Feels Like Early Winter

I've been back to Japan again since yesterday and trying to catch up with all the photos I took during the last few days before leaving Thailand. I went out birding daily every morning starting from 7 to 10am. I often rode my bicycle to a place in Muang Chum village where I often find some good migrants. The shots in this post were all taken on the sunny 21st September.

Chestnut-capped Babbler (Timalia pileata)
Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)

I often start off by visiting Mad Taeng River first then riding straight to Muang Chum. Along the reedbeds near the river, I was so happy to find a strong population of Chestnut-capped Babbler, a species of which I don't see very often. A pair came feeding near the main road and I luckily got them good under the sun. It is not very easy to see this bird in the open.

When I arrived at the place in Muang Chum, I unexpectedly spot a Eurasian Wryneck (Jynx torquilla) perching low in a dense Sensitive Plant bush. It was my first wryneck of the season and I was happy to get it in good light with nice blue background of the mountain, although the foreground was too messy. The last shot in the lower row shows the bird's tongue!

An Ordinary Day

A post compiling shots from an ordinary day at Cho Lae. Lots of migrants have already arrived, especially waders. Large flocks of Wood Sandpipers (Tringa glareola) can be found all over the place. Lots of snipes have already arrived as well, but they are just too shy to be seen in the open. Most of them are Pintail and Common Snipes. Several Stonechats are here as well. I'm getting sick by the split of this bird. It used to be just Stonechat (S. torquata), then Siberian Stonechat (S. maurus), and now the eastern race that winters in Thailand is called the Stejneger's Stonechat (S. stejnegeri). From reading through the discussions in Surfbird email archive, it seems that these newly split taxa are basically impossible to be distinguished in the field since they are all split purely on genetic evidences. In the future, I wonder if these new species will be grouped back into a single species like before or not....

The now so called Stejneger's Stonechat (S. stejnegeri)

A flock of Baya Weavers (Ploceus philippinus) was still occupying the same area around its nesting colony though all the chicks have already fledged and joined the flock their parents. Most male birds have already shed their bright golden head feathers and turning into a drab female-like non-breeding plumage.

A male Purple Sunbird (Cinnyris asiaticus) in eclipse plumage
Wood Sandpipers are abundant but very difficult to get close.

A fluffing adult Little Ringed Plover (Charadrius dubius); the bird is mainly a winter visitor to Thailand and this one is moulting into a non-breeding plumage.

A male Pied Bushchat (Saxicola caprata)

A lone non-breeding Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) was also found in the area. It's the subspecies L.c.cristatus, which is a different one from the more reddish superciliosus of Japan. I watched it fed on a very interesting prey, the colourful Long-tailed Lizard (Takydromus sexlineatus ocellatus) which it caught from a small dry field.

This female Pied Bushchat was much more obliging than the male above.

I was lucky to see this shy Slaty-breasted Rail (Gallirallus striatus) coming out to dry its wings after the rain in the late afternoon. It's bird that is not often seen in the open like most of the rail species.

A landing Pintail Snipe (Gallinago stenura); you can see the blurry 'pin' outer tail feathers

A new species to my photo library to end this entry, the Asian Koel (Eudynamys scolopaceus), a very common but super shy member of cuckoo family. This one is an immature male. Adult male lack buffish spots on wing coverts, while female has mottled brown plumage. The right image shows the bird with a Black-collared Starling.

Hazy Days

It's been very hazy everyday since I have been back home, and it will surely continue to be in this situation until the first rain of April arrives. I went out to the local birding area called Cho Lae this morning with my father. As expected, no sunlight until about 9am due to the haze with more and more areas that turned into rice fields due to the increased price. Everywhere was almost the same, rice and rice and rice fields, no more habitat diversity, which resulted in very few birds. At least I saw a Eurasian Wryneck, 1 Bluethroat (which once used to be very common around the area...) and a Green Sandpiper among a group of Wood Sandpipers and Little Ringed Plovers.

A male Pied Bushchat

House Sparrow is a very successful alien species in Thailand. It has spread throughout the country in a very fast rate during the last decade. Here's a male bird with a flock of the local Plain-backed Sparrows.

Lots of Stonechats though

A female Pied Bushchat

And some colourful flowers to end this entry...

Most birds have moulted into their breeding plumages, including the very common yet super shy Chinese Pond-Herons, Cattle Egrets, Little Ringed Plovers and the Stonechats. Many Brown Shrikes were still around, as well as the White Wagtails, but I was surprised that I didn't see any Citrine Wagtail.