What's new
New posts
New media
New media comments
New profile posts
New review items
Latest activity
Forums
New posts
Search forums
Gallery
New media
New comments
Search media
Reviews
New items
Latest content
Latest reviews
Latest questions
Brands
Search reviews
Opus
Birds & Bird Song
Locations
Resources
Contribute
Recent changes
Blogs
Members
Current visitors
New profile posts
Search profile posts
ZEISS
ZEISS Nature Observation
The Most Important Optical Parameters
Innovative Technologies
Conservation Projects
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is
absolutely FREE
!
Register for an account
to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Forums
Birding
Vacational Trip Reports
Bristol to Kagu ?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Larry Sweetland" data-source="post: 1172939" data-attributes="member: 27337"><p><strong>The Gurney's Pitta site</strong></p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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 <strong>Gurney's Pitta</strong>. The place to stay is reasonably priced and in pleasant surroundings with friendly staff serving good food.</p><p></p><p>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 <strong>Gurney's Pitta</strong> 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.</p><p></p><p>These included a gorgeous male <strong>Banded Pitta</strong> that landed close to me as I was lying in wait for hoped for <strong>kingfishers</strong> by the stream near B trail, and proceeded to bathe for about 20 minutes! Also <strong>Blue-winged Pitta</strong> (1 whistled in, in rubber plantation just east of Marakot and 2 others heard), <strong>Hooded Pitta</strong> (1 far up B trail just before we lost where the trail went), 2 stunning male <strong>Yellow-rumped Flycatchers</strong>, <strong>Rufous-backed Kingfisher</strong>, <strong>Chestnut-bellied Malkoha</strong>, <strong>Rufous Piculet</strong>, <strong>Japanese Sparowhawk</strong>, <strong>Black Magpie</strong>, <strong>Forest Wagtail</strong>, <strong>Rufous-winged Philentoma </strong>, and other stuff including some typical more southern <strong>bulbul</strong> and <strong>babbler </strong>species, <strong>Yellow-breasted Flowerpecker</strong> etc.</p><p></p><p>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 <strong>Gurney's Pitta</strong> 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?).</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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".</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>626 Ashy Tailorbird</p><p>627 <strong>YELLOW-RUMPED FLYCATCHER</strong></p><p>628 Forest Wagtail</p><p>629 Yellow-breasted Flowerpecker</p><p>630 Rufous-backed Kingfisher</p><p>631 Rufous-winged Philentoma</p><p>632 Cream-vented Bulbul</p><p>633 Black-capped Babbler</p><p>634 Eastern Crowned Warbler</p><p>635 Black Magpie</p><p>636 Red-throated Barbet</p><p>637 Hairy-backed Bulbul</p><p>638 Hooded Pitta</p><p>639 Rufous Piculet</p><p>640 <strong>BLUE-WINGED PITTA</strong></p><p>641 Yellow-bellied Bulbul</p><p>642 Chestnut-winged Babbler</p><p>643 Banded Pitta</p><p>644 Grey-cheeked Bulbul</p><p>645 Moustached Babbler</p><p>646 Chestnut-bellied Malkoha</p><p>647 Olive-winged Bulbul</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Larry Sweetland, post: 1172939, member: 27337"] [b]The Gurney's Pitta site[/b] 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 [B]Gurney's Pitta[/B]. 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 [B]Gurney's Pitta[/B] 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 [B]Banded Pitta[/B] that landed close to me as I was lying in wait for hoped for [B]kingfishers[/B] by the stream near B trail, and proceeded to bathe for about 20 minutes! Also [B]Blue-winged Pitta[/B] (1 whistled in, in rubber plantation just east of Marakot and 2 others heard), [B]Hooded Pitta[/B] (1 far up B trail just before we lost where the trail went), 2 stunning male [B]Yellow-rumped Flycatchers[/B], [B]Rufous-backed Kingfisher[/B], [B]Chestnut-bellied Malkoha[/B], [B]Rufous Piculet[/B], [B]Japanese Sparowhawk[/B], [B]Black Magpie[/B], [B]Forest Wagtail[/B], [B]Rufous-winged Philentoma [/B], and other stuff including some typical more southern [B]bulbul[/B] and [B]babbler [/B]species, [B]Yellow-breasted Flowerpecker[/B] 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 [B]Gurney's Pitta[/B] 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 [B]YELLOW-RUMPED FLYCATCHER[/B] 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 [B]BLUE-WINGED PITTA[/B] 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 [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes...
Verification
Post reply
Forums
Birding
Vacational Trip Reports
Bristol to Kagu ?
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
Accept
Learn more...
Top
