India - Chambal River

After a long night’s rest we drove down towards the Chambal River, stopping along the way to walk through an arid area of canyons and thorn scrub. I was surprised to see a couple Jungle Prinias here, and there was also Ashy and Grey-breasted Prinias as well for comparison. 

Jungle Prinia - stunning huh..?

It has to be said that India is like no other country in many respects, no aspect more apparent than the sheer volume of birds one sees whether driving along or walking. I can’t remember feeling this in the past and must have taken this amazing aspect of India’s wildlife for granted, having done so many tours here. But it is absolutely true and the sheer quality and variety of birds on view wherever you stop and look is a total contrast to many countries these days in Asia. To illustrate this fact, a small muddy puddle at the end of the lodge’s drive held both Green and Wood Sandpipers and a Common Redshank, whilst driving across the arable landscape we saw so many Green Bee-eaters on the wires, along with Chestnut-shouldered Petronias, Indian Rollers and Baya Weavers it was hard to not stop every time we came across a group of birds.

So we sauntered along the road and saw Grey Francolin, numerous Rose-ringed Parakeets, Laughing Dove, Indian Robin, a brief Yellow-eyed Babbler, lots of Bank Mynas, both Common and Large Grey Babblers and overhead a superb Short-toed Eagle looked huge. 

Bank Myna and Common Babbler

Mr and Mrs Indian Robin

Short-toed Eagle

A short drive took us down to the Chambal River and a quick scan revealed Paddyfield and Tawny Pipits, Masked and White Wagtails, Crested Lark and some close River Lapwings. Once aboard our ‘sturdy’ vessel (or tub may be more appropriate) we headed along the river and it was a little choppy due to the high wind but that didn’t stop us seeing a multitude of birds and top of the list were the 7 Indian Skimmers roosting on a sandy island. Having been told the previous evening that they are not as guaranteed as in the past and have been missing for a long time until very recently I have to admit I was a trifle worried. However, here they were and we lapped up the fantastic views. 

Indian Skimmers

We also saw all the other usual birds during our exploration such as Great Thick-Knees, a group of Knob-billed Ducks, Ruddy Shelduck, Temminck’s Stint, Pied and White-throated Kingfishers, Red-wattled Lapwings, and several Indian Black (Red-naped) Ibis. 

Indian Black (Red-naped) Ibis

Bar-headed Geese

Knob-billed Duck

White-browed Wagtail

Great Thick-Knee

Overhead were several Ospreys, Egyptian Vultures, Black-shouldered Kites and a Long-legged Buzzard.  

Egyptian Vulture

Really enjoyed the views of Gharials and Marsh Muggers as well….

Gharials and Soft-shelled Turtles

Gharial

More Gharials

Marsh Mugger....

Returning to the lodge the large pond on the approach road held a flock of fresh breeding plumaged Painted Storks avidly feeding and allowing great photo opps. 

Painted Storks

Even at lunch it was difficult to not get distracted by Indian Grey Hornbills, Rufous Treepie, Brown-headed Barbet, Oriental White-eyes and a Grey Mongoose. Oh and how could I 

forget the day roosting Indian Scops-Owl or the Spotted Owlets…..?

Indian Scops-Owl

We birded the gardens and surrounding fields in the late afternoon and enjoyed views of Taiga Flycatcher, Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher, Plain Prinia, Yellow-wattled Lapwing, and a pool full of birds with Bronze-winged Jacana and a couple of Greater Painted Snipes being 

the pick of a good bunch. We walked back to the lodge and ended a great day with a superb dinner.

Thailand Round Up..... Part 2....

Further searching of the salt pans and lagoons revealed more waders and one of my personal favourites - Broad-billed Sandpiper showed really well....

Broad-billed Sandpiper

We also went out to the sandbar at Laem Phak Bia and saw Malaysian and White-faced Plovers, as well as this Chinese Egret - a rubbish photo..!

Chinese Egret

The regular flock of Asian Dowitchers had been tricky to locate, but we eventually did find them in a distend pond. After walking closer we managed decent views of them, but then noticed one of the dowitchers had noticeably barred flanks... This was the previously reported Long-billed Dowitcher, another Thai rarity but couldn't get close enough for a decent photo....

Spot the Long-billed Dowitcher...

We also found a Milky Stork with what looked like a hybrid Painted x Milky Stork in the same large gathering of egrets beside the road.... Classified as Endangered by BirdLife International, this is an increasingly hard bird to find these days. Oh and we also saw a Black-faced Spoonbill a short while later as well. What a day!

Milky Stork

Milky Stork

This is the hybrid with dark feathers...

Milky Stork

A clear view of the Milky Stork

Just a small part of the huge egret flock...

Loved the fine close views of a colony of Asian Golden Weavers...

There was a nice close colony of Asian Golden Weavers beside the road.

We also came across a breeding plumaged Javan Pond Heron.....

Javan Pond Heron

And we ended a great trip with a spot of raptor watching with Greater Spotted Eagle, Steppe Eagle, Black-shouldered Kite, Black-eared Kite and a juv Pied Harrier....

Greater Spotted Eagle

And that was it, and in 11 days birding the northern mountains and a quick trip to the wader heaven that is Petchaburi Province we saw 356 species of bird. Not a bad haul at all and we managed to find a bucket load of quality birds, but for me the Hodgson's Frogmouth was the star bird....

Thailand Round-Up... Part 1......

Following the conclusion of our northern Thailand tour we went on to Pak Thale and Laem Phak Bia for a short wader extension. We first set about searching for Spoon-billed Sandpiper and after a bit of a wait found two individuals.

Spoon-billed Sandpiper

As usual there were lots of waders (we saw 40 species today) around and here's a selection of photos taken during the day.

Long-toed Stint

Marsh Sandpiper

Kentish Plover

Temminck's Stint

Wader Stand-off....

Doi Lang (cont)

Up early (of course!) and headed up to the higher reached of Doi Inthanon where at our special site we saw 2 Ashy Woodpigeons fly over and then at least 15 Speckled Woodpigeons perched in the treetops to catch the sun’s first rays.  

Speckled Woodpigeons in the early morning sunshine.

We then spent most of the morning at the summit enjoying repeated views of most of the same birds as yesterday, but a Yellow-bellied Flowerpecker and Mountain Tailorbird were very nice and very new for the tour! There were several Ashy-throated Warblers around and Common Rosefinch was also new for our burgeoning lists. 

Ashy-throated Warbler.

A quick circuit of the boardwalk produced several views of male White-browed Shortwing, a Himalayan Bluetail, a Chestnut-headed Tesia played hard to get and a pair of Rufous-throated Partridges fed in the leaf litter. More Green-tailed and many Mrs Gould’s Sunbirds also showed particularly well.

Lower down the mountain the small feeding station had much the same as yesterday, but a singing Slaty-bellied Tesia was glimpsed a few times inside the forest. Along the Jeep Track we had a much better Tesia encounter, as well as a Large Niltava and not much else. So we headed to Mr Deang’s for lunch – including the blue robin again before driving to the campsite. The Black-tailed Crake came in close but never showed, however a few flocks passed by and we added Scarlet Minivet, Velvet-fronted Nuthatch, Black-winged Cuckooshrike, Sulphur-breasted Warbler and Ashy Bulbul to the list.

We ended the day at the base of the mountain where quite a few Blossom-headed Parakeets flew in and landed in the treetops in front of us. Also here was an Indochinese Bushlark, Rufous Treepie, and a Grey-headed Lapwing.

Doi Inthanon Does It Again.

We arrived at Doi Inthanon shortly after sunrise and had a quick check of a river where we briefly saw a Black-backed Forktail, and followed this with another stop that produced much better views of Slaty-backed Forktail. Other species seen here included Green-billed Malkoha, Plumbeous Water Redstart, and both Golden-fronted and Blue-winged Leafbirds. Moving higher up the mountain we spent the remainder of the morning walking our favourite trail and once again this turned out to be very productive as we began with an extremely confiding pair of Pygmy Wren-babblers literally giving superb close views down to 6 feet. We hadn’t really got over this when a flock of White-necked Laughingthrushes were lured into view and although they were in the canopy above us we had repeated looks at this very tricky species – and a lifer for yours truly. As if this wasn’t enough a flock of Black-throated Parrotbills were spotted by Roberta feeding high up in some very tall bamboo, and just around the corner were a pair of Vivid Niltavas. Wow! We walked a reasonable distance and also found Hume’s Treecreeper, Grey-throated Babbler, Martens’s Warbler, Chestnut-crowned Warbler, Streaked Spiderhunter, Fire-breasted Flowerpecker, Yellow-cheeked Tit, and several White-headed Bulbuls.

Green-tailed Sunbird - yes it has a blue tail and is endemic to this mountain..

Lunch was taken at Mr Deang’s where the 1^st year male Siberian Blue Robin was still in attendance. Afterwards we drove to the summit and enjoyed really nice close views of Green-tailed Sunbird, Rufous-winged Fulvetta, Chestnut-flanked White-eye, Blyth’s Leaf Warbler and Chestnut-tailed Minla. 

Dark-sided Thrush

Along the boardwalk we found 3 Dark-sided Thrushes, Blue Whistling Thrush, White-crowned Forktail, Chestnut-headed Tesia, and an extremely confiding Snowy-browed Flycatcher. 

Snowy-browed Flycatcher

 Driving a little lower we had a pair of Small Niltavas, Grey-cheeked Fulvetta, Yellow-cheeked Tit and a female White-browed Shortwing coming in to a little feeding station. 

Female White-browed Shortwing

Yellow-cheeked Tit

We ended the day hearing Black-tailed Crake before driving to our lodge.

Doi Lang Wrap-up..!

Headed up onto Doi Lang this morning and we were fortunate to see 6 Hume’s Pheasants and a pair of Mountain Bamboo-Partridges on the drive up. This time we drove beyond the feeding stations and walked along the road and this turned out to be a particularly productive excursion. Fine scope views of a pair of Crested Buntings and a close Giant Nuthatch was a good start, and we followed this with Crested Finchbill and repeated views of a pair of Spot-breasted Parrotbills. 

Giant Nuthatch showed very well today.

We even managed to tease out a male White-bellied Redstart and really enjoyed nice looks at this ace skulker. This was almost as good as the male Asian Emerald Cuckoo we scoped as it sat at the top of a tall tree. Returning to the lusher forest and this time there was a couple Grey-headed Parrotbills in a flock that also contained Grey-chinned Minivet, Indochinese Cuckooshrike, Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo and Stripe-breasted Woodpecker. 

The Hodgson's Frogmouth was still there....

Record shot of Indochinese Cuckooshrike.

So by now it was late morning and we drove lower to the Ultramarine Flycatcher stake-out for our picnic lunch, and once again had point-blank views of the flycatcher. But this time several Rufescent Prinias were showing well, and then a superb male Fire-capped Tit began feeding on some flowers in a tree at eye-level and was later joined by two females. What a superb way to end our time here.

Fire-capped Tit.

Ultramarine Flycatcher.

 All that remained was to drive to Chiang Mai where we would spend the night.

Baikal Beauty...!

Headed up the Thaton side of Doi Lang and quickly got Scarlet-facd Liocichla, Whiskered Yuhina, Large Niltava, White-gorgeted Flycatcher, Claudia's Warbler, Black-eared Shrike-Babbler and others. 

Whiskered Yuhina

Spectacled Barwing

In the early afternoon we returned to the hotel for a little siesta before heading out into the nearby fields. Must admit I love this sort of birding as the habitat was a mixture of river, tall grasses, fields and muddy channels where we picked up a lot of trip ticks and was very enjoyable birding. The highlight was this Baikal Bush Warbler that came out into the open - and was surprised to hear another 6 or 7 calling in the vicinity. 

Baikal Bush Warbler

On the river we saw Oriental and Small Pratincoles, whilst in a weedy field I flushed a Barred Buttonquail, and there was also 3 Eurasian Wrynecks, a brief Lanceolated Warbler, Richard's Pipit, a Bluethroat, and some Pintail Snipe and Greater Painted Snipe. At dusk a flock of Baya Weavers and a Chestnut Munia flew into the tall grass to roost, whilst overhead we saw (and heard) Paddyfield and Red-throated Pipits. This male Pied Harrier also flew by incredibly close to us as well - one of the best encounters with this species i've ever had.

Pied Harrier

Another Thai Rarity....

Well we did it again, this time finding a Red-billed Starling (at least 2 individuals, maybe 3) a species i've seen in China a few times. There might only have been a maximum of 5 or 6 previous Thai records prior to this - thanks to Nick Upton for spotting it! I didn't manage any photos unfortunately, but there are some digiscoped pics from my group to follow. 

It was a frustrating start to the day despite this great sighting as there were less birds around at Nam Kham Nature Reserve than on my previous visit a few weeks ago. The Firethroat has unfortunately departed, but we did get Daurian Starling and a Ruddy-breasted Crake here. Moving on to the Mekong River, there were lots of Small Pratincoles and a pair of River Lapwings present. But the most exciting period of the day was reserved for the harrier roost where a cloud of Eastern Marsh and Pied Harriers flew in just before dusk. We did very well prior to this with Yellow and Eurasian Bitterns, Eastern Water Rail, White-browed Crake and even a Baikal Bush Warbler. So an interesting day sprinkled with some stardust....

Eastern Water Rail -  a recent split from the European birds.