Rare Duo in Bangkok

As a side-note I have taken a step-back from social media, specifically facebook. I was never a fan of it, having deleted my account after the golden-age of the late 2000s. But due to its prominence in Thai birding I made a new one. Removing it was for many reasons but my life is much lighter without it.

Onto the main story, 10th of November has been a really productive day. Always a good day when I can add 1 new bird to the Bangkok list but to add 2 rarities means it was great. A big thanks to Ben Weil who gave me the heads up on the Ashy-headed Green-Pigeon sighting at one of my favourite patches. I know the place well, so I was very aware of where the figs were and where the common Pink-necked Green-Pigeons would be.

I managed to arrive at around sunrise & the first Green-Pigeon I saw was in fact the one I wanted, a stunning male Ashy-headed Green-Pigeon. First seen yesterday afternoon by Junpha Jartuporn. While not a new bird for me, having seen it in Samut Prakan & Nakhon Pathom; an extremely good one for Bangkok.

I only had it for 10 minutes, from about 6:30am first sighting (above) to 6:40am (below). My friend arrived 10 minutes after me and unfortunately for him, he missed it. Alongside all the other people who checked later in the morning. Although I think there’s still a decent chance at seeing it again tomorrow, early.

After satisfied with the Ashy-headed I was clued into another rarity by Peter Ericsson. He had found an Indian Thick-Knee, also known as Indian Stone-Curlew, at my current favourite patch: Lam Toi Ting. It took about an hour from Sathon, the site of the Green-Pigeon.

Upon arrival it was still showing nicely. My only other sighting was at Phuthamonthon and I only managed one poor photo before some by-standers flushed it into oblivion. So a very nice new one for Bangkok with a good photo (below).

Eventually it went to rest, they are more active at nighttime, dusk & dawn. It was very hot, so I didn’t spend too long. Recently I’ve also been trying to record better audio with a dedicated recording device & processing it, you can sample one of my clips from today here.

All images and video © 2023 Sam Hambly.

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