Hi Coglisters
Just back from three weeks in Thailand, mainly visiting family, and
following historical and cultural interests but got a bit of birding in
over there as well. For the Koel fraternity, saw and or heard Koels in
Bangkok, Ayutthia and Sukothai. Didn't see or hear them in Chieng Mai or
in Mae Hong Son province (far North-west of Thailand). Didn't spot a
female bird at all. Birding highlight was seeing several hundred
thousand (?) Fork-tailed Swifts, as well as numerous swiftlets, entering
Tam Lod cave (N-E of Mae Hong Son city, not far from the Burma border)
at dusk. How do several hundred thousand birds enter a cave at great
speed without hitting each other? They stack themselves in the same way
as passenger aircraft do over a congested airport. In this case birds
were entering the stack at height and the birds in the stack were all
flying in an anti-clockwise direction and descending in a spiral at the
same time. As the reached the bottom of the stack, the birds peeled off
and entered the cave. Even so, three swiftlets were knocked out of the
air in collisions. All would have died without human-assisted take-offs.
Two long, thin aerial roots (about a centimetre in width) dangled
practically the length of the cave entrance. Not hit by a single bird
even those entering the cave well into the dusk. Several raptors were
there hunting through the stack actively both nights. Seen only in
silhouette, so no real idea what they were. A general impression - saw
no ducks, hornbills, few raptors, no swamphen-type creatures but lots of
egrets and storks. The cities were full of Rock Doves, Spotted Doves and
Eurasian Tree Sparrows; Ayutthia and Sukothai had our very own charming
Peaceful Doves as fairly common city birds as well. Scammers operate
outside the royal palace in Bangkok 'giving' Rock Dove food to
unsuspecting tourists who are expected to gain 'luck' by feeding the
pigeons. The luck must be elsewhere, because the tourists are then
somewhat browbeaten into paying for the food. There are an awful lot of
Rock Doves outside the royal palace. A lot of the Thai birds are very,
very colourful. The little brown bush birds are a set of diagnostic
torture creatures. They flit about, are often high in the forest canopy
or as silhouettes in dappled jungle foliage and move about like tuktuks
in Bangkok traffic. If you are visiting for a short time only, talk to
the locals about where trees are fruiting - even in central Bangkok this
can lead to pleasing results. Glimpsed a cock fight from our train.
Around the hill villages at least, boys use slingshots to kill birds for
food. For those of you who are spiritual: I was assured that you may
gain merit by purchasing the release of caged birds (finches and doves)
at wats. Oh, and one at least of the corvid spp can do quite bouncy
hops. Only one small ornithological disappointment - no Hoopoe! Thailand
has a greater percentage of its land area gazetted as national parks
than does Australia but we did not get to visit any of them... that is
for next time.
Regards
Con
Jack and Andrea Holland wrote:
The hot night must have made Koels more active as I heard my first one
briefly but clearly for my GBS site at 4:40 this morning. I have been
hearing this species between 6-7 am in the far distance off and on
since Boxing Day, but had concluded that it was the Holder/Duffy bird.
Quite late for Koels in this area, very few records in January previously.
Jack Holland
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