Raptor Watch, Chumphon

What a joy to return to school after a two week break to learn that Friday was a public holiday. A four day week thanks to King Chulalongkorn or King Rama V, whose anniversary falls on 23rd October. In short King Chulalongkorn is regarded as one of the most important Thai monarchs, reigning from 1868 until his death in 1910. He resisted French imperialistic claims and is widely hailed as the guardian of Thai sovereignty and independence. I believe the musical/movie, The King and I,is loosely based on his life and that his relationship with his English guardian/teacher is the subject of the movie Anna and the King. There are many monuments and memorials in honour of King Chulalongkorn throughout Thailand, indeed one of Thailand's most prestigious university's is named in his honour and for the public holiday most public buildings bore his portrait.

With my friend Damian sending me texts from the Raptor Watch in Chumphon Luna gave her blessing for another trip down south. Chumphon is perhaps a a misnomer as the watch site, Radar Hill, is in Prachuap Khiri Khan province about 80 kms north of Chumphon. Of course I had to make a diversion via Khao Yoi and Laem Pak Bia in the hope of setting my sights on the spoon-billed sandpiper, calidris pygmeus, which is one of the most sought after birds in Thailand and sadly a highly endangered species. Records suggest its arrival is now due so off I went in the hope of being able to report the first sighting for the winter.

I am not sure about trophy birds like this. Is it right to go in search of this fellow and ignore everything else? I regret to say once I reached Laem Pak Bia I did and it is perhaps fitting that not only  did I not see it but also that I got stuck in the mud and needed to get help to get out!

I had a great scout around Khao Yoi which was alive with the regulars, including a fair number of juveniles which will hopefully mature into fine looking pheasant tailed jacanas and moorhens. In fact a combination of a late start and then time spent in Khao Yoi meant I rushed to Laem Pak Bia. I think with hindsight calidris pygmeus merits significantly more respect. The highlights were a first sighting of a female mugimaki flycatcher,  ficedula mugimaki, in the Khao Yoi swamp and elsewhere I counted 21 painted stork and 48 as yet unidentified terns.

In my enthusiasm for calidris pygmeus I drove onto a gravel area by a salt pan, 20 yards off the highway and then onto some mud as I caught sight of a huddle of small sized shorebirds. Rear wheels revolving but no traction. Now what follows is why Thailand can be such an amazing place. Back home some one would have been rubbing their greedy hands with glee because my misfortune would have undoubtedly presented an opportunity to make a few quid. A couple of salt pan workers stopped their bikes, flagged down a couple of their buddies, took off their sandals and went into the mud and pushed me out. Thank you very much. I hasten to add they were very reluctant to take a small pourboire from me.

So I got unstuck and decided to head south to Radar Hill without any further ado.

The Raptor Watch, www.thairaptorgroup.com , is in its eighth year I believe and is a great example of local and international concern mobilising scientific, political and public interest in the cause of raptors, birds of prey such as buzzards, bazas, hawks, shikras and eagles. Radar Hill is at a perfect elevation to watch the annual south bound migration of these birds form the Eastern palearctic winter, that is Russia east of the Ural mountains, China & Japan, to the warmer climes of the tropics.

There are quite literally thousands of birds in transit and at any given time during daylight hours these birds can be seen moving south. My friend Damian  has been assisting in the count and specifically helping the main scientist, Robert de Candido, aka Birding Bob of Central Park, NYC, who is leading the count and scientific analysis. A number of Dr de Candido's papers are in the public domain and make fascinating reading. Bob  is a great guy and a real authority on raptors and birds in general and very adept at translating the science into plain English. So what better place to be for a couple of days?

I got to Radar Hill about 4:00 pm Friday afternoon and there were a lot of people there including TV cameras who were shooting Thailand's celebrity TV natural world show presenter. I don't know who he is or anything about his show but he is boyishly handsome sporting a cool ear ring and he had an entourage of teenage girls with braces acting goofy and star struck. Kinda cute but frustrating. Nothing noteworthy on the bird front either. So the team decided to head to Pencil Hill, towards Chumphon, for Saturday for better viewing and to avoid the anticipated crowds on Radar Hill.

I really like the set up at Radar Hill. Nearby there is a hotel with 250 baht rooms, basically a bed, a shower, a toilet and a fan. Now in truth I don't need much else. The room and bedding is perfectly clean. Moreover, Noi, a keen supporter of the raptor watch with an eye like the proverbial hawk, runs the restaurant next door and he provides three substantial meals a day for 120 baht. Friday night we ate a delicious fish called wahoo, acanthocybium solandri , or bla een see chang as the Thais call it. Noi's food is really the equivalent of French peasant cooking, in a word it is aroi which means delicious in Thai. This is because it is lovingly prepared with thought, time and care. Food really is a big thing in Thailand.

Saturday at Pencil Hill was excellent. The local raptorologists led by Chukiat Nualsri, have managed to get the mayor interested in the project and as a result funding has been provided to develop access to and facilities at the site. I had a pleasant day with Damian, Bob and his colleague Deborah Allen and we saw in excess of 1000 black bazas in migration, plus many grey faced buzzards, japanese and chinese sparrow hawks, shikras and a considerable number of blue tailed bee-eaters and dollar birds. The highlight  for me, however, was when Bob told us there was "something interesting" coming over the saddle of the hill, "Maybe some crows" he added. About 30 seconds later yellow bills emerged and  I heard "hornbills" but wasn't sure if they were saying "red" or "great". I didn't think there was a red hornbill so assumed we had great hornbills. It was neither, we had two male wreathed hornbills also on a southbound migration. Unfortunately the hornbills dropped down and got lost in the plantation greenery but the photographers cleaned up so to speak.

This was a real international gathering, a lot of Thais, including Chukiat himself, some Malaysians, some Taiwanese, a Scot, an American, a South African and a Canadian plus a bundle of expensive photographic hard ware. Never seem so many 500 mm lenses in my life! Most of all a really happy atmosphere.

I had a quick bite to eat at Noi's and headed home just after 18:00h arriving just after 22:00h. Much as I enjoyed the birds and the company I really missed Luna & Benedict. I love the way my little boy sits or lies in bed in the morning and smiles and gurgles. What a perfect start to the day.

l to r GAB, Robert de Candido, Deborah Allen and Damian Smith,  Khao Din Sor, (Pencil Hill), Chumphon, Thailand,  Saturday 24th October 2009

Our Wedding Anniversary

Luna and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary today. To mark the occasion we took Benedict and Boo to Jay-on Restaurant where we ate some delicious food: fried snake head fish ("bla chon"), deep fried morning glory and some squid noodle salad, ("yum woon saen"). It was perfect. What can I say? I am so happily married and just adore my wife and my son just never ceases to amaze me. It has been a truly memorable year, by and large a very happy one and I hope and pray we have many more.

We have had a very pleasant break over the school holidays. We had a few days in Chumphon province, in the south of Thailand, watching raptors. I met up with an old friend Damian. Then back to Ratchaburi for Scott and Ya's wedding, Scott is Benedict's godfather and a teaching colleague. It was a beautiful service followed by a water borne reception on the Mae Klong River.

Next up we headed north to Chiang Mai with an overnight stop in Nakhon Sawan, in central Thailand. This enabled me to go bird watching in Bueng Boraphet, which is regarded as one of Thailand's most important waterbird locations. I met Mr Phanom, the local birdman and boatman and I must say he is a gem. We managed to see some White-browed Crake but alas I was unable to see my target species, Glossy and Black-headed Ibises. Mr Phanom told me they could be seen in the late afternoon. However the trip out onto the water was great and there was an abundance of birds, barn swallows virtually everywhere, lots of swamphens, drongos, lesser whistling duck,some darters, some spot-billed pelicans, cormorants and many other common species.

Our trip to Chiang Mai worked out very well. We took Boo with us and that was a great move as it meant Luna had help with Benedict. We stayed at the Lotus Pang Suan Kaew Hotel, an old favourite of mine. We paid 1500B per night via latestays.com and that included a decent buffet breakfast. I was impressed by latestays.com because we had a concern with our booking and we were able to speak to someone in Bangkok and get the issue sorted with a minimum of fuss. Recommended for this reason and for price.

The Lotus hotel has decent facilities including a swimming pool and due to the amount of stuff that accompanies Benedict the help of porters is important. Benedict had his first dip and was none the worse for being inadvertently submerged into the water. He is a tough little boy.

Some really interesting trips into Doi Inthanon and Doi Chiang Dao National Parks plus a new find, thanks to Nick Upton's Thaibirding.com site, in Huay Teung Tao, a large park area with a lake and trees and some rice paddies just outside of Chiang Mai. Plus lots of birds. New species included taiga flycatcher, black collared starling, white wagtail and pied bushchat. A big plus also is that the park has great facilities and you can eat delicious food in any number of lakeside restaurants.

Doi Inthanon, Thailand's highest mountain with an altitude of 2565 metres, was unfortunately covered in mist when we visited so visibility was very poor, but it was a great day out and the birds we saw were fantastic, the highlight probably being a hill blue fly catcher. There is a sealed road all the way to the summit. At the summit there is an abundance of beautiful birds including green tailed sunbirds, chestnut tailed minlas and dark-backed sibias. We just took it very easy as it was a lousy day, reminiscent in fact of being on the summit of Hellvelyn in the English Lake District in the sense that there the sheep are almost tame given the number of school packed lunches they get; on Doi Inthanon the birds will almost feed from your hands. Plus the mist and of course at that altitude it was decidedly cool. The highlight of the trip was the Wacharitan Waterfall, lower down the mountain, which was in full, thunderous flow when we stopped late in the afternoon. I look forward to returning here with more time in the future and perhaps maybe arrange to stay nearby so I can start early!

We had an enjoyable trip to Chiang Mai Zoo which boasts the first ever baby panda to be born in captivity. Unfortunately Lin Ping was sleeping when we visited but we saw her image as it was being relayed from her boudoir to TV monitors. We had a good look at her parents lounging around eating bamboo. Great fun. This zoo, thanks to Lin Ping, is probably Chiang Mai's most important tourist attraction. But it has a lot of other animals and birds too including a non-captive grey wagtail which I observed

wagging about an artificial waterfall in the tigers' compound!

I had a solo trip to Doi Chiang Dao, Thailand's third highest mountain at 2,220 metres. It is an impressive visual feast, about a 90 minute drive north of Chiang Mai. All I can say is I will be back. I drove up the Muang Kong road, a real hair raiser of a single track road, but it was a joy and plenty of birds, highlights being eurasian jay, dark sided flycatcher and grey headed canary flycatcher plus red-whiskered bulbuls in the wild; these latter birds are commonly kept in cages and are highly prized by Thais.

There were many glimpses of other birds but alas no definites and as I am learning it is very easy to get it wrong when it comes to identifying birds. I have been working on a raptor I saw at a distance perched on a tree but don't yet feel confident about calling it, so I won't! Here is a juvenile dark-sided flycatcher I snapped through my scope with a handheld compact camera . Please feel free to correct me if I have it wrong!

We had a trip to the night market and just had a very pleasant time and I met up with a few old friends. I think we will need to make an annual trip up north and I am delighted that Benedict seems to be none the worse for his experience. Of course Benedict is the star of the show, a real stopper. He really is a great kid with a fantastic, easy going, laid back attitude and he is making some very interesting noises.

The trip back was long but we stopped at Bueng Boraphet and Mr Phanom delivered. Sure enough the ibises arrived, majestically, as if by appointment on one of the islands to the west of the lake at about 17:20h. Mr Phanom had us in pole position to watch this amazing spectacle.

The island was already a hive of activity with flocks of black drongos and white shouldered starlings occupying the lower bushes with the higher trees occupied by asian openbills, little egrets, darters, cormorants, little heron, a couple of purple herons, grey herons, pond herons. The starlings were a truly vivid spectacle as they flew around en masse, their colours changing as they changed direction and the noise level was reminiscent of a David Attenborough documentary.

I was thinking where are the ibises when in they flew, more than 200 glossy ibises and they came in two strands from both directions and converged in the middle and then flew around for about 15 minutes before settling in the trees. Great views. And then I started thinking where are the black headed ibises and at about 17:45 about 60 flew in; they didn't fly around much and settled almost immediately into the upper tier of the trees. Wonderful birds to look at.

We had a setting sun in the west and in front of us a pleasure craft drifted by with a small party of saffron robed monks enjoying the spectacle and into the distance the sun glistened on the golden stupa of temple on a eastern hill top. Dream like stuff really. So well done Mr Phanom. What a pleasant way to break up the drive from Chiang Mai to Ratchaburi!

We made it home at 23.05 after a drive of 850 kilometres which began at 09.00. Good to be home. I think even Boo enjoyed herself.

Benedict @ 3 months

A Year in Thailand: Husband, Father, Teacher

Well my year in Thailand is up! I am still here and it look as if I might well be here for the forseeable future. The headline reads something like "Husband,Father, Teacher" and at this level the changes in my life since arriving here a year ago are mind boggling.


When I boarded the plane a year ago I knew I was going to get married in a matter of a few days after my arrival. I had a multiple entry non-immigrant visa which gave me a bit over a year here and I had the funds to finance such a length of stay without working. So I was expecting to stay but I also accepted that inability to get work might result in a return to London.


I think I would have said that I would have liked to be a parent and that I would have liked to work here and generate income. I am amazed, however, by the speed with which Luna conceived and as I write our son, Benedict, is firmly latched onto his mother's left breast. Benedict is now three months' old.


We believe Benedict was conceived on our wedding night. This is not mere wishful thinking on our part. We have plausible reasons to believe this but these are better not shared here! In fact there have been a series of things that convince me we are being looked after. Anyway the long and short of it all is I am very happily married and now we have a beautiful son.


It is difficult to explain how this has affected me. I distinctly recall acknowledging inwardly, a few days after Luna's pregnancy was confirmed, that I needed to drive a little more carefully! Tonight I was happy to leave work at the earliest opportunity, because I wanted to spend a little time with Luna and Benedict.

I shared an hour or so with Benedict immediately after his birth, while Luna recovered from her trip to theatre. Awesome! I cannot possibly describe my joy watching our little boy.


I have loved every moment of being married, well most of them (!), and likewise being a father. Benedict remains a joy. Currently making a lot of noise, loves to gurgle away when he hears familiar voices, and he is very interested in his hands and fingers. So far so good. He recently slept from 8:00 pm to 4:00 am. He is coming along very well.


We celebrate our first wedding anniversary in a few weeks and I can only say I love my wife very much and enjoy our life together.


For me Benedict has been a great blessing from conception onwards. Every aspect of Luna's pregnancy was relatively smooth, apart from an early concern about low lying placenta. This resolved itself naturally as Luna's pregnancy progressed.


Much to some people's concern we were very active for most of Luna's pregnancy. Some people seemd to think Luna should be confined to her bed for the duration. We had a lovely holiday in the south of Thailand taking in Khao Sok National Park in Surat Thani Province and a pleasant few days on Koh Phi Phi and we kept on the move right up to Benedict's birth.


Then came teaching. I started teaching Science & Maths to Grade 5 & 6 students in the local bilingual school in May. This is yet another venture into the unknown. I am really enjoying it. I am finding it challenging, frustrating, sapping, and everything really. I am glad to have completed my first term today and to be on holiday.


The job means there is life in Thailand beyond the year. I'll reserve further comment on teaching until the end of my holiday as my views right now might be unreliable! However I have a visa and work permit which will take me through until next April.


So what about living in Thailand? Well it is a strange experience. In some respects I would say the language means it is fairly impenetrable. I don't really know a lot about what's going on locally or even nationally. Not over interested either to be honest. The internet keeps me reasonably up to speed and I think it would be fair to say the overall political situation here is unstable short to medium term. The economy, tourism in particular, has suffered badly because of the well reported problems over the last 12 months. Maybe no bad thing in the longer term as I think Thailand as a tourist destination is massively hyped. Amazing Thailand is wearing a little thin. Time to rejig I think.


Whatever the promotional material may say the Thais really don't like us. I don't mean to be critical or unfair or even to be partial. However the government jealously guards everything Thai. At one level this protectionism is good, why should western corporate or individual finance buy up Thailand's economy? There is no doubt that if non-Thais could buy property then there would have been unprecedented speculation on the price of real estate and this would have put home ownership out of the reach of many people. A bit like what you get in London where property prices have been so great that ordinary people are really priced out of the market.


I guess when you see the types that hang out in Thailand and see what they get up to then perhaps that would make you a little jaundiced too! Thank God we are far away from the bright lights and dancing girls or boys!


However I survive very well in Thai. I have managed to get a wedding certificate, a driving license, Benedict's birth certificate, a baptism certificate too, (which incidentally says he was baptised before he was born!) My greatest achievement was to buy a car at an auction in Bangkok, and then to register a change of ownership at the local land transport office. Plus I am a freak in that I will drive in Bangkok! So none of this stuff is insurmountable.


And then I have not atrophyed on Thailand's golf courses. In fact I have hardly played recently. I have developed a real, active and ongoing interest in birds. Little did I know I was bang in the middle of one of the bird watching destinations in S E Asia. I do now and my knowledge and understanding of things avian is increasing. I have just been watching the southbound migration of raptors over the last few days in Chumpon, in the south of Thailand, and I saw a lot of Oriental Honey Buzzards, big fellows, and Chinese and Japanese Sparrowhawks! Plus I feel very proud that after about twenty minutes of observation, allowing for the bird's coming in and out of view as it scampered about in the tree, that I was able to identify an Arctic Warbler. Now if you pull out one of the field guides to Thailand's birds and turn to the warblers' section, you should understand why I am proud.


I like it here in Thailand, I like the Thais, I like the approach they have to most things and I can cope with most of the negative stuff. It is refreshingly different even if Tescos are here! I think you have to take the place seriously. There are not many places in the world where monks take to the streets every morning, barefooted and wearing saffron robes, and are in effect supported and sustained by the generosity and kindness of the general public. But it is a difficult and challenging place at the same time.


So that is my year in Thailand. For me it has been pretty amazing. Beyond my wildest dreams.