Birding/ Bird watching at Ancient City, Bangkok

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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

Friday 23 ^rd of June 2023 and I was a wee bit disappointed that the Ancient City is not open until 9 o'clock. A little set-back as I wanted to catch the early birds. This will be my second visit to the Ancient City (เมืองโบราณ)

My last visit was back in February 2015 and you can click HERE to check out that adventure HERE . 8 years ago, and time have really turned fast.

I will meet my friend at 9 thirty and I arrived 20 minutes past 9 o'clock. We will rent a golf cart and drive around the area to look for birds.

I arrive to the Ancient City, เมืองโบราณ

My friend arrived and we went to pick up our golf cart. I cannot remember they having golf carts the last time I was here. But now they have, 350฿ for the first hour and then 100฿ per hour and this was an obvious option.

Sneaking up on the birds with the golf cart and I hope to get close to the birds, and of course, walking around in the blazing heat would not be so nice.

We are ready for the birding adventure

We took off with screamin' and smokin' tyres full of enthusiasm and the area looked to have been undergone a real facelift. I remember the place as run down but now it was looking very nice and it was a beautiful area.

My friend was driving and I was stand-by to take pictures if we see any birds.

The first bird we see , well, it is actually my friend pointing out the bird. We stop under the tree and we can see that it is a Streak-eared Bulbul but no picture as the bird are hiding in the tree. We stop to show our tickets and I try to get a few pictures of some Eurasian Tree-sparrows.

Malaysian Pied-fantail and this was the bird I got the first picture off that I could use.

Malaysian Pied-fantail

Zebra Dove

Streak-eared Bulbul

Streak-eared Bulbul

Spotted Dove

Female Small Minivet / นกพญาไฟเล็ก

Female Small Minivet / นกพญาไฟเล็ก

Male Small Minivet / นกพญาไฟเล็ก

Male Small Minivet / นกพญาไฟเล็ก

Male Small Minivet / นกพญาไฟเล็ก

Male Small Minivet / นกพญาไฟเล็ก

My friend spotted a colourful bird in the tree next to us when I was taking pictures of some doves. Turned out to be a Small Minivet couple and I got out to try to get some pictures.

We continue along the paths and we are soon discovering that we have to go back to the small bridge again. Just enough space for the golf cart to be able to make it over the bridge.

Looks like we are in some kind of maintenance area so we have to go back in order to explore the rest of the Ancient City, เมืองโบราณ.

Driving back to the bridge and I spot a Yellow Bittern but the bird takes off when I get out of the golf cart. I got a poor picture of the bird in flight, but good enough for an ID when I come back home to my birding book.

Back over the bridge and I took my seat in the golf cart again and we drove north passing The Royal Water Course Procession. There is a lot of the old Thai styled boats in the canal and they call it the Royal Water Course Procession. Models of course, but if you want to go see the real thing you can see them in Bangkok.

How to kill a day in Bangkok #10, click HERE to find out all about the Royal Barges, at least how it was back in February 2015.

The Royal Water Course Procession

The late Ayutthaya became rich and well-known among foreigners as one of the important trade cities in Southeast Asia. To celebrate prosperity and dignity of the kingdom, many State ceremonies and artistic work were created.

A group of royal barges were also initiated on occasion. The royal barges adapted form war ships, were used in many important State ceremonies such as the reception of the royal guests and the royal procession welcoming diplomats and carrying royal letters or commands. Some other royal processions were also held in special royal ceremonies.

The most extraordinary royal processions were held when the king went to pay homage to the Buddha 's Footprints in Saraburi and when he performed rites the Rain Festival. The great grand royal barge processions were witnessed by both Thai and foreign audiences.

The procession exhibited at Muang Boran is painstakingly Constructed based on real barges which have been used since the late Ayutthaya period. While the construction of the grace full barges has proved the prosperity of the long-established Siamese civilization, the barges reflect the traditional Thai Way of life which relied very much on public waterways rivers and Canals.

From https://www.muangboranmuseum.com

Driving by The Royal Water Course Procession

We drive to the Mondop of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvar and there is a beautiful garden with streams. The area was very beautiful area and we stopped to get out to look for birds in the garden.

Beautiful garden and I was soon spotting on Plain Prinia in the grass next to the water and I tried to get some pictures. I continued towards the lake behind the garden to see if I could see any egrets or herons.

No egrets or herons but I spotted a bunch of Scaly-breasted Munia sitting on the wire above me and I tried to get some pictures of the birds.

Red Collared Dove

Plain Prinia

Scaly-breasted Munia

Scaly-breasted Munia

Mondop of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvar

Garden at Mondop of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvar

We get back to the golf cart and we cross the road to buy some water. We have cup holders in the golf cart so we keep the water there and we drive down to the water front as I spotted two terns flying over the Royal Water Course Procession.

I never got any pictures and the birds was too far away for any ID. But I could see that the terns had black bellies so I knew the ID, Whiskered Terns.

We spotted one more Plain Prinia flying between the heads of the royal barges.

Plain Prinia

Plain Prinia

We continue north and at the Botanical Garden from Thai Literature the road turn to the right across a bridge. But we turn left and we are getting off road to see if we can find any exciting birds in the wilderness.

It starts good but my friend is soon having to get out to clear the path so we can get deeper in to the wilderness. And lucky he went out as we were soon spotting one Striated Heron on a branch looking for fish in the lake.

It was a very difficult picture to take as the bird was far away and I could only see the bird between the branches, twigs and leaf’s.

Clearing the “jungle” path

Clearing the “jungle” path

Clearing the “jungle” path

Clearing the “jungle” path

Striated Heron

We are soon turning around as the path disappears and we really don't want to get stuck in the middle of nowhere. So, we turned around and we drove back and we crossed the bridge and we saw some Scarlet-backed Flowerpeckers and we had one baby Red-wattled Lapwing.

The bird has just left the parents and was now by itself and will be so until it is old enough to have eggs. We looked at the bird and it could not walk properly.

Right leg deformed and the bird could not walk properly. But it could fly. I checked the leg through my lens to see if it was stuck in something, but the leg was clear and the bird could fly away.

Red-wattled Lapwing

Thai Junk

Plain Prinia

We saw a Plain Prinia and we were looking out for the Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker as I really wanted a picture of the beautiful red and black bird. But there was no opportunity so we continued along the road. We passed some kind of garbage dump and we turned left to check it out.

We came out on another path going along the north side of Ancient City, เมืองโบราณ. And we spotted quite a few birds, there was an Asian Openbill and two Blue-tailed Bee-eaters. We continued and we flushed six night herons from the trees.

I spotted two weavers and I did not know what weaver it was, but I suspected it to be a Golden Weaver and I had help from the birdforum to confirm my ID.

We stop to have a look for birds

We stop to have a look for birds

Asian Openbill

Asian Golden Weaver

Asian Golden Weaver

The Garden of Pha Daeng-Nang Ai

Phra That Narai Cheng Weng

We leave the wilderness and garbage dump behind and drive along the canal expecting to see many birds. We have seen exactly ZERO egrets today, a little surprising even though they are busy attending babies in their nests.

There was one young Blue-tailed Bee-eater sitting on the wire along the canal. There were of course doves sitting on the wire, but we could not see any exciting birds on our way to The Garden of Pha Daeng-Nang Ai and the Phra That Narai Cheng Weng.

Reaching the Lan Chang Styled Scripture Repository and I made a recording of a bird that I could not see. Sitting in the tree above us and I will send the sound file to birdforum and xeno-canto to see if any of the members know what bird it is.

I was lucky to take interest in a sparrow, turned out to be a Plain-backed Sparrow and not a tree sparrow. The Plain-backed Sparrow have never been reported here before.

Blue-tailed Bee-eater

Listen to the

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Remarks from the Recordist

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

I am almost sure it is a Oriental Magpie Robin

ID under discussion

This recording was uploaded as a mystery recording. If you can help identify the species in this recording, please contribute to the discussion on the forum.

Related Forum Topics

The following forum topics may have additional information or discussions about this recording:

56388. ID Unknown from Thailand (XC811002)

Plain-backed Sparrow / นกกระจอกตาล

Plain-backed Sparrow / นกกระจอกตาล

Plain-backed Sparrow / นกกระจอกตาล

Three hours have passed very quickly, actually so quick I was surprised when I looked at my wrist watch. We started to drive towards the exit even though there was much more to explore in the Ancient City (เมืองโบราณ)

It is getting very hot and it was also tea time so we decided to leave. We passed another garbage area and we went to check it out. We spotted three baby Asian Koels and there were many birds in the trees and bushes around the area.

Reaching the garbage area and we discover a lot of garbage and a huge burner that looked to be unattended and it was thick smoke coming out from the burner. Looked like they had just filled it and there was not enough oxygen to make a fire.

So instead of the garbage turning in to heat the solid garbage was just turning in to smoke so we all have to get the garbage in to our lungs. Burning garbage require a very high temperature.

Baby Asian Koel / นกกาเหว่า

Baby Asian Koel / นกกาเหว่า

Yellow-vented Bulbul

Plain Prinia

Plain Prinia

Plain Prinia

Plain Prinia

Yellow-vented Bulbul

Yellow-vented Bulbul

Red-wattled Lapwing

eBird Report

Mueang Boran (The Ancient City), Samut Prakan, TH
Jun 23, 2023 09:39 - 13:20
Protocol: Traveling
10.26 kilometer(s)
27 species

Feral Pigeon 3
Red Collared Dove 1
Spotted Dove 1
Zebra Dove 36
Greater Coucal 1
Asian Koel 3   Three babies
Red-wattled Lapwing 3
Whiskered Tern 2   Too far away for any pictures, ID by the help of the black belly
Asian Openbill 1
Yellow Bittern 2
Striated Heron 2
Black-crowned Night-Heron 6   All sleeping together. Flushed when I came and they took off
Blue-tailed Bee-eater 3   Thanks to Bewick at birdforum for help with the ID
Coppersmith Barbet X   Heard only
Small Minivet 4
Malaysian Pied-Fantail 21   Flirting
Plain Prinia 4
Yellow-vented Bulbul 2
Streak-eared Bulbul 5
Common Myna 18
Great Myna 11
Oriental Magpie-Robin 10
Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker 2
Asian Golden Weaver 2
Scaly-breasted Munia 6
Plain-backed Sparrow 1
Eurasian Tree Sparrow 34

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S142417298

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

Todays track at Ancient City, เมืองโบราณ

We returned the golf cart and I paid an additional 300฿ as we had had the golf cart for 4 hours.350฿ for the first hour and then an additional 100฿ per hour.

We took a taxi to S&P at Robinsons for some tea and no need for me to eat when I am coming back home, just my normal flaxseeds in the evening with some apple cider vinegar and C vitamin powder. Same routine every day.

Weekend and Chaiyasit Muay Thai Gym is closed on Sunday so I decided to go to Khao Yai National Park to have a look for birds. Not the right season for bird watching but I don't have anything better to do on Sunday. Click HERE to find out if there are any birds in Khao Yai.

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