Mt Kinabalu Day 2

I found this a rather frustrating day as the mountain was cloaked in low cloud and we had drizzle most of the day. We started off well with our first Sunda Laughingthrush amongst a group of Rufous-hooded Laughingthrushes and followed this up with a close encounter with a Red-breasted Partridge standing on the trail in front of us, followed by a couple views of a Crimson-headed Partridge that we called in beside the road. What a pair of cracking endemics! As we scanned the forested slopes of Mount Kinabalu during a clear period, Ron picked up a Golden-naped Barbet calling from nearby and that was our last new endemic for several hours as the weather deteriorated. 

We spent the remainder of the morning walking the trails and notching up plenty of previously seen species, plus White-throated Fantail, Asian Brown, Little Pied and Ferruginous Flycatchers, more Bornean Treepies, Yellow-bellied Warbler, Mountain Leaf-warbler, Mountain Tailorbird, and a Sunda Bush-warbler. 

Bornean Stubtail

Driving down the mountain a random stop resulted in a Bornean Stubtail responding rather aggressively to the ipod and perching out in the open for quite a while. We ended the morning session with a pair of stunning Black-sided Flowerpeckers feeding low down in some flowering bushes after quite a search. 

Black-sided Flowerpecker

Following lunch we walked the trails again but the weather began to deteriorate but still managed to have a close look at a Mountain Black-eye that flew in and landed right next to us, plus an inquisitive Sunda Laughingthrush. 

Mountain Black-eye

Sunda Laughingthrush

Our mammal list finally got off the ground with Mountain Treeshrew, Low’s and Jentink’s Squirrels and some biscuit-eating Bornean Black-banded Squirrels that certainly provided some entertainment for us whilst sheltering from the rain.

Sabah, Borneo - The Start

Away from the hotel in Kota Kinabalu just after 5am and hour and a half later we were near the Rafflesia Reserve in the Crocker Range. Roadside birding amidst great submontane forest brought our first endemics with both Mountain and Bornean Barbets, a pair of Rufous-hooded Laughingthrushes, several flocks of Chestnut-crested Yuhina, a showy Bornean Spiderhunter, Bornean Treepie, plus brief views of Bornean Leafbird and Bornean Bulbul. We also enjoyed several fine male Temminck’s Sunbirds, along with Ruddy and Little Cuckoo-Doves, Blyth’s Shrike-babbler, Sunda Cuckoo, Indigo and Mugimaki Flycatchers, Spectacled Spiderhunter, a flock of Black-capped White-eye, Grey-chinned Minivet, Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrike, and we even had a close look at a Temminck’s Babbler. With the temperature rising and a lovely clear blue sky overhead it wasn’t surprising to see a few raptors soaring around, but it was surprising when the first bird of prey turned out to be the often-difficult Mountain Serpent-eagle. There was also Blyth’s Hawk-eagle and a Black Eagle here as well, plus a high-flying Wreathed Hornbill.

Eye-browed Jungle-Flycatcher - one of our first endemics on Mt Kinabalu

Leaving here we stopped for lunch in a small town en-route to our lodge at the base of Mount Kinabalu. Arriving around 2pm we had a little time to settle into our rooms before driving the short distance to Mount Kinabalu and our first taste of birding on this fabled mountain. We were aware the birding can be slow in the afternoons and the first hour certainly proved that point with low cloud smothering the forest and obscuring pretty much every bird we tried to see. A Bornean Whistler showed to some of us and apart from some white-eyes and a constantly calling Golden-naped Barbet that was our lot. So we drove lower and this turned out to be a very good move with a Bornean Whistling-thrush perched beside our minibus. Along a narrow trail we picked up a number of excellent birds with the endemic Eye-browed Jungle-Flycatcher, followed by the endemic Mountain Wren-babbler, and much better views of the striking Yellow-breasted Warbler than we’d had earlier today. 

Mountain Wren-babbler - very brown & very skulking, sort of!

A little further along there was a brief appearance by a Snowy-browed Flycatcher, but that was totally overshadowed by a pair of Bornean Green Magpies circling us repeatedly high above our heads in the canopy. It took a while but eventually everyone managed to get a clear view of them – and what total stunners they are. A Bornean Forktail also showed well a little later to round the day off and with low cloud descending to this level we decided to call it quits and head back for an early dinner. As an aside, I’m not sure how anyone gets decent photos of anything here with low cloud, dull, gloomy forest and skittish birds….. So let's see how the next few days go!

Kaeng Krachan Update - The END

Kaeng Krachan National Park once again turned up some interesting sightings with our animal list stretching to 35 species with a couple of Golden Jackals showing well here. Broadbills were excellent with Long-tailed Broadbill being seen ‘up the hill’, and along the main road we had Black-and-red, Black-and-yellow and Silver-breasted Broadbills all being seen within 200 yards of each other!

Black-and-yellow Broadbill

Other new birds here included Red-throated Barbet, Great Slaty Woodpecker, and a superb Rufous-browed Flycatcher. At the waterhole a Slaty-legged Crake appeared at dusk and took our minds off the King Cobra that dropped in for a drink a few hours earlier!

Great Slaty Woodpecker showed well for half an hour

Slaty-legged Crake finally appeared at dusk

Rufous-browed Flycatcher came in to check us out

 There was also Black-headed and Rufous Woodpeckers seen at another site, whilst the icing on a rarity-laden cake was another 1^st for Thailand – Collared Pratincole. It had been reported a few weeks earlier by some visiting birders and we relocated it on our last day - and it certainly does seem to be a Collared and not the expected Oriental Pratincole. The white trailing edge, short primary projection and a few other key features were all seen - just a shame there was such a haze as the photos aren't very good….

Collared Pratincole - another 1st for Thailand

 And that was it, 494 species seen over the 3 tours and we can’t wait to return next year. Now it’s time for Borneo in a couple of days…

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.