Saturday, January 9, 2010

Nam Kham Nature Reserve 2010/01/02

The next morning we woke up at 5am before sunrise and walked up to the blind next to the large pond waiting for ducks but none were seen. Dr. Mong said that water level might have been too low for ducks to stay and feed in the pond. Dawn at Nam Kham was beautiful with a small group of Barn Swallows sunbathing on a dead tree. A Common Kingfisher, Common Moorhen and 2 shy White-breasted Waterhen (Amaurornis phoenicurus) were also seen at the pond. When the sun has risen high enough, a flock of Little and Intermediate Egrets came feeding all over the pond. I spent time taking photos of some Little Egrets that came walking near the blind.
The setting moon at dawn

A nice and warm morning.

A White-breasted Waterhen

Barn Swallows warming themselves up with morning light

A non-breeding Great Egret

A non-breeding Little Egret with an unfortunate shrimp

Love the reflection of the bird

That morning Phil and Andy caught a Chestnut-crowned Bush Warbler again and I was so happy to be able to see it. I went into the hide waiting for some birds to come to the waterhole. Many people from the G04Get group came and saw Baikal Bush Warbler coming to take a bath at the other waterhole inside the reedbed. I saw nothing special today, just the same badass rubythroat, munias and Dusky Warblers. The only interesting thing was a male Red Avadavat that came down to the reeds in front of the blind but disappeared just a few moment later. I went to the other hide and got quite many photos of another ringed male Siberian Rubythroat. I'm sure it's the same bird that I saw last year. A female Jerdon's Bushchat (Saxicola jerdoni) was a real surprise but she wasn't kind enough to give me a pose or two. Because we all have to drive back to Chiang Mai today and it's quite a long way to go, we had to leave Nam Kham around noon. I packed my things and said goodbye to this wonderful place and promise to come back again if I could.

A male Oriental Magpie-Robin; note color rings for resident birds

The same Siberian Rubythroat

And Mister No.2

This guy is much tougher to photograph.

Some more shots of the first bird before leaving

And White-rumped Munias

2 comments:

Stuart Price said...

That Rubythroat picture is just outstanding..............as are the egret ones.

Ayuwat Jearwattanakanok said...

Thanks!
You've got some great shots of the rubythroat in your blog too.