19 May 2020

Bird watching trip report


Introduction

We are going to visit the eBird hotspot: Huai Khun Chit Reservoir as it is on the way to the bird hide at Wat Tham Prathun, Chonburi. And as the “action” don't start until mid day at the bird hide so we have time. And there are many eBird hotspots and many different habitats close by the bird hide.

And I have bought a new binocolar!! Yes, yet another item I never thought that I would buy. I was at Ari Outdoor to buy a bonicular and I will not carry around the binocular, just keep it in the car while I do birding with a car. I bought one Steiner Skyhawk 8x32

They opened the shopping malls after the Wuhan Virus so I also bought a new bird book. Peter Ericson recommended the Birds of Thailand by Uthai Treesuconand Wich'yanan Limparungpatthanakij. And I really like the book. The only thing missing was the picture index.

SO TODAY WILL BE MY FIRST BIRD WATCHING WITH A BINOCULAR!

To skip the information and to go straight to the TRIP REPORT click HERE


Guide

I usually don't use any bird watching Guide in / around Bangkok. But could be a good idea to have a Guide to help me identify all the birds I see. As it is now my eBird checklists are not very impressive as I can only ID half of the birds I see.


Land transportation


You will need a car and if you don't have your own a taxi is a very convenient way of travelling. Depending on the early morning traffic it will take 90 minutes to reach the area. You rent the taxi for a full day and it will set you back with about 2000-3000 Baht (May 2020) depending on distances etc. And of course, depending on your negotiation skills.

Chonburi have nice roads so it is easy enough to get around. But don't be surprised to find some of the birding areas under water or accessible only through dirt track in very poor condition. So don't be surprised if the taxi driver refuse to enter some roads. Or even to find some roads inaccessible.

Equipment

Canon 5D Mk. III + Canon 5D Mk. IV
Canon EF 28-300/3,5-5,6 L IS USM
Canon EF 70-200/2,8L IS II USM
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens
Canon Speedlite 600EXII-RT flash
Canon PowerShot G7X Mark II
Panasonic HC-W585 video camera

Sound recorder
ZOOM H5 Handy Recorder

Binocular
Steiner Skyhawk 8x32 (Since May 2020)


Weather / climate

Weather, I don´t know if Bangkok is the hottest capital in the world. But this is what they say and I have no reason to doubt this information because it is darn hot.

Bangkok, Thailand - Climate & Temperature
Pictures from www.climatemps.com

Bangkok, Thailand - Climate & Temperature - Click picture for full size
Pictures from www.climatemps.com



References/Resources

Thai National Parks - About the National Parks in Thailand A very good web page - Do you know that there are still wild tigers, elephants, leopards, tapirs, gaurs, bears and many monkey species in many tropical rainforests across Thailand? Do you also know that around 10% of all marine species in the world can be found in Thailand? And the fact that Thailand is the best bird-watching destination in mainland Asia?

National parks are protected areas of land because they have unspoilt landscapes and a diverse number of native plants and animals. There are 127 national parks in Thailand, of them 22 marine national parks. These parks offers a diverse range of flora and fauna, home to important population of endangered species.
So now it will be easy to find out if there are any National Park close to you.

Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (BCST) - The Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (BCST) is one of the oldest Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (BCST)organisations conserving birds and nature in Thailand and is the country partner of BirdLife International. BCST's role to the local community is to spread awareness about urban birds and reconnect people back to nature.

The Logo
Dated back to 1986 when BCST was then a loosely-formed “Bangkok Birdwatching Club”, the Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis), or “Nok Gang Ken Baan” in Thai, has been chosen to represent the organisation.

There are two sites covering Thailand and I have used them many times. These two web pages are actually everything you need for your birding adventures in Thailand. All the information you need about all the birding spots. Click on the map and then select your spot and you will have maps and everything you need to know about the areas. They have put a lot of jobs in to their web pages, North Thailand Birding and thaibirding.com A must to visit before you go bird watching in Thailand.

www.norththailandbirding.com - A one stop only for all your birding in Thailand

thaibirding.com - Nick Upton's one stop only for all your birding in Thailand.

Use both www.thaibirding.com and www.norththailandbirding.com and you have a winner. Some of the maps on www.norththailandbirding.com are way better than Nick Upton´s, while some of Nick's maps are much more detailed. So I have found that if I use both the web pages for information, well, nothing else needed.

PBase/Peter Ericson - Peter Ericson, a guy I thought was from USA because of his family name. I met him at Lat Krabang Paddies in May 2020 and turned out that he was Swedish. Anyway, I have used his excellent page PBase since 2016 as help to ID birds by the help from his beautiful bird pictures.

Here you can also find information about birding tours.

He is also having a Blog - Thaibirds and more with interesting information.

Bangkok City Birding - A lot of interesting birding stories and information on this bird watching blog by David Gandy. Bangkok-based patch-worker in Suan Rot Fai, a large park close to the city's famous weekend market. He have recorded 150 species on his patch since 2008. As one of the only big green spaces in the city, “SRF” acts as a real magnet for migrants during spring and autumn, and holds a healthy selection of "sibes" during the winter months.


The East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership - The East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership is a network of partners within the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF). The East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP) aims to protect migratory waterbirds, their habitat and the livelihoods of people dependent upon them.

The Flyway is one of 9 major migratory routes recognised globally. Partners include National Governments, Inter-Governmental Organisations, International Non-governmental Organisations, and International Private Enterprise, which agree to endorse the text and support the objectives and actions under this Partnership.

Thailand have three Flyway Network Sites - www.eaaflyway.net/thailand to find more information.
Pak Thale – Laem Phak Bia Flyway Site
Khok Kham Flyway Site
Krabi Estuary and Bay

www.tideschart.com GET THE LATEST TIDES IN THAILAND AND AROUND THE WORLD - A must to check out times for HIGH and LOW water when going to look for waders / shorebirds.

ebird - Find birding hotspots with bird checklists from all over the world

Avibase - is an extensive database information system about all birds of the world, containing over 25 million records about 10,000 species and 22,000 subspecies of birds, including distribution information for 12,000 regions, taxonomy, synonyms in several languages


www.oiseaux.net This web page is also excellent for identifying birds. There is information and range maps for many many birds from all over the world. This page is almost guaranteed to give you any answer you have about any bird in the world.

Cloudbirders - Read birding trip reports from all over the world

Fatbirder - Linking birders worldwide... Wildlife Travellers see their sister site: WAND


Fatbirder is a fantastic web page with information from, I think every country in the world. My first stop when I plan for my bird watching trips. There is information about locations and guides, well, pretty much everything you need to know. Sometimes this is the only place I need to visit to plan my trip.

BirdingPal - find a birding Guide around the world

BirdingPal


And the web page you cannot live without. I have been around the world looking for birds. I usually have a Guide, but sometimes it is not possible to find a Guide. So, well, I have lost count on how many times I have had help to ID birds at BirdForum. Joining this forum have been very very good for my bird watching experience.

www.birdforum.net

ClimaTemps.com is the place to learn about the worlds climates with more than 4000 locations documented. Each aspect of the climate is represented using colour enhanced tables and professional graphs so that data can easily be compared by switching between locations in different tabs in your browser.

“A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig Robson”


A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig Robson

A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig Robson. New edition updated with 76 species since previous edition “A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig” Nick Upton at www.thaibirding.com wrote “This quite excellent book is packed full of quality illustrations and written information on 1251 species recorded in Southeast Asia”

I bought this book for bird watching in Thailand, but it goes for all over SE Asia

I have been very happy with the “A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig Robson” But I had a fire in my condo 2019 and I needed to buy a new book. I was looking for the “A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig Robson” as I liked the book. But this book is not available anymore so I had to buy the “A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand” by Craig Robson.

What a disappointment this was, using the pictures in the book didn't helped to ID any birds.

“Birds of Thailand” by Uthai Treesuconand Wich'yanan Limparungpatthanakij


I met Peter Ericson, a famous bird watcher and he recommended the “Birds of Thailand” by Uthai Treesuconand Wich'yanan Limparungpatthanakij. I bought the book as soon as the book stores opened after the Wuhan virus. And I am very happy with the book and I have managed to ID some birds using the book.

Birds of Thailand by Uthai Treesuconand Wich'yanan Limparungpatthanakij

This new field guide will help you identify all 1049 species to have been recorded in the country to date, including the 20 species endemic or near-endemic to Thailand.

-Taxonomy follows the HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World.

-Detailed texts covering status, habitat and behaviour, age, sex and geographical variation, voice, and confusion species.

-Almost 2200 illustrations covering all species and distinctive subspecies, birds in flight, males and females, juveniles and non-breeding plumages, where appropriate.

-QR code for each species, linking to the Internet Bird Collection gallery of photos, videos and sounds.

-More than 1025 full-colour range maps for all species other than vagrants.

-Well-marked subspecies groups receive full accounts, and the distributions of subspecies breeding in the region are clearly mapped.

-Local species name and local conservation status included.


I like the book, but I miss the picture index.


Places to visit

Chonburi

eBird hotspots in Chonburi
eBird hotspots in Chonburi

Chonburi (ชลบุรี) is one of Thailand's seventy-six provinces (changwat) lies in eastern Thailand. Its capital is Chonburi. To the west is the Gulf of Thailand. The province's population has grown rapidly, with some 1.7 million residents. The registered population as of 31 December 2018 was 1.535 million.

From Wikipedia


You can find many eBird hotspots at ebird.org

Wat Tham Prathun

Birding/ Bird watching at Huai Khun Chit Reservoir, Chonburi, Thailand
About 124 km from the Sukhumvit / Asoke intersection in DOWN TOWN Bangkok

Scan for map to Huai Khun Chit Reservoir


Or show the driver a map. Click HERE for a map to Huai Khun Chit Reservoir

Get on the Bangkok - Chonburi Motorway in Bangkok / Route #7 and leave route #7 south of Chonburi at the Laem Chabang exit. Get up on road #3701 and run south next to the motorway on the Motorway 7 Frontage Road for about 11km.

You reach an intersection under the highway. Turn left at ถนน สายนาวัง ซอย 13 (Sai Nawang Road Soi 13) Keep right and get right up on the ถนน สายนาวัง ซอย 12 (Sai Nawang Road Soi 12) directly after having left the Motorway 7 Frontage Road.

Follow Sai Nawang Road Soi 12. It is not all that easy to find the road running along the western side of the Huai Khun Chit Reservoir. You reach a white wall on your right hand side after about 1.6 km and turn right at the opening in the wall. Not obvious so drive slowly.

Birding/ Bird watching at Huai Khun Chit Reservoir, Chonburi, Thailand
You are through the white wall and you will see the reservoir in 200 meters or so

Birding/ Bird watching at Huai Khun Chit Reservoir, Chonburi, Thailand
Low levels in the reservoir

Birding/ Bird watching at Huai Khun Chit Reservoir, Chonburi, Thailand
Low levels in the reservoir

After about 200 meters you can see the Huai Khun Chit Reservoir. The paved road run along the top of the reservoir barrier and there is a dirt track going down from the paved road in the NW corner of the reservoir.

You reach the water front via this dirt track and you run between reeds going there.

Birding/ Bird watching at Huai Khun Chit Reservoir, Chonburi, Thailand
Driving through the reeds

Birding/ Bird watching at Huai Khun Chit Reservoir, Chonburi, Thailand
At the water front

Birding/ Bird watching at Huai Khun Chit Reservoir, Chonburi, Thailand
The water front

Birding/ Bird watching at Huai Khun Chit Reservoir, Chonburi, Thailand
The water front

Driving on the barrier and you have bushes with birds flying in and out on both sides of the paved road. One side the Huai Khun Chit Reservoir and the other side, maybe 15 to 20 meters below the barrier we have farm land.

Driving south and you have soon passed the Huai Khun Chit Reservoir. The paved road comes to an end south of the reservoir where the road turns in to a dirt track. Here you turn to left and you can drive down to the water front.

If you continue straight you will be on another paved road. At the water front you have Asian Openbills and Egrets.

Birding/ Bird watching at Huai Khun Chit Reservoir, Chonburi, Thailand
The water front

Birding/ Bird watching at Huai Khun Chit Reservoir, Chonburi, Thailand
The water front

And again, my eBird track goes over the water, but as this was during the dry season the water level was very low. Coming here during or after the rain season it will be a different story.

Bird checklist

I never use any bird lists, but since I try to make it in to Cloudbirders. A very helpful site when planning your birding trips. But they ask for a bird checklist, and if I use their service, of course I want to contribute as well. My two first bird watching trip reports was rejected by Cloudbirders.

So I started to take ideas from the reports I found on Cloudbirders. So I have started to use bird lists, eBird generate one for me and I can post it on Cloudbirders. I will post my birds on eBird and on my different “BIRDS THAT I HAVE OBSERVED” pages.

Full Thai list updated to the taxonomy, nomenclature and sequence of the IOU/IOC World Bird List. The complete checklist, including Thai names and synonyms, can be downloaded in Excel format - Thailand Bird Checklist. - Version 8.2 (2018) - found at www.norththailandbirding.com

Check lists can come in handy to find out the local name of the bird etc. And Avibase have a list with pictures and sounds, excellent!

So I will post bird checklists here and if my Guides provide me with checklists I will also post them here.

Cloudbirders


Avibase - Bird Checklists of the World

Chonburi bird checklist from Avibase, click HERE - eBird version 2019 taxonomy

Avibase is providing you with bird checklists from all over the world. And I´m impressed by their web page. Select country and area and you get the bird checklist. Like the PDF files I got from Avibase on the links above. You also get the checklist with pictures and sounds.

The best part is that you get the local names of the birds and the online checklist gives the names in English plus the language you have selected. But it seems like the PDF cannot handle some alphabet.

For example the Japanese language so it is blank in the PDF checklist. But it worked excellent with Swedish. But you get them in the local language on the online version.


Bird list

I only list birds I have got on picture on my list of OBSERVED BIRDS. But since I started using eBird I have changed a bit. I list all the birds on the eBird checklist. See the DAY TO DAY report in the itinerary below.

And you can visit my list of “Birds I have seen in Thailand” ONLY BIRDS I HAVE ON PICTURE.


Trip Report


19th of May 2020 and we left my condo a wee bit late as I overslept. My friend called at 6 to tell me that he had arrived. His call woke me up and no time for breakfast. My friend had a bottle of Minute Maid ready for me when I came down. He always arrive early and he go to buy orange juice at Seven. We took off and we were running down Asoke when we turned around, my friend had forgot his phone on charging at the guard house.

So we arrived a bit late and I could start my eBird app at 07:53. The first bird we spotted was a Yellow-vented Bulbul. I got no good pictures of the eBird. But we discovered a Zebra Dove behind the bulbul when it took off.

The Dove was calling / singing and I managed to make a recording.

Listen to the Zebra Dove

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my ZOOM H5 Handy Recorder. High Pass Filter applied with Audacity

I was taking picture of a Yellow-vented Bulbul and when the bird took off I discovered a Zebra Dove sitting behind the Bulbul


www.xeno-canto.org


Paddyfield Pipit, Oriental Pipit, Anthus rufulus, นกเด้าดินทุ่งเล็ก
Paddyfield Pipit / นกเด้าดินทุ่งเล็ก

Racket-tailed Treepie, Crypsirina temia, นกกาแวน
Racket-tailed Treepie / นกกาแวน

Racket-tailed Treepie, Crypsirina temia, นกกาแวน
Racket-tailed Treepie / นกกาแวน

South of the reservoir and we spotted a Paddyfield Pipit carrying nest material, but the bird was not so happy to be on picture. We turned left when we reached the paved road and we drove north on the east side of the Huai Khun Chit Reservoir. We never found a way to come down to the water

But we spotted one Racket-tailed Treepie in one of the trees that I managed to get on picture.

We drove back to the west side and we drove north to get down to the lake on the dirt track at the NW corner of the Huai Khun Chit Reservoir. At the waterfront, well, we found nothing but a few egrets. But coming back up from the water we found a White-throated Kingfisher sitting on a wire. We could hear the calling from far away.

I managed to get a recording of the White-throated Kingfisher and I was happy.

Listen to the White-throated Kingfisher

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my ZOOM H5 Handy Recorder. High Pass Filter applied with Audacity

White-throated Kingfisher sitting on a wire. We can hear the reply from another Kingfisher weakly. From second 00:31 we can heard the bird take off and the sound disappears slowly


www.xeno-canto.org

Birding/ Bird watching at Huai Khun Chit Reservoir, Chonburi, Thailand
Ashy Woodswallow

Birding/ Bird watching at Huai Khun Chit Reservoir, Chonburi, Thailand
Juvenile? Green Bee-eater

I discovered one Ashy Woodswallow and one Bee-eater on the wire when the Kingfisher had left. I got out of the car and the woodswallow was son taking off. We continued south again to try to reach the water front on the south side of the reservoir. We gave up first time, but my friend wanted to give it a second try.

Back to try a second time and we spot a Plain Prinia and I manage to get both pictures and a sound recording so I was happy when we left Huai Khun Chit Reservoir for Wat Tham Prathun.

Plain Prinia, Prinia inornata, นกกระจิบหญ้าสีเรียบ
Plain Prinia - นกกระจิบหญ้าสีเรียบ

Plain Prinia, Prinia inornata, นกกระจิบหญ้าสีเรียบ
Plain Prinia - นกกระจิบหญ้าสีเรียบ

Plain Prinia, Prinia inornata, นกกระจิบหญ้าสีเรียบ
Plain Prinia - นกกระจิบหญ้าสีเรียบ

Plain Prinia, Prinia inornata, นกกระจิบหญ้าสีเรียบ
Plain Prinia - นกกระจิบหญ้าสีเรียบ

Plain Prinia, Prinia inornata, นกกระจิบหญ้าสีเรียบ
Plain Prinia - นกกระจิบหญ้าสีเรียบ

Listen to the Plain Prinia

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my ZOOM H5 Handy Recorder. High Pass Filter applied with Audacity

Two birds singing / calling each other in the bushes next to the road. Maybe a boy and a girl flirting


www.xeno-canto.org


Birding/ Bird watching at Huai Khun Chit Reservoir, Chonburi, Thailand
Indochinese Roller

Birding/ Bird watching at Huai Khun Chit Reservoir, Chonburi, Thailand
Today's track at Huai Khun Chit Reservoir


eBird

eBird Report

Huai Khun Chit Reservoir, Chonburi, TH May 19, 2020 07:53- 09:07
Protocol: Traveling
9.86 kilometer(s)
20 species (+2 other taxa)

Red Collared Dove 2
Spotted Dove 2
Zebra Dove 4
Greater/Lesser Coucal 2 Too far away to see eye colour so no ID. But the bird was big so most likely a Greater Coucal
Asian Koel X Heard only
Plaintive Cuckoo X
Red-wattled Lapwing X Heard only
Asian Openbill X Many
Great White Egret 1
white egret sp. 2 The birds took off before I had a chance to ID the birds by help of the gape and bill/ leg colour
Eurasian Hoopoe 1
White-throated Kingfisher 1
Green Bee-eater 2 Suspect it is two juveniles as the colours was very dull
Indochinese Roller 4
Ashy Woodswallow 1
Malaysian Pied-Fantail 2
Greater Racket-tailed Drongo 1
Racket-tailed Treepie 1
Plain Prinia 2
Yellow-vented Bulbul 1
Great Myna 2
Paddyfield Pipit 2

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S69296758

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)

We left the reservoir and we were kind of happy with the birding. I didn't have many pictures, but I had managed to get 3 recordings. Click HERE to find out if there is any birds at the bird hide at Wat Tham Prathun


Bird watching trip report



       
                  
OK, it has come to my knowledge that we have senior citizens visiting my web page. How hard can it be? So it's not very easy for them to see the blue coloured links to the next page.
Jiffy (also jiff)

noun [in SING.] informal a moment: we'll be back in a jiffy.

ORIGIN late 18th cent.: of unknown origin.

So as you understand, in a jiff pretty much depends on your internet.
So I put a “Next” button here and I hope that there isn't any problem to understand how to use that one. So just CLICK the “Next” button on your left hand side and you will be on the next page in a jiff!

Marunong ka mag-tagalog? Walang problema! Magpunta sa kabilang pahina pindutin ang “NEXT” button sa itaas

Faites vous parlez le français? Pas de problème! Pour arriver à la page suivante faites s'il vous plaît un déclic le bouton “Next” ci-dessus!

Haga usted dice el español? No hay problema! Ver la siguiente página sólo hacer clic el botón “Next” encima!

Farla parla l'italiano? Non problemi! Per vedere la prossima pagina lo scatto per favore giusto Il bottone “Next” sopra

Sprechen sie Deutsch! Kein problem! Wenn Sie die folgende Seite sehen wollen gerade klicken der Knopf “Next” oben!

คุณพูดภาษาไทยได้ไหม ไม่มีปัญหา ถ้าคุณต้องการไปหน้าถัดไป ให้กดปุ่ม “Next” ข้างบนนี้

Вы говорите по-русски? Просто нажмите синюю кнопку "Next" с левой стороны и Вы моментально переместитесь на следующую страницу!

E ni Svenskar och inte förstår Engelska så ska ni skämmas. J och Björn, med det menar jag inte att alla mina stavfel ska ältas varje gång vi träffas.

Flag of Skåne / Skånska flaggan Well, the flag of Skåne, just a BONUS flag.


                                       

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