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North of Thailand, March, 2021, part 3

 

Day 7. Chiang Dao

 

An early drive to Doi Chiang Dao and straight to a world renowned hot spot for butterflies. But first a stop at Malee’s Guesthouse for some homemade bread, jam and coffee.

At the checkpoint butterflies come down for minerals on the graveled parking area. The rangers are used to folks coming for the butterflies. There is a bit of traffic as the road continues to Muang Kong at the border of Myanmar, a popular area to visit for the locals. 

God forbid the parking area will ever get paved like so many other. 

 

Club beak

 
Common Windmill


Paris Peacock

Banded Treebrown


Common Jester

Black Prince

Blackvein Sergeant

Pallid Fivering


Indian Purple Emperor

Puddling blues
 

I spend a good 6 hours around the area and accumulated many new species.

I did keep my ears open as well: https://ebird.org/checklist/S83116174

 

Day 8. Doi Angkhang

 

A night at Fang for easy access to Doi Angkhang and Doi Lang. Phumanee Lahu Home Hotel was the hotel of choice. They have good food cooked a bit different from the normal cuisine and served in style. 

First stop Doi Angkhang. So weird to see this touristy place almost empty. Quite sad for so many locals that depend on the revenue.

I focused on birds for most of the day as there are so many spots to visit within the area.

The Amari Hotel is now totally removed. No hotels allowed on the mountain and only a couple of campgrounds run by the army. The Royal Project was open and had a nice display of flowerbeds etc. I did not eat there as their menu was shortened but went to the corner restaurant in the little township. Classic eatery it is.

A Japanese Grosbeak had been seen for 2 months coming in to bathe at a small artificial waterfall. I waited 2 hours but no bird. The list is here and does include a few good ones.

 

Brown-breasted Bulbuls

Himalayan Swiftlet

Burmese Shrike

Olive Pipit


Hill Blue Flycatcher, fem


Verditer Flycatcher


Crested Finchbill

https://ebird.org/checklist/S83171377

Posting ebird lists might not be to everyone’s likening but mentioning only a few highlights also does not give the full picture. What stood out to me was that I could not find any Giant Nuthatches. Weird!

Angkhang is always a treat. If you haven’t been there yet I readily recommend a visit. Such a mixture of culture, nature, projects, people and eating places. A visit to the border is a must. The Thai side has hilltribe communities and from the viewing platform one can overlook the Burmese border bases. For those of you that have been there you can imagine how strange it was to not have a single hilltribe woman trying to sell you something! 

Day 9. Doi Lang and Chiang Dao

One cannot visit the North without a visit to Doi Lang.

But though I was basically alone that eery feeling of a smokefilled mountain and depressive pandemic restrictions is hard to get away from. It was almost as if even the birds shared the same sentiments. I only managed a couple of hours and then I felt the need to move on.

https://ebird.org/checklist/S83224734

Instead I drove back to Chiang Dao for more butterflies and picked up a few more new ones.

 

Chocolate Albatross


 
Plain Hedge Blue

White-banded Pierrot

Shan Nawab

Great Nawab


Dark Cupid

Evan's White Flat

Indian Purple Emperor


In the late afternoon I went to a spot where Syke’s Short-toed Larks have been seen. But somehow the information I had wasn’t clear enough so I missed the birds as I left the spot at 4:30….Apparently the birds fly in to roost at that time.

I did see several Small Pratincoles though which is a bird I missed for all of 2020!

Small Pratincole

Day 10.

Back to Chiang Mai for another good meal and the same nice hotel.

The next morning up to Doi Suthep. I had heard of a special butterfly showing but inspite of looking dearly I couldn’t find it. As I decided to leave the area I thought I’d give a last short stop at the lowest waterfall. Here someone was sitting on the rocks with camera in hand. He said:

‘I have just photographed a TuftedJungle King! Man, that got me going. I crossed the stream in hope of flushing the critter as it is often on the ground. It didn’t take long for it to move a bit and I was able to enjoy a few photographic moments with this special one!

Tufted Jungle King

Tufted Jungle King

Common Leopard

Common Goldwing

Common Posy

 

I was thus 10 minutes late for my appointment with Dave S. But he fully understood and we had our coffee and chatted for a bit. Dave has been very helpful with my many butterfly questions and without his help things would not have come this far! 

Day 11.

After an overnight stay at Nakorn Sawan I drove straight home!

The trip had been very different then the normal ones but had produced a lot of birds and more importantly over 70 new photographed butterfly species!


Spot Swordtail

Five-bar Swordtail

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