Call me slightly ungrateful, or perhaps I'm just not really into 'high brow' Thai birding. Give me a few paddyfields, some scrub and a load of easy, good birds to see and I'm happy. Thick-billed Warblers, Brown Shrikes, Sibe and Pied Stonechats, Olive-backed Pipits and Amur Wagtails galore with any scrappy bit of bushes housing a Taiga Fly or two - it's like WP seventh heaven and a liftetime of east coast autumns all come at once. You can take the boy out of the WP, but you can't take the WP out of the boy...
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| 1st-winter Taiga Flycatcher |
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| Amur Wagtail (or White Wagtail of the race leucopsis) |
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| Brown Shrike |
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| Pied Stonechat |
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| Thick-billed Warbler - just like the one I saw on Fair Isle :) |
In particular I visited a couple of sites just outside Chiang Mai - Huay Tung Thao and the particularly impressive Mae Hia Agricultural College. It was at this latter site that I managed to see a handful of Wire-tailed Swallows, a nice Burmese Shrike along with a load of other nice bits such as Little Bee-eater, Oriental Honey Buzzard, Lesser Whistling Duck, Chestnut-tailed Starling and some Ashy Woodswallows. Later the same day, a river cruise on the river to the north of Chiang Mai produced a further 25 or so Wire-tailed Swallows, just hawking over the river.
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| Wire-tailed Swallow (with Barn Swallow) |
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| Ashy Woodswallow |
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| Oriental HB |
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| Little Bee-eater |
And a bit of early morning scenery. And Happy New Year everyone.
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| Mae Hia Agricultural College, Chiang Mai |
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