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| Short-tailed Parrotbill |
16-25th of March 2016
By Peter
Ericsson
No more
bookings for 2nd half of March gave me an excellent opportunity to
do some birding on my own. For so long I have wanted to see the two specialties
of Poo Suan Sai National Park in Loei province. Having visited it twice but
only briefly so had not yielded neither Short-tailed Parrotbill nor
Rufous-throated Fulvetta.
I had heard
of the drought in the park with resultant visits from the Parrotbill to a small
man made waterhole. The drive was long
but on good roads and took me the better part of the day.
I did manage
to arrive at 3 pm and immediately arranged to visit the hide. One of the
rangers has taken upon himself this little project and for a small fee let’s
one use the hide.
The hide was
made inside of a rather large water pipe and made me feel like I was sitting
inside a 2WW bunker. It was dark and most of the birds coming in were small
little brown things.
I had seen
pictures of up to 5 Parrotbills on the same branch so I was optimistic.
However,
after 2 full hours of nothing but the common stuff, I started to wonder.
Then,
suddenly, my eyes caught sight of a small bird coming through the
thicket/bamboo. Out popped a single Short-tailed Parrotbill, perched for 3
second before it decided to take off. It appeared intimidated by a huge Blue
Whistling Thrush occupying the pond.
Well, that
was enough for me to get a few frames and my eyes filled with a cracking little
bird I had wanted for so long.
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| Rufous-throated Fulvetta |
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| Yellow-bellied Warbler |
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| Buff-breasted Babbler |
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| Golden Babbler |
Day2. Up fairly early and back into the park. This
time to another stake out. I didn’t have to wait at all to get my target bird
here. A small flock of Rufous-throated Fulvettas were eagerly waiting to be fed
some juicy meal worms. What a neat looking bird this is! It’s amazing to think
it only is known from here!
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| White-rumped Munias |
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| Spotted Bush Warbler |
My next
destination included another 6-8 hour drive so I packed up my gear fairly early
and started the drive. It took me through some windy,
hilly areas I have never
been through before. The area was not very populated and seemed to hold
substantial amounts of growth in the form of forest, scrub and plantations.
These rare birds probably occur on other mountains in that area but no one goes
birding there.
So in the
later afternoon I arrived at Mae Chan, near Chiang Saan, Chiang Rai province.
There is a
nice hotel in town that I have used a number of times and it provided all the
comforts I needed including Wifi.
Day 3. For a
few years now I have wanted to visit the hides at Nam Kum, Chiang Saan, without
having to rush through. My main problem was to decide whether to visit the
Cettia hide for Firethroat or the Rubyhide for the reed and bush warblers.
Well, it was easily solved as I was told by a ringer that the Firethroat often
shows at around 8 am. I popped in at 8 and no sooner had I sat down when it
showed. Didn’t even have time to set up my tripod! Wow!
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| Firethroat |
After that
it was all about the Rubyhide where I parked myself till 2:30 pm when my last
wanted bird decided to show. Look at these names and you can imagine my
delight: Paddyfield Warbler, Spotted Bush Warbler, Baikal Bush Warbler, Black-browed
Reed Warbler, Dusky Warbler, Siberian Rubythroat and Red Avadavats……….
The ringer
also showed me a Blunt-winged Warbler he had caught that morning! What a treat!
Thank you Worapot!
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| Baikal Bush Warbler |
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| Red Avadavat |
A very late
meal by the Mekong River at the Golden Triangle over looking Myanmar and Laos
while dining in Thailand followed!
After the
meal a fairly short drive (little over an hour) to Tha Torn and the night at Garden Resort. As
usual good food and lovely ambiance.
Day 4. I bit
of a drive out of town to some fields where both Black-headed and Red-headed
Buntings had been reported seem. I failed to see either one but enjoyed a lot
of other open country birds and as the heat started up I moved up to higher
grounds at Doi Lang.
Fires had
gone through and the roadside looked burned out in most places in a very dry
landscape. There were hardly any other birders around in spite of it being
Saturday. My very first bird was a rather obliging Giant Nuthatch!
I met a
sweet Thai couple that asked me if I had seen Hodgson’s Frogmouth. Ha! That was
my reason for visiting….so they proceeded to give me the details to where the
nesting bird was! Another lifer I had wanted for very long but not had time to
pursue!
I spent the
rest of the day enjoying whatever came my way, listening to the birds and
trying to put name to what I heard.
Day 5. Both
morning and evening at the field in search of Buntings. This time it went
better as I got some good views of Black-headed but still not Red-headed. There
were several Yellow-breasted Buntings around, Siberian Rubythroat, Bluethroat, and
the local race of Plain Prinia, a male Pied Harrier and Yellow-eyed Babblers to
name some of the more interesting ones.
I had now
shifted to Fang where I stayed for 3 nights. Inside of Fang it is a little
tricky to find good eating places but I have a clear winner. As you drive out
of Fang going south, pass Tesco Lotus and hit a stop light there is a
restaurant on the right hand corner. This place doesn’t look like much to the
world but they sure know how to cook up a storm of succulent local food!
Day 6. Again
I spent the morning looking for more Buntings and I did manage views of
Red-headed howbeit not very good ones. Laid back afternoon.
Day 7. An
early drive up Doi Angkhang to enjoy a change of scenery. It was very windy up
there so proved futile to look for Bush Warblers which is what I had hoped to
do.
Instead I
did some general birding and started the drive towards Doi Inthanon in the late
morning. I arrived at DI safe and went for a nice meal at DI Highland Resort.
Day 8. Up
the mountain to a stake out for a male Blue-fronted Redstart. Having seen this
bird elsewhere I hadn’t put priority on seeing it but I was hoping for some
quality pictures.
Half an hour in the hide and the bird popped up in
front of my lens. So nice to sit there on high grounds enjoying the bird songs and
the cool weather in striking contrast to the temperatures below in the lowlands.
I spent a
long time at the Summit and primarily in the bog where birds were quite active.
Such a plays of wonder! I never get tired of it!
The night at
Mr. Daang’s home stay. But first a lot of sweet strawberries were consumed.
Very cheap and sweet this time of year and simply delicious!
Day 9. Both
morning and evening inside the track at km 34. I never have time for this when
on a tour but just being there on my own opened up my eyes and ears to the
potential. I had a Hume’s Treecreeper at arm’s length for the longest of times,
watching it as it would move from tree to tree.
A pair of
Green Cochuas was calling for at least 30 minutes and I finally managed to find
the male high up in a tree!
Day 10. So
it was no wonder I went back inside of 34 again to reinforce my impressions
before I started a long drive back home to Bangkok.
The trip
gave me 8 lifers, 10 photographic lifers and a few sound recordings. It gave me
time for reflection, winding down, eating well and dreaming of things to come!
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| Hodgson's Frogmouth |
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| Yellow-breasted Bunting |
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| Yellow-eyed Babbler |
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| Siberian Rubythroat |
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| Blue-fronted Redstart |
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| White-browed Shortwing |
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| Yellow-bellied Fantail |
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| Green-tailed Sunbird |
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