The next week was quite busy with my collaboration work and traveling to check on some facilities to carry out our future experiments and talking with various people. But still managed to do some birding when time permitted. One of the places that we went was a district called Kamphaeng Phet. Kamphaeng Phet has lots of cultural and historical value for the Thai people. It was one of their former capitals. So, I took the chance to visit the Kamphaeng Phet Historical District, a UNESCO world heritage site to take in some sights. I will add the photos of that place in a separate place and link it here, but the birder in you never stops! So, ended up having three lifers in Chestnut-headed Bee-Eater (Merops leschenaulti), Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops) and Lineated Barbet (Psilopogon lineatus) which I couldn't photograph this time, but got some nice pictures later. One of the ever present non-birds I saw in the ruins was the Pallas' Squirrel (Callosciurus erythraeus) who were everywhere on the site, but never came near (unlike any squirrels I have seen!). Did create a trip report on eBird for these 3-4 days if anyone wants to see all the info in one place. It can be accessed here.

Once I returned back from this visit, couldn't do much birding in/nearby Bangkok as it was quite busy and traveling around Bangkok (even with its excellent public transport) is very time consuming. So, on one of the days when I had a bit less work and the temperatures were cooler (still above 30oC) visited another city park called Queen Sirikit Park. This is right next to the Rot-Fai park that I visited earlier. This park is more maintained than the Rot-Fai park will less wild areas, but nevertheless does attracts lots of birds to be found. Did ended up having five lifers on this day here. Some of them are White Wagtail (Motacilla alba), Chinese Blue Flycatcher (Cyornis glaucicomans), Asian Emerald Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx maculatus), Orange-headed Thrush (Geokichla citrina) and Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker (Dicaeum cruentatum). The complete eBird checklist form this trip could be viewed here. I will add the Chinese Blue Flycatcher image in another blog as I didn't get a good picture of this skulker here. An interesting fact about this genus (Cyornis)  or Blue/Jungle flycatchers is, just like the Empidonax flycatchers on this part of the world (in north Americas) its quite a challenge to ID them accurately, but I was fortunate to have some help in ID'ing them accurately from some local birders.

This image of White-breasted Waterhen (Amaurornis phoenicurus) is by far one of the best photographs I was able to capture in Thailand. This youngster was casually foraging on the sides of this small canal within Queen Sirikit park when I found it, the light was coming from behind me and I was just enjoying its beauty when I noticed that I had caught something large. I had my camera focused on it before hand and quickly took some series of images and this turned out to be the best as it was just picking out (what I think is a dragonfly larvae) it from the water and the reflection also turned out nice.