Thaibirds and more

This was to be my 3rd trip to Northern Thailand with Daniel Martin. This year the target birds were obviously fewer which made it all the more exciting. Day 1. We met up in the early morning at Chiang Mai airport. The airport is only a few minutes from the city center and our 4WD pick-up truck from Northwheels was waiting for us. After a little discussion we decided to head strait for Doi Angkhang some 170km North of CM. The reason being a good number of rare Turdus Thrushes had taken to the backside of the main restaurant inside the Royal Project at Bahn Khom, the main village at Doi Angkhang. We took the more direct route via Fang as opposed to the more scenic route that has a turn off to the left shortly North of Chiang Dao. The 3liter engine worked very well and scaling up the steep mountain was a breeze. Sure enough, the Thrushes were still there and Martin was able to tick off both Grey-sided as well as Black-breasted. Quite some treat! Also Eye-browed and Scaly Thrush were pres

< Douglas Witt with wife and friends had toured Thailand and asked me to help them to get to Kaengkrachan. It worked out with my schedule and so off we went. Got to Lampakbia in the late afternoon, low tide and hardly any waders around. As usual though, the mangrove research station had good birds. The 20 some Ruffs seen here seem to not bother feeding at the mudflats and are ever present. Lovely birds with great variety in plumage between the sexes. Kaengkrachan was a bit on the quiet side but a morning on the upper parts is always impressive. Dough was interested in details in all that he saw but the others had a more leisurely approach. In other words, there was something for everyone. We did see two species of Hornbills, one Trogon, Necklaced Laughingthrushes, White-hooded Babblers a party of 4 Great Slaty Woodpeckers (quite some sight all working on the same branch) plus a lot of common birds. On the way home I dropped by Lampakbia again and this time it was high tide with resu

border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5029793468829871906" /> I had a fun time in the North with Peter Stahl and spouse who came in from cold Canada for sometime in the sun. Peter is a keen photographer with a wealth of high quality photographs at his webpages http://www.pbase.com/decor We set out to visit nearby fields on our first day. Seeing the sun rise over the paddies and hearing all the birds come alive was an uplifting event. Some neat looking Wire-tailed Swallows were the best attraction. Then we proceeded to drive along the scenic route to Doi Angkhang. Once there we were able to visit River Chat, Plembous Redstart and a male Black-breasted Thrush at Bahn Luang resort. The latter was a lifer for me. A Streaked Wren Babbler also showed at the resort's pitoresque waterfall. After a local meal of fresh veggies it was time to visit the Royal agricultural project. Behind the restaurant's kitchen quite a number of Thrushes had gathered to f