Pajareo sin fronteras

  After exploring the Mekong in Cambodia, I flew directly to Bangkok, where I had a couple days of work meetings before returning to Indonesia for other projects. This was, of course, a work trip which meant limited time for birding. It was still a good chance to see a little more of Bangkok and (crucially) eat lots of Thai food, both of which were great. Bangkok is easily one of my favorite cities in Southeast Asia: a huge, bustling, diverse, and incredibly unique metropolis with interesting architecture, cool temples, friendly people, and amazing food.  Sunset in downtown Bangkok In the end, I only had time for a single morning of birding at Benjakitti Park, which I had greatly enjoyed on my previous visit . I arrived at the park a little after sunrise, and had what was mostly a pleasant and relaxed few hours of birding at a really nice, well-organized city park. The only possible lifer for me there was Thick-billed Warbler, which I dipped on, but it was a chance to get a be...

  After our trip through Northern Luzon , Nikki and I returned home to Sorsogon for the rest of December, where I did almost no birding at all. This was partly because of a bit of burnout after a long birding trip and the need to focus on other hobbies (and uh, work also), but mostly it was because of weather. The amihan (northeastern monsoon) gets into full swing in mid-December, and it kept us inside most of every day thanks to rain and blowing winds. I actually have very little to report from the rest of December in the Philippines, which is maybe a good thing considering how chronologically delayed this blog is already.  That did not mean, however, that birding in 2022 was finished; instead, Nikki and I had a trip to Thailand planned for the end of December and early January. It wasn't entirely a honeymoon (since we hope that if we do an actual honeymoon it'll be a little longer...), but it was a nice excuse to spend some time together in a new country without too many wor...