Urban birding thai style

Having arrived in Bangkok late last night, I was out before dawn this morning with Dave Gandy who'd kindly agreed to show me his local park Suan Rot Fai - a large, former golf course area with various scrubby and marginal areas that passage and wintering migrants lap up. Even if my eyes were a little bleary first thing, the first Asian Koels piping up could hardly be missed, and first birds noted were Spotted and Asian Barred Owlets both showing and zipping about in the park. And it wasn't long after first light that the first 'common' Asian species were being seen - Black-naped Orioles, Scaly-breasted Munias, Common Mynas, Pond Herons (presumably either Javan or Chinese),  Coppersmith Barbets, Oriental Magpie Robins and Yellow-browed Warblers calling from everywhere too. Further Sibe offering included a couple of Dusky Warblers (one seen), the odd Brown Shrike and half a dozen or so Taiga Flycatchers, as well as a vocal but elusive Pale-legged Leaf Warbler.

male Thick-billed Green Pigeon Suan Rot Fai

However, for Dave, the highlight of the trip was this male Thick-billed Green Pigeon that was only his second ever patch record; a Chinese Blue Flycatcher was a decent record too by all accounts while birds such as Asian Openbill, Night Heron, Blue-tailed Bee-eater, Olive-backed and Brown-throated Sunbirds, Scarlet-rumped Flowerpecker, a handful of Small Minivets and at least a couple of Indian Rollers were all nice to see.

Having said goodbye to Dave, I headed back into town and had breakfast before heading off with Karen into Lumphini Park where in the heat of the day there were predictably less birds than first thing - highlights included a couple of Asian Brown Flycatchers, a Long-tailed Shrike and some rather showy Pond Herons including this one that, despite showing well, still can't be identified to species level...

Pond Heron sp. Lumpini Park

I did think about starting this post with some gull action from this evening, but I'll save that for another time and leave you with this bad boy: -

Monitor Lizard, Lumpini Park