Spoonbilled Sandpiper was one of the birds I most wanted to see in the world ever since I'd seen an illustration one in a book years ago. This enigmatic little wader is critically endangered with only about 300 suspected still left in the wild. Breeding in the high arctic areas of Russia it winters in coastal Southeast Asia with Thailand being one of the few places where it can be seen regularly in the winter months. Its a very rare bird with only a few turning up each year to winter on the saltpans along with tens of thousands of other migratory waders including Tibetan Sandplover Greater Sandplover, Marsh Sandpiper, Broad-billed Sandpiper, Nordmann's Greenshank and Asiatic Dowitcher.
For years I'd been planning a trip around visiting our daughter and family in Australia but had never got round to doing anything about it. When I heard Alan Davies and Ruth Weaver were planning a trip earlier this year I enquired more about it - see here for more details about their company 'Birdwatching trips'. I've known Alan for quite a few years and he quickly replied to my expression of interest. With a visit to see our Australian family planed immediately after Christmas the birding gods aligned when Alan gave me the dates . It meant I could keep Jan happy by attending a couple of days of the Australian Open Tennis in Melbourne and fly directly to Bangkok whilst she flew home to the UK. I signed up!
Arriving in Bangkok several days before the official tour began I made my way to the Eastin Thanin Golf Resort Hotel that we were all meeting at. I'd visited Bangkok a few times with work over the years but had forgotten how busy the airport was and how bad the traffic could be during rush-hour. After the dry heat of Australia the humidity hit me like a hot wet flannel. With Alan arriving with Marc Hughes later that day we'd have a full days birding locally before the tour officially started.
Settled into our very comfortable rooms we birded around the resort grounds - although we weren't allowed on the golf course! Oriental Magpie Robins seemingly sang from every lamp post and squabbled around the gardens whilst painted Storks flew overhead and Streak-eared and Yellow-vented Bulbuls came down to the swimming pool to drink and Blue-tailed beeaters sallied over the golf course.
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| Blue-tailed Beeeater |
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| Oriental Magpie Robin |
The official tour started on the 20th of January and wit heveryone now arrived we met up with our guide, Jay, expert 'fixer' Jab and our two drivers early morning to head down to the salt pans at Khok Kham where a Spoonbilled Sandpiper had been seen as recently as the previous day. At this point I was feeling a bit apprehensive but I needn't have worried. As we pulled up the saltpans were teeming with birds but we spotted two distant photographers hunkered down intently looking at something. Alan immediately picked up a single Spoon-billed Sandpiper in his 'scope and the relief was almost overwhelming.
Once everyone had seen it distantly we moved it a bit closer taking in th spectacle of thousands of migratory waders. And there it was. In all its odd-shaped bill glory. One of the most enigmatic and rarest birds on the planet and a bird at the top of my most wanted bucket list.
An amazing and moving experience knowing that this little bird is still critically endangered despite the International efforts to try and halt the population decline.
Back to our hotel for the night, before exploring the saltpans at the Pak Thale Nature Reserve the next day, Alan, Marc & I set off to explore the nearby beach where we found the only White-headed and Malaysian Plovers we saw of the trip!
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