Kaeng Krachen (again)

It was one of those mornings where everything falls into place and I can look back on our visit to Kaeng Krachen today with very fond memories. It did start quietly as the weather was cooler than usual and heavily overcast and dull, so the forest took a while to liven up – apart from Kalij Pheasant, a couple of obliging Common Green Magpies, Wedge-tailed Green-pigeon and a Grey-headed Woodpecker. 

Silver-breasted Broadbill

But once we reached the first campsite and heard the distinctive call of Silver-breasted Broadbill then I knew things would getter better soon! Sure enough within the foliage of a large, leafy tree we found maybe a dozen of these stunning broadbills and spent some time watching  them in action. Next up was a pair of Black-and-red Broadbills that gave repeated views and the stunning crimson really shone in the dark area of forest they were inhabiting. 

Black-and-red Broadbill - why did it turn away..?

A Chinese Blue Flycatcher, Sultan Tit and Rosy Minivet all played second fiddle to this vision of black and red loveliness! But as we walked around the campsite a Blue-bearded Bee-eater kept up the quality of sightings and his beard shone electric blue as the sun tried to peek through the murky day.

Rosy Minivet

Moving on and we nailed our third broadbill of the day when a Black-and-yellow Broadbill was called in and landed high overhead in a leafless tree. Through the scope we studied its beautiful plumage and wondered if the day could get any better. 

Black-and-yellow Broadbill

So when a Spot-necked Babbler began calling and showed quite quickly we knew the answer and what a little cracker this is, with a bright white throat, rufous underparts, white-flecked super and sexy neck spotting – this isn’t your ordinary babbler at all! To cap it all a Southern Brown Hornbill began calling and we tracked it down and scoped it in a bare tree. What a morning! 

Lunch was taken at the campsite before driving up to the top of the mountain for a short raptor watch…. Well, in fact just the one raptor, a Mountain Hawk-eagle and maybe we should call it a barbet watch with Great, Blue-throated and Blue-eared all giving cracking views in the few rays of sunshine to hit us today. A Streaked Spiderhunter, Dark-sided Flycatcher and Grey Treepie later and we were driving back down to the Ratchet-tailed Treepie stake-out but found it Treepie-less, although the usual gang of Collared Babblers showed well, a White-browed Scimitar-babbler performed admirably, and we managed to locate just the one Black-throated Laughingthrush. We’d also had a few noteworthy ‘heard onlys’ today with Ferruginous Partridge and Great Slaty Woodpecker….. So what a day, great birds but not-so-hot photos...... 

Kaeng Krachen

Our first port of call this morning was a dry dipterocarp forest on the way to Kaeng Krachen where we picked up a few absolutely fabulous Black-headed Woodpeckers that were associating with a flock of Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrushes. We had quite nice views of these stunning peckers feeding low down on the trunk of a tree and once they had disappeared set about searching for Rufous Woodpecker but this bird remained elusive. We found a number of other birds here such as Spotted and Asian Barred Owlets, Rufous Treepie, Red-breasted Parakeet and numerous Lineated Barbets. Leaving here we drove to our lodge near Kaeng Krachen and had a quick walk around the extensive gardens seeing Olive-backed Sunbird, Common Flameback and Little Spiderhunter. The open air restaurant had a banana feeder where Oriental Pied Hornbill, Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrush, White-rumped Shama and a variety of squirrels were coming down to feed, whilst a Stripe-throated Bulbul was sitting on a nest nearby. 

White-fronted Scops-owls

The afternoon was spent ‘up the hill’ inside the National Park in search of some very special birds and we got the ball rolling with a Dollarbird and better still, a mind-blowing views of a pair of day roosting White-fronted Scops-owls. Man, I’ve waited years to see this species and here we were with a pair about 20 feet above our heads. Wow! 

Collared Babbler

Back up the hill we quickly nailed Collared Babbler and had repeated views, although the other ‘biggie’ Ratchet-tailed Treepie would keep us waiting until late in the day. During our walk we also had Great Hornbill, Mountain Hawk-eagle, Rufous-bellied Eagle, Ochraceous Bulbul, a pair of Bamboo Woodpeckers which rather frustratingly  didn’t show well to everyone, Rosy Minivet, Sulphur-breasted Warbler, a few Yellow-bellied Warblers, Red-headed Trogon, Lesser Racket-tailed Drongos, and a few flocks of regular species.

Red-headed Trogon

A little flock of babblers appeared which held Grey-throated, Rufous-fronted and Golden Babblers as we walked back down to the minibus at the end of the day. On the drive out we pulled up alongside a Large-tailed Nightjar that refused to budge from the roadside. Must admit I did toast the owls with a nice cold bottle of Chang tonight!!

Phetchaburi Area

After an unsuccessful search for a reported Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (a rarity here), we drove into the King’s Project and found a few more White-winged Terns amongst the large flock of Whiskered Terns. We drove around the lagoons, passing several Black-crowned Night-herons and rows of pond-herons waiting for their breakfast on the bamboo pontoons – like some avian diner! The problem with these birds at this time of year is that they are indistinguishable in non-breeding plumage and dodgy id’s like dusky wingtips etc just don’t cut the mustard I’m afraid. Anyway, we found a Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker drumming on the roof of a building – and this bird some people are calling Freckle-breasted Woodpecker now. 

Richard's Pipit

There were plenty of commoner birds such as a large flock of Lesser Whistling-ducks but nothing too fancy, although a Thick-billed Warbler and a flyby White-shouldered Starling both managed to elude my group. So we moved on and checked out a few other sites that gave us Indian Nightjar, Golden-bellied Gerygone, Chestnut Munia, Oriental Skylark, Booted Eagle, and a flock of newly arrived Oriental Pratincoles flying around the clear blue sky. The latter is noteworthy, the sky not pratincoles (but they were great too), as the weather seems to have cleared up and bodes well for our few days birding in Kaeng Krachen. 

Booted Eagle

Booted Eagle

Oriental Pratincole

From here we went to the coast and as the tide receded found 5+ Terek Sandpipers amongst a mass of hundreds of Eurasian Curlews, 3 Far Eastern Curlews, Great Knots etc. It was very hot here so we headed back inland to Phetchaburi and lunch. The afternoon was spent amidst the rice fields where birds were numerous and we found 2 Black-headed Ibis and a Painted Stork at a big lagoon. 

Asian Openbill

Whiskered tern

Little Green Bee-eaters

Moving on a marshy area held 10 Grey-headed Lapwing, whilst a lake further down the road held a spectacular congregation of 350+ Cotton Pygmy-goose. There were Pheasant-tailed and Bronze-winged Jacanas, a lone Garganey, Eurasian Coot, and a Yellow-bellied Prinia here as well. 

Asian Pied Starling

Peaceful Dove

Black-capped Kingfisher

Then we were off to the raptor fields and managed to see a few Greater Spotted Eagles, a huge Eastern Imperial Eagle, Eastern Marsh and Pied Harrier, Black-eared, Black-shouldered  and Brahminy Kites, a Peregrine and several Red-throated Pipits flying over uttering their high-pitched call.. Leaving here we continued our exploration of this vast, open area and came up with Plaintive Cuckoo, Ruddy-breasted Crake, Pink-necked Green-pigeon, Yellow Bittern and flocks of Eastern Baya Weavers.

Wader Heaven

We left Bangkok early and drove to Pak Thale along the shores of the Gulf of Thailand and the wintering grounds of Spoon-billed Sandpiper. The weather was still freaky with low cloud and some light rain but on leaving the minibus it cleared a bit and within a few minutes we had 3 spoonies teed up in the scopes. Wow! It's always interesting to speak to my groups about this bird being the main reason for visiting Thailand, and when I ask is it THE best bird of the tour so far it usually never is. I mean how can it compare to the point-blank views we already had of Rusty-naped Pitta, Blue Pitta, Scarlet-faced Liocichla, White-bellied Redstart etc etc. There's obviously more to Thailand than spoonies!

Err - Spoon-billed Sandpiper...

Anyway, the spoonies were in company with some Great Knots, Curlew Sandpipers, Red-necked Stints and a few Broad-billed Sandpipers. Nearby a flock of Eurasian Curlew took to the air and at least two Far Eastern Curlews were picked up showing their dark underwings and rumps. It was all go with birds everywhere! We had a few Indian Cormorants flying over, but were soon back to the waders with Spotted Redshanks, Marsh Sandpipers, a flock of Lesser Sandplovers with a couple of Greater Sandplovers thrown in for good measure. But the 7 Red-necked Phalaropes were much appreciated and as we walked closer an immature Black-tailed Gull was found which is very scarce here. Other waders around the salt pans included Long-toed Stint, Grey Plover, Pacific Golden Plover, Dunlin, Avocet and other commoner fare.

Red-necked Stint

Long-toed Stint - note pale legs and long toes.....

At an area of mangroves we had Mangrove Whistler and Golden-bellied Greygone but the rain came in again, and with the sea looking very rough wondered if we’d get out to the sandspit this afternoon. We then moved down the road to our next site and after a quick couple of stops, located a flock of 30+ Nordmann’s Greenshank and spent some time watching them before going for the hat-trick of awesome waders. That turned out to be Asiatic Dowitcher, and we found a flock 25+ at another area of salt pans and really gave them a good grilling. Funny but this species seemed to cause the most excitement mainly due to the fact that we didn’t expect to see them.

Asiatic Dowitcher

On the way we found a Slaty-breasted Rail skulking under some bushes which proved a little tricky to see clearly. After lunch the weather cleared and the sun came out so we went in two boats out to the sandspit at Laem Pak Bia in the early afternoon and quickly notched up Malaysian and White-faced Plovers – the latter species subject of some controversy.

White-faced Plover

With a borderline DNA analysis suggesting it be lumped in Kentish Plover (for now) it is not only structure and a distinctive plumage that sets it apart, but the fact it holds a wintering territory and spends all its time chasing away KP’s and also runs with a horizontal stance exceedingly fast…. Mmmm maybe DNA is not the ‘be all’ or maybe they should simply retest it! Not rocket science is it?

Great Crested Terns

Brown-headed Gulls 

Pacific Reef Egret

Anyway, we also had nice views of at least 2 Chinese Egrets, a few Pacific Reef Egrets, a 1^st year Heuglin’s Gull, a flock of Whiskered, Little, Great Crested and Lesser Crested Terns and Collared Kingfisher as well. Leaving here we went off and found a few Greater Painted Snipes, Lesser Coucal and Zitting Cisticola. Other goodies around the saltpans included Brahminy Kite, Richard’s Pipit, Painted Stork, 4 species of egret, Little Green Bee-eater, and others. At the Royal Project a couple of White-winged Terns were picked out from the blizzard of Whiskered Terns present, whilst Lesser Whistling-duck, Pintail Snipe, a Javan Pond-heron in breeding finery, White-breasted Waterhen, Black-crowned Night-heron and many Lyle’s Flying Foxes were seen.

Here's a few more wader pics - all common stuff but nice to get such close views of......

Wood Sandpiper

Spotted Redshank

Black-winged Stilt

Marsh Sandpiper

Common Sandpiper

LRP

More Marsh sandpipers

At the bird log this evening we counted up and discovered we’d seen 105 species today, with 37 species of wader…..