Local

Pied or Jacobin Cuckoo is the bird of the moment with a number of recent sightings at Bueng Boraphet, Nakhon Sawan province  in central Thailand. In global terms it is far from being a rarity but in Thai terms it is a mega rarity with two records prior to this current bird. More pertinently one of these records was in Ratchaburi; Phil Round recently advised me of this and asked me to be on the look out for it. So this afternoon I went into the rice paddy and managed to flush one largish, long-tailed black and white bird which rapidly flew off before I could get any real sight of it; definitely wasn’t a Koel; I wonder…….. I had a brief glimpse two years ago in the same area and same time of the year of another largish and unrecognised black and white bird. Mmmmmm, I wonder…….will need to return!

The highlight for me was picking out four Wood Sandpipers still in breeding plumage. I can only presume these are early migrants attracted by the flooded rice paddy conditions; otherwise a Common Iora added a touch of green and yellow – not a bird I see a lot of despite its common status. Two sub-adult White-breasted Waterhens were also being very playful; lots of Blue-tailed Bee-eaters. As evening approached lots of Black-crowned Night-herons could be seen in the sky. A really nice couple of hours.