Birding New Vision: Pygmy Geese and a Pheasant-tailed Jacana

Last weekend Nic and I were joined by our young birding friend Elias Thomas for birding at New Vision. It’s definitely the middle of the monsoons right now, and as soon as we got to New Vision I could see the water level was even higher than the week before. We weren’t expecting too many interesting birds, but we were expecting Black Bittern which would’ve been a year bird for Elias and maybe a Pied Cuckoo which would’ve been a lifer for him.
I saw three birds with white on their wings flying out across the water and guessed that they were Asian Pied Starlings, but I realized they were too large and flight style wasn’t right for a starling so I looked through my binos. I was quite surprised to see that it was 3 Cotton Pygmy Geese! I quickly got Nic and Elias onto them before they turned and disappeared to the south east over the trees. Elias was pumped as this was a lifer for him! As far as I can tell this is the first ever sighting of pygmy geese at this hotspot, which is cool!

*note that some of the photos in this post are not mine. If they aren’t mine it is noted in the caption

Our next find wasn’t a bird, but a cool looking moth I’ve wanted to see for awhile. Not easily identifiable to species without dissection… Unfortunately couldn’t get good shots as the camera was fogging over much of the morning.

Birding was a little slow because it was very overcast and fewer butterflies and dragonflies were around than last time, but a few Gram Blues and Plains Cupids (butterfles) were fun. There were 6 or 7 very active Brahminy Kites around, and some of the other usual suspects.

As we worked our way along the path beside the largest swamp/pond I saw a white winged waterbird and almost passed it off as a pond heron, but again I realized the flight was different and the colors really weren’t quite right for a pond heron. So I checked it with my binos and realized it was a gorgeous Pheasant-tailed Jacana in breeding plumage! Yet another lifer for Elias!

The jacana landed on some vegetation in the middle of the “pond” and stayed there for 5-10 minutes before flying back to the north west. Hopefully they’re breeding here!

Pheasant-tailed Jacanas are pretty uncommon around Dhaka, and this is maybe the second or third record from this location, but I think the first possible breeding record.

Black Bitterns were around as usual, we saw them several times and one was a young one. I’d love to find a nest here, but that may be difficult.

There was a huge flock of at least 100 Barn Swallows out in swampy area farther to the north. That’s huge increase in numbers from the last few weeks and possibly means these are migrants not the few local swallows. We had nice views of one juv and adult a piece of Striated and night herons.

We had a number of dragonflies and butterflies. No new butterflies for me, but a Greater Crimson Glider (Urothemis signata) was a new dragonfly for me!

We also briefly saw a Yellow Monitor (huge lizard) a first for me!
Our total count ended at 43 species (of birds) which is decent though a few species lower than the last two times, but that included 3 new hotspot birds for me, two of which were new for my 5MR! (the geese, jacana were new 5MR birds and two flyover Indian Silverbills were the other new hotspot birds). My hotspot list is up to 115, my 5MR year list is up to 128 and my 5MR lifelist is at 148!
eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S71338087

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