Thaibirds and more

Bahk Chong - Khao Yai - Nakorn Nayok The other day I did a 420km drive to visit 3 different locations. It felt very nice to be out of Bangkok again. My 1st destination was Bahk Chong, near to Khao Yai, where there are some grass lands near a reservoir. I was after Small Buttonquail, a bird that has eluded my until now. I managed to see one bird crossing the dirt road but got no picture. Instead I got this lovely Peacock Pansy Paddyfield Pipit Lesser Whistling Tree Duck Oriental Pratincole I also saw several Oriental Skylarks and amazingly so this is my very 1st shot of this species. Great looking bird! After some delicious local food I drove up to Khao Yai. On the grasslands some Red-whiskered Bulbuls hung around. And the Golden-headed Cisticolas had started to moult out of breeding plumage. A drive to the Military Acadamy at Nakorn ...

 There isn't much that can compete with a closer  encounter of a Pitta. The Blue Pitta is fairly common but never ever easy to see as many can testify to. This particular individual called right next to the road and responded well to my playback from the car. The bird even hopped across the dirt road a few times and circled  the car. This is the male.

Owling at Kaengkrachan 20 th of May, 2012 A year ago I twice visited Kaengkrachan specifically to try to see White-fronted Scops Owl,  a sought after bird with a restricted range.  On both occasions there were 4 of us with torches surrounding the calling owl for a couple of hours only to walk away  empty handed.   (The problem with Kaengkrachan and owling is that one has to stay over night  at the campground and thus ‘missing out on yummie Thai food and drinks after a long days birding. Most folks I assist in the field opt for the comfort of the hotel (and air-con) as opposed to the hard ground inside a tent. ) I arrived at the park at 4 pm.  I had seen a number of pictures of the WFSO posted on Thai websites of late and knew there was a known day roost around the 1st stream.   The 3 hour drive to the park I spent contemplating all the little details that had to come together for the ‘miracle’ to happen.  ...

Cebu and Bohol, Philippines, 1-7th of May 2012 Though I have lived in Thailand for 30 years I have yet to visit the Philippines. Thus it seemed appropriate to visit some friends and go for a short vacation before the new school year began here in Thailand. We flew with Kuwait Airways to Manila where we boarded a plane with Cebu Pacific Air to Cebu. It is possible to fly strait to Bohol but somehow we got it wrong.  Spent the night with friends  and then took a boat to Bohol (2 hours) the next morning. Saw no birds on the journey but  several Whiskered Terns at the port of Tagbilaran, Bohol. A friend waited for us and off we went to their abode on Panglao Island just south of Bohol. The next few days we based out of here in a rural rather laid back surrounding.  It reminded me of Southern Thailand very much.  Around my friends house amongst the coconut trees and scrub I connected with the more common birds whereof many were the same as back hom...

Early April sees a good number of passage migrating birds. One of them is a sure winner: Yellow-rumped Flycatcher or as it is also called, Korean Flycatcher. During this time of year the male develops an orange throat. Some individual superficially look like male Mugimaki Flycatchers and one has to pay attention to the length of the eye-brow. From Khao Yai The Narcissus Flycatcher is a real stunner! Lovely yellow eye-brow! It sometimes goes through major city parks here in Bangkok though this picture was taken in April 2010 at DaFooChan Park, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. Here is the male Mugimaki Flycatcher. Some individuals over winter (in very small numbers) at places like Khao Yai but the majority move on further South and are best seen on passage migration in April. From Khao Yai in January

This year the Black-tailed Crake has been showing very well at Doi Inthanon. A bit before dusk a pair will come out of the reedbed and see if there has been any rice/bread put out for them. They have been habituated this way and one can view the birds from close range. Besides this site there are only one or two sites with these birds in Northern Thailand so watching a rarity like this is quite special.

I recently had the honor of spending 12 days with Bob and Ann Walton in Central and Northern Thailand. They have birded 50 some years and seen over 8000 species so it was a challenge to find lifers for them. This Red-billed Scimitar Babbler was to be the last of the lifers with me which tallied up to 32 for the 12 days we had together. Dave Sargeant had tipped me off to a place at Doi Lang where he had previously seen these birds. Sure enough, a pair of them came in to playback and stayed around for some time. This was only my 2nd encounter of these birds in Thailand so I was very pleased. I haven't been able to find many pix of the birds online so I suppose it isn't that common anywhere in it's range.