Thaibirds and more

Sri Pangnga National Park and Krung Ching waterfall 19-26 th of March 2014 For a few years I have been wanting to visit Sri Pangnga in the pre breeding season for the Malay Banded Pitta.  This year it worked out for me to do so. Driving the 800km from Bangkok basically took all day and I arrived in the late afternoon when I briefly visited Sri Pangnga National Park. Instead of staying in park bungalows I opted for a Homestay about 6 km North of the park turn off. The Homestay had Wifi, air-con, hot showers and was cheap at 350Baht/night. Being in the Southern forest is always refreshing.  A lot of different sounds from Central and Northern Thailand. I enjoy hearing the birds almost as much as seeing them which is good cause in this environment seeing them isn’t all that easy. During my stay at Sri Pangnga I had several  ‘sessions’ with the Banded Pitta, both male and female. The birds had acquired a taste for meal worms and were easily lured out in th...

It had been a month and a half since I last visited this great site. Helge Sorensen from Denmark, a dedicated photographer from Denmark happily agreed to give the site a try. I had seen a number of good species at the site already and was curious how things had developed.  On this morning the weather was rather odd. Gloomy and a drop in temperature. It is very warm in Bangkok now so to sit in the blind at 21C was quite pleasant. Some of the birds I had seen before never showed up: Bluethroat, Red-throated Pipit, Zitting Cisticola and Oriental Skylark to be precise. Instead there were 2 new ones and the 1st one was a surprise: Long-tailed Shrike. This Paddyfield Pipit stayed with us during the entire 2 and half hours in the hide. Happily the Rosy Pipit still showed well though not more then 3 times in the time we were there. The malars are now gone and some of the streaking on the flanks and breast have disappeared. I hope it stays another month. Last ...

In the late afternoon of the 27th I paid a short visit to the King's Project at Lampakbia.  As I drove in to the project something flew across the road in front of me. It looked very weirD and not like anything that I could ID on the spot. I stopped the car and managed to get a couple of shots. Tossing different ideas around: Grey-headed Long-tailed shrike in a molting stake?, mantle of Burmese, eye mask from Brown, etc, I concluded 'this is weird'. Yesterday i posted the image on a FB group. After some deliBeration it seemed that a lot pointed towards a Bay-backed Shrike, a bird that is not on the official Thai bird list. On the day following,  Philip D. Round paid a visit to the site and confirmed the ID. A 1st for Thailand!

In the afternoon we went to the outskirts of Kaengkrachan and Lung Sin's waterhole. On the way we spotted this Yellow-legged Buttonquail. A very difficult bird to see and there are very few images of it online. It was walking very slowly swaying back and forth as it if had been hit by something. It disappeared into the scrub after a few pictures. Now that it is the dry season birds are starting to come to the waterholes in earnest. Scaly-breasted Partridge was one of two partridges.              Not easy to fit the long tail of Greater Racket-tailed Drongo in the frame.        One of two Scimitar Babbler that make use of the waterhole: White-browed!       Here is the 2nd Partridge: Bar-backed with its wonderfully patterned plumage.                      Racket-tailed Treepie is a fabulus looking bird when viewed near. A mega ...

A good friend of mine, Chris Chafer suddenly popped by so we went birding together for a couple of days. The morning light was as awesome as ever at the fields of Petchaburi. Morning is a good time to lay eyes on Oriental Reed Warbler. Plenty of them around and this one is probably my best shot of this species till now. Likewise, Blue-tailed Bee-eater was perched unusually low. It is normally on boring telephone wires.                             White-throated Kingfisher on a rather different perch. Hay! We wanted to see some Eagles and did spot this juvenile Greater Spotted Eagle! Awesome and majestic!                             Black-eared Kites are quite common in the fields. A little drive to view a few waders had me not pass up an opportunity for a shot of Black-tailed Godwit.        ...

I couldn't resist paying another visit to this great open area. It is 120 km from my house so it means an early rise to be there at sunrise. Today there was more traffic as many folks were headed out of Bkk to celebrate the up coming New Year.  My target for this trip was to find an Australasian Bushlark. A bird that has eluded me till now. It actually didn't take all that long to find it as I had reviewed the bird's song. There is was singing away in a towering flight display. I later stalked one but never got close enough for any decent shots so had to settle for scope views. A lot of singing in the air included Striated Grassbird, Oriental Skylark and the afor menetioned Bushlark. So I put up my hide again. The birds seemed quite eager to grab the worms. Perhaps the cool night, 14 C, had made them hungry?  This time there were two male Bluethroats coming in. The one brighter then the other. It seemed that Rosy Pipit had more rosy on throat an...