Wader Heaven & more Rarities

Petchaburi Province is home to the famous overwintering Spoon-billed Sandpipers at Pak Thale and we managed to find one within 2 minutes of our arrival, unlike the 2 hours it took on our previous visit a few weeks ago. Instead of blabbing on about our day, suffice it to say we saw all the same birds as before which I wrote about on this blog, and instead will leave you with a few photos from our day…. 

Asiatic Dowitchers

Long-toed Stint is quite common

Lesser Sandplover is very common

Curlew Sandpiper

Broad-billed Sandpiper

Spot the Nordmann's Greenshanks….?

Chinese Egret and Eastern Great Egret.

Oh but we did find a Grey-tailed Tattler which was new for the tour, along with a Black-tailed Gull, Plaintive Cuckoo, White-shouldered Starling and we also saw the first Bay-backed Shrike for Thailand….

Bay-backed Shrike - 1st record for Thailand

Khao Yai (again)

A brief update from our latest visit to Khao Yai as part of the 3 back-to-back tours we are running. It is amazing how different things can be in such a short space of time since my last visit there just a couple of weeks ago. And as you can see from the following photos a Blue Pitta has been showing exceptionally well. 

Blue Pitta

As we sat down in a secluded spot to wait for this bird to show, we were entertained by 2 Orange-headed Thrushes, Hainan Blue Flycatcher, Puff-throated and Abbott’s Babblers, a pair of White-rumped Shama and 2 male Siberian Blue Robins. Not a bad little haul huh?

Siberian Blue Robin

The other main highlight was this Coral-billed Ground-Cuckoo running around in the open for 5 minutes! Wow!

Coral-billed Ground-Cuckoo

 Other new birds here included two sightings of a flock of Austen’s Brown Hornbills – a different species from the birds at Kaeng Krachan.  And our extraordinary run of great mammal sightings continued with an Asian Elephant and Asian Black Bear…..

North Thailand - The End

Our final day at Doi Inthanon started along a fast-flowing river where a pair of Black-backed Forktails showed repeatedly, despite being rather shy. We then spent the next few hours birding our favourite trail in the hopes of finding a big flock, which never really materialised so had to content ourselves with a few smaller flocks. The best new bird along here was a Clicking Shrike-babbler calling from right over our heads, and we also saw White-throated Fantail, Spectacled Barwing, Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike, another brief Martens's Warbler, several Grey-throated Babblers and plenty more species we'd already seen. A Bay Woodpecker was calling but remained unseen as well. So by now it was 11am and we decided to check out the feeding station by the checkpoint and it was really nice to get lengthy views of Pygmy Wren-babbler again. This time there was also a male Small Niltava putting on a show, whilst a male Large Niltava was present constantly here as well. 

Pygmy Wren-babbler

Small Niltava

Yellow-cheeked Tit

After lunch we didn't have much time before we had to leave for the airport so made a last-minute decision to check out the Black-tailed Crake spot just down the road. With no sightings for several months it was really a time-filling exercise but when we arrived a bird responded to my ipod and after repositioning ourselves a pair appeared in a small pool and everyone had a decent view. A great result and high five's all round before we had to hotfoot it to Chiang Mai and our evening flight back to Bangkok after a very successful northern Thailand tour. 

Partridges, Pygmies & Blossoms

After a full English breakfast we headed back to the summit of Doi Inthanon, making a stop on the way to successfully locate a pair of Speckled Woodpigeons. There were crowds of people here this morning to see the sunrise and photograph themselves next to patches of frost, and that is something of a major rarity here! Despite all of these people we found a group of 4 Rufous-throated Partridges feeding in the leaf litter behind the restaurant – and they were absolutely unconcerned by our presence. 

Rufous-throated Partridge

Buoyed by our success and the warmth of the sun we walked down to the boardwalk and kept our run of good fortune going as we found a Dark-sided Thrush feeding in a relatively open area below us, a very close male White-browed Shortwing and a male Snowy-browed Flycatcher.

Dark-sided Thrush

So we left here and went down to the checkpoint where yesterdays stake-out had swapped a Lesser Shortwing for a Pygmy Wren-babbler ( ! ) that appeared from underneath a car parked right next to the feeding station and quickly grabbed a mealworm before disappearing. A Pygmy Wren-babbler hopping along the tarmac – truly surreal and bizarre! A bunch of Grey-cheeked Fulvettas were also out in the open right in front of us and were joined by a single Grey-throated Babbler giving excellent views. This is another skulker that you can sometimes struggle to see. 

Grey-throted Babbler

A short walk along the trail failed to produce anything new so we went down to Mr Daeng’s for lunch and was very pleased to see another Dark-sided Thrush feeding right out in the open below us.

Following another tasty gastronomic delight we returned to the same trail and finally found a singing Small Niltava before returning to the minibus and dropping down to the base of the mountain. A short walk and some Chestnut-tailed Starlings and Little Green Bee-eaters later, and we were scoping several parties of Blossom-headed Parakeets perching in the treetops to round off another successful day.

Doi Inthanon

It took about an hour to reach the entrance gate to Doi Inthanon National Park and we headed straight to one of our favourite trails high up the mountain. As the sun began to peak over the surrounding forested ridges there were many birds singing and we quickly picked up Grey-chinned and Short-billed Minivets, Black-winged Cuckooshrike, Bronzed Drongo, and a couple of superb Silver-eared Mesias. Walking along the trail our first stab at Slaty-bellied Tesia only resulted in a bird calling back at us from down the slope, but we made do with prolonged views of a Hume’s Treecreeper instead. Nearby a very obliging Pygmy Wren-babbler ( I do hate the new name of Pygmy Cupwing) was watched for around five minutes as it sang and called from some favourite perched right next to the path. Moving on, there was a much more co-operative pair of tesias, lots of Olive-backed Pipits, and out in an open area a Plain Flowerpecker flew in to check out the owlet call from my ipod, along with several Fire-breasted Flowerpeckers.

Dark-sided Thrush

We had lunch at Mr Daeng’s restaurant where you can eat some delicious food overlooking a little feeding station where there was a female Rufous-bellied Niltava, male Hill Blue Flycatcher, brief Dark-sided Thrush, Blue Whistling-thrush and a tiny Lesser Shortwing. Out in the gardens we called in a Banded Bay Cuckoo that flew around us before landing in various trees around the car park. Whilst watching this, a Yellow-bellied Flowerpecker was spotted feeding in some mistletoe right over our heads, a flock of Common Rosefinches feeding in a flowering tree were joined by some Oriental White-eyes, and a Grey-breasted Prinia showed well. Not a bad lot considering the soaring temperatures at this time of day – but it is good to see the cold snap may be ending….?

We spent the afternoon at the top of the mountain enjoying nice views of Bar-throated Minlas, Green-tailed Sunbird (here of the endemic blue-tailed race only found on this mountain), Rufous-winged Fulvettas, Dark-backed Sibias, and both Ashy-throated and Blyth’s Leaf-warblers. A walk around the boardwalk was also productive as we nailed a couple of Dark-sided Thrushes skulking in a damp area and it is always a good feeling to see a Zoothera thrush on a Zoothera tour right..?! An Eurasian Woodcock was also a nice sighting here as well but apart from that there wasn’t much else doing, so we went back up to the restaurant area. A fine Golden-throated Barbet gave point-blank views, but a nervous Rufous-throated Partridge was only seen by a few of the group. Still we finished with better views of Ashy-throated Leaf-warbler, extremely close minlas and our first Yellow-browed Tit.

Lesser Shortwing

So we drove back down the mountain and stopped to check out a feeding station beside the main road, where a male Large Niltava was stood sentinel over. As we approached it disappeared but was replaced by another female Rufous-bellied Niltava and an extraordinarily bold Lesser Shortwing that came out to feed on our mealworms repeatedly.

Doi Lang - Last Day

Our final morning on Doi Lang saw us watching a flock of over 30 Spot-winged Grosbeaks sunning themselves on the top of some tall trees at a lowland forest. They certainly are great birds and really rather scarce in Thailand. Whilst here we also had a group of Fire-capped Tits perched in a leafless tree, and they must have been forced down to this low level by the very cold conditions. There was also a Grey-faced Buzzard perched in the sunshine and a Plumbeous Water-redstart nearby as well. 

Record shots of Spot-winged Grosbeaks

So leaving here we drove higher in search of Giant Nuthatch and spent the next couple of hours walking along the road and at one point as we were watching some fine Rufous-backed Sibias feeding in a moss-covered tree, a pair of Himalayan Cutia appeared next to them. That really brought an adrenalin rush to proceedings and after a frantic few minutes everyone got on them and we could celebrate! Well that is definitely a scarce bird in Thailand and a great substitute for the nuthatch – or so we thought. But within a few minutes and a short walk later we had found a superb Giant Nuthatch calling from the top of a large, dead tree. Wow! 

Slaty-blue Flycatcher (female)

Scarlet-faced Liocichla

So with three great birds in the bag we drove up to the stake-outs and enjoyed one last view of species such as Himalayan Bluetail, Large Niltava, Slaty-blue Flycatcher, Siberian Rubythroat, and other previously seen species. A flock also passed by with Chestnut-crowned Warbler, Golden Babbler and Yellow-bellied Fantail as well. But by now it was time to leave and we set out on the long drive back to Chiang Mai where we spent the night…..