Two-barred Day at the Park

Breaking from the recent theme of being rained on at the park, yesterday, the heavy rains avoided the park and I was only greeted with a fleeting light drizzle. Having just headed into March, the main change are the Pond Herons with breeding plumages starting to show. That’s enough to make the visit more interesting compared to the endless months of Pond Heron sp.

Chinese Pond Heron with maroon breeding plumage slowly coming through.
1st March 2022.

Javan Pond Heron with orange-buff breeding plumage coming through.
1st March 2022.

Speaking of changes, it’s not long until spring migration. I’m excited to see what will be passing through Bangkok and the vicinity, stay-tuned to see what turns up. Today, I was content with a typical park birding day. Plenty of Olive-backed Sunbirds were zipping around the flowering trees, with quite a few juveniles.

Olive-backed Sunbird – still young from the yellow beak edges. 1st March 2022.

Checking in on the usual spots, I encountered the Asian Barred Owlet with the pupil defect again. Not far from there I saw another Asian Barred Owlet – alert, perched on a low branch. My main purpose of this visit was actually to take some video of the Crested Goshawk which I was confident in locating after it showing well recently.

Asian Barred Owlet with the pupil defect. 1st March 2022.

The one on the low branch 100 metres down the path. 1st March 2022.

At this point things were livening up. A Green-billed Malkoha flew over the water from Rotfai Park. It was alongside a flock of 4 Ashy Drongos, notable because, normally, I only see the Drongos independently but here they were all in the same tree.

The challenge of photographing Green-billed Malkoha concern tail logistics.
1st March 2022.

Next to where I was photographing Green-billed Malkoha, I saw a Leaf warbler making a brief appearance. My LW senses must be developing nicely because it struck me as different. Thinking it could be my first Two-barred Warbler at the park, I used a responsible amount of playback to see if it would show. Sure enough, it flew out right in front of me and was making the right sounds for Two-barred.

A proud moment to find and identify this Two-barred Warbler at Sirikit park.
1st March 2022.

I did consult Wich’yanan to confirm it and it all checked out. Recently I corrected one of my old sightings wrongly listed as Radde’s Warbler, with the knowledge I have now, I knew this was a certain misidentification. At the time I lacked knowledge and exposure to Leaf warblers, it was a shot in the dark and should have sensibly listed it as Phylloscopus sp. Now, I looked back and made a correction to Arctic Warbler which Wich’yanan also helped by confirming. I did dedicate a lot of my time to birding and thankfully, it shows, as that time I spoke of was only 5 months prior.

Asian Pied Starlings are very photogenic. 1st March 2022.

The last stop was to find the Crested Goshawk, on the way I heard a call which puzzled me in the past. I also failed to see the calling bird, but knowing the common birds I was missing in the park, I searched the sound of Small Minivet. Sure enough, it was a Small Minivet. It’s satisfying to expand knowledge independently like this. Entering my go-to area for the Goshawk, I saw it flying beneath the canopy. I set up my camera but after 5 minutes it took flight. I caught up to him not long after.

Familiar face to me from my many encounters in the past 3 months – Crested Goshawk. 1st March 2022.

I ended up spending close to 2 hours filming, he was perched at one spot for well over an hour. It was a great time despite the onslaught of mosquitos in the area. His crop was rather large, so I assume he was just finding a place to settle down. Saving the best for last, enjoy the video I filmed yesterday.