White-winged Duck in PVPF

I spent a night with Ashish, Sony and the Community Management Committee in Okoki at Preah Vihear Protected Forest in the hope of seeing White-winged Duck. On the way in we saw a family of Eld's Deer. During the night we heard Bay Owl, Blyth's Frogmouth and an endless chorus of Brown Hawk Owl.

A 4Am start saw us hiding behind a blind of woven leaves overlooking a trapeang (forest pool) well before dawn. We ignored a calling Banded Broadbill in an attempt to stay quiet and wait for the ducks to come in, but by 7:30 it was starting to get hot and the constant White-breasted Waterhen parade was getting a little tiresome...at 7:45 we heard a quacking and looked up to see a single White-winged Duck flying overhead! Awesome to see the bird, but better views were required. Sony walked off to the other trapeang where one the community members was keeping watch...over a White-winged Duck! He ran back, fetched us we enjoyed this massive duck in the early morning sunlight. Later we taped in a calling Banded Kingfisher for poor views and saw some old elephant footprints.

 Simon Mahood 18 February 2013