Thaibirds and more

  Butterflies!   I think we all know that no matter how difficult the circumstances are there is always a silver lining somewhere. With the world gone mad I started to focus my attention to birding sites near home. I got to be more thorough in my immediate surroundings. My lists for Bangkok and Chonburi i.e. grew substantially. I did manage a couple of longer trips when restrictions were let up a little. That made me grateful for the things that sometimes have grown too familiar.   Then something inside of me told me to turn my focus towards butterflies. I have seen almost 900 species of the birds in Thailand, photographed almost 800 and recorded the sounds of many hundreds. Meaning that newness is harder to come about. But butterflies I know next to nothing about except that they are very attractive in an artistic way. I have from time to time taken the odd image but was intimidated by the lack of knowledge on my own part and simply brushed it aside as too much of a mountain to climb

  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 hot

  Day 5, Doi Inthanon   As is the normal order I left the hotel early to reach the summit. The old checkpoint in to the park was unarmed and a few kilometers further a set of new fancy buildings were in view with a large car park and ticket machines. No enforcement of ticketing so I continued up. Once at the 2 nd checkpoint much further up I was asked if I was going to the top. I said I was but also asked if the Bog boardwalk was open. The reply was affirmative so I paid the 300 Baht and went up.   Ha ha ha…first things I saw was a closed off Bog with signs all over it. I was wondering if I was a 1 st April fool or what?     It was weird to be up there almost alone. The place is normally crowed with tourists but in these times no foreigners and only a few locals around.    Even the coffee shop wasn’t open.   I got on to some of the regular local birds with the addition of 6 Grey-sided Thrushes in a fruiting tree.    Grey-sided Thrush     htt