Happy New Year - from my temporary local patch in Chiang Mai!!

Firstly, I would like to wish all the followers of this blog and anybody else not indulging in the pleasure in reading this entry a very special, very healthy and a prosperous (both in wealth and birds) 2013!

For the last few days I have been experiencing the delights of Bangkok and latterly Chiang Mai. The former city I had experienced before last Christmas but Chiang Mai, up in the north, was a new thing for me. Aside from the usual temple visits and general sightseeing I've also been getting some birding under my belt. Visits were made to Doi Inthanon National Park, home to Thailand's highest mountain peak, led by Neil Scott who for the summer months of the year is the warden of the Natural Trust's Scolt Head Island Reserve in Norfolk (http://norfolkbirderinthailand.blogspot.com/). I also went to Huay Teung Tao, a large recreational area fairly close to Chiang Mai that is owned by the military. Finally, yesterday I was reunited with my old Bangkok based friend, Dave Gandy (http://bangkokcitybirding.blogspot.com/), who took me around Doi Suthep - again close to the heart of the city - packed with people and a couple of good birds  including Martens's Warbler, a bird I had never heard of before!

Today I visited a patch of land 10 minutes from my hotel in east of the city, east of the River Ping. At around 10 acres, it is surrounded by humanity with all it's garbage. The site has a lily choked stream running through it and on either side of its banks is scrubby land with a few large trees. 

 The ugly housing block that presides over the eastern end of my nameless patch

 The lily choked water course

I got there at dawn this morning and had an array of species. Wire-tailed and Barn Swallows swilled overhead alongside Himalayan Swiftlets. White-breasted Waterhens and Moorhens frequented the marshy bits. I even found a Asian Barred Owlet briefly before it saw me and powered off ploughing into a nearby tree sending every other bird piling out in the opposite direction!

 White Wagtail 

 Taiga Flycatcher

 A female Stonechat

 An immature Scaly-breasted Munia

 A non-breeding male or female Baya Weaver

Black Drongo

I'm loving my temporary patch complete with barking dogs and litter. I'll be back in the morning!

Chiang Mai Urban Birding

 Female Olive-backed Sunbird

 Spotted Dove

 Asian Palm Swift

 Oriental Magpie Robin

 Brown Shrike

Yellow-browed Warbler

More details to follow tomorrow......promise!

First days in Chiang Mai

 Asian Barred Owlet

 Chestnut-tailed Starling

 1st winter Taiga Flycatcher

 Yellow-browed Warbler

 Asian Emerald Cuckoo

 Olive-backed Pipit

 Common Myna

Ashy Wood Swallow

Some of the delights that I have been ogling at since my arrival in this quite cool and arty city in northern Thailand.

More tomorrow.

Christmas in Bangkok

 Asian Koel

 Asian Open-billed Stork

 Asian Brown Flycatcher

 Peaceful Dove

 Whiskered Tern

 Brown-headed Gull

 Little Egret

 Coppersmith Barbet

female flycatcher sp

I've run away. I've escaped the torrential London rain, grey skies and wind to migrate east to Thailand. Billed as a bit of rest and relaxation I will spend Christmas in Bangkok then on Boxing Day fly north to hang out in Chaingmai for a week. Thereafter, I will fly back to Bangkok then head to the coast at Hua Hin to chill for a further three days before heading back to Blighty. Whilst in Hua Hin I plan to head up to Pak Thale to see if I can spy an ultra-rare Spoon-billed Sandpiper or two. So keep tuned.

Today, I went to Suan Rot Fai a 60 hectare park that is also the local patch watched by my mate Dave Gandy, an ex-pat that has been residing in Bangkok for a number of years now. We had a good selection of birds during our morning stroll including Black-naped Orioles, Yellow-browed Warblers and Black-collared Starlings.

We also refound a strange female flycatcher that Dave had found a few days previously. This may not mean much to many of you reading this but it could be a female of the following species: Hainan Blue, Blue-throated or Hill Blue Flycatcher.

What do you reckon?

Bye Bye Bramble

 The scene adjacent to the embankment area

 Shaved to the fence

 Looks pretty severe but it will grow back

A bit of work is going to carried out at my beloved patch over the next few months largely designed to make the place more attractive to wildlife and the users of the area. 

The powers that be claim that the grassland area will be made part of the local nature reserve in the New Year. I dearly hope that happens so that the breeding Meadow Pipits have a bit more protection. We have the closest colony of this essentially rural bird to central London.

I'm so proud to have them breeding on my patch.

The Scrubs update

Female Reed Bunting

Since my last triumphant posting in which I trumpeted the fact that we had achieved the magical milestone of 95 for the year at The Scrubs, changes have occured.

Three nights ago, a drunken Scrubber (a Wormwood Scrubs birder) was returning from his office Christmas party. He was a little worse for wear and got off at the wrong station ending up near The Scrubs. He decided to take a short cut and walk through The Scrubs. In the dark near Scrubs Lane Wood he pulled out his ipad (not a wise move and not one that I would endorse given the site's propensity for potentially attracting small time nocturnal criminals) and proceeded to play both Little Owl and Tawny Owl calls. After receiving no response, he put his computer away and continued homeward. He then suddenly heard a Tawny Owl hoot. Thinking that he had left his ipad on he stopped to check his bag when a Tawny Owl flew from a tree and headed down the road - no.96!

Yesterday, I strode through the grassland and flushed one Wren, one Blue Tit and a Woodcock!! No. 97!

Will we get three species before 2012 is out?

We'll Take Five

Bohemian Waxwing (Will Webb)

We are in the midst of a bird slowdown here at The Scrubs right now. This is a classic situation during the winter on my patch. The 100 species target for the year was looking like a bleak, distant and totally unrealistic proposition until we added three new birds over the past couple of weeks; Goshawk, Green Sandpiper and last week's lone Waxwing that was picked up calling and flying north over the grassland.

Our 2nd ever record, following the five or so briefly seen twice during the last Waxwing Winter two years ago. Of course, I wasn't there to see either sets of birds and indeed, I'm still yet to see a Waxwing anywhere this winter yet and I am certainly not considering twitching any. Well not just yet........

In the meantime, we're not greedy. We don't need to exceed our 100 species target we just want to reach it for the first time. So if there are any birding gods out there, we'll just take five. We'll be happy with that.

The end of a Serbian adventure

 Milan Ruzic - our brilliant and lovable Serbian guide

 More of those fantastic Long-eared Owls

 Corn Bunting

Sparrowhawk

I'm fresh back from an amazing tour of Serbia. As you may recall from yesterday's entry, we saw loads of Long-eared Owls. Indeed, we probably ended our long weekend with upwards of 1,000 birds seen. To put that into prospective that's quite possibly nearly half the entire UK population seen in a handful of towns in the Pannonian Plain. The whole region receives around 30,000 wintering LEO's. That's exceptional!

My co-guide was the inimitable Milan Ruzic, a Serb ornithologist who has put his heart and soul into studying and preserving all of Serbia wildlife and especially the country's owls and other birds of prey. Without him we would not have found a third of the owls as he had an uncanny knack for seeking them out.

All the participants of the tour seemed to be completely bowled over by the sight of so many owls. The dull and freezing conditions did little to dampen spirits. Nothing could beat the those owls. We did see other birds including an obliging Great Grey Shrike, skiens of White-fronted Geese, a couple flocks of Common Crane, several White-tailed Eagles, a Hen Harrier, several Marsh Harriers, lots of Common Buzzards and Kestrel. Waterbirds were well represented with many Pygmy and Great Cormorants, Great Egrets, Grey Heron, Pintail, Mallard, Teal, Wigeon, Shoveler and Shelduck.

You must come and see the owls here in Serbia though. If you are interested in coming on my spring tour in May next year when we will be watching many breeding LEO's then let me know.

Serbian Owl Bonanza!!

 You lookin' at me?

 Who are you?

 Where do you think you're going?

 Not you again!

 A tiny portion of the Long-eared Owls that I saw today in Serbia

TUB being interviewed by the Serbian media about the owl phenomenon in Kikinda

I never though that I would live to see the day when 600 Long-eared Owls would enter my life. Yes, 600 you read it right. All of them were perched in their daytime roosts in the three towns that I visited with the tour group that I am leading in Serbia.

The best town was my favourite, Kikinda - 16km from the Romanian border in northern Serbia. We saw half our total in the town's square alone! I heard the great news that the square will be made into a nature reserve from next year making it the only one of its kind in the world. How amazingly cool is that!?!?

Why are there so many owls?

Well, seeing as the farming methods are relatively simple in the countryside surrounding the urban roosts it has encouraged a huge number of rodents to proliferate providing abundant food not only for the LEO's but Barn and Short-eared Owls but for a number of raptors too.

You have to come out here to witness this incredible phenomenon for yourselves!

North West Bird Watching Fair at WWT Martin Mere

 TUB with the fabled Ruth Miller & Alan Davies of The Biggest Twitch fame

The queue for my talk

I woke up Sunday morning in a hotel room around six miles from WWT Martin Mere in Lancashire. For the second year running they had asked me to come and give a talk at their Birding Festival.

I really enjoy the atmosphere at the fair plus it's nice to meet some of my mates up there too. The talk was well attended and the audience seemed to appreciate the gags I attempted.

I'll be back in 2013 - if I'm invited that is!

Back at the ranch

Winter male Stonechat

It seemed almost strange to once again patrol the urban expanses of Wormwood Scrubs after swanning around on so much foreign soil over the last couple of weeks. But I was definitely home though because thr wind was howling and the rain was pouring the night before.

I met up with a couple of the Scrubbers and we collectively strolled around to see what we could. Aside from around 30 Fieldfares all told passing overhead, a couple of Redwing and a Stonechat duo, all was quiet.

At 9am I had a meeting on site with several members of the council (Hammersmith & Fulham), the grounds maintainance contractors and the conservation officer from Groundwork to discuss the wildlife management plan. I was pleased to see that we are all singing from the same hymn sheet. That really was a comforting thought.

One for the listers

A female Baglafecht Weaver

It's been a long time coming but I've finally managed to compile the list of birds that I managed to remember seeing in Nairobi. It's such an amazing city for urban birding. With over 600 on its official list you can easily see over 200 species in a couple of days.

I managed nearly 300 in 5 days. Nairobi is well worth a gander.

Common Ostrich

Pink-backed Pelican

Great Cormorant

Long-tailed Cormorant

African Darter

Black-crowned Night Heron

Cattle Egret

Squacco Heron

Madagascar Squacco Heron

Little Egret

Yellow-billed Egret

Great Egret

Goliath Heron

Grey Heron

Black-headed Heron

Hammerkop

Yellow-billed Stork

Black Stork

Saddle-billed Stork

Marabou

Sacred Ibis

Hadada Ibis

Glossy Ibis

African Spoonbill

Egyptian Goose

White-faced Whistling Duck

Maccoa Duck

Red-billed Teal

Hottentot Teal

White-backed Duck

Yellow-billed Duck

African Black Duck

Southern Pochard

Black Kite

Black-shouldered Kite

Secretary Bird

African Fish Eagle

African White-backed Vulture

Ruppell’s Griffon Vulture

Brown Snake Eagle

Montagu’s Harrier

Pallid Harrier

Eastern Chanting Goshawk

Gabar Goshawk

Little Sparrowhawk

Great Sparrowhawk

African Harrier Hawk

Augar Buzzard

Common Buzzard (and Steppe Buzzard)

Tawny Eagle

Steppe Eagle

Greater Spotted Eagle

Booted Eagle

Bateleur

Long-crested Eagle

Martial Eagle

Eurasian Hobby

Eleonora’s Falcon

Helmeted Guineafowl

Crested Guineafowl

Yellow-necked Spurfowl

Harlequin Quail

Black Crake

Purple Swamphen

Red-knobbed Coot

Common Moorhen

African Jacana

Grey Crowned Crane

Kori Bustard

White-bellied Bustard

Black-bellied Bustard

Black-winged Stilt

Spotted Thick-knee

Blacksmith Lapwing

Spur-winged Lapwing

Crowned Lapwing

Kittlitz’s Plover

Three-banded Plover

Ruff

Common Sandpiper

Wood Sandpiper

Green Sandpiper

Greenshank

Marsh Sandpiper

Little Stint

Grey-headed Gull

Gull-billed Tern

Whiskered Tern

Speckled Pigeon

Emerald-spotted Wood Dove

Namaqua Dove

Ring-necked Dove

Red-eyed Dove

African Mourning Dove

Laughing Dove

Dusky Turtle Dove

Brown Parrot

Purple-crested Turaco

Hartlaub’s Turaco

Jacobin Cuckoo

Red-chested Cuckoo

Diederik Cuckoo

Klaas’ Cuckoo

White-browed Coucal

Little Swift

White-rumped Swift

Mottled Swift

Nyanza Swift

African Palm Swift

Speckled Mousebird

Blue-naped Mousebird

Narina Trogan

Pied Kingfisher

Striped Kingfisher

Giant Kingfisher

Malachite Kingfisher

Little Bee-eater

Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater

European Bee-eater

White-fronted Bee-eater

Von der Decken’s Hornbill

African Grey Hornbill

Spot-flanked Barbet

Black-throated Barbet

White-headed Barbet

d’Arnaud’s Barbet

Red-and-yellow Barbet

Wahlberg’s Honeybird

Red-throated Wryneck

Cardinal Woodpecker

Grey Woodpecker

Rufous-naped Lark

Fawn-coloured Lark

Red-capped Lark

Fischer’s Sparrow Lark

Rock Martin

Plain Martin

Banded Martin

Red-rumped Swallow

Lesser Striped Swallow

Barn Swallow

Wire-tailed Swallow

Black Saw-wing

African Pied Wagtail

Mountain Wagtail

Cape Wagtail

Yellow Wagtail

Yellow-throated Longclaw

Sharpe’s Longclaw

Rosy-breasted Longclaw

Grassland Pipit

Black Cuckoo-shrike

Common Bulbul

Yellow-whiskered Bulbul

Cabanis’ Greenbul

White-starred Robin

Cape Robin Chat

White-browed Robin Chat

Ruppell’s Robin Chat

Olive Thrush

Common Rock Thrush

Northern Anteater Chat

Common Stonechat

Whinchat

Northern Wheatear

Isabelline Wheatear

Nightingale

White-browed Scrub-Robin

Spotted Morning Thrush

Dark-capped Yellow Warbler

Garden Warbler

Blackcap

Buff-bellied Warbler

Willow Warbler

Red-faced Crombec

Brown Parisoma

African Moustached Warbler

Zitting Cisticola

Desert Cisticola

Tiny Cisticola

Stout Cisticola

Rattling Cisticola

Winding Cisticola

Levaillant’s Cisticola

Singing Cisticola

Red-faced Cisticola

Hunter’s Cisticola

Whistling Cisticola

Siffling Cisticola

Tawny-flanked Prinia

Grey-backed Camaroptera

Grey Wren Warbler

Yellow-breasted Apalis

White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher

African Grey Flycatcher

Pale Flycatcher

Spotted Flycatcher

African Paradise Flycatcher

Northern Pied Babbler

White-bellied Tit

Red-throated Tit

Abyssinian White-eye

Bronze Sunbird

Tacazze Sunbird 

Eastern Double-collared Sunbird 

Amethyst Sunbird

Scarlet-chested Sunbird

Beautiful Sunbird

Variable Sunbird

Collared Sunbird

Eastern Violet-backed Sunbird

Common Fiscal

Long-tailed Fiscal

Grey-backed Fiscal

Isabelline Shrike

Red-backed Shrike

Tropical Boubou

Slate-coloured Boubou

Brubru

Black-backed Puffback

Rosy-patched Bush-shrike

Northern White-crowned Shrike

Fork-tailed Drongo

Pied Crow

Cape Rook

African Black-headed Oriole

Yellow-billed Oxpecker

Red-billed Oxpecker

Greater Blue-eared Starling

Superb Starling

Hildebrandt’s Starling

Wattled Starling

Rufous Sparrow

House Sparrow

Chestnut Sparrow

Grey-headed Sparrow

Yellow-spotted Petronia

Speckle-fronted Weaver

White-browed Sparrow Weaver

Grey-capped Social Weaver

Black-headed Weaver

Vitelline Masked Weaver

Spectacled Weaver

Speke’s Weaver

Baglafecht Weaver

Grosbeak Weaver

Holub’s Golden Weaver

Red-billed Quelea

Jackson’s Widowbird

Red-collared Widowbird

Yellow Bishop

White-winged Widowbird

Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu

Purple Grenadier

Red-billed Firefinch

Yellow-bellied Waxbill

Common Waxbill

Bronze Mannikin

Black-and-white Mannikin

Pin-tailed Whydah

Brimstone Canary

White-bellied Canary

Yellow-crowned Canary

African Citril

Yellow-rumped Seedeater

Streaky Seedeater

Cinnamon-breasted Rock Bunting

Somali Golden-breasted Bunting

268 species

103 lifers