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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jos Stratford" data-source="post: 3156052" data-attributes="member: 12449">Kaeng Krachan & Petchaburi. 17 December.Beastie action during the night, a presumed Asian Elephant crashing around in the forest edge aside the campsite, three Bushy-tailed Porcupines playing tag behind the toilets, one White-faced Scops Owl hooting some way off. Also, thanks to video footage, one Polynesian Rat zipping into the hole in the toilet way, plus a couple of unidentified bats!At dawn, with Dusky Langurs hanging out of trees in the campsite, I rose for another day's exploration. I really should have paid a visit to the legendary bird hides adjacent to Kaeng Krachan, Blue Pittas and Kalij Pheasant amongst the many possibilities there, but instead I chose to slog it out in the forests above the campsite, walking the road between streams 1 and 3. For the first hour or so, I was not sure I had made the correct decision, my considerable efforts being rewarded with near zilch! As I wandered through, odd birds here and there did include a stunning Green Magpie and quite a few Ochraceous Bulbuls, but for a forest choc a bloc with birds, it was pretty amazing how most seemed to have perfected the art of sneaking by unseen! A little beyond stream 3 however, this apparent quietness was about to be shattered! In a small clearing, As I sat aside a small dam and admired the canopy, the mother of all flocks suddenly materialized from seemingly nowhere - one moment total calm, the next birds everywhere ...flocks emerging from the canopies on all sides, birds filling low bushes at the edge of the clearing, birds flitting overhead from one side to the next. Birds everywhere, a large mixed flock of Ashy and Scarlet Minivets moving through, so too a couple of dozen Black-crested Bulbuls, 15 or so Blue-winged Leafbirds and quite a few Grey-headed Canary Flycatchers.  And amongst these, plenty of 'added extras' to flavour the mix - amongst the early rewards, one Indochinese Cuckooshrike, two Asian Paradise Flycatchers, one Blue-naped Monarch, one Chinese Blue Flycatcher, two Verditer Flycatcher, and the list went on. Into a tree adjacent, short-tailed stubby things settled on an upper branch ...right little stunners, they turned out to be Vernal Hanging Parrots, eight in all their glory! Alongside, two Lesser Racket-tailed Drongos hawked, nicely complimenting the Ashy Drongos, Hair-crested Drongos and Crow-billed Drongos all also associating with this large flock! As the flock passed, it seemed to revolve on its axis and double back, the entire flock hitting the clearing for a second time, Abbot's Babblers and Pin-striped Tit-Babblers creeping through lower growth this time, a Velvet-fronted Nuthatch joining the active upper layers. Providing a little extra variety, one Striated Heron and one Chinese Pond Heron resided on the small pool and both Common and Greater Flamebacks appeared on a couple of the sturdier trees in the clearing. All in all, a most impressive half hour or so!In my pre-trip planning (or lack of it), I had wrongly assumed that a couple of days would be plenty for Kaeng Krachan ...I can now say this was the single site that I would truly liked to have stayed a few extra days, a mouth-watering array of mammals and birds I had yet to see. I however had a flight booked for early next morning and, for reasons more related to my younger travelling buddy, I had promised to return to the coast at Laem Pak. So it was, with final treats including a pair of Blue-bearded Bee-eater and a nice Red-headed Trogon, I departed Kaeng Krachan and drove the hour and a half back to the beach. Ice cream stops et al, but also time to skip along to the salt pools near the 'abandoned buildings' at Laem Pak to connect with two species that had earlier eluded me - one stunning Pallas's Gull and, tucked in with the abundant Black-tailed Godwits, at least 20 Asian Dowitchers, my 40th species of wader for the trip! It was also at this point, while explaining to the little one the intricacies of how salt is made, that I made the not very clever move of leaving my field guide on a track between two pools!Near two hours later, stopping in at Petchaburi on route back to Bangkok, I noticed I was missing my fieldguide and, with an awful sense of doom, the realization dawned upon me ...it the book wasn't still there, my trip was in serious trouble! Has to be said, it was with considerable haste that I zoomed to the coast, hoping that nobody else had already happened upon my fine book! Fortunately it was still there, I breathed out an almighty sigh of relief and then returned again to Petchaburi.From late afternoon to the setting sun, the bird spectacle was little short of amazing. Peppering the skies in their absolute thousands, enormous flocks of Barn Swallows hawked the damp meadows, hundreds of Germain's Swiftlets and Asian Palm Swifts also in their midst, so too Sand Martins and Red-rumped Swallows. To their backdrop, Eastern Marsh Harriers quartered, a single female Pied Harrier too and a Black-winged Kite. As on days previous, herons, egrets and pond herons still massed aside ditches and pools, today's haul including one Yellow Bittern and five Cinnamon Bitterns. Waders included 140 Grey-headed Lapwings, as well as abundant Wood Sandpipers and Long-toed Stints. Really it was a question of which way to look, Openbill Storks soaring to the right, Blue-tailed Bee-eaters hawking to the left, hundreds of Baya Weavers dropping into roost, non-stop bird action! As the sun began to drop, I also added a Baillon's Crake, a flock of seven Pink-necked Green Pigeons and a flock of Black-headed Munias. Truly a nice way to end this leg of the trip!And with that, it was back to Bangkok, skillfully managing to arrive just in time to catch the tail-end of the manic traffic jams ...gee, an eye-opener indeed! Finally managed to find my way to a booked hotel somewhere in the north of the city, convenient for my flight next morning.</blockquote>

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