Surprise on Another Rainy Day

Today, I decided to visit a park I hadn’t gone to for possibly 2+ years. Chatuchak Park is basically ignored by birders because its neighbours, Sirikit and Rotfai Park, have an undoubtedly greater species diversity. I wasn’t expecting much at all, it was another rainy day. No sun, just flat out rain for my whole visit here.

Initially I was going to quickly walk through Chatuchak Park before hitting the main attraction of Rotfai Park but it didn’t go as planned today. I couldn’t even find the correct entrance due to the inconvenient closures of entrance points, eventually I did find one. In short, I was very satisfied with my visit at Chatuchak, the rain didn’t let up and I decided to call it early. And this park is right next to the skytrain and MRT stations, so it was an easy choice.

When I finally got in to the park, it was as you’d expect. Plenty of Great Mynas on the grass, alongside Black-collared Starlings and a few Common Mynas. Despite the rain, I could still hear a couple of Olive-backed Sunbirds high up in a canopy. I can still enjoy the common bird life, I was watching two Eurasian Tree Sparrows interacting with each other. I felt lucky to see a Yellow-browed Warbler given the rainy conditions. I was walking along the path when something caught my eye in a tree by the large pond.

At this point, I didn’t even have my camera out of my bag. I noticed the Spotted Owlet low in the tree staring at me, I felt sorry for it since it was soaked by the rain. I backed out slowly, taking out my camera, and then I re-located it as it moved much higher into the tree. I was stunned. I have a hard enough time seeing them in Rotfai Park, and to see one on my first real birding visit to Chatuchak Park. Definitely something special.

After that sighting, I was very pleased with the birding session, despite being soaked from the rain. The visit continued on an upward trajectory with sightings of Black-naped Oriole and Ashy Drongo, nothing spectacular but I was very happy since the conditions and the reputation of chatuchak. The rain also added a very cinematic atmosphere to the shots.

From here on out I was thinking about making an exit. I wanted to tick off a few more common species and, like magic, when I thought of the species they’d appear right before my eyes. Well, not quite but pretty close to this. It happened with Asian Pied Starling, Asian Brown Flycatcher and a trio of House Sparrows. In the end, an amazing 90 minutes at Chatuchak Park.

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