Comments
The numbers recorded were actually rather lower than expected.
This could be due to the fact that on the day of the visit, human
disturbance was quite high as a result of fishpond maintenance
and vegetation cutting.
The numbers
of White-browed Crake and Pheasant-tailed Jacana appear to be
quite significant. The White-browed Crake seems to be becoming
more common and expanding its range, so these numbers may be indicative
of its increasing abundance throughout wetland areas in Thailand.
Pheasant-tailed Jacana is a fairly uncommon breeding bird in Thailand
and the numbers at this site could be significant. At least 7
nests were seen and virtually all birds were paired up and acting
extremely territorially, being particularly aggressive towards
Bronze-winged Jacanas.
Due to the
dense undergrowth restricting access, one large pool which is
known to regularly hold good numbers of waterbirds could not be
included in the count. 10 -20 individuals of each Jacana species
could have been expected to be recorded there and good numbers
of other species.
With one third
of the site not included in this count it is possible that over
100 Pheasant-tailed Jacanas are resident at this site and certainly
winter counts approaching 200 have been made.
The counts
for Black-crowned Night Heron are not particularly meaningful
as only a few birds were active at the time of day the visit was
made.
Further visits
are required and will be made to acquire more data so that more
meaningful conclusions on the significance of the site for waterbirds
can be made.
Nick
Upton, 6th June 2008