzard was still present as were up to 287 Grey-headed Lapwing. A single Baillion's Crake was seen well but briefly, along 5 Ruddy-breasted Crake and a Watercock. 

The number of waders around the site were fewer, but did include a Greater Painted Snipe and 8 Pin-tailed Snipe.  A wander through some dry paddies and scrub produced at least 3 Bluethroats and 4 Thick-billed Warbler.  

A full list of species seen can be found on EBird

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S33051165

European Starling

The European Starling was still present this morning, though the numbers of Grey-headed Lapwings were a little lower, there was still at least 279 present, possibly more but the flock was mobile repeatedly being flushed by workers.

Good numbers of other waders again present including several species not recorded a couple of days ago, with 12 Pacific Golden Plover, 89 Little Ringed Plover, 6 Greater Painted Snipe, 5 Temminck's Stint, 8 Common Sandpiper, 3 Pin-tailed Snipe, 16 Spotted Redshank, 2 Common Greenshank, 13 Marsh Sandpiper and 155 Wood Sandpipers.

Eastern Marsh Harrier by Micheal Rooney

A female Eastern Marsh Harrier was present on and off throughout the morning and a very vocal Eurasian Wryneck showed exceptionally well. A mixed flock of Baya, Asian Golden and Streaked Weaver fed in a patch of tall grass, along with at least 10 Red Avdavat.

A full list can be found on Ebird: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S33037081

Patch Ticks

The local patch at Suphanburi, was full of birds yesterday and I managed to record a total of 93 species which included three, possibly four new birds for the site.

Perhaps the biggest surprise among these was a Common Starling though, a familiar bird back home, in Thailand it is a scarce if not rare winter visitor and a species I have seen once before in Northern Thailand at Chiang Sean. The other new species included an Eastern Buzzard, Large Hawk Cuckoo and possibly Lesser Coucal, but I am not sure if I have seen this species previously here, I will have to check back through my notebooks.

Grey-headed Lapwing by Micheal Rooney

Up until a few weeks ago water levels on the site had been very high, but as levels have began to fall over the past couple of weeks, large numbers of waders have moved onto the site, most impressive among these was an exceptional count of at least 351 Grey-headed Lapwing which was over three times higher than the previous best count. Other waders included 350 Black-winged Stilt, 164 Little Ringed Plover, 4 Temminck's Stint, 3 Common Sandpiper, 4 Common Greenshank, 25 Spotted Redshank and 230 Wood Sandpipers.

Other waterbirds included 16 Yellow and 2 Cinnamon Bittern, 2 Purple Heron, 3 Ruddy-breasted Crake and a single Watercock. I made an effort to count as many over the overwintering warblers as possible resulting in some impressive totals which included 18 Dusky Warbler, 41 Black-browed Warbler, 70 Oriental Reed Warbler, 9 Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler and 4 Lanceolated Warbler.

Other species noted included: Pheasant-tailed and Bronze-winged Jacana, Whiskered Tern, Eurasian Wryneck, Ashy Drongo, Red-rumped Swallow, Siberian Rubythroat, Red-throated Pipit, Baya, Golden and Streaked Weaver.

A full species list can be found on Ebird http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S33010372