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Thailand - introductory text - Spoon-billed Sandpiper

Beginning a report of my subsequent birdwatching trip, this time to Thailand, I will start with expressing my gratitude for preparing the whole expedition to Jurek, Rafał and Cezary as well as our Thai guide – Tu. Without their efforts and knowledge of birds occurring in Thailand, and especially of places where it is most probable for a man to encounter birds, our contact with Thailand’s nature would have been much more modest and we wouldn’t have been able to capture so many species of birds, mammals and reptiles. I extend my very best regards and thanks especially to Jurek, whose contribution was the greatest. Frankly speaking, after my quite a recent photography trip to Costa Rica, the skittishness of  birds in Thailand was quite a shock for me. Excluding some single special places, where birds were fed irrespective of bans, it is hard to talk about a possibility to take good pictures. A 600 mm lens with a converter was sometimes not enough and despite it, significant framing was required.  There are about one thousand bird species in Thailand, while in Costa Rica the number of species is similar (insignificantly smaller), but the area of Thailand is 10 times bigger than the area of Costa Rica. Photographing in Costa Rica, however, is not easier and faster due to the above mentioned facts. The real reason for this is the fact that birdwatching tourism has become an economy branch there and a chain of hotels which take care for their vast gardens and feed birds, make the chance to take photos and have closer contact with nature bigger. In Thailand one cannot complaint about lack of birds, but taking photographs of them is quite a huge problem. There are places where birds, accustomed to people’s presence, approach one really close, so that even camouflage is not necessary. That’s where a dozen or so interesting galleries were created. The remaining galleries unfortunately have merely documentary value. The rest of places (majority) are a paradise for birdwatchers as the quantity of birds there is vast. Our January visit enabled us to encounter birds which have their breeding sites in Siberia. Unfortunately, all the species were in their non-breeding plumage, so they didn’t look as beautiful as during their breeding period, which sometimes made it difficult to identify them. Most of the pictures presented here were taken in the north of Thailand, on the territory bordering Burma and in the vicinity of Chiang Mai, while the waders were photographed near Bangkok. From the cool, mountainous north through the hot south I managed to capture 150 bird species, 139 of which are new species for me. Sadly, despite their observation, I didn’t manage to photograph such species as trogon, coucal or peregrine falcon as well as many others. The contents of the created galleries traditionally are of various quality and traditionally, once Thailand is worked out, those more interesting, non-documentary galleries will be marked in bold on the list, the remaining ones will be written in a standard font. In order to arrange the growing number of photographed bird species, the website is going to be remodeled, and to be more precise, a new advanced search engine will be added. One will be able to search galleries according to geographical regions where particular birds occur, there will also be a possibility to skip galleries of merely documentary value or to search galleries with the recording of birds’ sounds.  The number of bird species on this website is nearing 900 and such organizational changes seem to be necessary. About this, however, you will be able to read later in the technical section about the website after the changes are introduced. Coming back to Thailand, the trip was surely noteworthy as the variety of Thailand’s fauna and landscape leaves unforgettable memories. I must also mention Thai people who are very friendly towards tourists and the amazing delicious and cheap Thai cuisine. This time I wasn’t in dilemma about choosing a bird species for the introductory text. Quite by chance  I managed to photograph a spoon-billed sandpiper. A peculiar beak of this tiny bird and a small world’s population of it makes it a real gem among other species on my website, and a huge achievement for me.  Various sources quote various figures, but there are fewer than 100 pairs of this species in the whole world.  The bird is about the size of a sparrow, with a weight a little over 30 grams and a wingspan of about 40 cm, which makes it not easy to look for. On the territory of dozens of hectares, where salt is obtained from sea water, there were thousands of birds. Finding the spoon-billed sandpiper at the distance enabling me to take a photo (up to a dozen or so meters) was a sheer chance, and luckily such an opportunity occurred, what is more, it occurred during the last quarter of our stay in that place. The bird landed a dozen or so meters from our car. It started to feed peacefully, nearing us. Better and better photos are taken. Unfortunately it was spotted by the nature “lovers” on the left, who moved with vengeance towards the bird, scaring it effectively. That’s how my encounter with the species, which is among 100 most endangered species in the world, ended. I also added to the gallery a unique road sign informing about the fact that this bird occurs in the vicinity. Spoon-billed sandpipers live in eastern Asia, and in Thailand they occur only during their passages. They look most beautiful in their breeding plumage, but it will be difficult to make such changes in the gallery If we consider the places where they occur and their population. Below I attach links to some websites about the spoon-billed sandpiper, where you can read about people’s efforts to save this species.

https://www.wwt.org.uk/our-work/projects/spoon-billed-sandpipers

http://www.birdlife.org/asia/news/record-breaking-wintering-numbers-spoon-billed-sandpipers-china

https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/spoon-billed-sandpiper-multimedia-resources/

Tajlandia - wykaz j.ANGIELSKI

Thailand-introductory text - Spoon-billed Sandpiper
Birds
-new galleries  ( T -text in the information in the gallery, V- voice recording, species names are links to the gallery )
1. Spoon-billed Sandpiper (T). 2.Flavescent Bulbul. 3.Chinese Pond-Heron. (T) 4. Rusty-naped Pitta.(T) 5.White-browed Scimitar-Babbler. 6.Orange-flanked Bush-Robin.(T) 7.Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-Babbler. 8.Siberian Rubythroat.(T) 9.Chestnut-crowned Laughingthrush.(G) 10.White-rumped Shama. 11.Hume's Pheasant .(T) 12.Sooty-headed Bulbul. 13.Red-necked Stint. 14.Red-wattled Lapwing.(T) 15.Black-breasted Thrush. 16.Dark-sided Thrush. 17.White-bellied Redstart. 18.Hill Blue-Flycatcher. 19.Siberian Stonechat. 20.Grey Bushchat. 21.Asian Openbill.(T) 22.Little Cormorant. 23.Velvet-fronted Nuthatch.(T) 24.Streaked Wren-Babbler. 25.White-throated Kingfisher. 26.Ultramarine Flycatcher. 27.Slaty-blue Flycatcher. 28.Large Niltava. 29.Silver-eared Mesia. 30.White-capped Water-Redstart. 31.Plumbeous Water-Redstart. 32.White-tailed Robin. 33.Black-throated Prinia. 34.Brown Prinia. 35.Rufous-throated Partridge.(T) 36.Lesser Sand-Plover.(T) 37.Kentish Plover.(T) 38.Greater Sand Plover.(T) 39.White-browed Laughingthrush. 40.Mountain Bulbul. 41.Oriental White-eye. 42.Spotted Dove. 43.Paddyfield pipit. 44.Olive-backed Pipit. 45.Yellow Bittern. 46.Black-capped Bulbul. 47.Great Knot. 48. Japanese Tit. 49.Marsh Sandpiper. 50.Long-tailed Shrike. 51.Pheasant-tailed Jacana.(T) 52. Blue Whistling-Thrush.(V) 53.Banded Bay Cuckoo. 54.Gould's Sunbird.(T) 55. Emerald Dove. 56.Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher. 57.Chestnut-bellied Rock-Thrush. 58.Spot-breasted Parrotbill. 59.Blue-winged Minla. 60.Brown-cheeked Fulvetta. 61.Asian Pied Starling. 62.Yellow-browed Warbler. 63.Little Green Bee-eater.(T) 64.Streak-eared Bulbul. 65.Long-toed Stint. 66.Purple Heron.(T) 67.Grey-sided Thrush. 68.Bronze-winged Jacana.(T) 69.Zebra Dove. 70.Ashy Wood-Pigeon. 71.Giant Nuthatch.(T) 72.Indian Roller. 73.Golden-bellied Gerygone. 74.White-vented Myna. 75.Snowy-browed Flycatcher 76.Spectacled Barwing. 77.Chestnut-tailed Minla. 78.Grey-breasted Prinia. 79.Flame Minivet. 80.Rosy Minivet. 81.Grey-chinned Minivet. 82.Pacific Golden-Plover. 83.Siberian Blue Robin. 84.White-crested Laughingthrush. 85.Oriental Magpie-Robin. 86.Japanese White-eye. 87.Red Collared-Dove. 88.Buff-browed Warbler.(T) 89.Pale-legged Leaf-Warbler.(T) 90.Black-browed Reed Warbler. 91.Blyth's Leaf-warbler.(T) 92.Pallas's leaf-Warbler.(T) 93.Malaysian Pied Fantail. 94.Eyebrowed Thrush. 95.Brown Shrike. 96.Grey-backed Shrike. 97.Pied Shrike-babbler. 98.Chestnut-fronted Shrike-Babbler. 99.Black Drongo. 100.Ashy Drongo. 101.Bronzed Drongo. 102.Black-winged Cuckooshrike. 103.Brahminy Kite. 104.Black-winged Kite.(T) 105.Pied Bushchat. 106. Grey-headed flycatcher. 107.Common Tailorbird. 108.Asian Emerald Cuckoo. 109.Plaintive Cuckoo. 110.Black-capped Kingfisher. 111.White-gorgeted Flycatcher. 112. Rufous-bellied Niltava. 113.Little Spiderhunter. 114.Racket-tailed Treepie. 115.Black-collared Starling. 116.Arctic Warbler. 117.Golden-fronted Leafbird. 118.Orange-bellied Leafbird. 119.Stripe-breasted Woodpecker. 120.Grey-capped Woodpecker. 121.Lesser Whistling-Duck. 122.Chestnut-vented Nuthatch. 123.Mountain Tailorbird. 124.Greater Spotted Eagle.(T) 125.Ashy Woodswallow. 126.Blue-throated Barbet.(T) 127.Lineated Barbet.(T) 128.Coppersmith Barbet.(T) 129.Dark-backed Sibia. 130.Pallas's Grasshopper-Warbler.(T) 131.Pink-necked Green-Pigeon. 132.Oriental Reed-Warbler. 133.White-crowned Forktail. 134.Baya Weaver. 135.Maroon Oriole. 136.Black-hooded Oriole. 137.Jungle Crow. 138.Blue-tailed Bee-eater.(T)
Changes in birds galleries: 1. Curlew Sandpiper. 2.Red-whiskered Bulbul. 3.Spotted Redshank. 4.Intermediate Egret. 5.Little Egret. 6.Red-rumped Swallow. 7.Black Kite. 8.Eurasian Curlew.(T) 9.Common Myna. 10.Scaly-breasted munia 11.Blue rock -thrush. 12.Steppe Eagle.(T) 13.Black-tailed Godwit.14.Black-winged Stilt.
Reptiles-new gallery : Water Monitor.(T)
Mammals-new galleries : 1.Dusky Leaf Monkey. 2.Rhesus Macaque. 3.Siberian Chipmunk.
Go to the gallery : THAILAND - FAUNA

Calidris pygmaea
Calidris pygmaea
Calidris pygmaea
Calidris pygmaea
Calidris pygmaea
Calidris pygmaea
Calidris pygmaea
Calidris pygmaea
Calidris pygmaea
Calidris pygmaea
Calidris pygmaea
Calidris pygmaea