13 April 2009

13 April 2009 with Mr. Philip D. Round and Mr. Ike

     13 April 2009 with Mr. Philip D. Round, Thailand's premier ornithologist and author of "Birds of Thailand" and Mr. Ike Suriwong, author of www.phuketbirdwatching.com.

     We got a call from Ike saying that Phil was visiting Phuket for a morning's birding and wanted to visit Laem Moom Nai, where we have been seeing a lot of migratory birds recently.

      It was Songkran, Thailand's water throwing festival so we decided to leave our cameras at home. We met up at 7am and spent about ninety minutes on the headland.

     We didn't see many birds, probably because of the presence of a few migrating Sparrowhawks but it was an enjoyable time meeting Phil for the first time and showing him around our local birding patch.

     Highlights included a flock of starlings seen in the distance (probably Purple-backed) and a Crested Goshawk. The wintering Steppe Buzzard had left the previous week.

    Before we left we took some pictures of our small group and said our goodbyes. Hopefully Phil will visit again soon.

     ( The pictures of birds we show up it's not from this trip but from this area )

1.Crested Goshawk
2.Greater Coucal
3.Blue-eared Barbet
4.Grey-rumped Treeswift
5.Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrike
6.Black-crested Bulbul
7.Red-eyed Bulbul
8.Crow-billed Drongo
9.Greater Racket-tailed Drongo
10.Common Iora
11.Arctic Walbler
12.Brown-throated Sunbird
13.Starlings (probably Purple-backed)