Netting birds and confusing the locals...
Dear All
When I first came to Anantara one of the first things I did was walk out onto the grassland and tear down all the nets that local folks had set up to catch birds, I am not quite sure if the nutritional value of a tiny Blue-eared Kingfisher is greater than the energy used in plucking it but I pulled one out of the nets as well as many other, larger, species.
The Kingfisher stayed with us for a few days and then went off to find a territory of its own.
Anyway the staff at the hotel have long thought me crazy for trying to stop people doing this sort of thing but have sort of tolerated my odd behaviour and my growing collection of confiscated snares and home-made traps.
So it was very confusing for everyone when I invited Philip Round and an old friend from a tiger walk, Klos Boontawee, to the hotel again a week or so ago and the first thing they did was go out and set up nets. Of course the nets were part of the Asia and world wide ringing programme of migratory birds.
The birds, once they had been weighed, measured and generally checked out had a ring with a unique serial number placed on them and were let free - further confusion for the locals, a bird in the hand being worth two in the bush.
While they were here the two expert birders managed to spot enough winter visitors to take the Anantara bird list over 150, the full list is available from www.helpingelephants.org.
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