Location: Bangkuwat, Maung, Pathumthani
My home, or 'ban', is located off some highway out in the yuk-yuk-me-no-speaky-english-rice paddy territories of Thailand. I would guess 90% of the world's rice is grown/procreated here, so godamn much of it! I bet my life on this.
While eating rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner is so great, the real treasure in yuk-yuk is that rice paddies are a birder's wet dream. Imagine an overabundance of egrets, herons, and goofy stork-birds (later identified as the 'Asian Openbill') active and visible at all hours of the day. Bitterns and Bee-eaters replace my missing starlings and pine siskens as new daily backyard birds. Chinese Pond Herons gorge themselves all day on god knows what while their DNA continues to birth camouflage that provides no real purpose whatsoever. Wet...Dream.
Openbills are commonly joked about by avid birders as the 'aborted fetus of the stork family.' After a few weeks of observation I have decided to declare the Asian Openbill as my favorite feathered friend in Thailand. Sometimes they remind me of the CGI dodos in the Dreamworks masterpiece 'Ice Age.' Watching one try to land on a tree is nature's wicked sense of humor at it's best.
Now once in awhile, usually at dawn or dusk, I find myself transfixed. I am reminded of those creepy, intricate Chinese crane paintings, with painted glassy prehistoric eyes.
The Asian Openbill can sometimes be beautiful, even without image stabilization.
My home, or 'ban', is located off some highway out in the yuk-yuk-me-no-speaky-english-rice paddy territories of Thailand. I would guess 90% of the world's rice is grown/procreated here, so godamn much of it! I bet my life on this.
While eating rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner is so great, the real treasure in yuk-yuk is that rice paddies are a birder's wet dream. Imagine an overabundance of egrets, herons, and goofy stork-birds (later identified as the 'Asian Openbill') active and visible at all hours of the day. Bitterns and Bee-eaters replace my missing starlings and pine siskens as new daily backyard birds. Chinese Pond Herons gorge themselves all day on god knows what while their DNA continues to birth camouflage that provides no real purpose whatsoever. Wet...Dream.
Openbills are commonly joked about by avid birders as the 'aborted fetus of the stork family.' After a few weeks of observation I have decided to declare the Asian Openbill as my favorite feathered friend in Thailand. Sometimes they remind me of the CGI dodos in the Dreamworks masterpiece 'Ice Age.' Watching one try to land on a tree is nature's wicked sense of humor at it's best.
Now once in awhile, usually at dawn or dusk, I find myself transfixed. I am reminded of those creepy, intricate Chinese crane paintings, with painted glassy prehistoric eyes.
The Asian Openbill can sometimes be beautiful, even without image stabilization.
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