Birding/ Bird watching in Thailand

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.

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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.

Birding/ Bird watching in Bangkok, Thailand

Wednesday 12 ^th of July 2023 and my friend went to buy worms yesterday. We have planned to go to the Pattaya bird hide and I want to bring some worms to put at the bird bath as some of the birds like to eat the worms.

I think Blue-winged Pitta, we see or hear it almost every time. It happens that it is coming to the bird bath but I have never been lucky to see it coming for a bath. So maybe todayHopefully

We left at 7 and we drove to the eBird hotspot: Lat Krabang--Thap Yao paddies & aquaculture ponds where I will start the bird watching and I started my eBird app at 08:19.

There was a lot of Asian Golden and Baya Weavers building nest and I am pretty sure it is for the second, or even third brood.

The Baya Weavers was building fresh extensions to their old nests so they will soon have more babies to take care of. I guess many of the openbills and egrets are ready and have kicked out their babies for this year as I spotted a whole lot of them.

Asian Golden Weaver / นกกระจาบทอง

Asian Golden Weaver / นกกระจาบทอง

Baya Weaver building extensions on their nests

Little Cormorant / นกกาน้ำเล็ก

Malaysian Pied Fantail / นกอีแพรดแถบอกดำ

Plain Prinia / นกกระจิบหญ้าสีเรียบ

We drive between the paddies until we reach the ponds and we make a U-turn to go back to the paved road. There were not so many birds and we were soon programming the GPS with the next birding spot: Nong Chok--Khlong 12 ponds, paddies & reedbeds

I restarted the eBird app at 09:57 and we drove around for an hour before we left for the Pattaya Bird Hide at Wat Tham Prathun as it is almost 2 hours to get there.

Zitting Cisticola / นกยอดข้าวหางแพนลาย

We leave Nong Chok behind and as we are in the middle of nowhere so it took us quite a while to get to the motorway to Chon Buri. Reaching the Wat Tham Prathun and the set-backs hit us instantly, one after the other.

We saw one car arriving with us I would not be alone. Getting out of the car and I was told that the hide had collapsed due to heavy rain.

I met two bird watchers in the hide and they were sitting in the only part of the hide that could be used. We tried to raise the hide together and we managed to get it in a useable state. I put out the worms for the birds even though the other couple had put out worms already.

I did not fancy bringing the worms back home again and the birds can have a little something to munch on. There were people coming to have a look at the bird hide in order to get it repaired.

The bird hide has collapsed due to heavy rain

The first bird I spotted was the Sooty-headed Bulbul, two of them coming for a bath. I was a little surprised as there was a lot of people talking in the bird hide.

It was talking about birds, cameras and lenses, non-stop, and I was surprised that we had any birds showing up. Soon we had the normal birds showing up for a bath, the Black-crested Bulbul and the Racket-tailed Treepie.

And of course, the Malaysian Pied Fantail. I have seen the Malaysian Pied Fantail's nest next to the bird hide during previous visits, but this year I have not seen the nest. But the bird breed close by the bird hide.

Sooty-headed Bulbul / นกปรอดหัวสีเขม่า

Black-crested Bulbul / นกปรอดเหลืองหัวจุก

Racket-tailed Treepie / นกกาแวน

There was one Greater Racket-tailed Drongo landing in front of the bird hide. Sitting there calling loudly and I brought out my ZOOM H5 Handy Recorder to try to get a recording. But there is too much noise in the hide.

I was not so very happy as they went on and on about cameras and tripe. Something they could have discussed down at the pub.

The Greater Racket-tailed Drongo took off but it came back after a while and soon after that there was a young Greater Racket-tailed Drongo next to the adult.

The adult Greater Racket-tailed Drongo dive down to get a worm and it is soon back to feed the young bird that was the same size of an adult.

Greater Racket-tailed Drongo / นกแซงแซวหางบ่วงใหญ่

Greater Racket-tailed Drongo / นกแซงแซวหางบ่วงใหญ่

Greater Racket-tailed Drongo / นกแซงแซวหางบ่วงใหญ่

Greater Racket-tailed Drongo / นกแซงแซวหางบ่วงใหญ่

Greater Racket-tailed Drongo / นกแซงแซวหางบ่วงใหญ่

Greater Racket-tailed Drongo / นกแซงแซวหางบ่วงใหญ่

Black-headed Bulbul / นกปรอดทอง

White-rumped Munia / นกกระติ๊ดตะโพกขาว

There is a lot of noise in the bird hide and I decide to leave. We get back to the taxi and we leave Wat Tham Prathun to go back to Bangkok.

We call our friend in Samut Prakan and we decide to stop by at his house for some BBQ dinner. No exercise today so I can as well have a little something to eat. I ask my friend to set up the grill on the street and he had never experienced BBQ on the street before.

But I talked him in to it and we were soon firing up the BBQ for all the neighbours to see.

Firing up the BBQ

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Thursday 13 ^th of July 2023 and I take off at 8 thirty, I am a little late to leave for the Chaiyasit Muay Thai Gym. I will start with an hour of yoga before I do my 10 rounds with The Red Devil (ปีศาจแดง ก.กุมานน)

My friend has been talking about a cafe close to Safari World and he have been talking like there was hippos and crocodiles on the lose around the cafe.
- And there are many birds! He said.

So we drove there after the session at Chaiyasit Muay Thai Gym and even though we are in Bangkok we ended up in pure wilderness.

And we found the cafe, beautifully located next to a canal. Plenty reeds across the river so this would be a place where you would expect to see hippos, elephants and crocodiles if we would have been in Africa.

We parked the car at the cafe “Antika Safari” and we went inside to see if they had any tea. I was sitting outside enjoying the beautiful view while my friend went to investigate the tea option.

We arrive to Antika Safari

Antika Safari

Antika Safari

Antika Safari

My friend come back and he inform me about the tea status. They do not have Earl Grey but they have something they call “cherry” tea. He asked if I want to try the cherry tea.
- Yeah, why not? Let’s go crazy!

Sitting outside on the veranda looking over the river, well, it looked like a river, might also be a pond. It is a beautiful place and I had given it 5 stars. Anyway, 5 stars turned to 4 when they did not have Earl Grey tea.

We were sitting there looking at the birds flying back and forth when there was a BUZZ from my friend’s pocket. He brought out a disc, signal that our tea was ready and my friend had to go to pick up the tea. Now there was only 3 out of the original 5 stars remaining.

Bringing the tea

Time to leave Antika Safari

Time to leave Antika Safari

We leave Antika Safari and we are getting hungry, usually, I go straight back home from Chaiyasit Muay Thai Gym to have tea and salad. So, we decided to go have some salmon and we choose the restaurant next to the Japanese shop, Food Promart (ฟู้ดโปรมาร์ท คู้บอน)

We stopped to buy egg on the way and I usually buy size 0, the biggest eggs, and I think #4 is the smallest size of chicken eggs.

Now I discover something I had never seen before, JUMBO, size X0 so of course, I buy these instead. I bought 30 eggs and I paid 150฿ and we left for the Japanese supermarket.

XO size

Food Promart (ฟู้ดโปรมาร์ท คู้บอน), is a small supermarket and they sell sashimi and I ordered one kilo that I will enjoy during the weekend. We went next door to Kingsalmon to have some sushi while waiting for them to make my sashimi.

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Friday 14 ^th of July 2023 and I decided to go for a session at Chaiyasit Muay Thai Gym. Not feelinglike going to look for birds and I will not do any yoga until tomorrow. But I decided to go anyway and I booked a taxi.

We do 10 rounds and we decide to go to another cafe that my friend have been talking about for a while. As I understand it is a cafe with a garden and there are birds, no hippos though. So, we took off towards the Botanist Cafe/ Tropical Garden and we stopped to pick up a friend of my friend.

I had expected a coffee shop, and well, it was. But my friend had in mind to walk around while drinking our refreshments. They did not have any hot tea so we got some kind of green tea in a plastic cup with a straw.

I finished my drink before we left for the garden, but my friends brought their drinks. We went to the second floor and we went out to some kind of canopy walk. I had not brought my glasses so it was not easy to see any birds.

Exploring the Botanist Cafe/ Tropical Garden

We spot a group of White-rumped Munias, I could see them all over the garden. A gorgeous area and I was happy until I discovered that they had cage birds in the garden.

The cage birds were a disappointment and I will not come back again. But we spotted some birds before we left and I made an eBird app and I counted 8 different species plus one sunbird that I could not ID.

The last bird I recorded was one Malaysian Pied Fantail before we walked back to the car.

eBird Report

Botanist Cafe/ Tropical Garden, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon [Bangkok], TH
Jul 14, 2023 11:44 - 12:16
Protocol: Traveling
0.32 kilometer(s)
8 species (+1 other taxa)

Zebra Dove 2
Malaysian Pied-Fantail 1
Dark-necked Tailorbird 2   Looks like a pair
Streak-eared Bulbul 1
Common Myna 5
Oriental Magpie-Robin 2
sunbird sp. 1   Female and I did not have my glasses so no proper ID. Olive-backed or Brown-throated
White-rumped Munia 9   Many on them in the garden
Eurasian Tree Sparrow 25

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S144480273

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

We dropped our friend and we drove to Fashion Island to go have BBQ at our favourite restaurant. We went to Big-C first to buy a couple of bottles MAX to enjoy with the food.

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Sunday 16 ^th of July 2023 and I skipped my birding plans, I had checked a few golf courses, but it was not allowed to rent a golf cart just for bird watching.

So I decided to get down to Silom Road (ถนน สีลม) to visit the Maha Mariamman Temple (วัดพระศรีมหาอุมาเทวี) known as the “Indian Temple”(วัดแขก).

I took a taxi and I got out at the temple and there was a lot of shops selling flowers and things to offer for the Gods at the Maha Mariamman Temple (วัดพระศรีมหาอุมาเทวี) I did not buy any offerings and I went to the entrance from the Silom Road (ถนน สีลม)

I discovered later on that the gate at Silom Road is the small entrance. Main entrance is from the Pan Road (ถนนปั้น) At least it is a bigger gate.

Shops selling “offerings”

Crossing the Pan Road (ถนนปั้น) to get to the temple

Shops selling “offerings”

Of course, selling lottery tickets

Of course, there are vendors selling lottery tickets outside the gate. Give offerings to the Godswith a prayer and then get out to buy a lottery tickets with all the new “luck” obtained in the temple.

Same at all the temples I have been visiting in Thailand. People were buying lottery tickets, strange, same routine twice per month and even though they had never won they don't giveup. Good, the vendors are making money. The temple makes money and the shops selling“offerings” are making money.

And of course, the visitors are losing money, but they feel good so it is a “win win” situation. Anyway, I left the lottery vendors and I got in through the gate from Silom Road (ถนน สีลม) and I spotted a amulet and idol shop just inside the gate.

The gate at Silom Road (ถนน สีลม)

Inside the gate

Amulet shop

I was happy to see the amulet shop and I was looking forward to have a look at the Ganesh (พระพิฆเนศ) amulets and idols. I don't take more than two steps before the security guard tells me that I need to wear a mask.

I was surprised, the covid hoax, I had almost forgot all about it. But I was abruptly reminded about the covid and I looked around, most of the visitors was wearing a mask, but it looked like most of them was wearing it around the chin.

Well, I saved some money that I could not spend at the amulet shop and I turned around and I walked out to Silom Road again. I walked down the Pan Road (ถนนปั้น) to have a look in the shops selling “holy” things.

Maha Mariamman Temple from the Pan Road (ถนนปั้น)

Maha Mariamman Temple from the Pan Road (ถนนปั้น)

I see two guys getting in to the temple at the gate on Pan Road, they did not wear any masks but the security woke up when I entered and he pointed out that I needed a mask. Never mind, I had seen what I wanted to see and I went to check out the shops along the Pan Road.

Many shops selling the flowers but there were also a few shops selling Indian idols and I went inside to have a look. There were so many different Ganesh (พระพิฆเนศ) idols, of course, much crap as well. A couple of years ago and I would have bought some of the idols.

But since I meet my friend on Rita Maersk, I have learned that it is not just to go buy any amulets and idols. The amulets and idols must have been blessed by a holy person. I usually buy a Ganesh every time I am in India.

This was not good enough for my friend and we brought all my Ganesh to “Mama God” We remember when I did the “Ganesh eyes opening ceremony, พิธีเบิกเนตรคเณชา” earlier this year, just click HERE if you need a reminder.

Ganesh (พระพิฆเนศ) idols

Ganesh (พระพิฆเนศ) idols

Ganesh (พระพิฆเนศ) idols

I took a taxi to Central Rama 9 and I had an ice cream, something I had not have for a very long time. Well, at least a couple of days.

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Wednesday 19 ^th of July 2023 and I went to Chaiyasit Muay Thai Gym even though I had no yoga until tomorrow. They came to repair my AC Monday morning so no exercise and yoga in the morning. I did one session Monday afternoon.

My diet has not been as successful as I had been hoping for so I need to get to the gym as much as possible. We went for a foot massage after the gym and it was a very good foot massage. We have been at the other shops in the area but we have not been happy.

We searched the internet and we found this place, Reuan Home Thai Spa (เรือนไทยสปา) not far away from the gym, just a couple of minutes’ drive.

African Sacred Ibis

We want to drink some tea and we decide to go home to my friend to have some tea. We stop at the Legacy Golf Course to see if it was possible to rent a golf cart to look for birds. I spotted two African Sacred Ibis on our way to the club house.

I asked my friend to stop and to put the car in reverse. I started my eBird app and I discover that the African Sacred Ibis had never been reported here before. I found it strange as I am pretty sure that I have reported the bird before.

No camera, but I wanted to have a picture for the eBird if I run in to any discussion about the bird. So I had to use my phone and the picture turned out very nice and I was surprised.

Of course, back home on the computer I see that it is a terrible picture, but we can see that it is a African Sacred Ibis

Time to eat pork

We decided to stop to buy some meat on the way to my friend's house. I thought that we were going to do some BBQ but it turned out that he was cooking in his kitchen. But the food was good and we flushed down the food with a pot of Earl Grey tea.

We enjoyed ourselves on my friend's veranda before we took off towards the gym. We passed a pick-up truck with a sign: AVOCADO 100฿ FOR 3 and I asked my friend to stop. He put the car in reverse and we got back to check out the avocados.

They looked really good and they had a deal, 10 kg for 300฿

Thai avocado for sale

Thai avocado for sale

Buying avocado

10 kg 300฿

We bought 10kg and we paid 150฿ each, 10 kg would be too much as it would be hard to eat themall when they are ripe in a couple of days. 5 kg will be hard enough, but I will give it a very good try.

We drove back to the gym and I took a taxi back home. No walking tonight as they will come to repair my new AC, and now I have lost track on how many times they have been here. First time it worked for three days, second time it worked for two weeks.

And they were here last Monday and it broke down yesterday again after one day. The gas is leaking and the AC stops.

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Friday 21 ^st of July 2023 and I bought the video editing program DaVinchi Resolve Studio. I havetrained with the free version for a couple of days and I decided to buy the full studio version. So I need to get out to get some videos.

But I cannot walk, so no bird watching and no eveningconstitutionals. I woke up with pain in my right foot after the massage and I could hardly make it to Chaiyasit Muay Thai Gym.

But I did one hour of yoga and 10 rounds with The Red Devil (ปีศาจแดง ก.กุมานนท์) before I limped back home. The foot got better but still not possible to go for any constitutional. But I had time for training with my new video program.

And today the foot was good enough to go make BBQ with my friend.

I fire up the new BBQ

Food is looking good

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Saturday 22 ^nd of July 2023 and I go to take some videos at the Srinakharinwirot University to see if I could get some videos of the birds, there are always some mynas and pigeons. Not very exciting but I get some video training.

And if there is no birds, there are the football going on so I was pretty sure to have some “action” video when I am back home.

I reached the Srinakharinwirot University and the sky turned black and it was soon starting torain. I got a whole lot of videos but there was not much I could dowith them. But I got some training with my new DaVinchi Resolve Studio video program.

But there is nothing that I will keep. But I got a recording of a Eurasian Tree Sparrow and I also spotted one Black-naped Oriole. A bird that I have not seen for a very long time and I tried to get a video of the bird. Again, I need more training.

And thanks to the Black-naped Oriole I got a little eBird checklist out of my video training. I got stuck in a shelter walking back home as it started to pour down.

I took some bird videos of some birds foraging in front of the shelter, but it was too dark for any of them to be of any value.

Listen to the Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my mobile phone as I was here to practice taking video and I did not bring my ZOOM H5. High Pass Filter Applied with Audacity

The bird was in the tree above me covered by the foliage. It looked like a begging baby flapping the wings. There were the same sound from the trees around me.

eBird Report

Srinakharinwirot University [Prasan Mit campus], Krung Thep Maha Nakhon [Bangkok], TH
Jul 22, 2023 17:24 - 18:36
Protocol: Traveling
1.19 kilometer(s)
7 species

Feral Pigeon 2
Spotted Dove 1
Black-naped Oriole 1
Common Myna 2
Great Myna 5
Oriental Magpie-Robin 1
Eurasian Tree Sparrow 5

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S145255904

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

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Sunday 23 ^rd of July 2023 and I was surprised that they delivered my new ProGrade Digital CFexpress 2.0 Type B Gold Memory Card, 512 GB for 8000 ฿ I need this fast memory card to take50 FPS or above videos.

I read a couple of tests online and this was one of the top ten cards. And 8000฿ was very cheap comparing to the other cards. I would like to have the SanDisk as everything I have is made my SanDisk.

But I don't want to spend 20000++ before I know if I will keep on doing this video thing.

Anyway, I changed the lens in my camera and I went out to try the new card for my videos. So I was quite excited when I walked down town looking for something to get on video.

I am on my way back home and I have decided to walk up Sukhumvit Soi 23 from the subway station. Coming out from Terminal 21 going towards the escalators down to the subway station and I can cross Asoke by walking under the road.

I hear someone screaming from the road and there are many people on the skywalk looking down at the Asoke/ Sukhumvit Intersection and it looks like they are about to get one protest up and running. I go down to check it out.

I discovered that they were setting up a protest, this time it is the colour orange. It is for the Move Forward Party (พรรคก้าวไกล) They got most votes at the last election, well, they got 36% votes, gaining 151 seats and became the biggest party in the House of Representatives.

The party is led by Pita Limjaroenrat (พิธา ลิ้มเจริญรัตน์) and MFP and seven other parties wanted to form a government with Pita as prime minister. The coalition have a majority in the lower house

But this is not enough to secure the premiership, the prime minister is elected by both the elected lower house and the military-appointed senate and the senate did not approve of Pita as PM. So here we go again with the protests.

I got a few videos and I was in a hurry to get back home to try my new DaVinci Resolve video editing program. Put it started to rain and I ended up having a food massage waiting for the rainto pass the area so I can walk back home.

My new Canon EOS R3 can handle some rain, but not so much so I can get in to the shower with the camera. So, a foot massage while waiting for the rain to pass was just what I needed. And the rain had come to an end when I was ready with the foot massage.

Back home and I checked Bangkok Post first thing to see if there was any news about the protest.

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Mpnday 24 ^th of July 2023 and I did a couple of short videos at Chaiyasit Muay Thai Gym. Trying different FPS with The Red Devil (ปีศาจแดง ก.กุมานนท์) and this will be an excellent way to train / practice with my camera and my new DaVinci Resolve video editing program.

And back home I started to do the video in DaVinci and it was a little confusing with the different FPS but I was soon getting the idea (I think)

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Saturday 28 ^th of July 2023 and I bring my camera to Chaiyasit Muay Thai Gym (ไชยสิทธิ์มวยไทยยิม) as I need some training videos, both for practice/ training with my Canon EOS R3 and my new video editing program DaVinci Resolve.

So I hope for some action videos with The Red Devil (ปีศาจแดง) and ครูหน่อย.

It is a 5 day holiday so I don't want to go birding. I would like some bird videos for practicing. And I want to bring my tripod to Pattaya bird hide. But there will most likely be a lot of people during the long holiday.

A wee bit bored editing videos from Chaiyasit Muay Thai Gym and I decided to take off to Cambodia after the long weekend for a couple of days bird watching in Siem Reap.

I booked 3 days with Cambodia Bird Guide Association (CBGA), I sent inquiry to two companies and these were the first to respond. Very quickly!

So I am looking forward to get some bird videos in Cambodia and a little bit of excitements around the old temples. Just click HERE to find out if I get any videos.

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