Today happened to be just one of those days. Spurred on by David Gandy’s sighting of Thick-billed Green-Pigeon and Thick-billed Warbler earlier in the morning, I set out for the holy migratory land of the Department of Public Relations. A few days ago I was notified by him of the arrival of some more migrants including the Crow-billed Drongo pictured below.
I didn’t find any of the targets in the morning but I found a Zappey’s Flycatcher. At first glance, I thought, WOW, finally, I get to see a Blue-and-white Flycatcher. Too bad! This was even rarer. I got a couple of okay shots whilst being dive-bombed by a pair of Large-billed Crows and then the flycatcher vanished. David came back, despite his busy schedule, for a quick 10min look but unfortunately it had already disappeared.
I went off for some Bangkok ticks at Kasetsart University and was rather successful. Lek and Ajarn Pongchai visited the public relations park and were also successful in relocating the Zappey’s Flycatcher. Since Boat was also going to visit, I decided to head back there. Similarly, like this morning, Zappey decided to disappear again when Boat and I arrived. It’s behaviour seems rather consistent, possibly correlated to the busyness of the park, as it was gone for the government worker’s lunch breaks, showed up early-afternoon and then was gone again in the later afternoon. I will monitor it to see what happens tomorrow.
When I returned to Public Relations, Lek had found another rare passage migrant, this one was also a lifer for me, a Dollarbird. Perfect timing. Unfortunately for the others including my other friend who arrived later, the excitement died down as the sightings faded. The last moment of excitement for me was watching the Peregrine Falcon fly past on its sunset hunt with those rapid wing-beats.
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