Back in the Field

The story this morning was being back out in the field. What joy! River Lapwing were on my mind and have been since the middle of May but I haven’t been able to check them out due to other commitments. They did not disappoint. In all likelihood there were eight on view this morning at Huay Mai Teng Reservoir, but the record will show only six as I saw one small cluster of six and I could not be sure if two I had seen earlier, several hundred yards aways, had joined this group or remained distinct. My gut reaction is the latter as I was not aware of any flight into the area of the cluster given these lapwing are quite distinctive in the air. That made the early start and the trip well worthwhile. But there were also Rainquail calling, heard but not seen, a distant airborne warble of a Small Pratincole; a Green-billed Malkoha was unusually confiding to such an extent that the streaking around its red eye patch was highly visible; a female Koel also caught my eye: a beautiful bird definitely one of the few which bucks the trend of the males in the aves kingdom being the eye catchers.

Evidence of Thailand’s current drought quandary was palpable – despite a fair amount of recent rain the reservoir level was the lowest I have ever seen. Let’s hope we get a lot more rain in the weeks ahead.