Hanno
Ho Ho Ho
Trip Report Southern Thailand 24th to 29th of May 2003 Part II
Without further ado, on to the second part………..
Monday, 26th of May:
It is early, it is raining. Why am I doing this? Seriously thinking of changing my hobby to collecting stamps!
First thing out of bed, we here an Asian Koel. If I had managed to open my eyes, I might have even seen it. Anyway, it is back to Kaeng Krachan for some more birding. The first thing we see is a fairly big Python on the road. The Missus gets to feel it up, whilst Pha and I remove it to some safer ground. Good thing it is still cool and the snake pretty sluggish.
Breakfast in the Park, it is absolutely pouring down. Heading a bit further down the road, I can just about make out a bird in the lower canopy. It is a Rufous-collared Kingfisher, what a great way to start the morning. As the rain subsides somewhat, birds start popping out of the wood: Crested Jay, Asian Fairy-Bluebird, Grey-headed Woodpecker, and Green Magpie. The Dusky Lemurs make an appearance as well, looking funny with their white eyebrows. But we are in search of Blue Pitta. Sadly, we never did manage to see it, even though we heard it on a couple of occasions. However, we did get cracking views of Hooded Pitta; one was actually nice enough to hop on a vine, loudly calling. Near there, we found a nest of Silver-breasted Broadbill; construction was still in progress, giving us great views. Just one or two trees down, a Banded Broadbill made a brief appearance. Birding in the jungle might not be easy, but the quality of birds is ample reward for all the efforts. We just had time to admire to Greater Flamebacks before we had to head on. One of the distinguishing features from Common Flameback is the four toes, as opposed to three in Common. However, this I found hard to see in the field, I thought the looped submoustachial stripe was a much easier to see feature.
On it was to Khao Sam Roi Yot, another National Park further South. On the way, we checked out an unnamed (?) swamp right by the road. The little brown lumps on the dry ground were Oriental Pratincole. Blue-tailed Bee-eaters where everywhere, as were the noisy Red-wattled Lapwings. We flushed another Spotted Owlet out of a tree, and had a solitary Intermediate Egret. The actual National park was fairly quiet, all the migrants had long since departed. A few birds of note were Purple Heron, Cinnamon Bittern, the first and only Hoopoe of the trip, and a Black Bittern. That night, we stayed at the Dolphin Bay Resort, a nice hotel indeed! Getting there late, we just had enough time to see a couple of Indian Rollers, Lesser Sand-plover, a dark-morph Pacific Reef Egret, and a Red Collared Dove.
Bird of the day for my better half was Silver-breasted Broadbill, whilst I went for the Hooded Pitta, this being my first Pitta ever.
Tuesday, 27th of May:
Off early to Sam Roi Yot again. Still quiet, but still managed to turn up a few new birds: Little Grebe, Purple Heron, Scaly-breasted Munia, and a lone Black-shouldered Kite. A great sight was that of a White-bellied Sea Eagle making off with a decent sized fish. As not much else was happening, we went to Rong-J sub-station a bit further away. We straightaway ran into a Puff-throated Babbler, whilst the Bamboo above it had two Racket-tailed Treepies. The views of White-crested Laughingthrush were brief but great. We ran into an old man who, upon inquiring what we were doing, told us that there was a Pied Hornbill in the tree above us; right on queue it made an appearance, shortly followed by a second. On the way back to the airport, we had just enough time to check out the beach, a known haunt for Malaysian Plover. However, the first birds we saw were Little Tern screaming overhead, but within a couple of minutes, we managed to add the (breeding) Plovers to our list.
Back to Bangkok to catch the flight to Phuket were we would stay for the night.
Bird of the day for Le was Malaysian Plover, I chose the White-crested Laughingthrushes.
Wednesday, 28th of May:
Yet another early departure to drive the three hours to Kao Sok, a large (165 km²) reservoir and National Park. The idea was to spend the next two days kayaking. Getting to our accommodation in the park was a bit of a harrowing trip. It was extremely windy, and the guy on the wheel of the Dragon Tail decided to switch off the engine in the middle of the lake. We obviously were broadsided immediately and were just waiting for the boat to capsize. Thankfully, that did not happen and we eventually reached the small huts on floating Bamboo platforms where we would sleep the next two nights.
There was time for a spin in the Kayaks. My wife opted out of that one; she was still in a state of shock from the crossing and did not want to go near the boat for a little while. The first bird we saw was an Osprey flying overhead. We startled a Blue-eared Kingfisher from its perch, and had excellent views of a Great Slaty Woodpecker. Highlight of the afternoon, however, were three Great Hornbills. Absolutely massive birds, you can hear the whoosh of the wings from quite a distance. On the way back, we heard a Great Argus calling but, as usual, the bird was not to be seen. On the whole, very few birds, but we did see Wild Pigs, Dusky Lengurs and a big clan of Pig-tailed Macaques.
Bird of the day was, without any doubt the Great Hornbills.
Wednesday, 29th of May:
We woke up to miserable weather. No choice though, the trip was paid for and we were going out there to see birds, rain be damned. The day started with Great Hornbills again, there must have been at least a dozen! A very soggy Blyth’s Hawk Eagle still made for spectacular views. In a quiet cove we had the only really good birding of the day, turning up Whiskered Treeswift, Red-eyed Bulbul, Crested Serpent-Eagle, Stork-billed Kingfisher, Black-capped Kingfisher, Grey-headed Fish Eagle, three Great Slaty Woodpeckers, and both Common and Greater Flamebacks.
Bird of the day for me was the Blyth’s Hawk Eagle, my wife preferred the Great Hornbills she had missed out on the previous day.
And that was our trip. We were supposed to do some more kayaking the next day, but the weather got even worse so we decided to head back to Bangkok for the really hard part of the journey: shopping!
Overall, the experience was absolutely fantastic. I think we would have seen more birds had the weather been more accommodating. Even so, we saw a total of 123 species, 50 of which were lifers for me (All 123 were lifers for my wife). We found the Thais extremely friendly and helpful, the food was great, and we shall return!
A special word of thanks has to go out to Mr. Pha, the guide for the first part of the trip, and Dave, kayaking-supremo with PaddleAsia.
Without further ado, on to the second part………..
Monday, 26th of May:
It is early, it is raining. Why am I doing this? Seriously thinking of changing my hobby to collecting stamps!
First thing out of bed, we here an Asian Koel. If I had managed to open my eyes, I might have even seen it. Anyway, it is back to Kaeng Krachan for some more birding. The first thing we see is a fairly big Python on the road. The Missus gets to feel it up, whilst Pha and I remove it to some safer ground. Good thing it is still cool and the snake pretty sluggish.
Breakfast in the Park, it is absolutely pouring down. Heading a bit further down the road, I can just about make out a bird in the lower canopy. It is a Rufous-collared Kingfisher, what a great way to start the morning. As the rain subsides somewhat, birds start popping out of the wood: Crested Jay, Asian Fairy-Bluebird, Grey-headed Woodpecker, and Green Magpie. The Dusky Lemurs make an appearance as well, looking funny with their white eyebrows. But we are in search of Blue Pitta. Sadly, we never did manage to see it, even though we heard it on a couple of occasions. However, we did get cracking views of Hooded Pitta; one was actually nice enough to hop on a vine, loudly calling. Near there, we found a nest of Silver-breasted Broadbill; construction was still in progress, giving us great views. Just one or two trees down, a Banded Broadbill made a brief appearance. Birding in the jungle might not be easy, but the quality of birds is ample reward for all the efforts. We just had time to admire to Greater Flamebacks before we had to head on. One of the distinguishing features from Common Flameback is the four toes, as opposed to three in Common. However, this I found hard to see in the field, I thought the looped submoustachial stripe was a much easier to see feature.
On it was to Khao Sam Roi Yot, another National Park further South. On the way, we checked out an unnamed (?) swamp right by the road. The little brown lumps on the dry ground were Oriental Pratincole. Blue-tailed Bee-eaters where everywhere, as were the noisy Red-wattled Lapwings. We flushed another Spotted Owlet out of a tree, and had a solitary Intermediate Egret. The actual National park was fairly quiet, all the migrants had long since departed. A few birds of note were Purple Heron, Cinnamon Bittern, the first and only Hoopoe of the trip, and a Black Bittern. That night, we stayed at the Dolphin Bay Resort, a nice hotel indeed! Getting there late, we just had enough time to see a couple of Indian Rollers, Lesser Sand-plover, a dark-morph Pacific Reef Egret, and a Red Collared Dove.
Bird of the day for my better half was Silver-breasted Broadbill, whilst I went for the Hooded Pitta, this being my first Pitta ever.
Tuesday, 27th of May:
Off early to Sam Roi Yot again. Still quiet, but still managed to turn up a few new birds: Little Grebe, Purple Heron, Scaly-breasted Munia, and a lone Black-shouldered Kite. A great sight was that of a White-bellied Sea Eagle making off with a decent sized fish. As not much else was happening, we went to Rong-J sub-station a bit further away. We straightaway ran into a Puff-throated Babbler, whilst the Bamboo above it had two Racket-tailed Treepies. The views of White-crested Laughingthrush were brief but great. We ran into an old man who, upon inquiring what we were doing, told us that there was a Pied Hornbill in the tree above us; right on queue it made an appearance, shortly followed by a second. On the way back to the airport, we had just enough time to check out the beach, a known haunt for Malaysian Plover. However, the first birds we saw were Little Tern screaming overhead, but within a couple of minutes, we managed to add the (breeding) Plovers to our list.
Back to Bangkok to catch the flight to Phuket were we would stay for the night.
Bird of the day for Le was Malaysian Plover, I chose the White-crested Laughingthrushes.
Wednesday, 28th of May:
Yet another early departure to drive the three hours to Kao Sok, a large (165 km²) reservoir and National Park. The idea was to spend the next two days kayaking. Getting to our accommodation in the park was a bit of a harrowing trip. It was extremely windy, and the guy on the wheel of the Dragon Tail decided to switch off the engine in the middle of the lake. We obviously were broadsided immediately and were just waiting for the boat to capsize. Thankfully, that did not happen and we eventually reached the small huts on floating Bamboo platforms where we would sleep the next two nights.
There was time for a spin in the Kayaks. My wife opted out of that one; she was still in a state of shock from the crossing and did not want to go near the boat for a little while. The first bird we saw was an Osprey flying overhead. We startled a Blue-eared Kingfisher from its perch, and had excellent views of a Great Slaty Woodpecker. Highlight of the afternoon, however, were three Great Hornbills. Absolutely massive birds, you can hear the whoosh of the wings from quite a distance. On the way back, we heard a Great Argus calling but, as usual, the bird was not to be seen. On the whole, very few birds, but we did see Wild Pigs, Dusky Lengurs and a big clan of Pig-tailed Macaques.
Bird of the day was, without any doubt the Great Hornbills.
Wednesday, 29th of May:
We woke up to miserable weather. No choice though, the trip was paid for and we were going out there to see birds, rain be damned. The day started with Great Hornbills again, there must have been at least a dozen! A very soggy Blyth’s Hawk Eagle still made for spectacular views. In a quiet cove we had the only really good birding of the day, turning up Whiskered Treeswift, Red-eyed Bulbul, Crested Serpent-Eagle, Stork-billed Kingfisher, Black-capped Kingfisher, Grey-headed Fish Eagle, three Great Slaty Woodpeckers, and both Common and Greater Flamebacks.
Bird of the day for me was the Blyth’s Hawk Eagle, my wife preferred the Great Hornbills she had missed out on the previous day.
And that was our trip. We were supposed to do some more kayaking the next day, but the weather got even worse so we decided to head back to Bangkok for the really hard part of the journey: shopping!
Overall, the experience was absolutely fantastic. I think we would have seen more birds had the weather been more accommodating. Even so, we saw a total of 123 species, 50 of which were lifers for me (All 123 were lifers for my wife). We found the Thais extremely friendly and helpful, the food was great, and we shall return!
A special word of thanks has to go out to Mr. Pha, the guide for the first part of the trip, and Dave, kayaking-supremo with PaddleAsia.
