Watercocks

Two watercocks were out in the open this evening in the Ratchaburi rice paddy. Since Wednesday’s Black Baza invasion there’s been a spring in our steps with every bird attracting our attention. Watercocks are residents as opposed to migrants and they are generally not very showy birds usually well concealed by  rice plants and normally only visible when they fly. They do not appear to be as common as once so it was nice to see this pair in the mud.

There have been no new Black Bazas since Wednesday but the whole experience of seeing those birds underlines the fascination of bird watching for me. First of all there’s the connection with the natural world and specifically migration: this is peak period for many species to be on the move during which they often cover astonishing distances. The second element arises from this: during migration anything can quite literally fall out of the sky and it is this chance element, of being in the right place at the right time, that throws up so many exciting possibilities. We were so lucky to be where we were at that particular time on Wednesday evening when the bazas came down. But Black Bazas were the last thing I was expecting to see !