Mr Daeng took me out to Leam Pak Bia Sandspit on his boat where we observed this male White-faced Plover
Birders who come to see Spoon-billed Sandpiper at Pak Thale nearly always make the short drive south to Leam Pak Bia to see White-faced and Malaysian Plover. So at 07.30 I was back on the road and from my digs, some twenty minutes later, I arrived at my destination. However, it took me another twenty minutes to find Mr Daeng's place where you can charter a boat out to the spit where hopefully he will show me both Malaysian and White-faced Plover. When I got to his home, I had to wait for fifteen minutes, with all his cats and bloody noisy dogs that just would not stop barking, until Mr Daeng and his daughter turned up. I pointed to the stunning photo of the summer plumage Great-black headed Gull on the wall 'Will we see this one?' His immediate answer was 'No!' I discovered later that his English was very limited. In fact, the only English words were the birds he was pointing out. That's good enough for me!
We Jumped onto his boat and followed the river and made the short distance out to sea. I could still hear those dogs! It didn't take long until we were back on dry land walking the spit and I Immediately spotted a pair of Malaysian Plover with a small group of Kentish Plover. Ideal! This was followed by a dark morph Reef Heron. Carrying on and Mr Daeng spotted a male White-faced Plover distantly through his scope feeding with Great Knot on the shore line. I got a little closer and then lay down and waited for the plover to come towards me. That it did and it showed superbly at close range. As a result, 3 more Malaysian Plover also gave me crippling views! We also got a Black-capped Kingfisher, 2 dark morph Reef Heron and heard and briefly saw a Dusky Warbler.
She's ready to go for our next adventure!
He looks so cute but with his mates, he doesn't shut up for a second except when I took this photo of him!
Fishing boats on the river
Crab-eating Macaque
Making our ways out to see with the fishing boats
Liam Pak Bia Sandspit
A pair of Mayalsian Plover were the first birds of note that we saw
There were 2 dark morph Reef Heron on the spit
Male White-faced Plover Note the pink straw in the background. In Thailand, if you by a single item in a shop, Snicker, mints, gum or banana, they will put it in a plastic back. The single Banana is already wrapped in plastic!
Altogether we saw up to 3 Malaysian Plover
Mr Deang, my guide, scanning the spit
Pulling in the fish
There were a small flock of terns and gulls resting just off shore on one of the many breakwaters out there. In the boat we joined them at close range to see that there were 15+Great crested Tern, 35+Common and 2 Little Tern, lots of Whiskered and a single Caspian Tern with some 30 Brown-headed Gull. Large flock of Great Knot flew through with the odd Whimbrel. Returning home and he pulled over closer to the mangroves and located a Chinese Egret deep in the cover. It flew out and showed very well on the otherside perched out in the open.
Greater-crested Tern
A single Caspian Tern with Great-crested Tern and Brown-headed Gull
Ready to return back to base
Chinese Egret
I could hear those dogs way before we hit his stop but this time there was a good reason for them to be so loud. On the bank just in front of Mr Daeng house was a pretty large Monitor Lizard with a blotted carcass of a Crab-eating Macaque. It was coming to shore to get stuck into it but the dogs and ourselves were making it nerves. However, it soon returned and after some time moved deeper into the Mangroves with the carcass. Well, in two hours we cleared up on everything and at the same time, got cracking views of all the species thanks to Mr daeng!
Note the small dog looking down at the Moniter Lizard with the carcass
It was just gone mid-day when I left and I was hungry. I returned to Pak Thale for a good tasty meal and to try out the areas where I didn't have time to look at yesterday. The only species I got that I didn't see yesterday were 5 Gull-billed Tern and Asian Dowitcher. I discovered that there were 100s of Curlew and Marsh Sandpiper with less numbers of Pacific Golden and Grey Plover and 100's and 100s of sandplovers. Also 3 Terek Sandpiper, 4 Ruff and more Spotted and Greenshank.
Great Knot
I saw up to 3 Terek Sandpiper
There were 5 Gull-billed Tern hunting over the muddy areas
Pacific Golden Plover were much higher numbers
Male Kentish Plover
Spotted Redshank
Just a fraction of the 100s if not 1000s of sandplovers
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