Pak Thale and Laem Pak Bia

Meanwhile, all around us were large gatherings of other waders with Great Knot, Marsh Sandpiper, both Greater and Lesser Sandplovers, Broad-billed Sandpipers, and other more familiar species such as Dunlin, Red Knot, Curlew Sandpiper and others. Once we were done with the Spoonie we nailed a Far Eastern Curlew hiding pretty well in a huge flock of Eurasian Curlews before checking out an area which gave us Chinese Egret, a couple of Terek Sandpipers and Golden-bellied Gerygone as well. There was also some Gull-billed, Little, Caspian, and both Greater and Lesser Crested Terns seen this morning as well.

Broad-billed Sandpipers

Just a small part of the huge Great Knot flock...

As we had been watching the Spoonie for so long the flock of Nordmann’s Greenshanks had moved from their regular area so we drove around for a while until we came across four of them in a flock that also had 29 Asiatic Dowitchers as well. Wow! 

Asiatic Dowitchers

Some distant Nordmann's Greenshanks

Plenty more photos were taken although they weren’t that close but our drive around these salt pans gave us numerous opportunities to get extremely close views of a variety of other waders such as Spotted Redshank, Pacific Golden Plover and yet more Broad-billed Sandpipers.

Broad-billed Sandpipers

Always nice to get such close views of common waders - Common Greenshank

Black-winged Stilts, Curlew Sandpiper and Marsh Sandpiper

Pacific Golden Plover

Kentish Plover

Temminck's Stint

Wood Sandpiper

Following lunch we headed out to the sandspit at Laem Pak Bia where both Malaysian and White-faced Plovers showed well, along with Pacific Reef and Chinese Egrets, Great Crested Tern, and also 5 Pallas’s Gulls as well.

Malaysian Plover

Gull and tern roost at Laem Pak Bia...

White-faced Plover

White-faced Plover - female

White-faced Plover

White-faced Plover

Leaving here we found a few White-shouldered Starlings and an Indochinese Bushlark before heading to another area where we enjoyed close views of Indian Cormorant and several White-winged Terns, as well as seeing Pin-tailed Snipe, Ruddy-breasted Crake, Black-crowned Night heron, and at dusk an Indian Nightjar showed well. 

White-winged Tern

Literally 1000’s of Lyle’s Flying Foxes flying overhead from their roost site was a quite spectacular sighting to end a fantastic day.