Thaibirds and more

In the late afternoon of the 27th I paid a short visit to the King's Project at Lampakbia.  As I drove in to the project something flew across the road in front of me. It looked very weirD and not like anything that I could ID on the spot. I stopped the car and managed to get a couple of shots. Tossing different ideas around: Grey-headed Long-tailed shrike in a molting stake?, mantle of Burmese, eye mask from Brown, etc, I concluded 'this is weird'. Yesterday i posted the image on a FB group. After some deliBeration it seemed that a lot pointed towards a Bay-backed Shrike, a bird that is not on the official Thai bird list. On the day following,  Philip D. Round paid a visit to the site and confirmed the ID. A 1st for Thailand!

In the afternoon we went to the outskirts of Kaengkrachan and Lung Sin's waterhole. On the way we spotted this Yellow-legged Buttonquail. A very difficult bird to see and there are very few images of it online. It was walking very slowly swaying back and forth as it if had been hit by something. It disappeared into the scrub after a few pictures. Now that it is the dry season birds are starting to come to the waterholes in earnest. Scaly-breasted Partridge was one of two partridges.              Not easy to fit the long tail of Greater Racket-tailed Drongo in the frame.        One of two Scimitar Babbler that make use of the waterhole: White-browed!       Here is the 2nd Partridge: Bar-backed with its wonderfully patterned plumage.                      Racket-tailed Treepie is a fabulus looking bird when viewed near. A mega skulker of tropical forest: Slaty-legged Crake was the ultimate bird for the afternoon.                          

A good friend of mine, Chris Chafer suddenly popped by so we went birding together for a couple of days. The morning light was as awesome as ever at the fields of Petchaburi. Morning is a good time to lay eyes on Oriental Reed Warbler. Plenty of them around and this one is probably my best shot of this species till now. Likewise, Blue-tailed Bee-eater was perched unusually low. It is normally on boring telephone wires.                             White-throated Kingfisher on a rather different perch. Hay! We wanted to see some Eagles and did spot this juvenile Greater Spotted Eagle! Awesome and majestic!                             Black-eared Kites are quite common in the fields. A little drive to view a few waders had me not pass up an opportunity for a shot of Black-tailed Godwit.                      Also a Wood Sandpiper were posing nicely in the bright sun light!