Kit & Herman Year 2

[Kitsafari]

531/BK35  : Indochinese Roller, Bang Prah

 

The roller didn't cooperate. each time we moved forward to avoid  a backlit shot, the roller flew further ahead. In better hands, the roller would have turned out better. 

It is not exactly as bright as the LBR, the Indochinese roller has a blue crown and vent with deep purplish blue primaries and a purplish brown face and breast. Also called the Burmese roller, the species is distributed across India to south China down to Southeast Asia. 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

532/BK 36 : Pacific Golden Plover, Bang Poo Mangrove hide

 

The pacific golden plover is very similar to the American golden plover except geographically, and differs from the Eurasian plover in that it is smaller, slimmer and longer-legged. In winter plumage, the plover loses the black on its face and breast, taking on a yellowish tone with white underparts. It is found in north Palearctic to Alaska and winters in southeast Asia, East Africa, south Asia and Oceania. 

 

this was the only golden plover we saw, and it just happened to be resting next to a  rubber boot.

 

[Kitsafari]

533/BK 37 : Eastern Osprey, Bang Prah

 

An EBC and very tightly cropped. Flying past our head, the eastern osprey didn't seem that intent on hunting. Found mainly in Oceania - coastal regions of Australia, Indoesnia, New Guinea and the Philippines. 

 

[Kitsafari]

534/BK 38 : Asian Openbill, Bang Prah

 

My first ever sighting of the Asian openbill or Asian Openbill stork, as they are vagrants in Singapore and we are lucky if one appears at Sungei buloh. With my "duck broken", a month later from Bang Prah, I get to see several in northern Thailand. and at the time that we are in Northern Thailand, a phenomenon happened in Singapore - huge flocks of up to 1500 Asian openbills riding the thermals above the city of Singapore. I was disappointed I was not around to see the spectacle in Singapore. 

The openbill is found in India and Southeast Asia.

 

[Kitsafari]

535/BK39 : Indochinese Bush Lark, Bang Prah

 

This small bird seems to be a resident at this spot since my bird guide K knew exactly where to find it! The bush lark is distributed over Indochina but doesn't extend to below central Thailand. 

 

[Kitsafari]

536/BK 40 : Bronze-winged Jacana, Bang Prah

 

This is quite a colourful and fairly large bird, unfortunately, it was right across the pond and hidden by tall grasses. The Bronze-winged jacana is distributed across south and southeast Asia. 

 

Edited December 13, 2019 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

537/BK 41 : Oriental Darter, Bang Prah

 

The beautiful oriental darter, also called Indian darter, is found across subcontinent India to Southeast Asia. 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

538/NK42 : Red-collared Dove, Chonburi salt pans

 

Also called the red-turtle dove, the red-collared dove likes open spaces and plains, and prefers to go in pairs but would congregate in large groups as well. Found in subcontinent India, and across Indochina to the Philippines, but no further south than Thailand. 

 

[Kitsafari]

539/BK 43 : Black-winged cuckoo-shrike, Bang Prah

 

this species has a few alternate names - black-winged cuckooshrike, lesser grey cuckooshrike or dark grey cuckooshrike. another lifer for me. But despite all those names, it doesn't belong to the cuckoo family nor the shrike family. found mainly in woodlands, deciduous forests or broadleaf evergeen forests. Distributed mainly in subcontinent India, parts of China and Indochina, but no further south than Thailand. 

 

[Kitsafari]

540/BK44 : Little Cormorant, Bang Prah/Chonburi salt pans

 

this is the smallest of the cormorants in Asia, it looks like the Indian cormorant but has a flatter head and is smaller. It is found in India and Indochina and also down the island of Java where it is also called Javanese cormorant. 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

541/BK45 : Brown-headed Gull, Ban Poo Recreational centre

 

thousands of gulls gather at this point during the migratory season, thanks mainly to traders hawking bread to be thrown to the gulls. It was not the peak of the season when I was there, so only the brown-headed gulls were seen and they weren't in their breeding plumage yet either. 

 

[Kitsafari]

542/BK46 : Green bee-eater (Russet-crowned) , Bang Prah

 

Also called little green bee-eater, this species is widely distributed throughout Africa and Asia, although the ones in Thailand appear to have a strong russet crown. One of my favourite birds from the trip,, only because the sunlight fell on the bee-eater, and it stayed put for me to get one of very few clear and sharp photos from the outing (and one with an unintended halo too). 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

542/BK47 : Common/Eurasian Hoopoe, Bang Prah

 

I was whooping with delight to get this, but in my excitement i almost dropped the shots. Managed to salvage a couple of decent ones. I never thought I would ever see a hoopoe in Asia so I was very happy for this sighting. It has only slight differences from the African hoopoe with a lighter chestnut colour. 

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

543/BK48 : Asian Barred Owlets, Bang Prah

 

A total surprise when first one, then two appeared in the trees as we were trying to get clear shots of the laughingthrushes. K reckons the thrushes had disturbed them nesting but it looked like the second one was a juvenile as the last shot seemed to have one feeding the other one. 

The Asian barred owlets are small - of about 22-25cm, and are diurnal which means they also hunt during the day. the species is distributed along the himalayas ranges across Myanmar, parts of China and Indochina until southern Thailand. 

 

taken with mobile from the scope

 

 

 

 

and that's the last of my count for the outing. Other birds we saw but which I couldn't get any decent shots included hair-crested drongo, lineated barbet, Taiga flycatcher, great myna, and small minivet. 

 

 

[Zim Girl]

Belated congratulations for reaching 500. A fantastic second year.  Love the owlets at the end.

[Soukous]

A fantastic collection for your Big Year @Kitsafari

 

[TonyQ]

Great additions. You are getting very close now! I expect to see you zooming past me in a few days

[Kitsafari]

thank you @Zim Girl and @Soukous!

 

and thanks too, @TonyQ - i still have to go through my Chiangmai photos, but i'm not counting yet as it all depends on whether our photos turned out well!

 

and for the final count, it ain't over until the Fat Lady - or should i say PeterHG - sings.... 

[PeterHG]

I doubt very much if my 'singing' will take me past your and @TonyQ 's impressive score. I still have quite a few photos to add and will certainly pass the ( for me previously unthinkable) 500 mark, but not too far beyond, I think. So it's probably up to both of you to contend for first place 😀 Go for it!

[Dave Williams]

Very impressive count and array of species. Well done indeed!

[Galana]

Well done from me in the wilds of South Luangwa. Your impressive total is safe from me too.

[Kitsafari]

Thanks much for the support @PeterHG @Dave Williams and @Galana

 

The last couple of months had brought a number of surprising species to our neighbourhood! A barn owl - we think it's the same one that visited in November - returned one of the evenings but got chased off by the crows again. One night, a large bird perched on a tree opposite our home and sure that it was an owl, Herman and staked it out. We found it perched on top of an antenna and when it flew towards me, I knew for certain it was a large owl. fortunately, it perched right on top of the roof of my neighbour's home but unfortunately it was so dark we couldn't take any photos. But we did make it out to be a  spotted wood owl - first time we've seen in our neighbourhood. exciting time!

 

just for a record shot: 

 

then in December, a paradise flycatcher - we think it is an Amur paradise FC - came flitting through the trees - a challenge to get a full open shot, while the Asian brown FC returned to our area and continues to grow fat on juicy grubs. An arctic warbler flew through the trees as well, while the white-throated kingfisher returned for another visit in a week.

 

Yesterday, my helper came running down to tell me there was a new bird on my back neighbour's roof. It was an oriental honey buzzard in pale morph - the first time we'd seen the pale morph in our vicinity as there is a dark morph honey buzzard that's been terrorizing the small birds here. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 25, 2019 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

The most awesome visit though was the Asian Openbill. there had only been two sightings ever of the stork in Singapore, with the first in 2013 with a grand total number seen at 6. This year, the prolonged drought affected parts of Southeast Asia plus a cold front swept through northern Indochina where the openbills are distributed. when we were at a doi (mountain) in Chiangmai in early Dec, the temperature fell to 3 degrees though we did see the storks there on the wetlands. While we were there,  reports of hundreds of openbills flying into Singapore came through. when we returned, there were no more such sightings. Until  last Sunday,  sightings were filtering through and close to 5pm, a huge flock came flying over my neighbourhood. It was spectacular - a sighting that I had so wanted to see. Someone used an app to count the birds we saw - there were some 2660 of them circling in the skies towards the airport and we heard that a couple of plane landings had to be aborted because of the birds.The openbills are still around.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 25, 2019 by Kitsafari

[PeterHG]

What a spectacular sight! Amazing that such a rare bird suddenly shows up in such a huge flock!

[Kitsafari]

Xmas has come and gone, and it's just one more week to the end of the year, so I'd better get on with the last stretch. 

 

Herman and I joined a friend's birding group to the mountains around Chiangmai in northern Thailand during Dec 5-9. We had a local guide who spoke good English and was pretty hardworking, and he would drive us to each of the areas. we visited four places which were fairly far apart which meant we would leave early in the morning - about 4.30-5am - in order to reach the mountains.

Four days earlier, a separate group had gone to the same places and it was average temperatures in the 20s and the teens, and they had garnered 66 species - not bad for a three-day trip. By the time, we hit the mountains on the first morning, the temperatures had plunged to 9 degrees. When we left the town of Fang on the second morning, the temperature had lowered to 3 degrees. It started to warm up by the last day, but the cool temperature made it a delight to bird and walk around the areas. In all, we chalked up a total of close to 100, including common birds like javan myna and Eurasian tree sparrow. Nearly half of those were already in our count, with a few not seen or photographed by either of us. 

More than half of the total number were entirely new species for us both and the birds were truly beautiful, so was the landscape.

I would love to return to bird again another time. 

 

I'll start with the first mountain : Doi Lang. The mountain is in the eastern section of the large Doi Pha Hom Pok National Park, a really wild remote with certain sections almost at the border of Myanmar and a couple of times, when we looked across, we could see a Myanmar border post. The drive up to a birders' corner is a combination of tarred road and gravel road and requires a solid car to drive on the pothole-scarred road. 

 

544/CM01 : Spectacled Barwing

 

IUCN splits the barwing into the western species (distributed in central Myanmar) and the eastern species (distributed in eastern Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, northern Vietnam and southern China). It is found in sub-tropical or tropical moist montane forests.