Where are The River Lapwing?

I made it to Huay Mai Teng Reservoir on my own this afternoon but sadly no River Lapwing. A brief visit a couple of Saturdays ago, unblogged, also failed to deliver this species. Too early yet to say the lapwing have failed to return: I am still fairly immobile so can’t walk into the most likely area; it’s also too risky to drive in as the track is very wet. So I won’t be writing off River Lapwing until I can get into this area by foot. I also think I need to get to the site for first light as I have consistently seen them in the launch area at the start of the day.

I didn’t sight any Rain Quail today but heard plenty of them all over the site. A male Barred Buttonquail did show for a few seconds. Lots of Indochinese Bushlarks – they also seem to be quite confiding. All the usual suspects including a Green-billed Malkoha and three Small Pratincoles; one juvenile Oriental Pratincole, a Yellow Bittern, a fair few Plain-backed Sparrows, a Pied Kingfisher and a Lesser Coucal.

For me a joy to be out in the warmth of the afternoon; sunshine, or rather sunny intervals, but no rain. Simply getting out birding on my own was a huge achievement. My foot is healing well: the wound site still has a bit of a scab on it and it  still swells a bit when I am upright for too long. However the wound is closed. Time and patience now plus a little common sense! ( With a long weekend coming next week I was reviewing the possibility of a nine hour drive south to Krung Ching – a  completely crazy scheme, because I have no doubt that once I am there I will have to do some walking and I think my limit is about 15 minutes! Perhaps Kaeng Krachan might be less testing or even Laem Pak Bia! ) Probably be a couple of months until I am firing on all cylinders.