Follow our satellite tagged spoonies by clicking here for the live map.
I awoke yesterday morning (6 Nov) to see a fix at Tonlé Sap Lake in Cambodia, about 500km southwest of the last fix in Vietnam. Tonlé Sap is the largest freshwater lake in southeast Asia and happens to be the site recently visited by one of the Oriental Pratincoles also tracked with 2g MTI tags by the Australasian Wader Studies Group.
EH was probably just passing over Cambodia, as the next fix came in just before 11am UCT (6pm local time) from the Trat Estuary in southern Thailand. When I woke this morning (7 Nov), EH had made it to what might (or might not be!) its final wintering site – Pak Thale – on the west side of the Inner Gulf of Thailand.
EH migration route from Vietnam to Pak Thale.
Pak Thale – Laem Phak Bia is a well-known spoon-billed sandpiper wintering site and one where many western birders have caught up with spoonies for their world lists. The site has also been home to many of our flagged spoonies as illustrated by this excellent poster of leg-flagged spoonies in Thailand.
Excellent BCST poster of leg-flagged spoonies in Thailand.
Pak Thale is now also well known as the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (BCST) and the Rainforest Trust, with support from the Suthirat Yoovidhya Foundation, Reutrakul family, Kanjanavanit family and many individual donors managed to raise a staggering $308,000 to purchase approximately 19.5 acres at Pak Thale and protect the site for spoonies and the thousands of other waterbirds that spend the winter there.
Will EH remain at Pak Thale? Or move on elsewhere? We’ll be sure to post another blog letting you know.
Spoonie locations at Pak Thale, 7 November 2019.
Follow our satellite tagged spoonies by clicking here for the live map.
