Bueng Boraphet - The Crown Jewel of Thailand Marshbirding

If I had to bird in one spot for the rest of my life it would be here at Thailand’s largest natural freshwater lake.  In my nine trips to Thailand, I have gone there at least once a trip.  As a marsh bird aficionado, Bueng Boraphet draws me like no other birding spot in Thailand.  Let’s face it, most of central Thailand is a wetland and BB just happens to be smack dag in the middle! 

There are so many birders, bloggers, bird tour leaders, and the like who have meticulously detailed the avifauna of this historic wetland that for me to do so would be redundant and most probably incomplete.  Therefore, I will write what I want to say about BB and my experiences there.  For really good birding info, check out thaibirding.com, the The Phuket Birder, and North Thailand Birding.

From the various literature and websites, Bueng Boraphet (or Boraphet Marsh as some call it) encompasses an area of approximately 52,400 acres (212 square kilometers, 81.9 square kilometers, 132,500 rai, or 21,200 hectares).  I think you get the picture, it’s quite large.  The central body of the wetland is a shallow lake with a variety of varied habitats including reeds, rushes, grass, and lotus that surround the property.  The open waterway is dotted with several islands that, at the right time of year, play host to thousands of breeding long-legged waders.  

The best way to bird the lake is via flat bottom boat.  I use Pa Nom:

 and his phone number is:

He is very nice, reasonably priced, and does not speak a word of English.  I’ve had my friends and fiancé speak with him in Thai to indicate what I’d like to do and he obliges as best as possible.  He is no spring chicken but he’ll jump off the boat and unclog the long tail propeller or push the stuck boat through the tangles with his long bamboo pole.  Basically, he’s really cool.

The location of Bueng Boraphet is to the east of the confluence of two (2) rivers - the Ping River and Nan River.  These two waterways, with additions from the Wang River and Yom River, combine together to make a single river called the Chao Phraya River. The Chao Phraya then runs its course southward through Bangkok  before flowing into the northern reach of the Gulf of Thailand.  Evidently, the Boraphet Marsh used to be called "Chom Beung" which translates into Northern Lake.  According to the Phuket Birder, the Boraphet Marsh water levels rose and fell at the mercy of the seasonal rains.  In 1926, "a royal decree was set forth to construct a dam as a means of conserving the water for the dry season and to preserve the area as a natural breeding station for freshwater fish in the central basin. Two years later the Treasury department declared the area a protected zone which in effect turned the lake into one of Thailand’s first national wildlife reserves."  I couldn't have said it better myself! 

As I said, Bueng Boraphet is extremely well documented on how to, what to find, and when to go birding.  I wouldn't do it justice -yet.  I will concentrate on my trips there relating my thoughts, feelings, impressions, and photos.  Stay tuned for posts about this beauty.

Trip 9 - Nam Nao National Park & Needletails - October 18-21, 2019

This October trip was scheduled to be a 4 day vigil at Khao Dinsor in Chumphon raptor watching.  Two days before I was to travel down there, the weather forecast looked really bad with 5 days of easterly winds and heavy, heavy rain.  After consulting with Rick Heil, I changed plans and decided to Nam Nao National Park for 4 days.  Why not!

Nam Nao NP is really spectacular.  The traditional drive-your-car-around and stop and hike birding was not what I had hoped for.  It is more of hike your butt off birding (I love Kaeng Krachan NP!).  I soon realized I was woefully wrong.  Nam Nao NP is huge and is not confined to the paid entrance to the visitors center and sprawling camp grounds.  It is huge.  During our first day there, we stopped at sunrise view point and then birded the "park".  Around 10, it got dead so Na and I decided to drive to nearby waterfalls.  We left the paid area and drove to the waterfalls in the middle of the day.  We hiked in and much to our chagrin, they were dry.  We missed that giant sign in the parking lot that said "waterfalls dry".

However, on our way there, we had passed a helipad that had this small pond adjacent to it with some open areas and pines as well as elephant licks.  So we headed back there to try our luck for afternoon birding.  What a fortuitous choice.

Birding here was pretty easy.  A small field with scrub and pines in the back with a pond dotted with dead trees with lots of woodpecker activity.  What happened next, this was on the 18th, was one of the most amazing birding experiences in my 30+ years of birding.  Around 1630, seemingly coalescing out of nowhere from the sky above, a few needletails starting coming into view.  This didn't stop as more arrived.  The group of birds kept circling lower and lower towards the pond.  With each passing circle, the grouping soon turned into an echelon of tightly knotted Brown-backed Needletail.  Of course I was snapping away but these suckers were really moving.   White-throated Needletail are the fast flapping speed birds out there at 105 mph (170 kph) and these Brown-backs were surely nearing 90-100 mph.  Needless to say, getting photos of these birds in flight in fading light was a challenge.

Then the most amazing thing happened.  The birds started speeding by my head, about 10 feet above me, as they seemingly checked me out.  Without further ado, they started surface drinking and bathing then fffffffffffffttttt they would blast by me standing there on the pond's shore edge.  This first group of Brown-backed Needletail included 36 birds.  They finished their evening duties and rose up and sped off quickly to the south east.

This repeated again over the next hour with groups of  23, 12, 4, and 3 for an evening total of 78.

10:19/19:  Of course we did this on the evening of the 19th.  This time I was better prepared for photo ops.  The total county was 87 broken down into groups of 26, 17, 34, 4, 5, and 1.

Here is a shot of them bathing at the pond's surface:

 Shots of them flying around my head:

 Here I was able to capture a sequence of one bird drinking at the surface!

10/20/19:  The evening of the 20th produced similar results with 56 broken down into groups of 17, 11, 2, 20, 3, 2, and  1.

Today included two new surprises.  A lone White-throated Needletail,

An unidentified needletail (probably a Brown-backed):

A lone Bank Swallow (Sand Martin):.

and 4 Crested Tree-Swift.

And what a way to end an evening but with a super sunset and high flying Brown-backed Needletail.

Thai Birding - It's been awhile...

Tonight I head back to Thailand for my 9th visit since February 2017.  I am going to try and summarize in the blog all trips instead of making a blog for every trip.  This by no means is all I do in Thailand.  The country is rich in history and culture not to mention I met my wonderful fiance.  Here are the trips I have taken and where I traveled.  I will try to keep my personal life out of it and focus on the country and its avifauna.

1. October 2017:  Phetchaburi, Kaeng Krachan NP, Mae Wong NP, Bueng Boraphet, and Bang Pu
2. July 2017:  Chiangmai.  Limited birding
3. September 2017:  Kaeng Krachan NP, Phetchaburi, Bueng Boraphet
4. November 2017:  Koh Samet, Phetchabuir, Bueng Boraphet
5. February 2018:  Isan, Hospital, Bueng Boraphet, Koh Si Chang, Bang Pu
6. May 2018:  Chonburi, Bueng Boraphet, Bang Pu
7. October 2018:  Phetchaburi, Chumphon, Bueng Boraphet
8. February-March 2019:  Phetchaburi, Bueng Boraphet, Mae Ping, Doi Inthanon, Doi Long (Northern Thailand), Isan
9. October 2019:  Isan, Bueng Boraphet, Chumphon, Chiang Mai

Let's leave it like that for today!

Steve

18FEB17: Thailand Day 3 - Petchaburi Area - Pak Thale (Part 2 of 4)

I don't even remember driving from the dump to Pak Thale.  Things were going down hill pretty fast.  We arrived at Pak Thale and I almost stayed in the car.  I was not feeling well at all.  Na offered to carry my scope and tripod to the salt pans where there were shorebirds - about 1/2 mile away.  It was about 0930, hot, humid, and I had a fever.  This was, though, the place to see Spoon-billed Sandpiper.  We ran into a couple of folks returning from the pan and they reported that it was the furthest impoundment and that they had 5 Spoon-billeds in there.  We made our way to it and thankfully, there was a little shack that offered some shade.  We were looking into the sun at a ton of sleeping shorebirds.....  great.  You see, I hate viewing birds like that but Rick, he's bionic.  He can look into the sun, through the sun, over the sun, whatever, nothing deters him.  This would be a recurring theme of Rick setting up his scope AND finding birds while looking into the sun.  I had to get used to it....  :-)

We couldn't locate jack.  We were there about 1/2 hour when I finally glimpsed a Spoon-bill come out of its resting position and preen a little.  I said "Spoon-billed" in a rather weak, non excited voice.  We all got on it and that's when Bob said, "the first one you saw you were yelling and jumping up and down, this one, you were a little mellow."  55555  I was sick man!  We decided that we would try to get better light on it so we moved to our left to get the sun to our backs.  Not 10 feet into moving and yours truly steps on a piece of tin roofing, it makes a crap load of noise, the birds flushed.  I felt like an idiot.  We bailed on the peep and walked down towards a spot where we could try for Far Eastern Curlew.

While we were walking, this absolute wall of large shorebirds - measuring in the thousands - got up and started to swirl around.  We were looking for a FECU in the mass.  I had my camera on my tripod so instead of trying to pick one out, I just started shooting the whole flock in flight ala alcids.  Rick got on one and I was able to get it into my view finder and get some pics of it.  Later, much later, I would review these pictures and there weren't just one FECU in with them, but 7.  I pieced together a shooting sequence like I do the alcids at Race Point and was able to come to the conclusion of 7.  I have included that montage and a few others below.

Seven (7) Far Eastern Curlew

A wall of Eurasian Curlew

Eurasian Curlew

Far Eastern Curlew alighting

Far Eastern Curlew Rick got us on

On our way out, we stopped in the Pak Thale Bird and Nature Center.  We ran into a Brit who filled us in on the goings on with the salt farms and the estimated number of "Spoonies" in the area.  In short, this group of salt farms in under pressure for development into another thing NOT a salt farm.  No salt farm, no readily view-able Spoon-billed Sandpiper.  He told us that for only $150k, this area could be preserved for the Spoonies.  I don't have that cash but I know some who are out there do.  There are 200 of these precious peep left in the world, if you got gobs of money (hint Nuttall), do some good.  

Pak Thale Bird and Nature Center

Info Graphic on Spoon-billed Sandpiper Viewing

An Article Hanging in the Center

We finished up here and got in gear to go see Mr. Deang and his beloved Sand Spit.