I am not quite sure how or when to begin this story. Back in the day
when all I had was the birds in my garden and the fantastic
illustrations of magical birds found in the field guide I could only
dream of one day seeing them in real life.
My life was restricted and very little opportunity to set out in pursuit of ‘imaginary birds’! Ha!
Well, a long story cut short. Things changed and slowly I started to
lay my eyes on the real things I had only seen drawn in literature.
I remember my first Pitta, the Blue-winged, on an excursion to a
waterfall with some rumbunctious kids but it didn’t stop me from seeing
one crossing the pathway.
(as a note, the late Jon Hornbuckle, who eventually saw all
recognized Pittas of his day, told me his last one was the Blue-winged.
Just goes to show how this rather ‘easy’ to see bird is not very easy
unless you are in the right area at the right time.)
So, here in Thailand we have a lot of Pittas. Some are regular, none
are easy, and some are only found in books. Till today I had seen,
Giant, Banded, Mangrove, Gurney’s, Blue-winged, Hooded, Fairy, Blue,
Eared, Rusty-naped, a brief encounter with Bar-bellied and now Blue-naped!
The Blue-naped is an extremely unknown bird in Thailand and was only
first seen and heard at a park in NorthEastern Thailand a few years
ago. But the Eastern part of the Northern region is quite hilly and very
under birded and with more people being aware it has now been seen in a
couple of more locations.
Of course I wanted to see it but the que has been amazingly long. It
has been fully booked out for 7 months now. Who ever knew there were so
many keen birders in the Kingdom?
Well, a rubber plantation worker learned the call of the bird and
one day he heard it. He started to stake the bird out and eventually set
up a hide in a small ravine. The birds started coming.
I couldn’t get a proper booking so let it rest. Ha! I heard stories
of how hard it was to communicate, you needed 4WD, long time waiting
etc.
Then one day I was on a boat watching seabirds and a got to chat
with a nice lady (Noi Guinnett) who told me she had a booking for the
Pitta but was happy to give it to me. Wow! What a gift!
So, on my last day in the top North after having savored the
mandatory locally grown strawberries and had a meal at the Irish Pub in
Chiang Mai town I was ready for the drive to Sukhotai.
I enjoyed the ride, 3.5 hours from CM on good roads. This part of
the country is sparsely populated and rather hilly. Thailand is
amazingly large one must say.
Once in the small town of Srinatchanalai I settled in a modern
resort with my own bungalow called Smile soft resort. Great AC, Wifi,
hot water and clean rooms.
Across the road from the resort there was a what looked like a
grotty restaurant called Kulap (Rose), but this well established
restaurant had some incredibly good food on the menu and at half the
price of what is on the menu in Bangkok.
They also had a well stocked fridge with cold beers so I felt right at home.
I was in close contact with the owner of the hide, Mr Mahasak, I
was not sure how to meet up but it turned out to be very easy as the GPS
kept the signal all the way to the meeting spot where at 5:30 I met
Jin, the caretaker of the hide. The drive from town took a little less
then an hour.
Jin took me to his home where I parked my car and then proceeded at the back of his motorbike.
Jin, a very humble sweet man, told me how the Pitta had afforded him
to built a room for himself and his wife and daughter as they were
living with his parents in a simple abode.
He had also bought a small car on payment as he now needs to pick up clients from near and far.
We got to the hide at 6:10…It was dark….Jin told me of how the birds
had shown well the day before but 2 days back none of them showed. Ha!
Well, I was not about to have any of that so I put all my thoughts
towards seeing a manifestation of birds in front of me.
At 6:25 the female showed up. It was dark but she showed well in the light from the torch.
It didn’t take long for the male to follow. Both birds kept feeding
on the meal worms put out. The worms serves as the magnet. But this was
in no way an artificial setting. You could tell these birds were wild
and only coming in on their own accord.
I experimented with my camera settings. It wasn’t easy. But in the end got some decent shots.
At 8:30 I decided to leave as the birds did not show since about an hour and there were a lot of bees about.
Jin came to pick me up and I got to meet his parents.
Overall a very nice experience, not only seeing the birds but also
how it has integrated some locals and inspired so many Thai people to
come to visit!
PS. This was my Pitta number 26 and my Thai bird #899! Ha!
I do not chase all things, especially if I have seen them elsewhere
or they are common elsewhere but something like this is deemed more then
worthy!
Thank you Noi Guinnett and Mahasak Sukmee for making this possible!
Comments