Bristol to Kagu ? (1 Viewer)

Kuang Xi

Kuang Xi Waterfall is a popular tourist spot 25km from Luang Phabang. We stayed one night at the cheaper of the two guesthouses there, which is on the left just before arriving at the village. Mornings are very quiet but hordes of people arrive just before midday to see the very picturesque falls and surroundings.

The main lure this place had for me were the words Pale, Blue, and Flycatcher in Paul's report. We failed to find this species, but I caught up with another long sought-for bird, White-browed Piculet, a truly amazing little creature. The other unexpected highlight was great views of two female Asian Emerald Cuckoos, another species far smaller than most of it's family members. Blue-throated Barbet and Brown-cheeked Fulvetta were also new for the trip, with some of the latter feeding newly fledged young.

Other birds seen there included Hainan Blue (2), Asian Brown, and Grey-headed Canary Flycatchers, Blue Whistling-Thrush (collecting nest material), Blue Rock Thrush, Plumbeous Redstart, Yellow-browed and Blyth's Leaf Warblers, Striped Tit-Babbler, Stripe-throated, Black-crested, Red-whiskered and Sooty-headed Bulbuls, Asian Barred Owlet, Asian Palm Swift, Tree Sparrow, Crimson Sunbird, Little Spiderhunter, Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker ,Shikra, and Grey Wagtail.

591 WHITE-BROWED PICULET
592 Brown-cheeked Fulvetta
593 Asian Emerald Cuckoo
594 Blue-throated Barbet

struggling a bit here to get to 600 for the trip !

The Gibbon experience

From Luang Phrabang we travelled by boat for two days up the Mekong to the Thai border, a very pleasant journey. We saw 7 Jerdon's Buschats on the first day and 3 on the second. Small Pratincoles and Red-rumped Swallows numbered in the hundreds in places.

We were all set to cross the border, when we discovered there had been a cancellation on the normally heavily booked Gibbon Experience, so we jumped at the chance. This is a package where for 100 pounds you spend 2 nights in tree houses high in the canopy of trees on forested ridge tops in a large area of excellent forest in northern Laos. The only way into these tree houses is on Zip lines, so you get to "be" a hornbill, "flying" from ridge-top to ridge-top on a pulley on a wire, sometimes 50 or more metres in the air for up to nearly half a km over the jungle below.

From the Tree house abodes you get to look down on canopy birds, eg Brown Hornbill, Dusky Broadbill and Long-tailed Broadbill ! . Feeding parties go past closely at eye-level. It's mindblowing, but not for anyone who's scared of hights. I don't know what altitude the forest is at, or if it's been explored much for birds. I'd recommend tree house 5. On the downside, it was a bit frustrating not being able to work the area effectively on the ground, as you have to trek at too fast a pace with a group of people . I couldn't follow up interesting probables and weird calls.

Other highlights included finally catching up with Pale Blue Flycatcher (more distinctive than I was expecting in the flesh compared to Verditer), Indian and Drongo Cuckoos, Rosy Minivet, Rufous Woodpecker, Pied Falconet (in the clearing between tree houses 5 and 4), the first Ashy Bulbul, Velvet-fronted Nuthatch, and Chestnut-bellied Nuthatch of the trip etc. I noted 40 species from tree house 5 over coffee ! At night something sounded like Mountain Scops Owl unless there is a similar sounding frog in the area. Other birds included Scaly-breasted Partridge, Hainan Blue Flycatcher, Thick-billed and Green Imperial Pigeons, Yellow-bellied Warbler, Brown-cheeked Fulvetta, White-bellied Yuhina etc.

leaving Laos and on to NW Thailand

We were sad to leave Laos as it was such a peaceful easy going place to travel. Looking forward to returning. New birds for the trip before Thailand were:

595 Pacific Swift
596 Rosy Minivet
597 Velvet-fronted Nuthatch
598 Chestnut-bellied Nuthatch
599 PALE BLUE FLYCATCHER
600 Ashy Bulbul
601 Indian Cuckoo
602 DRONGO CUCKOO

We then headed for Cave lodge in NW Thailand to meet some friends from home. This is near a huge cave where 100s of 1000s of swifts come to roost in spectacular fashion every evening. It is about 40km past Pai on the road to Maehongson. I last was at this site 18 years previously so was relieved that the majority of the forest still remained in the area, and there were still plenty of birds around.

Since my last visit someone (a far better birder than I'll ever be) had noted with confidence in the bird log book, that just before it gets completely dark, the mass throughput of hurtling black dots actually stop being Pacific Hurtling-Dots and start being mostly Himalayan Hurtling-Dotlets (or Indochinese Swiftlet if you adopt the split). These species are easy enough to tell apart in the day time when they are flying normally, but it took me two dusk visits of eye-wobbling neck-straining hard work to confirm this late-shift in my own mind, even with knowing what's supposed to be happening. Of course everyone else leaving lists at Cave Lodge has seen both species since this birding hero noted this about 10 years ago. Both nights a Peregrine came swooping in and caught a swift to add to the spectacle.

Other goodies around, mostly along the road back towards Soppong, included Black-headed Woodpecker (2), Drongo Cuckoo (1), Violet Cuckoo (2+), Grey-headed Parakeet (c10), Black-backed Forktail, Collared Falconet, Grey-capped Pygmy and Grey-headed Woodpeckers, Lesser Yellownape, Common Flameback, Black Baza, and Large Woodshrike. We also heard many Large Hawk-Cuckoos that kept typically hidden, and heard a Collared Scops Owl from our hut.

We've just arrived back in Bangkok. Saw lots of good wetland species from the train, including a few Javan Pond Herons once we got south of Bung Boraphet. They were hugely outnumbered by Chinese PH though. Plenty of Asian Openbills, both Jacanas etc.

603 Purple Sunbird
604 Indochinese Swiftlet
605 Collared Scops-Owl
606 Grey-headed Parakeet
607 BLACK-HEADED WOODPECKER
608 Plain Flowerpecker
609 Large Hawk-Cuckoo
610 Black-backed Forktail
611 Common Rosefinch
612 Collared Falconet
613 Javan Pond Heron

So we didn't end up doing "the 3 Dois" in NW Thailand, and will also be passing by Kaeng Krachan on our way to Koh Similan tomorrow. Plenty of work to do in Thailand on our return journey.

Me being a Hornbill

Here's a photo from The Gibbon Experience.

I'm not sure which I am more - delighted by the read - or p&££%$ off by the grip factor.
Yes I am.
The latter.
Thanks.
But keep it coming Larry,
H

I hate new year !!!!!

I can't believe our bad luck. Just been told that we can't stay on Ko Similan Island #4 because it's fully booked for Thai new year (our third new year of the year !). No space until at least Apr 18th, so it could be bye bye Nicobar Pigeon :C:-C:C:-C

Larry,
You don't have stay there to see them.
We were only on the island for about two hours - part of a trip around most of the islands - & had a lunch/beach stop there.
I used some of the time for a short walkabout & saw 3 NPs very well.
(We went by power boat from Phuket - but if you can go from nearer it would make the journey (long) not so time-consuming).
As you probably know there are quite a few companies offering day trips - usually for the snorkelling.
H

Back on track

Don't bother reading this if you don't like twitchers.

Hi Halftwo. I think the only way to do it cheapish (less than 40 quid each) is to do the open ticket snorkelling thing from here (Khao Lak). We could still do this and have to stay on I#8 and risk seeing the pidge in the daytime on I#4, but I'd rather spend the night with them and guarentee seeing them well for that price. It really is one of the birds I most wanted to see on this trip.

I've stopped sulking now, and after a rest at Khao Lak have emerged a lean mean birding machine with a mission to get back on track. It's been a bit slack since Vietnam, and a bit namby-pamby softcore to say the least. To keep pace with the grand masterplan I'm still hoping for 18 lifers between here and Singapore, and a nerdy flick through Robson reveals there are a possible 86, not including vagrants. How nerdy is that? So everything to play for. Will he do it ? I have a feeling I might need a fairy godperson.

Nicky has kindly suggested that we hang out around Krabi until it's possible to come back up here for the pidge in a couple of weeks.

A couple of new birds have crept onto the trip list since we headed south, Asian Glossy Starling, Grey-rumped Tree-Swift and Plain-throated Sunbird. Pacific Swallows are now in numbers, and there are plenty of swiftlets overhead, but unfortunately I can't see what colour their nests are from my hammock. I guess a juicy migrant could pop up anytime and anywhere now. Nice Whimbrel on the beach this morning. Hopefully my next post will be more informative. Sorry if this thread's deteriorated lately. I sometimes think it's probably not worth continuing with it.

614 Asian Glossy Starling
615 Grey-rumped Tree-Swift
616 Plain-throated Sunbird

Larry Wheatland said:

Sorry if this thread's deteriorated lately. I sometimes think it's probably not worth continuing with it.

Click to expand...

Don't you dare. Am living vicariously through your trip report while I'm at home changing nappies!!

Robert Bruce and the spider

Ok then

Saw a few more things before leaving Khao Lak, most notably a Japanese Sparrowhawk heading north, Golden-bellied Gerygone, weirdly enough the trip's first Turnstones and great views of Barred Buttonquail and Watercock. The buttonquails were of the odd local race that really had me going until I saw them well. The colour of the underparts was very much suggestive of Yellow-legged BQ when not seen well. Oh well.

So on to Krabi. Here our bad luck has continued. We were conned by a local boatman who seemed really knowledgeable that it was a good time tide-wise to go out to view the waders and egrets at the river mouth. It wasn't. It was effectively a waste of money. There were huge expanses of mud as we rounded into the open sea, and wading birds were so sparsely scattered that we argued to return early for a reduced price. He knew the score all along and he's a c#@^.

We did manage some Terek Sandpipers, A Brown-winged Kingfisher, a Pacific Golden Plover, a few Common Terns, some other commoner waders and, rather frustratingly, a distant probable Chinese Egret and a probable flying Nordmann's Greenshank. The only Kentish Plover we saw even had the audacity to have a dark loral line.

Luckily my mum was Scottish, and told me the tale of Robert Bruce and the spider at a very early age. So in his name and in the words of the punk band Discharge : "never surrender never give in never let the enemy win".

If any Chingrets or Norshanks are reading this... you may be laughing now, as you did at Pak Thale. But it's not over yet.

617 Turnstone
618 Japanese Sparrowhawk
619 Golden-bellied Gerygone
620 Bar-tailed Godwit
621 Brown-winged Kingfisher
622 Terek Sandpiper
623 Common Tern
624 Pacific Golden Plover

We're going to be in the Krabi general area for a couple of weeks now, until we can go back to Ko Similan, so if anyone's got any recent gen for any of the sites near here (eg Gurney's Pitta sightings etc) it would be well appreciated.

Hi Larry,

Your boat trip sounded a lot like mine - I didn't even see BW kingfisher!
Mr.Dai was unavailable & I think he's the only real expert.
Can't help on recent gen re. Krabi area - a few years since I did that spot. Could've given you some stuff I got at Khao Lak (& Khao Sok).
But Martin's right - several of us living, as he aptly put it, vicariously, through your thread & I bet Vectis is making notes!
So keep up the great work & Good Luck.

H

Hat Nopparat Thara

What dark madness overcometh me. Be gone nasty twitchy Mr Hyde. What manner of buffoon loses the ability to appreciate such delights as the bulkmeister itself,Brown-winged Kingfisher, and the sheer oddity of Terek Sandpiper just because he craves and is sated only by HAVING the new ? Save me from this descent into lunacy.

Today we went to Hat Nopparat Thara, reachable by Songthew in about 30 minutes from Krabi for 40 baht. From here we negotiated a boatman to take us across the creek to the north of the beach and pick us up at dusk for 150 baht. About a month ago, according to the Thai birding website, someone saw a White-faced Plover here and had a couple of Pale-capped Pigeons come to roost.

Immediately after landing on the north of the creek there was a flock of about 400 Greater and Lesser Sandplovers gathered at high tide. They were in exactly the same spot as my first ever mixed Sandplover flock 18 years previously, and I couldn't help but wonder if some of them might be the same individuals. How long do they live ? I eventually managed to approach them quite closely by taking a long time moving slowly so I could go through them with bins. No smaller Charadrius sp could I find. The tide was going out and I spent the rest of my time looking for waders and searching the mangroves, mostly in the hope of Ruddy Kingfisher. No luck there, but there were plenty of Collared Kingfishers adding colour to the world, and a dazzling Blue-throated Bee-eater was a nice bonus.

I really did not expect to see the pigeons, but a casual scan of the 2 northern most offshore islets at c5pm produced 2 arriving Pale-capped Pigeons ! Possibly one of the same birds then flew back to the mainland about 20 minutes later. Pacific Reef Egrets, Golden-bellied Gerygones and Little Herons were in good numbers

So no new birds, but that's not what it's about is it so go away nasty twitchy mr Hyde.

625 Blue-throated Bee-eater

The Gurney's Pitta site

This could be a long one. I have considered toning this down as I might get into trouble, but everyone's different and this is just my point of view.

We took a bus to Klong Thom from Krabi, and then motorcycle taxis to the Morakot resort on the border of Khao Nor Chuchi, "THE site" where "everybody" sees Gurney's Pitta. The place to stay is reasonably priced and in pleasant surroundings with friendly staff serving good food.

I didn't really do the area justice, as I spent a large proportion of my time in 2 dark damp gulleys on U and S trails, locations where some other birders had located Gurney's Pitta during March according to the logbook at the Marakot. I failed to see this species at these locations or hear anything that sounded like "a loud tilip", but did see a few great birds in the area generally.

These included a gorgeous male Banded Pitta that landed close to me as I was lying in wait for hoped for kingfishers by the stream near B trail, and proceeded to bathe for about 20 minutes! Also Blue-winged Pitta (1 whistled in, in rubber plantation just east of Marakot and 2 others heard), Hooded Pitta (1 far up B trail just before we lost where the trail went), 2 stunning male Yellow-rumped Flycatchers, Rufous-backed Kingfisher, Chestnut-bellied Malkoha, Rufous Piculet, Japanese Sparowhawk, Black Magpie, Forest Wagtail, Rufous-winged Philentoma , and other stuff including some typical more southern bulbul and babbler species, Yellow-breasted Flowerpecker etc.

I had originally naively figured that I'd spend a couple of days seeing what I could find, and then maybe hire one of the local guides to help me find Gurney's Pitta if I hadn't managed to myself. A flick through the logbook revealed that the vast majority of people only saw the pitta by enlisting the aid of someone who appeared to be the only local guide, but a few people (maximum respect) had found it themselves, and one birdforum member with superhuman fieldcraft powers also managed to find the near mythical Giant Pitta himself (how DO you do it?).

The guide actually had a day free coming up, but when I was informed of his hire charge I thought I must have misheard him because it couldn't possibly be more than 30 times the price of our double room in Krabi. It was, so we didn't say anything further as it was insane to think we could afford that much, or anyone could ask it. At that point he then proceeded to gloat loudly with his latest client over the continuous 50 minutes video footage of the pitta they had taken that day, without of course inviting us over to take a look. At this point I couldn't help but bring to mind a very specifc dark damp gulley, that he was clearly overly aquainted with, up which it would be appropriate to stick HIS pitta, would it not almost certainly be too unpleasant for the poor bird.

Now there are lots of birders in the world, with global connections, and some of them are blessed with being valiant and lovely, considering that sharing of information is actively discouraged here to the point of the restaurant staff grassing you up to "the overlord", and to the point of the atmosphere suffering from a sickness that I've never experienced to this extent before that cuts to the quick of my belief in joy of birder gen-sharing camaraderie. I did however somehow manage to find out where this carefully guarded secret location is, and somehow managed on a heat of the day recce, to find the almost invisible obscurely located track down to a tell tale square patch left by a temporary hide.

It was with some trepidation, as well as great excitement, that I set off well before dawn to the secret spot. The day before, I had felt like everyone on the way was a spy, because no lone foreign birders would head that way without the overlord. As dawn rose at the site I even imagined (unreasonably of course) that he'd be there with local heavies ready to angrilly have me removed from the area. So did I see the bird ? As it happens I was too late for that site, and it had just moved to a nearby spot that was too ambiguous for me to locate. I was that close though, and at least I could visualise exactly how it would have been if the pair had kept true to that spot for just a couple more days.

Now I may well have got this all very very wrong, and the local guide might be charging so much money and being so suppressive of gen because 80% of his takings are being diverted to conserving the surrounding forest (in which case I'll feel very very small). Nothing to do with greed at the expense of joyful community birding. If I haven't got it wrong though, I'm gutted that I narrowly failed in my duty to strike a blow for the birding working class by scoring the "Rich-man's Pitta".

I'm sure if I waited a couple more days before posting, I wouldn't write most of this, as I won't feel quite so bitter. In the end it's my fault for not being a good enough birder to find one myself afterall.

626 Ashy Tailorbird
627 YELLOW-RUMPED FLYCATCHER
628 Forest Wagtail
629 Yellow-breasted Flowerpecker
630 Rufous-backed Kingfisher
631 Rufous-winged Philentoma
632 Cream-vented Bulbul
633 Black-capped Babbler
634 Eastern Crowned Warbler
635 Black Magpie
636 Red-throated Barbet
637 Hairy-backed Bulbul
638 Hooded Pitta
639 Rufous Piculet
640 BLUE-WINGED PITTA
641 Yellow-bellied Bulbul
642 Chestnut-winged Babbler
643 Banded Pitta
644 Grey-cheeked Bulbul
645 Moustached Babbler
646 Chestnut-bellied Malkoha
647 Olive-winged Bulbul

Krabi

Today we went to the Krabi mangrove walkway for the third time in a week and heard the first Mangrove Pitta of the trip. A few Ashy Tailorbirds, Brown-winged Kingfishers and Collared Kingfishers, and Pied Fantails hanging about. We carried all our stuff in plastc bags because it's Songkran (new year) and everyone's throwing buckets of water over everyone else from passing vehicles etc. Quite refreshing.

In the afternoon I joined a group of 3 nice Brits on a boat trip with Mr Dai to look for waders at high tide. They had great scopes, which helped bigtime. We eventually located a large roost of mostly sandplovers, and goodies were gradually picked out. A particularly pale and striking Nordmann's Greenshank was a major relief, but the biggest surprise was when Mark Thomas picked out a Grey-tailed Tattler, which I believe is quite a rare bird in Thailand. Other goodies included several Great Knot, a few Curlew Sandpipers and Red-necked Stints, a Broad-billed Sandpiper, large numbers of Terek Sandpipers and a few Kentish and Grey Plovers.

I think wader numbers were probably lower by now than a few weeks ago, and there were very few egrets to look through for Chinese Egret (which we could not find). A big thank you to these folks for letting me accompany them on their trip.

648 Mangrove Pitta
649 Great Knot
650 NORDMANN"S GREENSHANK
651 Grey-tailed Tattler

Larry Wheatland said:

The guide actually had a day free coming up, but when I was informed of his hire charge I thought I must have misheard him because it couldn't possibly be more than 30 times the price of our double room in Krabi. It was, so we didn't say anything further as it was insane to think we could afford that much, or anyone could ask it. At that point he then proceeded to gloat loudly with his latest client over the continuous 50 minutes video footage of the pitta they had taken that day, without of course inviting us over to take a look. At this point I couldn't help but bring to mind a very specifc dark damp gulley, that he was clearly overly aquainted with, up which it would be appropriate to stick HIS pitta, would it not almost certainly be too unpleasant for the poor bird.

Click to expand...

Put things a little into perspective though, do you think he could afford to take a year off swanning around the globe? Quite probably not. If we can afford to travel around the world, by whatever means, we are by default the very fortunate on this planet - if a guide to see one of the world's most stunning birds is beyond your budget, either put in the extra effort to see the bird yourself, but does this guy really deserve such scorn - his world runs by the market as much does ours.

Hi Jos, thanks for making me reconsider my rather gobby post, though I must admit I'm quite saddened that you've waited to find something you can really have a pop at before contributing to the thead. I agree in principle with most of your theory there, but I'm afraid that you're off target with your assumptions here, or my post would not have existed. A case of "you had to be there" I guess. Hopefuly that's the last of this issue.

Anyway. Birded the mangroves by the Maritime Hotel in Krabi today, and think I might be closer to finding the elusive Ruddy Kingfisher. I think I've been hearing them and getting frustrating glimpses. Had great views of Mangrove Pitta collecting nest material, and saw a couple of Black-bellied Malkohas along the drive on leaving.

652 Black-bellied Malkoha

Larry Wheatland said:

I must admit I'm quite saddened that you've waited to find something you can really have a pop at before contributing to the thread.

Click to expand...

Bar posts 5, 10, 13, 20. Remember the ones that got you a 'guide' in the cold Baltic states, even with a bed of sorts thrown in, all for the pricely sum of nothing Tut tut, Larry fancy forgetting the earlier contributions, too many good birds under the bridge, eh? Anyhow, good birding onwards.

PS how much was the guide anyhow? If it was Yotin Meekaew, most of the trip reports describe him as expensive, but very worthwhile, being good, very professional, working hard to get the birds.

He is by all accounts an excellent birder Jos, and almost certainly unrivalled in his ability to locate and identify birds in the area. Worth the 100 quid + expenses a day, I'm sure, if you're into that sort of thing.

Jos has just taught me a lesson not to use Birdforum as a way of offloading my negative thoughts. My Thai new year's resolution is to stick to the birds, and good things, on this thread.

We've just spent a couple of days on the Railay peninsular, near Krabi. It has been hugely developed since my last visit about 12 years ago, sadly including areas where I previously found White-chested Babbler and Black-thighed Falconet which I couldn't find this time. We did see an Oriental Hobby though, and some Rufous-bellied Swallows (considered recently to be a species distinct from Striated Swallow), a few Dusky Crag Martins, Vernal Hanging Parrot, and some Black-naped Terns.

653 Black-naped Tern
654 Dusky Crag Martin
655 Rufous-bellied Swallow
656 Oriental Hobby

Your posts are always a good read Larry, so best wishes for the upcoming legs and birding.

Cheers mate, but I reckon it would benefit from some pics like the ones in your thread