Bird Records
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2008 - Birds Records for Chiang Saen Area & Northern Thailand.

Mick Davies & Dowroong Danlamajak.

Baers Pochard; The duck flock that sometimes contains Baers Pochard is distant and unreliable and not present on everyday.

I don't look for them unless I think there is a good chance of getting decent views. I was going to do monthly duck counts, but it's difficult this year, maybe as the water level is so high.

Update 7th: Miss identifications; On the 6th Dave Sargent and I revisited the lake in order to get close views, this we achieved and the result was 25 Ferruginous and 10 Tufted. The previous day, the three of us, including Dowroong had spent an hour studying the distant group of Duck, which did not contain any Baers Pochards. We were surprised to be informed by a large group "birders"of a number of Baers within the flock. We spent a further hour studying these birds. Conclusion 2 males and some possible females?

I should have stuck to my original view on this species "don't bother a long range" In fact I looked through all manner of top range scopes at high mag, they just make the problem worse.

Tufted Duck; immature males and even adults can easily resample Baers Pochard. I tested this out on an adult male at close range 150 meters in bright sunshine, at certain angles of the sun light can cause this effect, the black chest appears warm brown, the head is clearly dark green,

The flanks can be dark as it is possible that birds in the latter stages of body moult may show mottled flanks. Although the adult male does not have white under tail coverts some off the questionable hybrid tufted's certainly do.

It is also hard to keep track of individuals when they are diving and roll preening.

Final word: One can identify the genuine article if present and at distance, however the opportunities for stringing are enormous. I would treat it like this, if you have the slightest doubt, it's probably not/.

Ferruginous Duck - Chiang Saen Lake.

Ferruginous Duck (female / imm) found dead on the track adjacent to Chiang Saen Lake (NHA) 21 01 2008. To my surprise I found the diving duck group feeding in the bay and quite close to the road this morning. The group contained about 10 Tufted and 12 Ferruginous Duck. On my return I notice a bird corpse in the road. On examination, I could see that it was a Ferruginous Duck. The bird had cuts to the side of the head and neck, suggests to me that it had been drowned and ripped from the net and thrown from a boat. The bird prior to death was in good health and of a good weight. I have warned that submerged fishing nets will cause death to birds that dive underwater. I have also pointed out that care should be taken as Chiang Saen Lake is one of the last haunts of the endangered Baers Pochard. The placing of nets next to a feeding a area for diving ducks will result in what's has happened today. Surely it is someone's responsibility to point this out to local fishermen.

Mist Nets - Hunting Yonok - Nong Lom

Mist nets Nong Lom; A five hour search today, by myself reveled 4 Lines of Bird Nets. Situated on the eastern road and central south Yonok.

Site 1; South of the Big Buddha and 300 meters south of the small petrol station. Site 2; about 500 meters north of the mature rubber plantation. Both these sites are in wet paddies.

Sites 3 and 4 are the ones found two days ago, and so far not removed. Very difficult to get out there, I tried this afternoon, but impossible to find a way out as you probably need a canoe. This place is a wilderness and has tunnels through the thick mimosa. We will ask the NHA to go with Dowroong to speak with the village boss.

Story Continued: Dowroong spoke with Mr Suriya at Nong Bong Kai, early this morning. Suriya explained that they have remove 20 nets from the area, however they too have found it impossible to find a way out into the center of the wetland. Suriya has spoken with the Village Heads and has reported the matter to Chiang Rai, District Government office. Who will act quickly.

We at Yonok and the BCST are most pleased with this swift action. " The next steps is to target the market traders"

Updated 11th jan: The NHA have removed more nets in the last few days, we are now informed that Whistling Duck are being sold in large numbers in local markets. They are trapped by the use of baited traps and sold for 100 baht a Kilo. We went to a resturant last night the SAM YING and having wild bird on the menu.