16FEB17: Thailand Day 1 - Mangrove Research Station- Part 3 - SPOON-BILLED SANDPIPER

Let's get this out of the way and the story will follow!

Spoon-billed Sandpiper

Let me first start with pointing out a key to birding in Thailand - Nick Upton's ThaiBirding.com.  This website is a must read for any birder heading to Thailand.  It's great directions, complete checklists, and "where to bird" sections are unequaled.  So here is a view of the Research Station. 



We walked out the boardwalk and went to the viewing platform.  Our view was very good and the shade was definitely a plus.  Straight out was the Gulf of Thailand and to our left (east), the mouth of the Tha Chin River. We set up our scopes and our timing couldn't have been more perfect.  The tide was just falling, the longer legged shorebirds were already wading while the shorter legged shorebirds were swirling around in massive numbers.  A group of Whimbrel kept watch on top of several posts.  Then it began.  The hordes of shorebirds flooded the flats.  Thousands of them.

• Pacific Golden-Plover - 1000
• Lesser Sand-Plover - 9000
• Black-tailed Godwit - 800
• Great Knot - 125
• Curlew Sandpiper - 400
• Terek Sandpiper - 18
• Asian Dowitcher - 12
• Red-necked Stint - 90

I want to draw your attention to that last entry, RNST - 90.  Rick mentioned two things.

• There are more Red-necked Stint here than he has experienced;
• When we bird Pak Thale, we want to find groups of RNST to look for Spoon-billed Sandpiper.

The four of us birded.  Even Na was either looking through my scope or Canon PowerShot.  After a bit, Nok arrived with food - a lot of food.  She had a chicken, mango, dragon-fruit, a watermelon, and a whole bunch of other goodies.  Thank you Nok!  Nok introduced us to some long time friends and after a brief visit, we got back to scoping the shorebirds.  

We had been out there about 2 hours and the birds were getting further away.  Bob went for a stretch back down the boardwalk and Rick sat for a second to down some food.  I kept scanning.  Then it happened.  About 100 yards out, I saw this peep, butt to me, and when it put it's bill down to feed I saw the diagnostic spatulate bill.  It looked like this:

Spoon-billed Sandpiper

I yelled SPOON-BILLED SANDPIPER!  Rick got on it quickly.  I let out some kind of primal "YEA" scream and Rick said, "Careful, you don't want to scare the bird!"   Bob hustled back and saw it through my scope before getting it in his own.  I was shaking.  I walked a little back down the boardwalk and got on my haunches to collect myself.  After a bit, I made it back to my scope and marveled at this unique and sadly diminishing species.  Rick indicated that this was the first time he has had SBSA at this spot (eBird and Nick Upton's site do not mention it).  

To beat it all, the bird was actively feeding.  It would walk around a little bit and find a mud puddle and then turn one way or the other and reach down with its bill and sift the water - not unlike how Roseate Spoonbills feed.  It was a little lighter in color than the RNST, had a well defined eye line, and it was shaped much differently.  This bird was an unbanded/unflagged bird.  We watched it, photographed it, enjoyed it for about 1/2 hour - it was our own private show.  Rick was creaming it with his hand held iPhone 6 and Kowa.  Just amazing pictures.  I put up my phone, with its scope adapter, on my Vortex and I couldn't even find the bird let alone digiscope it.  (More to come on Rick's digiscoping abilities...)  The SBSA flushed a few times.  We relocated it until ultimately we lost track of it due to the extensive, sun-shimmering flats.  

Rick said we should probably get going to make it to the fields of Bang Chak to give us enough light to bird.  So off we went.  Out of the 1000s of amazing shorebirds on the flats, we had the good fortune of viewing a Spoon-billed Sandpiper.