The Best Shorebird

 

While our trip to Thailand over the new year was definitely not a birding trip, I did nonetheless have a few target birds; obviously I'm not going to go to a new country full of interesting wildlife without trying to get out at least a little bit. Of these, there was exactly one that was a can't-miss target. And by "can't miss", I mean "I hope I don't dip on it because if I do I'll have to miss my flight out of the country so I can try for it again" levels of can't miss. It's probably easy to tell from the cover photo of course what this is: Spoon-billed Sandpiper.

Spoon-billed Sandpipers have worked their way to the very top of many birders' "most wanted" lists (including mine) for several reasons. First of all, they're just fantastic: tiny, adorable peeps (small Calidris sandpipers) that have somehow developed a ridiculous, utensil-shaped bill that it uses to strain its food out of the water, similar to the much-larger spoonbills. Second of all, and much more sadly, they're in precipitous decline: their population has tanked over the last two decades due to habitat destruction in its winter range in East Asia and Southeast Asia. They've lost something like over 90% of their population since the turn of the millennium, and while there are some moderately successful conservation programs ongoing, their future beyond the next decade or so is, sadly, still anything but guaranteed. 

The sandpipers had long been at the top of my list of most-wanted birds, particularly after an attempted twitch of them in the Philippines in 2017 that turned out to be a very unpleasant experience- not least because the "spoon-billed sandpiper" I was twitching turned out to be a Red-necked Stint with a bit of mud on its beak! Since none of them had bothered to show themselves to birders in the Philippines since then, I decided to go for it in Thailand, where most birders see them. While the bulk of the population probably winters on the east coast of China, there are several reliable spots for them along the Gulf of Thailand, the most famous of which is the Pak Thale salt pans in Phetchaburi province, a couple of hours south of Bangkok.

While most of our time in Bangkok was doing non-birding things, I did set aside one day to look for the sandpipers. So it was that on December 27, our second full day in Thailand, we got in a rental car and started driving south to Phetchaburi to look for a tiny sandpiper. It was a surprisingly unpleasant drive down, mostly just because I was driving in the dark in an unfamiliar country, trying to navigate Bangkok's maze of expressways while not being able to read any of the road signs. The drive only became more enjoyable when we got off the main road and started making our way through the small towns of coastal Phetchaburi, a mix of fish ponds and fishing villages interspersed with Buddhist temples. 

We arrived at the Pak Thale salt pans just after sunrise, on a cool and clear winter morning. Immediately it became clear why this is one of the best-known wader-watching spots in the world: the salt pans were absolutely full of waterbirds! Salt pans always seem to attract shorebirds, presumably because they can feed off the krill and other things in the brine, and the salt pan owners apparently don't mind selling their salt mixed in with a healthy serving of sandpiper poop, so it all works out.

The Pak Thale saltpans (pics by Nikki since I totally forgot to take any)

We parked the car as close as we could get to the salt pans and starting walking out to where most of the birds seemed to be. Every pool seemed to have waders of some sort, and the diversity was amazing; I ultimately ended up tallying 28 species of shorebirds in just a couple hours of birding! Just on the entrance walk I had close-up looks at Red-necked Stints, Lesser Sand Plovers, Greater Sand Plovers, Broad-billed Sandpipers, Black-winged Stilts, Terek Sandpipers, Common Greenshanks, and Red Knots. Most noticeable were thousands and thousands of Great Knots, which would take off in enormous murmurations any time they were disturbed- a truly awe-inspiring natural spectacle, and one that's becoming rarer as, like many Old World shorebirds, they are in precipitous decline as the wetland habitats along their migration routes are progressively destroyed. There were also lots of gulls and terns, mostly Whiskered Terns, Common Terns, and my lifer Brown-headed Gull, but also some more distant large gulls I wasn't able to see well enough to ID.

Lesser Sand Plovers, Red-necked Stints, and Broad-billed Sandpipers

Red-necked Stint

Great Knots

Black-winged Stilt

Brown-headed Gull

The sheer numbers of shorebirds were awe-inspiring, but also daunting: there were no more than a few Spoon-billed Sandpipers known to be wintering at Pak Thale, amongst thousands of other nearly identical-looking birds. It was like finding a tiny, spoon-billed needle in a haystack. Arriving at a busier-looking pool, I saw my second-most-wanted target of the day: a small group of Nordmann's Greenshanks, another rare and declining East Asian shorebird that I've long searched for in the Philippines without success. More scanning revealed more of the same, until by the edge of the pool I saw it: a little calidris sandpiper with a ridiculous spoon-shaped bill. Spoon-billed Sandpiper! Nikki and I were able to get good views in my scope, and distant record shots. Unfortunately just then a Brahminy Kite flew through and flushed the waders, taking the sandpiper with them. The flushing flocks of shorebirds were a spectacular sight though, and in the process I managed to get another lifer in the form of an immature Black-tailed Gull, an uncommon bird in the area.

Nordmann's Greenshanks

Spoon-billed Sandpiper!

Great Knots

Common Greenshank

Kentish Plover

Black-tailed Gull

Common Tern

Germain's Swiftlet

Eventually the flock alit in a set of ponds a little further away, and we decided to creep slowly closer to try and get better looks at our spoon-shaped friend. That ended up working well, as we were able to peek over one of the berms in the salt pans and get excellent looks at the Spoon-billed Sandpiper. Though I'd seen pictures before, it was amazing both how distinctive it was when its bill was out and it was foraging, and how well it blended in with the surrounding Red-necked Stints when it was pointed in the wrong direction. Definitely the sort of bird that can be easily overlooked as something else (although, if I'm going to be honest, it's harder to understand mis-IDs going in the opposite direction...). It was a mix of thrilling and sad; thrilling to see perhaps my most-wanted world bird, but sad to know that it might be the last time I do, unless the population manages to recover. 

Spoon-billed Sandpiper

Nordmann's Greenshanks

Lesser Sand Plovers

Common Greenshank

An enormous Greater Banded Hornet that landed on Nikki, flew onto the ground, and then promptly died

It was mid-morning by then and getting very hot, so we started the long drive back to Bangkok. We stoped along the way by a nice pond full of Painted Storks and Spotted Redshanks, and again at some open fields where Yellow-breasted Buntings had been recently reported on eBird. Unfortunately there were no buntings, but I did get to get lots of new Thailand birds, including my first pictures and good looks at Grey-headed Lapwings.

Painted Storks

Grey-headed Lapwing

After that it was back to Bangkok, where we had lots of fun outings I've already covered here. My next blog will be about our time in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, though considering all the traveling I'm doing this month I'm not sure when that will be.