Phuket, Thailand

After a 3.5 hour flight from Hong Kong we arrived late in the evening to our hotel, Indigo Pearl.

It is always difficult arriving late as you do not get any perspective but although it was 2am before we got to bed I was up at 6.30 for my first mornings birding. I spent an hour and half every morning birding and has one afternoon too.

The first thing that struck me was that the hotel was in lush and established grounds and backs on to Na Yang beach. The beach is one of three consecutive beaches that make up the Sirinath National Park. Basically, this was created to protect the breeding turtles that nest here every year. There were two entrances to the park within a 10 minute walk of the hotel.

Easily the most common bird was the Common Myna which was literally everywhere, It has a fantastic array of calls which made it difficult for using calls as a form of ID. On at least a dozen occasions I heard a new call and searched high and low for the bird only to find it was a Common Myna!

The main lawn outside our room held a massive tree and this was full of birds most mornings.

Most were Yellow Vented Bulbuls and Spotted Dove but a juvenile Black Naped Oriole and male Koel were regularly seen too.

On the ground a pair of Peaceful Doves visited most mornings and an Indian Roller had a regular perch near the roof of the nearby bar..

Other than the hotel grounds I devoted my first three mornings to walking along the beach road towards the North and the main entrance to the National Park.

It was a great setting and even Jen walked with me once as it passed local shops!

Scrub land just before the park entrance gave me my first Brown Shrike and Large Billed Crow.

At the entrance to the Park there was a small stream which provided two Kingfishers - Common and White Throated.

Three other species were seen here but not photographed. Ashy Minivet, Pied Fantail and a sadly fast moving White Fronted Waterhen.

Flying above were two types of Swift - House and Asian Palm.

The only raptor regularly seen was Brahiminy Kite.

After 3 days I was seeing the same birds every time so decided to walk south of the hotel. This was surprisingly good in that there is a substation of the National Park (not mentioned in any of the bird blogs and information I read before I visited.

It was prettier and less busy and the beach was empty. A larger stream wound its way through and emptied out on the beach. Opposite the river there was a large area of scrub though frustratingly, you could not get to it so all birding was done looking across from the river.

My first morning gave two new birds - the first was straightforward to ID and gave great views - Black Capped Kingfisher.

The second flitted about near the trees and wagged its tail up and down. I was pleased but not surprised to find that this was a Forest Wagtail!

The only wader seen on the whole of my Thailand jaunt was Common Sandpiper.

I enjoyed looking across the scrub though all birds were too far away to get great views with just binos.

I did manage to get record shots of Tiger Shrike, Streak Eared Bulbul and the pretty bright yellow of the Common Iora.

Nearby wires allowed me brief views of both Barn Swallow and Pacific Swallow which is similar but does not have the black ring around the neck.

High above I also noticed a strange hirundine which had no tail!

This turned out to be a Brown Backed Needletail but was just too fast for me and, as you will realise by now, catching birds in flight is not one of my photographic strengths!

The river was an excellent source of Egret with Cattle, Little, Great, Intermediate and Pacific Reef all seen.

Little Herons were another addition and a flying Yellow Bittern was super - easily identified by its striking black bordered wings.

On our second to last day I hired a taxi to visit the other end of the National Park. I left at 2pm and the 30 minute journey only cost £12 return including the driver waiting there for 2.5 hours while I birded!

I was not expecting to add many birds to my list but did get Black Drongo in a matter of seconds.

Nearby but in terrible light was a much greyer version which turned out to be Ashy Drongo.

The scenery was similar to the southern end of the park but there was a lovely walk on a small path through woods. Traversing this wood was large pylons and wires and  two new birds were perching high above on these. They were so high that photos were difficult but I did manage to get the locally known Dollarbird or Broad Billed Roller and Chestnut Headed Bee-Eater.

Magpie Robins were everywhere by the visitor hut and Greater Coucal were hidden in the trees.

A number of additions but without photos were added with Ruby Cheeked and Brown Throated Sunbird, Rufous Fronted Babbler, Oriental White Eye, Red Junglefowl and Yellow Bellied Prinia.

A brief glimpse and quickly taken snap of Common Tailorbird was soon added too.

Perhaps the best bird in terms of rarity though was yet another Bulbul in Red Eyed.

Naturally, the name gives away the big ID feature but these Bulbuls are only found in this area of Thailand and are rarely seen so I was pleased to get two half decent photos.

Overall I think I got a decent list of 51 species though in retrospect I would have visited a couple of other places had i realised how cheap the taxi were.

Back to Hong Kong!

Hong Kong Part 1

Our family holiday this year involved staying in Kowloon Hong Kong for 2 days, travelling to Phuket for 8 nights then back to Hong Kong Island for 3 nights.

Birding in Hong Kong is really just municipal parks with the exception of Mai Po Wetland Reserve which i will deal with in part 2.

I have dealt with the beginning and the end in this part as birding in parks is pretty limited.

I had chosen a Kowloon hotel which was next to Kowloon Park and my birding for the first 2 days was limited to this.

I only birded between 7am and 8.30am both mornings and the most common birds were Tree Sparrows, Chinese Bulbuls and Crested Bulbuls.

There was a small lake in the grounds which gave me nothing first morning but gave Chinese Pond Heron, Black Crowned Night Heron and White Wagtail the second morning.

Circling above were Black Eared Kite which are a subspecies of Black Kite recently split.

The foliage was quite dense and a number of times I saw shadows and silhouettes but identifying was difficult.

This is also the time of day when the elderly Cantonese do their Tai Chi so there were large numbers of people near all paths and trees.

A viewpoint allowed me views of a female Koel which is a quite impressive cuckoo type bird. The male eluded me which is predominantly black but the female is heavily barred brown.

I also spotted a bird high in the trees which turned out to be a Black Necked Starling.

Just as the UK, escaped birds have gone on to establish breeding populations and in Kowloon Park this is true of the Rose Ringed Parakeets.

Other birds seen but not photographed in Kowloon were Silky Starling, Little Egret, Jungle Crow and Spotted Dove.

Jumping to the end of our trip the equivalent park in Hong Kong Island is simply called Hong Kong Park.

It is sandwiched amongst the skyscrapers and is very pretty.

Birding here was probably better but I only had one 90 minute session in the 3 days.

Their resident and breeding immigrant is the Yellow Crested Cockatoo which were heard and seen flying but the photo below is the only one I saw land!

For me most of the birds were similar to Kowloon though I suspect that given more time there would be more species. Hong Kong Birdwatching Society hold regular walks around the park but sadly they did not coincide with my dates.

However, three other birds were added. The first two were common in Magpie Robin and Black Faced Laughing Thrush.

However, the best bird of my park visits was a Crested Goshawk which was seen at first light, I was caught in two minds how to take the photo as the bird allowed me to get close but, it was first light and in thick foliage. I did not want to scare it by using flash but also desperately wanted to get an image.

My conscience got the better of me and the photo below was the best I could get as I did not use flash but have lightened it up as best I could..

My final day (and the day we were leaving!) was at Mai Po and I will cover this in a separate blog.

Another great day in Norfolk

Jono picked me up at 5.30 but we had to make a stop at the garage in Ely.

Jono was being interviewed on 3 Counties Radio and had a prearranged call at 6.30.

After giving them the lowdown on interesting facts about Little Hadham and a coffee we were back on our way.

Titchwell was first port of call and although the predicted fog was absent, light values were generally poor. This was a feature of the day making photos poor.

Sea watching gave Red Throated Divers but I noticed another diver with a thicker neck. Jono gave me first lifer of the day in Great Northern Diver! On the beach there were the usual waders including decent numbers of Grey Plover and fly past Knot.

On our way back from the beach we had a flyover Whooper Swan and a super male Pintail before settling down at the Parinder Hide.

Generally large numbers of waders and ducks though nothing particularly outstanding so it was back to the VC for a coffee.

On our way back we met another birder who mentioned that a flock of Twite were at Thornham.

After coffee we decided to give it a go. No sooner had we parked the car when Jono noticed a number flying. However, a decent group of 10 sat in a distant tree. Not great views but another lifer for me nevertheless!

Onwards towards Holkham Gap but we stopped at Burnham Overy when we saw some parked cars and group of birders. A Rough Legged Buzzard was in a very distant tree but the third lifer of the day for me. Jono also found a Great White Egret in the reeds though equally distant. My record shot could be anything and photographically, this summed up the day!

As the Surf Scoter was last seen miles away at Holkham meaning a 6 mile round trip walk we opted to go to Sheringham where a birder had seen a Black Redstart in a garden at a block of flats on the seafront.

After scanning this unlikely area I saw our young Black Redstart flitting across the roof tops.

No decent photos again but a welcome year lister.

Although it was a shame about the weather for photos it was a super day and three lifers in such a short space of time is exceptional at this time of year.

A quick detour to Hay Street on the way back and we got distant views of a much more obvious RLB though too far away for photos. The Short Eared Owl which had also been seen did not show so it was back home!

Hong Kong and Thailand next!