North of Thailand, March 2021, part 2

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

https://ebird.org/checklist/S83004241

Instead I drove around a bit listening to the birdlife and eventually ended up by Mae Pan a lot further down. Here I spend the next few hours with the butterflies in the area. I ended up getting a few new ones and enjoyed the learning experience.

Bright Sunbeam

Restricted Purple Sapphire

Elbow Pierrot

Studded Sergeant

Spotted Sawtooth

Spot Puffin

Mnais andersoni

Strawberries were in season and along with it a stop at the small eatery past the 2 Jedis made for a great lunch.

Towards the afternoon I decided to move on and drove the relative short distance to Chiang Mai where I checked in to B2 Premier Hotel, another modern hotel at low cost.

The hotel is a little away from the inner city but is close to a restaurant , Kanom Cheen Por Piang, which offers Khao Soi buffet, an absolute must dish while in Chiang Mai. A little further down the road is a more plush restaurant with a la carte full of authentic local dishes, Khum Vieng Yong.

Day 6, Doi Suthep

Today was dedicated to a few sites at Doi Suthep. The mountain is part of the city and very easy to get to (unless you come from other side of town that is).

Residing so close and not chasing birds meant I could get up a little later. Butterflies are not as early as birds as they need the warmth of the sun to energize them.

But of course I couldn’t resist picking up a few birds.

https://ebird.org/checklist/S83059667

All the spots were in the lower part of the mountain but I did go up a bit higher as well. The best parts were along rocky stream beds. I did go to a waterfall where I had to pay a fee to get in. Thankfully I got there before the crowds. Wang Bua Baan and Mon Tha Tan being the main ones.

Photographing butterflies is very engaging and not nearly as easy as one would think. You need more dept of field and I seldom use below F7.1 aperture which means I get slow speeds and have to push the ISO. My lens is not a dedicated macro lens but very versatile (100-400mm)

I find that I take a lot more pictures of the butterflies as a lot are not ‘keepers’. Also identification of butterflies is very tricky and without a photo next to impossible except for the obvious common ones.

Identification takes a lot longer then the time in the field. I have the fieldguide Butterflies of Thailand by Pisuth Aek-Amnuay but find myself mostly using Dave Sargeant’s excellent website www.northbirdingthailand.com Dave is an expert on butterflies and very resourceful.

I post my images on www.iNaturalist.org and www.pbase.com/peterericsson

Things treasured are best shared they say!

It was a good experience as Doi Suthep is one of the hotspots for butterflies in the Kingdom of Thailand!