A trip to Koh Yao Noi for legal paperwork was a good time to catch up on birding in this rather quiet area of Thailand.
I missed the boat by two minutes and had to wait another hour for the next one to leave so I spent the time birding in the mangroves. A Brown winged Kingfisher was heard but not seen. (Bang Rong is one of the few places in Phuket to find this mangrove kingfisher.) A few large waders resembling Great Knot flew upstream, chased off by a pair of dogs scavenging amongst the mudflats in the low tide. Other birds in the area included Brahminy Kite, Little and Intermediate Egret, Little Heron and Common Sandpiper.
A slow cruise down the river out to the open sea produced a pair of Eurasian Curlew, five Black winged Stilts, a flock of Lesser Sand Plovers, Great Egrets and a larger-than-normal Common Kingfisher. Prize of the day was a sighting of this year’s first Chinese Egret in full breeding plumage, eating a eel on the riverbank.
The open seas were calm but not a single bird in sight, perhaps due to the grey skies which threatened to pour rain down at any given moment.
On the island I rushed to the district office to get my paperwork complete as it is really unpredictable as to when they will decide to close for lunch (or how long they’ll be on lunch break for!) so once that was complete I was able to breathe normally again. Behind the district office is a municipal trash landfill which attracts lots of wildlife, notably giant Water Monitors well over five feet in length. Only one was present today, but the presence of 50 or so Crab-eating Macaques had me wary and on my toes. Birding was mediocre although the sighting of a single House Crow amongst the 80+ Large billed cousins was an interesting development, proving that these aggressive birds may be on a course of expansion. Birds seen here included many Common Myna, Little Spiderhunter, Spotted Dove, Barn and Pacific Swallow, Zebra Dove, Yellow vented and Streak eared Bulbul, Yellow and Grey Wagtails and a single Indian Roller. No White vented Mynas were around … perhaps they have not yet made it to Koh Yao Noi?
A walk back to the pier produced Cinnamon Bittern, Common Snipe, White throated and Common Kingfisher, White breasted Waterhen and Little Egret. A Little Heron, blown in by incoming storm, parked itself only a few feet from where we sat in order to escape the rain.
The boat ride back was quiet except for a lone Short Tailed Shearwater seen gliding low over the water. Its behaviour was very different from that of terns and gulls and it breezed through the waves and rain with little effort and nary a wingbeat.
Back at the pier and off to Laguna where I was able to connect with the usual Cotton Pigmy Goose, Lesser Whistling Duck, Common Moorhen, Little Grebe, Purple Swamphen and Oriental Pratincole.
A short stopover to visit the Openbill colony exposed a loophole being exploited. Around four or five large trucks loaded with soil were filling in a piece of prime wetland which is used by the Openbills. I got out with a camera and binoculars and the minute the drivers saw me, they rushed in to explain the situation. They told me they were told (by their superiors at a construction site nearby) to dump the excess soil here. No construction was being done here (thank God) but part of the area was due to be covered by dirt over three feet deep. Again they reiterated it was not “their fault.” –What did I look like, the Land Official from the local municipal office?
In a way, this is good news and bad news. While it’s good they are not planning on constructing anything in a prime piece of wetland, it is unnerving to see foremen taking advantage of the “no construction on wetlands” rule by using the excuse that they only plan to dispose of their excess dirt. Three trucks aren’t bad but do that for three months and you won’t have much wetland left to speak of. If it keeps going on, the area will cease to be a wetland as once it has been covered, someone will then be able to claim the land and use it for commercial purposes. -A sneaky way to gain more income.
On the drive back into town I saw a Purple Heron in flight and decided to see where it was heading. A turn down a narrow road took me into a land I never knew existed, a part of Phuket still lush with fields and ponds. In a field with grazing cattle I found a few Common Snipe, Richards and Paddyfield Pipit, White throated Kingfisher, Gray Headed Lapwing, Greater Coucal, Cattle Egret, and four Brown Shrike.
A single Black Kite was seen in flight over Premium Outlet store on the bypass road on the way back into town to cap and eventful and exhausting day.
