Bird watching Samut Sakhon, Thailand - Thailand 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.

Well, the flag of Skåne, just a BONUS flag.

16 August 2020

Introduction

I use eBird and they have maps with different hotspots. So I have choosed a couple of eBird hotspots that have never been visited before in Samut Sakhon, the province next to Bangok.South West of Bangkok. I like to check out never visited hotspots to see what I can discover.

It takes about 50 minutes to reach the first eBird hotspot: from down town Bangkok in light traffic.

I will visit the below never visited eBird hotspots today:

• Wat Nong Kraphi (Nong Kraphi Temple)

• Wat Nang Sao (Nang Sao Temple) vicinity

• Wat Ta Mai (Ta Mai Temple) vicinity

• Wat Tha Krabue (Tha Krabue Temple) vicinity

• Thong Sima Memorial Park vicinity

• Wat Krachom Thong (Krachom Thong Temple) vicinity

• Wat Nong Song Hong (Nong Song Hong Temple) vicinity, Samut Sakhon

• Lak Ha, Ratchaburi - Just outside the border to Samut Sakhon

• Rong Khe

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

I rent a taxi for the day, the Driver wanted 2000 Baht (Summer 2020) and I pay him 2500 so he is happy every time I book his taxi.

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.

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

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. 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.

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

Samut Sakhon Province

Samut Sakhon (Thai: สมุทรสาคร) is one of the central provinces (changwat) of Thailand, established by the Act Establishing Changwat Samut Prakan, Changwat Nonthaburi, Changwat Samut Sakhon, and Changwat Nakhon Nayok, Buddhist Era 2489 (1946), which came into force on 9 May 1946.

Neighboring provinces are (from the southwest clockwise) Samut Songkhram, Ratchaburi, Nakhon Pathom, and Bangkok. Samut Sakhon is part of the Bangkok Metropolitan Region.

History
The oldest name of the area is Tha Chin ('Chinese pier'), probably referring to the fact that it was a trading port where Chinese junks arrived. In 1548 the city Sakhon Buri was established, and was renamed Mahachai in 1704 after the khlong Mahachai which was dug then and connected with the Tha Chin River near the town.

King Mongkut gave it its current name, but the old name Mahachai is still sometimes used by locals.

Economy and environment
Formerly an agricultural- and fisheries-based province, Samut Sakhon in 2020 has more than 6,000 factories, most of them small, employing fewer than 50 workers, and too small to warrant much attention from Thailand's Pollution Control Department (PCD).

Small firms lack the budgets to install the environmental gear that would help protect the environment. As a result, Samut Sakhon is one of the most polluted provinces in the nation.

Soil and water samples from the industrial area of Mueang District were found to be contaminated with high levels of arsenic, lead, cadmium, chromium, zinc, copper, and nickel. High levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPS), byproducts of industrial processes, were present in eggs from free-range chickens.

An egg tested by researchers was found to have 84 nanograms per kilogram of dioxins and furans, a level 33 times higher than the safety limit observed by the European Union.

The most polluted air in Thailand in 2018 was found to be in Samut Sakhon Province. According to the PCD, the level of PM2.5 in the provincial atmosphere in 2019 was unusually high, measuring as high as 195 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m³). During the air pollution "season" of 2018–2019, PM2.5 levels exceeded the PCD's safe threshold of 50 µg/m³ for 41 days.

Samut Sakhon is a leading sea salt producer. According to a survey in 2011, 12,572 rai of salt pans were managed by 242 families in Samut Sakhon.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I will explore the below eBird hotspots today, have a look at the hotspots by CLICKING the names below:

• Wat Nang Sao (Nang Sao Temple) vicinity, Samut Sakhon

• Wat Ta Mai (Ta Mai Temple) vicinity, Samut Sakhon

• Wat Tha Krabue (Tha Krabue Temple) vicinity, Samut Sakhon

• Thong Sima Memorial Park vicinity, Samut Sakhon

• Wat Krachom Thong (Krachom Thong Temple) vicinity, Samut Sakhon

• Wat Nong Song Hong (Nong Song Hong Temple) vicinity, Samut Sakhon

• Lak Ha, Ratchaburi Just outside the border to Samut Sakhon

• Rong Khe, Samut Sakhon

Wat Nang Sao (Nang Sao Temple) vicinity

Wat Nang Sao is a temple next to the Tha Chin River. According to my driver it was quite a famous temple and people come from far away to visit. There is a huge parking between the river and the temple. I started by going down to the concrete board walk along the river. You have a nice view over the river from the water front. It is a huge river but not many birds.

View over the Tha Chin River

Boat pier in front of the concrete board walk

Walk along the concrete board walk

The temple

Parking area in front of the temple

Wat Ta Mai (Ta Mai Temple) vicinityn

Wat Ta Mai is another temple across the river from Wat Nang Sao. It is a few minutes’ drive crossing the river just north of the Wat Nang Sao. Across the river and you have the temple on your left hand side. Drive past the temple and turn left and you are soon reaching fruit orchards and vegetable fields.

Mango and coconut plantations and a lot of water so here are a lot of birds. There is a lot of birds in the fruit trees but it was very hard to get pictures as they are moving all the time. And it is a beautiful area so it is pure enjoyment to drive around. Theses Sunday excursions are a really nice way to see Thailand, and of course, to look for birds.

Plenty fruit trees and birds along the road

Driving along dirt roads

Mango orchard

Wat Tha Krabue (Tha Krabue Temple) vicinity

Wat Tha Krabue is a temple located SW, about 10-15 minutes’ drive from Wat Ta Mai. Drive along Rural Rd Mae Rose 4014 and you are soon reaching the temple. There is a canal just next to the temple on the west side. Leave the Rural Rd Mae Rose 4014 and you can drive along the canal on your left hand side and you have reeds on the right hand side.

There are a few dirt roads to explore from the Rural Rd Mae Rose 4014. Farm land and it is easy to explore the farm land from the dirt roads.

Keep your eyes onthe reeds

Canal next to the temple

Farm land

Thong Sima Memorial Park vicinity

I could not see any memorial here. The area is in the middle of farm lands with coconut plantations and fruit orchards. We drove around on dirt roads looking on the ground under the coconut trees to see if there was any birds. There was also garden like fields with vegetables and fruit with birds flying around.

Farm land

Drive along the dirt roads

Wat Krachom Thong (Krachom Thong Temple) vicinity

Wat Krachom Thong is located next to a small river. The temple have a huge open area with cattle walking around. So there was Cattle Egrets around the cattle. East side of the area and there are trees between the temple area and the farm land surrounding the temple area.

There are huge trees close to the river and they are full of birds. Small trees and there were many birds flying in and out attending nests. It is a beautiful area well worth a visit.

Temple area from the east side

Walk down to the river side

River side

Wat Nong Song Hong (Nong Song Hong Temple) vicinity

Another temple and you will have to drive behind the temple to see any birds, well, enough mynas and crows on the parking in front of the temple. Enter the temple area and keep right. Turn right following the road and you are soon having a grave yard on your left hand side.

You are now in a farm land and continue along the dirt road and you end up at a seafood farm. The place is really not worth the visit unless you pass the area.

The temple is located along a canal

A huge paring area in front of the temple

Wat Nong Song Hong

Keep to the right to get behind the temple

Behind the temple

Lak Ha

A hotspot in the town of Lak Ha located in Ratchaburi just across the border from Samut Sakhon. Market place and cross the bridge to the temple. Not many birds, maybe because of all the people in the area. I won't bother to come back.

Crossing the bridge to the temple

Across the bridge

Not the most exciting hotspot I have been to

Toilet behind the temple

Rong Khe

Rong Khe is located 10 minutes or so south of Lak Ha, just to follow road #5052. A beautiful road along the Om Yai Canal. The temple is located next to the canal and there is a big open field south of the temple. And this is the area where the very few bird is to be found. Drive out on the field just next to the temple and there are some birds in the flowers.

Rong Khe temple

Field south of the temple

There is a road south of the fields and this road leads to shrimp farms west of the temple. Driving around looking for birds is easy on the paved roads and not so much traffic so no problem to stop even though the roads are narrow.

Seafood farm west of the temple

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.

Samut Sakhon 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

Sunday 16 August 2020 and we left my condo just after 6 o'clock in the morning. We drive towards west for almost an hour to reach the Wat Nang Sao. I get out of the taxi and I start my eBird app at 06:55. The first birds I see are a group of Eurasian Tree Sparrows in the woodworks on the construction at the parking lot.

I walk down to the river front to find a concrete board walk along the river. There are floating boat piers in front of the board walk and people enjoying the Sunday morning. Not so many birds, just a Little Egret and a couple of Javan Pond Herons.

Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Passer montanus, นกกระจอกบ้าน, Pilfink

Eurasian Tree Sparrow / นกกระจอกบ้าน

Javan Pond Heron, Ardeola speciosa, นกยางกรอกพันธุ์ชวา

Javan Pond Heron / นกยางกรอกพันธุ์ชวา

Pond Heron in winter plumage so not possible to ID

Javan Pond Heron / นกยางกรอกพันธุ์ชวา

Little Egret, Egretta garzetta, นกยางเปีย, コサギ

Little Egret / นกยางเปีย

Eurasian Tree Sparrow / นกกระจอกบ้าน

Coppersmith Barbet, Psilopogon haemacephalus, นกตีทอง

Coppersmith Barbet / นกตีทอง

Malaysian Pied Fantail, Rhipidura javanica, นกอีแพรดแถบอกดำ

Malaysian Pied Fantail / นกอีแพรดแถบอกดำ

Today's track at Wat Nang Sao (Nang Sao Temple) vicinity

eBird Report

Wat Nang Sao (Nang Sao Temple) vicinity, Samut Sakhon, TH Aug 16, 2020 06:55 - 07:19
Protocol: Traveling
0.41 kilometer(s)
Checklist Comments: For birding, well, I don't know. Temple area with a walk along the river. Much people and noise
9 species (+1 other taxa)

Feral Pigeon 35
Red Collared Dove 2
Zebra Dove 9 Puffed up making sound while dancing with the tail feathers. But stopped when I approached
Little Egret 1 Fighting with one of the pond herons over a good hunting spot at the river
Javan Pond Heron 5
pond heron sp. 1 Winter plumage so not possible to give a proper ID
Coppersmith Barbet 1 Jumping around in one of the trees on the parking lot
Malaysian Pied-Fantail 2
Common Myna 2
Eurasian Tree Sparrow 10 Liked to stay in the temple wood work

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S72450073

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

We left Wat Nang Sao and we drove north along the river until we got to the bridge and we could cross the river. We passed the Wat Ta Mai temple on our left hand side and the area did really not look like much. We turned left and after a couple of minutes we reached farm land. Fruit orchards and plantations.

I gorgeous area and I am really happy to take my Sunday bird watching trips. I see a lot of Thailand and it is really beautiful, if there is no garbage laying around that it.

Javan Pond Heron / นกยางกรอกพันธุ์ชวา coming in to winter plumage

There is a lot of birds but they are moving about so it is not easy to get pictures and thus I cannot ID many of the birds. But I would like to think my skills are improving and I recognise more and more birds.

We drive around in a lush landscape while keeping our eyes out in to the plantations and orchards looking for birds. Suddenly I scream STOP to the driver. One White-breasted Waterhen preening in one of the orchards. The driver put the taxi in reverse and we go back 2 meters. Now I discover one baby birds.

I take pictures when the driver say that he can see one more baby. I look but I cannot see the second bird, but finally, I can see the second baby eating in the bushes.

White-breasted Waterhen, Amaurornis phoenicurus, นกกวัก

White-breasted Waterhen babies

White-breasted Waterhen / นกกวัก

We moved around the corner but from this angle the babies was not visible. But I got some fotage of the adult preening. We continued along the road and we were soon stopping again. We had one fantail sitting on a concrete pillar and a little later we passed one Bronze-winged Jacana. We stopped to try to take pictures of one Red-wattled Lapwing next to the road.

The bird ran off when we stopped. I simulated the typical Red-wattled Lapwing sound that we have heard everywhere the last couple of months. The bird was sticking out the head from behind the bush to check me out. We passed one Little Egret hunting in one of the plantations as well.

Malaysian Pied Fantail / นกอีแพรดแถบอกดำ

Bronze-winged Jacana, Metopidius indicus, นกพริก

Bronze-winged Jacana / นกพริก

Red-wattled Lapwing / นกกระแตแต้แว้ด

Little Egret / นกยางเปีย

Bird watching at Wat Ta Mai (Ta Mai Temple) vicinity, Samut Sakhon, Thailand

Today's track at Wat Ta Mai

eBird Report

Wat Ta Mai (Ta Mai Temple) vicinity, Samut Sakhon, TH Aug 16, 2020 07:29 - 08:28
Protocol: Traveling
3.91 kilometer(s)
Checklist Comments: Area with fruit tree orchards and there are many birds in the area. Many in the orchards but hard to get pictures and I need pictures to be able to ID most of the birds.
10 species

Zebra Dove 8
White-breasted Waterhen 4 Two baby and one parent preening together. One only heard while drive along the road
Red-wattled Lapwing 2 One sticking out the head when I simulated the call
Bronze-winged Jacana 2
Asian Openbill 6 One of the stork hunting Egret "style"
Little Egret 1
Javan Pond Heron 2 Changing to winter plumage
Malaysian Pied-Fantail 3
Common Myna 2
Eurasian Tree Sparrow 2

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S72452123

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

We leave Wat Ta Mai behind following the Rural Rd Mae Rose 4014 towards eBird hotspot: Wat Tha Krabue (Tha Krabue Temple) vicinityAnd it is about 10 to 15 minutes to drive to the next hotspot. We pass Wat Tha Krabue crossing the canal next to the temple and we turn left and we drive along the canal.

Driving along the Rural Rd Mae Rose 4014 and leave whenever you find an interesting dirt track to explore the bird life in the area. It is an area to visit if you pass through, otherwise you can easily find more productive areas.

Oriental Magpie Robin, Copsychus saularis, นกกางเขนบ้าน

Oriental Magpie Robin / นกกางเขนบ้าน

White-breasted Waterhen / นกกวัก

Zebra Dove / นกเขาชวา

Today's track at Wat Tha Krabue

eBird Report

Wat Tha Krabue (Tha Krabue Temple) vicinity, Samut Sakhon, TH Aug 16, 2020 08:38 - 09:12
Protocol: Traveling
3.91 kilometer(s)
Checklist Comments: Area with fruit tree orchards and there are many birds in the area. There are wetlands as well. Many in the orchards but hard to get pictures and I need pictures to be able to ID most of the birds.
13 species

Spotted Dove 1
Zebra Dove 8 Two birds on a wire huffin' and puffin' making sounds while the tail goes up and down. As soon as I had my video camera ready they stopped.
Asian Koel 1 Heard only
White-breasted Waterhen 1 Foraging in the reeds along to dirt road
Red-wattled Lapwing 4
Little Egret 2
Javan Pond Heron 1
Indochinese Roller 2
Malaysian Pied-Fantail 6 Looks to look for breeding partners
Plain Prinia 1
Common Myna 3
Great Myna 2
Oriental Magpie-Robin 3

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S72453267

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

We leave the Wat Tha Krabue to look for the next eBird hotspot: Thong Sima Memorial Park vicinityAccording to the GPS it is about 15 minutes to go. We end up in yet another coconut / mango plantation and fruit orchard area.

I spot a Greater Coucal under the coconut palms and we spot one female sunbird. Beautiful when eating from the pink flower. Female so I could not ID but I am almost sure it is a Olive-backed because of the white in the tail.

Pond Heron, almost in full winter plumage so not possible to ID

Greater Coucal, Crow Pheasant, Centropus sinensis, นกกระปูดใหญ่

Greater Coucal / นกกระปูดใหญ่

Female Sunbird that I cannot ID

Beautiful when eating from the pink flower. Female so I could not ID but I am almost sure it is a Olive-backed because of the white in the tail

Female Sunbird that I cannot ID

Beautiful when eating from the pink flower. Female so I could not ID but I am almost sure it is a Olive-backed because of the white in the tail

Female Sunbird that I cannot ID

Beautiful when eating from the pink flower. Female so I could not ID but I am almost sure it is a Olive-backed because of the white in the tail

Today's track at Thong Sima Memorial Park vicinity

eBird Report

Thong Sima Memorial Park vicinity, Samut Sakhon, TH Aug 16, 2020 09:27 - 09:51
Protocol: Traveling
2.2 kilometer(s)
Checklist Comments: I could not see any "memorial" Area with fruit tree orchards and dirt roads to drive between fruit farms
5 species (+2 other taxa)

Greater Coucal 1 Red eyes so I ID as Greater Coucal. Spotted the bird in the cover of the leafs in a coconut farm
Asian Openbill 1
pond heron sp. 1 Winter plumage so not possible to give proper ID
Malaysian Pied-Fantail 1
Oriental Magpie-Robin 1
Olive-backed Sunbird 2
sunbird sp. 1 Beautiful when eating from the pink flower. Female so I could not ID but I am almost sure it is a Olive-backed because of the white in the tail

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S72454244

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

Next stop as another temple, the eBird hotspot: Wat Krachom Thong (Krachom Thong Temple) vicinityand it is a couple of minutes to drive. We enter the gate to the temple and I am surprised to discover quite a big area. On the west side there is a river and the east and north border to farm land. The road is outside the wall on the south side.

The part next to the river is green with big trees. The eastern part is kind of a field and there are cattle and Cattle Egrets along the trees making up the eastern border to the farm land.

Juvenile Eurasian Tree Sparrow with mites

Cattle and Cattle Egrets

Green-billed Malkoha, Phaenicophaeus tristis, นกบั้งรอกใหญ่

Green-billed Malkoha / นกบั้งรอกใหญ่

Asian Openbill Stork, Anastomus oscitans, นกปากห่าง

Asian Openbill Stork / นกปากห่าง

Sitting in the car spying on birds flying in and out from the tree and suddenly there is one Green-billed Malkoha flying by landing in a big tree. I threw myself out of the car and I start to follow the bird. At first the bird played hard to get, but after a while the bird let me come close to get pictures.

In the next tree I see plenty birds, Olive-backed Sunbirds but no pictures as the birds was moving about non-stop.

Today's track at Wat Krachom Thong

eBird Report

Wat Krachom Thong (Krachom Thong Temple) vicinity, Samut Sakhon, TH Aug 16, 2020 10:04 - 10:53
Protocol: Traveling
1.25 kilometer(s)
Checklist Comments: A temple area with many birds. Temple next to a river
15 species

Feral Pigeon 13
Red Collared Dove 1
Zebra Dove 1
Green-billed Malkoha 1
Asian Openbill 6 Five Flying, soaring very high like raptor. This how I discovered that is was Asian Openbills trying to take picture for Raptor ID
Cattle Egret 3
Indochinese Roller 1
Coppersmith Barbet 1 Sitting in a tree far away so not ID until back home with my computer
Malaysian Pied-Fantail 1
Streak-eared Bulbul 1 Looks to have nest I hear baby but not visible in the dense foligage
Common Myna 3
Great Myna 9
Oriental Magpie-Robin 1
Olive-backed Sunbird 10
Eurasian Tree Sparrow 1

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S72455324

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

We leave the Wat Krachom Thong driving towards the next eBird hotspot: Wat Nong Song Hong (Nong Song Hong Temple) vicinityand it was yet another short trip. We entered the temple area from the street through the village. A huge parking and nothing else and we realised that we had to go behind the temple.

We pass a grave yard and we had farm land on the other side of the road. We drive until we reach a seafood farm where we make a U-turn. The only thing excited we saw was a Plain Prinia couple building a nest next to the road. I will not bother to come back here again to look for birds.

Today's track at Wat Nong Song Hong

eBird Report

Wat Nong Song Hong (Nong Song Hong Temple) vicinity, Samut Sakhon, TH Aug 16, 2020 11:08 - 11:29
Protocol: Traveling
1.27 kilometer(s)
Checklist Comments: You have to get behind the temple to look for birds in the farm lands. There is also sea food farms behind the temple.
10 species

Feral Pigeon 20 All of the pigeons seen on the parking lot in front of the temple.
Red Collared Dove 2
Zebra Dove 5
Asian Koel 1 Heard only
Indochinese Roller 1
Plain Prinia 2 One couple busy building a nest next to the road
Streak-eared Bulbul 1
Common Myna 3
Great Myna 1
Oriental Magpie-Robin 1

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S72455811

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

Next eBird hotspot: on the trip is Lak Ha, and the hotspot is in the town of Lak Ha. We end up at the temple and there is not too much birds. The only excitements was a puddle on the gravel road where I was lucky to catch a few Scaly-breasted Munias enjoying the water. Always nice to watch birds bathing.

We left for the last stop on our day trip. Crossing the bridge reaching the parking and there was a group of Eurasian Tree Sparrows. Some of the birds looked redish and I tried to get a picture. Like the Silverbills I had observed in Dubai. My Guide told me that the immigrant workers paint some of the birds during religious festivals.

Not easy to get pictures of the always moving birds.

Today's track at Lak Ha, Ratchaburi

eBird Report

Lak Ha, Ratchaburi, TH Aug 16, 2020 11:51 - 12:18
Protocol: Traveling
1.34 kilometer(s)
Checklist Comments: Hotspot in the town of Lak Ha. Bathroom behind the temple with some birds.
7 species

Feral Pigeon 7
Zebra Dove 1
Malaysian Pied-Fantail 1
Common Myna 2
Great Myna 5
Scaly-breasted Munia 4 A group of Scaly-breasted Munias bathing in puddle
Eurasian Tree Sparrow 15 Some looked to have been painted red. Same as I saw Silver-bills have been painted in Dubai. In Dubai it was the guest workers doing it during religious festivals.

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S72456320

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

We have the eBird hotspot: Rong Khe10 minutes south of Lak Ha driving along the canal. We stop at the temple but there is really not much to see at the temple. There is a field south of the temple with some birds and south of the field there is a paved road taking you to the sea food farms behind the temple.

The most exciting bird was a Tailorbird that I have not seen in a very long time. A beautiful bird sitting just next to the car, but the pictures turned out to be nothing but bad.

Today's track at Rong Khe, Samut Sakhon

eBird Report

Rong Khe, Samut Sakhon, TH Aug 16, 2020 12:28 - 13:05
Protocol: Traveling
4.07 kilometer(s)
Checklist Comments: Rong Khe is a temple with some birds in the fields. We spent the time around the shrimp farms behind the temple
12 species

Feral Pigeon 20 Only seen at the temple area
Zebra Dove 5
Asian Openbill 3
Little Egret 1
Javan Pond Heron 4 Starting to come in to winter plumage
Common Tailorbird 1 Singing next to the road jumping around in a small bush
Plain Prinia 2
Common Myna 1
Great Myna 6
Asian Golden Weaver 4 Building nests along the road
Scaly-breasted Munia 5
Eurasian Tree Sparrow 3

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S72456754

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

We drove back to Bangkok and I already know where my next bird watching adventure will take me. Back to Bangkok's Green Lung. Click HERE to find out if I discover any excitements.

You are visitor no.

To www.aladdin.st since December 2005

Visitors from different countries since 26th of September 2011

Mobilize your Site

View Site in Mobile | Classic