Ian Dugdale, on a birding trip with Dave Sergeant and Games, found Black Headed Ibis at Thai Muang Golf Course on the 1st of February. This is a bird which has eluded me for a few years and I was hoping to finally get myself an honest look at the bird so I decided to make a trip to the beach with my kids the next day.

I arrived at the marsh shortly after 5 PM and after dropping off the kids at the beach, made my way on foot through the marsh. Golden Plover were abundant as were Paddyfeild Pipit. I managed to flush a single White fronted Plover and got good looks at it as it posed only a few meters from me.

Other birds encountered included Purple Swamphen, Black shouldered Kite, Grey headed Lapwing, Stonechat, Grey Wagtail, Watercock, Pin tailed Snipe, Common Kingfisher, Black Drongo, Brahminy Kite, Chinese Pond Heron and Red wattled Lapwing.

I wasn’t sure what I was looking for as far as size, but after scanning the fields and finding nothing but Intermediate and Little Egrets, I headed back to the car to try an adjacent road. By then it was 6 and with no sign of the bird, I was beginning to wonder if the bird would again elude me.

On the next road I found Japanese Sparrowhawk, Yellow vented Bulbul, Eurasian Koel, Greater Coucal, Great Egret and Germaine’s Swiftlet. Still no ibis.

Walking into the field once more I saw in the distance what looked like a bird with a very dirty bill. As I got closer I realized it was a Black headed Ibis! It was still a good 500 yards or so off so I stomped off through the fields go get closer. I had to keep my eyes glued to the floor as I didn’t want to step on a snake or encounter another scorpion like I’d seen a few minutes earlier. When I stopped to catch my breath, I glanced up so see another Black headed Ibis had landed scarcely 20 feet from me! We both stared at each other for the next five minutes as I just stood there, thrilled with the fact that I was finally looking at the bird which had eluded me for the last five years!

After a while I turned and made my way back to the car and the ibis, sensing I meant it no harm, went back to feeding in the mud. After getting in the car I still kept looking at it for a while until it started getting dark and I went off to pick up the kids at the beach.

Calling Ian to thank him for the tip, I found out he also had scored a lifer with a single Lesser Adjutant in flight on Koh Pratong.

At the beach we encountered four Malaysian Plover on a sandbar in the middle of the river and two River Lapwings on the beach.

Before leaving I wanted to let Rosie see the Ibis one time but it was hard to find in the waning light. Instead we came across five Large tailed Nightjar and a Barn Owl.

A total of 40 species were seen in two hours, and the Black headed Ibis is finally in the bag!

Special Thanks to Ian Dugdale for his tips on finding the bird.

Ian Dugdale reported seeing a large flock of 17 Rosy Starling at the Thai Muang Golf Course in the last days of December 2009. I was in Nakorn Sawan at the time and felt bad that I was unable to get this lifer, as I myself was having a tough birding trip, having missed out on seven potential lifers.

On Children’s Day, my wife and I had contemplated visiting the air force base in Surat Thani so my kids could see some airplanes. Due to a late morning start and a few grumpy kids, we decided to head out a little later and make for the navy base in Thap Lamru which was closer and still enabled my eldest son to see a helicopter in action as well as explore some naval vessels. By the early afternoon the sun was bearing down and my kids wanted to go swimming. I took this as a great opportunity to take the kids to a forest waterfall and get in some birding time as well.

Khao Lampi Waterfall was crowded and noisy and the park staff wanted to charge unreasonable prices for the holidays so we opted to go to the beach.

Thai Muang was the closest beach available and when I was reminded of the starlings at the golf course we decided to try it out.

After settling the kids and my wife on the deserted beach, I started my search for the starlings near the casuarinas near the former carpark. The area was rich in bird life an in little time I had myself 34 species. A tree near the large lake had a group of 30 Orange breasted Pigeons, making this site perhaps the best place to find this rather uncommon specimen. A tree in the far distance had a group of some 20 White shouldered Starlings and three Purple backed Starling, but aside from that, the area was void of any of the rare migrants we were looking for.

Around the old golf track I connected with Hoopoe, Pacific Golden Plover, Blue tailed and Chestnut capped Bee Eater, Common Snipe, Pink necked Pigeon, Little, Intermediate and Great Egret and Lesser Coucal. White throated, Common, Collared and Black capped Kingfisher were all seen in a little creek near the center of the course, making it a good day for kingfishers.

After an hour of birding I had 42 species but still no sign of the starling. It is not uncommon to discover a species of starling in an area only to find they have moved on a few days later and I was beginning to think perhaps I was not going to see anything new on this trip. The area is very large and it would only take a miracle of God to find these little birds in time before the sun set.

I decided to go back to the old spot where I had sighted the first group of starlings to see if they had returned. At the casuarinas I spotted them again but approach was difficult and I ended up using the car as a blind as the birds were very skittish.

Initially I had noticed only 15 or so birds foraging in the tree but closer observation revealed a very large number of roosting birds hidden among the droopy boughs of the casuarinas. While the majority of the birds were full grown White shouldered Starling (30 or so birds), I did find around 10 Chestnut Cheeked Starling and 10 Purple backed Starling. I had my best views yet of the Chestnut cheeked Starling, a beautiful bird which was only discovered to winter here a few years ago by Stijin De Win on one of his birding trips to the area.

Even after seeing those birds I still felt disheartened that I was unable to get a few lifers when suddenly a pair of reddish-colored starlings flew up from the ground, scared off by an egret in low flight. I hardly believed by eyes when I realized they were Brahminy Starling! With this I got out of the car to get a closer look, almost trampling a Barred Buttonquail in the process. The flock of birds, being skittish as ever, took to a looping flight around the tree and it was then I was able to count around 50-60 mixed starlings in the group. After they had landed I called Ian to tell him the good news and ask him the whereabouts of the Rosy Starling.

Ian told me many of the Rosy Starling he’d seen were juvenile, so I began scanning through the many White shouldered Starling and finally found a single juvenile Rosy sitting very still and quietly in a branch. The reason for its inactive behavior was discovered minutes later when a group of mature Chestnut Cheeked Starlings came by and began persecuting it until it was finally chased off of the tree.

The birds were feeding on something on the branches of the tree, what I could not see, but they were systematically making their way through the branches as they picked through the bark, picking up what could have been insects or grubs.

Contented and shaking with excitement, I hopped back into the car and barely made it a few feet down the road when I looked up in a nearby tree to see the Brahminy Starling had taken up roost only 10 feet from the car! I quickly grabbed my camera but the second I rolled down the car window for a shot, the birds took to the air.

By then it was 6 PM and getting late. Satisfied, and brimming with joy, I picked up my kids from the beach and drove back to Phuket and celebrate my first two lifers of the year with a dinner at Sizzlers!

Altogether there were 47 species in one hour and two lifers. -God is good!

It took a while but I finally got started!

Peter Ericsson has been encouraging me to get started on bird photography, a hobby which is both expensive and time consuming. For a guy like him, who has grown children, life can afford to smile on his attempts to create time for birding, but for me, a guy with three kids under the age of six, birding is not something which comes at regular intervals. -Not to mention, bird photography also requires decent if not specialized equipment, all of which costs good money. I had to decline for a number of years, but recently things have started to change. First, I was able to save up a small sum of money and second I landed a good deal with a medium range telephoto lens which ended up being a good deal after some minor tweaking with the autofocus.

Doubtless, most professionals or even serious amateur bird photographers will frown at my choice of a Sigma 100-300 F4 paired with a Canon 40D, as the range is a little short and the lens lacks stabilization, not to mention it’s a zoom lens, notorious for being “soft” on the wide end.

First off, I’m not planning to go pro right now, so I think starting off with what I have is a good deal.

-And like all things in life, the results are what matter the most.

So, I’d like you to decide what you think about these photos, taken from Lopburi and Nakorn Sawan on my New Years trip last year (2009). Feel free to post your comments and tips in the comments box below!

Doubtless it will take me a long time to catalogue the number of species that Peter has in his website, but as they say, “The journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step.”

-That was a darn good fortune cookie!

A birding trip to three key birding sites in Phang Nga on the 11th netted over 100 species, making it an exceptionally great birding day record-wise. Any time a person reaches the 100-species plataeu in a single day, you can bet they saw some noteworthy species.

On the 11th Steve Potter, a visiting birder from Australia and I, visited Sri Phang Nga National Park, Laem Pakarang and Thai Muang Golf Course. Doubtless if we had more time we would have tried other places but there are only so many hours in a single day. We did get a fair number of specialties such as Nordmanns Greenshank, Chinese Egret, Grey Tailed Tattler, Lesser Fish Eagle. Orange breasted Green Pigeon, Golden Crested Myna and Long billed Spiderhunter.

Enclosed is the trip report, available as a PDF document.

With the raptor migration heading towards Phuket, I’ve decided to open a page dedicated to reporting the latest news on what’s coming through. –If you have anything to contribute, please feel free to send them in and we’ll post it, along with your name and the location where the sighting took place.

Note: Unless the report is followed by a name, all sightings were recorded by Ike Suriwong.

- 2/11: A large group of raptors moved through in a southwesterly direction, with over 80+ individuals counted. Of the birds seen, those identified included Black Baza (28), Japanese Sparrowhawk (22), Grey faced Buzzard (12), Oriental Honey Buzzard (7) and Booted Eagle (3). A possible juvenile Imperial Eagle was also spotted trailing the group. Many birds were too high to be identified with a normal 8×40 pair of bins, so have patience with me.
Thrown in for good measure was a single White bellied Sea Eagle and six Brahminy Kite. All sightings were recorded from Muang Chao Fah.
- 3/11: Black Baza (4) and Grey Faced Buzzard (2) were seen catching an updraft around 10 AM near Bang Waad Dam.
- 4/11: A single Black Baza flew over Muang Chao Fah around 8 AM. Another one was seen in the evening over Central Festival around 5 PM.
- 7/11: An Oriental Honey Buzzard was seen over Muang Chao Fah around 6 PM. Three Japanese Sparrowhawk were seen heading northeast a few minutes later.
- 8/11: Eight Grey Faced Buzzards were seen over Laem Gaa, Rawai, around 5 PM, and later a mixed flock of 14 Black Baza, 12 Japanese Sparrowhawk and a few larger unidentified raptors (Oriental Honey Buzzard perhaps?) were seen gathering over Rawai beach. Thrown in for good measure were two White bellied Sea Eagle, three Brahminy Kite and a single Eurasian Kestrel.
- 10/11: Five Black Baza and two Chinese Sparrowhawk were spotted near Chalong in the evening.
- 11/11: Seven Oriental Honey Buzzards were seen around 3 PM over the Muang Chao Fah area, not in a group but scattered throughout the area.
- 13/11: The first positive ID of a Common Buzzard for the winter was recorded near Sapam at 4 PM.
- 15/11: Four Black Baza were seen in flight over Laem Panwa near the deep sea port in the late afternoon.
- 16/11: A Crested Goshawk stirred up a flock of 400+ Rock Dove which took to the skies and eventually chased off the would-be predator, along with three Brahminy Kite and a single Japanese Sparrowhawk.