Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker
As well as scanning shimmering, expansive saltpans, we also squeezed in a couple of brief but productive sessions at a nearby freshwater marsh, tucked away down a dusty track and lined by scrub and sedge.
Paddyfield Pipit
Ruff
Highlights here included great views of a Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker hammering at a fencepost, a Cinnamon Bittern, the first Two-barred Greenish Warbler and Oriental Reed Warblers of the trip, a Black-browed Reed Warbler and Black-headed Munias in the rank trackside vegetation, Black-collared, Asian Pied, White-shouldered and Vinous-breasted Starlings....
Marsh Sandpiper
Asian Open-billed Stork
....Indian, Little and Great Cormorants, Little Green and Blue-tailed Bee-eaters on the wires, Plaintive Cuckoos and White-vented Mynas in the trees, Painted and Asian Open-billed Storks, hundreds of Black Drongos, plenty of marsh terns and many other expected species.
And a few shots from back at Khao Dinsor - or more accurately, the area immediately around our guest house - taken on a couple of local ambles while not up the hill or on the beach....
Ashy Drongo (of the very distinctive endemic subspecies)
Which also produced a good selection, including Black-capped Kingfisher, Green-billed Malkoha, Black-winged Cuckooshrike, the first Taiga Flycatchers of the trip, Lineated Barbets, Stripe-throated Bulbuls, Vinous-breasted Starlings and Striped Tit-babblers, as well as many commoner species.
A land crab (based on the fact in was a very long way from water...)
Pacific Reef Egret on the beach
Vinous-breasted Starlings (on the guest house)
Olive-backed Sunbird, beginning to build a nest on the telephone wire outside the guest house
Two-barred Greenish Warbler
and a pair of very smart Plain Backed Sparrows from the abandoned buildings.....
