Pak Thale & Sandy Island

Our second full day of the 'Spoonful of Thailand' tour saw us leaving the lovely 'Fishermans Resort' hotel just after breakfast to head to the salt-pans of Pak Thale where we hoped to catch up with two more rarities in the form of Nordmanns Greenshank and Asiatic Dowitcher. Both are endangered and both winter in this area in comparatively small numbers. If finding Spoonbilled Sandpiper was like finding a needle in a field of hay these two are generally easier - only being a needle in a haystack! The flocks move around over the vast area of salt-pans so it's a case of stopping where ever you see birds and scanning the flocks or looking for carrier species such as Black-tailed Godwits. I was a bit chilled as I'd seen Nordmann's Greenshank along Cairns Esplanade in Australia whilst visiting a few years ago to dive the Great Barrier Reef and do some birding in the Daintree.

Dawn breaking over the salt-pans.

Fred Flintstones salt-pan buggy.

There were literally hundred of thousands of migratory waders in the area. Scanning through all the flocks waders and egrets Jay found a local rarity. A Chinese Egret. Superficially like a Little Egret but with a yellow bill. Another stop saw us looking at another uncommon bird - Black- headed Ibis - roosting alongside two Painted Storks.

Chinese Egret.

Black-faced Ibis with Painted Storks.

Painted Stork arriving at dawn.

Unlike the previous day where my eyes were fixed on the Spoon-billed Sandpiper to the extent that  I virtually ignored every other waders, apart from just a cursory glance, today I enjoyed sifting through the flocks and watching such UK scarcities as Broad-billed Sandpiper, Marsh Sandpiper and Black-winged Stilts.

Broad-billed Sandpiper

Marsh Sandpiper

Black-winged Stilt

Tibetan Sandplover

Eventually the needles in the haystack gave themselves up and we found flocks of Asiatic Dowitchers and Nordmann's Greenshank. We counted 26 Nordmann's Greenshanks in one flock which represents a good percentage of the world populations which is thought to number around 1000 birds.  The  Asiatic Dowitcher is a commoner bird with a global population thought to be in the region of 20,000 but a flock oof 80 is still a good number. Unfortunately both species were to far for photographs and by now the heat haze was making photography very difficult so I settled for a couple of phonescoped videos.

Once again the ground team led by Jab excelled themselves in the choice of lunch venue and we sat overlooking a small estuary whilst eating a superb meal before embarking on a boat trip down the estuary to Lem Phak Bia 'Sandy Island'.

Whilst eating lunch we had our first sighting of Black-capped  Kingfisher as it fished along the banks of the small tidal estuary adjacent to the restaurant.

After lunch we set off for our boat trip along the river to Sandy Island where one of the highlights was stopping off to see A colony of Lyles Fruitbats in the mangroves surrounding the estuary.

As we chugged sedately down stream  Collared Kingfishers hunted for mudskippers and other small fish from posts alongside us. 

The sandspit was full of birds. Lesser and Greater-crested Terns mingled with Caspian Terns whilst Greater Sandplovers ran along the tide edge with  Kentish Plovers. Highlight though was a pair of Slender-billed Gulls that showed well alongside the commoner Brown-headed Gulls.

That evening was to be our last at the Fishermans Resort and the following day we were taking in a few birding sites on the way to the Kaeng Krachan National Park.

Caspian & Greater-crested Terns with Brown-headed Gulls, Sandy Island