Why We Love Thailand..!

A full day in the national park began quite early and the sun hadn’t yet risen over the surrounding hills as we drove along the dirt road towards Bang Kram Campsite. With the recent freakily cold weather it took a while for anything to happen, but when it did I don’t think anybody could have foreseen us finding such a big bird for Thailand…… It all started innocuously enough when Phil mentioned he had a bird feeding in a little grassy area at the end of the track we were walking along. On raising the binoculars, we could see it was a thrush and expected it to be an Eye-browed Thrush which it initially looked like as it was back on. Then it turned to reveal a startling face pattern and mottled rufous underparts which took a few seconds to compute but then the gears started working and it clicked – Naumann’s Thrush..!!! 

Naumann's Thrush - Kaeng Krachen

A stunningly rare bird for Thailand and at the point of writing am unsure how many records there have been – but very few indeed, and maybe only 5 or 6 to date. Wow!  We watched it for a while before it flew off for some reason and then birded another open area close by, when all of a sudden the thrush flew into the treetops right next to us before flying down in front of us, and that’s where I managed to get these photos…. There was also a few Eye-browed Thrushes flying around as well, but these never settled at all.

Well, after that everything was a little bit of a let down really and it was rather quiet but we had a few little flocks with common birds in, plus our first Sultan Tits, Ochraceous and Black-headed Bulbuls, Common and Greater Flamebacks, Brown-backed Needletail, Asian House Martin, Blue-winged Leafbird, Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker, and a few other common species.

Black-and-yellow Broadbill

 We then birded the area between the streams and scoped a Tickell’s Brown Hornbill and a Green-eared Barbet at the top of a large tree. A reasonably close Black-and-yellow Broadbill was a nice find as well and we were able to watch it for several minutes, followed shortly after by Brown-rumped Minivet, Large Woodshrike, and a Hainan Blue Flycatcher.

After lunch we drove up the hill and luck was definitely on our side as a Grey Peacock-pheasant scuttled across the road in front of us. So we waited in the minibus for several minutes and played the call a few times and amazingly the bird came back on to the road and proceeded to walk sedately across it once again. Wow again! 

Grey Peacock-Pheasant

There were also half a dozen Common Emerald Doves on the drive up as well. 

Mountain Bulbul

At the top we had a fine time with Everett’s White-eye, several Streaked Spiderhunters, Lucionensis Brown Shrike, Flavescent and Mountain Bulbuls, Blyth’s Shrike-babbler, Collared Owlet, Blue-throated and Great Barbets, White-browed Scimitar-babbler, Yellow-eared Spiderhunter, and a Black-throated Sunbird.

Blue-throated Barbet

Kaeng Krachen

Spent a couple of hours looking for Black-headed Woodpeckers unsuccessfully this morning at a site that it seems has become too well known with just too many people blasting the call out and spoiling it for everyone else! A few other nice birds were around such as Red-breasted Parakeets, lots of Asian Barred and Spotted Owlets, Purple Sunbird and Rufous Treepie. So we left here and drove to a nice lodge close to the entrance of Kaeng Krachen National Park where we had lunch before driving the short distance to a very special site.

I like the fact that we can visit a small photo hide situated overlooking a little pond in the middle of some dry forest and actually get to watch birds coming down to drink and bathe. And the emphasis is on watching birds, rather than racing around trying to build your list up. In fact, you get to see some of the forests shyer inhabitants and some species that you just don’t see usually and this afternoon’s 5 hour vigil again proved that point. 

Bar-backed Partridge

We had amazingly good and close views of everything and everyone felt it was a privilege to be able to witness such a spectacle. We began with a pair of White-rumped Shamas that loitered the whole afternoon, and one of them actually had a penchant for coming inside the hide! A brief White-bellied Erpornis appeared, but was totally overshadowed by the appearance of 6 Bar-backed Partridges that walked in and began to disrupt the leaf litter in a curious feeding motion. In fact they reappeared a couple of times this afternoon. 

Pale-legged Leaf-warbler

A couple of Pale-legged Leaf-warblers were more or less on constant view, whilst Chinese Blue Flycatcher, Black-naped Monarch and Tickell’s Blue Flycatchers only appeared a few times. There were just a few lulls in proceedings, but we never really had to wait too long before species such as Brown-cheeked Fulvetta, Puff-throated Babbler, Greater and Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrushes and towards the end of the day, an Abbott’s Babbler flew in to entertain us. 

Lesser (on left) and Greater Necklaced Laughingthrushes coming in for a drink

Other birds present from time to time included Siberian Blue Robin, both Stripe-throated and Streak-eared Bulbuls and Greater Racket-tailed Drongo to add to the fun. 

Siberian Blue Robin (female)

Siberian Blue Robin (male)

Non avian interest was provided by Indo-Chinese Ground Squirrel, Grey-bellied Squirrel and 2 Lesser Mouse Deer. 

Lesser Mouse Deer

The final icing on the cake was a group of 3 superb Scaly-breasted Partridges and was a species we didn’t really expect as it has been seen only intermittently here the past month or so. 

Scaly-breasted Partridge

 And that was our lot and we retired to the lodge and some of the best food of the tour so far.

Petchaburi and Wader Heaven

A brisk wind affected our birding at Pak Thale this morning and resulted in all of the waders being extremely ‘flighty’ and we spent a frustrating couple of hours chasing them as they settled briefly at various salt pans in the vicinity. We had an initially brief sighting of a Spoon-billed Sandpiper that landed right I front of us for mere seconds and only 2 of us managed to see that one. A couple of hours later after yomping around the area, Nigel found a different spoonie with a white leg flag that fortunately remained on view amongst a huge congregation of other waders for quite a while – albeit distantly. However, everyone was extremely happy to get to grips with this much-wanted species. During our search we had seen a number of other good waders, such as Pacific Golden Plover, Long-toed Stint, many Broad-billed Sandpipers, Marsh Sandpiper, 30+ Terek Sandpipers, loads of Red-necked Stints and others, but we’d see them all so much better and closer later in the day. Next up was a short drive along the road, and we had our second big target species of the day in the shape of 10 Nordmann’s Greenshanks at another salt pan. They were also distant and we had to walk out along a narrow bund to get better views. We did achieve the slightly better views, and also managed to see a Heuglin’s Gull as well that was loafing with a flock of Brown-headed Gulls and Caspian Terns.

Curlew Sand, Red-necked Stint and broad-billed Sandpiper

Long-toed Stint

A nice wader shot with the Broad-billed Sandpiper again

We were booked in for lunch at Mr Daeng’s house along the mangrove creek (sounds good right?) before hopping onto a couple of his small boats and taking a rather choppy ride out to the nearby sandspit. Once again the wind had affected things here and the White-faced Plover was located on another sandy area across a narrow channel cut off by the sea – but in the scope we could make out all of the salient features. This is currently ‘lumped’ in Kentish Plover but in my opinion (for what it’s worth) shouldn’t be as it is structurally different, is very distinctive and has certain behavious traits making it a very different creature to a Kentish Plover. Apparently the DNA research and subsequent ‘lumping’ is based on one single feather sample…? That cant be right, can it? I mean even in a teenager’s GCSE science project the teacher would laugh at him (or her) for only providing one sample and be told to go get some more evidence…..! Anyway I digress, and there was also a few Malaysian Plovers present, a Chinese Egret, Pacific Reef Egret, plus 4 Great Black-headed Gulls, Gull-billed Tern, both Great and Lesser Crested Terns, and some other common stuff.

Great crested Terns

Pallas's Gull

So following some very welcome cold drinks we drove around some more salt pans in search of dowitchers, but we got held up looking at Richard’s and Paddyfield Pipits and plenty of very close waders along the way, including a few Greater Sandplovers amongst loads of Lesser Sandplovers and Temminck’s Stint. 

Temminck's Stint

Eventually we closed in on a flock of Eastern Black-tailed Godwits (a dodgy split if ever there was one) and ended up finding at least 10 Asiatic Dowitchers. What a great bird and we spent ages watching them, with one individual getting closer and closer to us. Using the minivan as a hide is brilliant here, as you just wouldn’t get such close views as we were privileged to get if you were walking. 

Asiatic Dowitcher

Asiatic Dowitcher

Eastern Black-tailed Godwits

Also in the area was a number of close Marsh Sandpipers, and further on 52 Red-necked Phalaropes was quite a sighting.

Marsh Sandpiper

Leaving here we went to the Royal Project and drove around the lagoons where a number of White-winged Terns were seen amongst the more numerous Whiskered Terns. We also had both Common and Pintail Snipe, a Slaty-breasted Rail and a brief Ruddy-breasted Crake for some of us. As dusk descended thousands of Lyle’s Flying Foxes streamed overhead, and we spotlighted an Indian Nightjar. As we did this a female Greater Painted Snipe flew into the torch beam and landed in front of us – and that has never happened before!

Khao Yai - Petchaburi

Back into Khao Yai for a few hours this morning and after a picnic breakfast in one of the campgrounds (and guarding our food against a gang of Pig-tailed Macaques intent on mugging us) we walked along the road and into a beautiful valley. Well, we finally found some woodpeckers (where have they been..?) with Heart-spotted Woodpecker, Lesser Yellownape and a fine Laced Woodpecker showing well. Just a shame a Greater Yellownape didn’t play ball. Undoubtedly bird of the morning was the stunning male Banded Kingfisher sitting over the road In the morning sunshine, totally oblivious to our presence. 

Banded Kingfisher - male

Things were going very well so far, with Hainan Blue and Hill Blue Flycatchers being seen, along with Crested Goshawk, Crested Serpent-Eagle, Pin-striped Tit-babblers, Radde’s Warbler and Green-billed Malkoha also showing well. Leaving here we headed out of the park, stopping at our usual site to connect with Van Hasselt’s and Crimson Sunbirds easily, and there was also our first Black-capped Kingfisher and a Striated Heron as well.

We then set out on the long drive to Petchaburi, which took 5 hours with a lunch stop and spent the last couple of hours in the middle of the patchwork of drainage channels, rice-fields and marshes. We thoroughly enjoyed being out in this open country and at the first lake had 30+ Grey-headed Lapwings, Purple Heron, Intermediate Egret, Marsh Sandpiper and lots of other common species. Across the road Phil found a Yellow Bittern, whist a tree full of Pink-necked Green-pigeons looked really nice in the lovely afternoon sunshine. 

Pink-necked Green-Pigeons

We particularly liked the male Siberian Rubythroat, but there was also Cotton Pygmy-Goose, both jacanas, Brahminy and Black-eared Kites, Stork-billed Kingfisher, Blue-throated and Little Green Bee-eaters, Germain’s Swiftlet, Yellow-bellied Prinia, Oriental Reed and Black-browed Reed Warblers, Baya Weaver and Asian Pied Starling.

Khao Yai - Day 2

Drove back into Khao Yai at 6pm and went right the way across the park and headed up to the Army checkpoint, seeing an Orange-headed Thrush in the road, before stopping at the top of Radar Road. We were almost the first people here and before we'd even finished parking saw a couple of Black-throated Laughingthrushes feeding on the road right in front of one of the Thai sentries! So we quickly hopped out and over the course of a good half an hour thoroughly enjoyed outstanding views of these usually secretive birds. 

Black-throated Laughingthrush

There was a distinct chill in the air this morning but the constant appearance of new birds meant we were rather distracted until the sun appeared over the hill. Next up was a beautiful Common Green Magpie, followed by perched views of Barred Cuckoo-Dove, Black-throated Sunbird, a close Grey-backed Shrike and stunning views of two Radde's Warblers. 

Grey-backed Shrike

Radde's Warbler

Leaving here we drove back downhill and walked for a few hours along the road, which was pretty quiet to be honest despite calling in a pair of Banded Broadbills right next to us. They are such stunners and continuing the theme of this tour, we spent quite a while admiring their intricate plumage and simply enjoying the bird. 

Banded Broadbill

Shortly after a Blue Pitta called and amazingly everyone had nailed the beauty within a couple of minutes before it melted away again into the forest. Sounds easy doesn't it? Well we got lucky as the bird remained motionless in one spot for a couple of minutes - and that doesn't happen too often! I was also pleased to see a Claudia's Warbler clambering around a dense tangle by the road - this is one of a number of tricky phylloscopus warblers to be found in Thailand. Following this we walked a trail for half an hour and got lucky with a pair of Black-and-buff Woodpeckers perched overhead.

After lunch we drove to one of the campsites which was now empty and scoped a Blue-eared Barbet high up in a tree. There was also Little Spiderhunter, an Arctic Warbler, Two-barred Warbler and a Yellow-browed Warbler present, along with Taiga Flycatcher, Fire-breasted, Thick-billed and Yellow-vented Flowerpeckers. It was then that we got some news of a Buffy Fish-owl being seen earlier in the day and dashed to the area where the bird had been but there was nothing there. But we did get views of Striated Heron and Oriental Pied Hornbill. 

Blue-eared Barbet

Thick-billed Green-pigeon

All rather frustrating really, so we returned to the campsite a found a small fruiting tree with a few Thick-billed Green-pigeons and Blue-eared Barbets in it. We had stunning views once again and I cannot remember being this close to these two species before.  Then we spent the last hour and a half staking out the back of the restaurant in a half-hearted hope of seeing a ground-cuckoo which had allegedly been seen a week ago there. An Orange-headed Thrush was very nice, as was a male Red Junglefowl, Blue Whistling-thrush, Pale-legged Leaf-warbler and Siberian Blue Robin. Heather also spotted a Greater Flameback in a large tree as well.

At the end of the day, as we were driving to the hotel, Nick spotted 3 Brown-backed Needletails circling over one of the lakes and we watched them for several minutes as they came down to drink.