Thursday Feb 23rd:

The morning saw us catching up with work about the farm until 10am when the sun became oppressive. I had a last stroll round my adopted local patch for the final hour of daylight  at 17.00, but saw very little, other than a Magpie Robin and a White-rumpled Shama;- it all seemed rather anticlimactic.

Friday (24th) saw us rising early and on the road by 5.20 heading south. At 10.30 we reached Phi Mai for one of the cultural highlights of the trip where I found the only Hoopoe of our travels calling from a large tree. Phi Mai is an ancient centre/ temple dating from around 1080 and was a major centre of the old Khmer empire, and architecturally is smaller but identical to the great complex of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, which Phi Mai predates.

By mid afternoon we arrived at Khao Yai National Park, where we booked in for two nights. We decided to keep a separate list for the park species, and set about exploring the superb forest at various elevations. New species here were Red Junglefowl (i.e. hens! - but real wild ones - honestly); 20 plus Red-wattled Lapwings, Vernal Hanging Parrots, point blank views of a male Emerald Cuckoo, - a favourite of the girls, 2 Great Hornbills, tracked down from their calls, a Heart-spotted Woodpecker, Verditer Flycatchers, and an underwhelming Thick-billed Flowerpecker.

We rose early on Saturday 25th, entering the park at 6.30 and quickly launched into ticking mode with a couple of flyover Oriental Pied Hornbills, Grey-eyed Bulbuls, several Hair-crested Drongos, then on a side trail, a pair of Red-headed Trogons, a very obliging female Banded Kingfisher perched up in the forest, Scarlet Minivets on the forest edge, and a flyover Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo. Asian Fairy Bluebirds vied with Blue-winged Leafbirds, Black-winged Cuckoo-Shrikes and calling Moustached Barbets for our attention.

A walk out to a tower hide gave us the only Bright-capped Cisticola of the trip and a family party of Grey-breasted Prinias with point blank looks at Ashy Woodswallows.

In the afternoon session after a brief 30 minute break for lunch, we took to a forest trail leading to a superb overlook over miles of inviting forest; down below Paul picked out two Hornbills which turned out to be yet a third species: - Wreathed Hornbills, sharing a tree with some 15 /20 black birds which looked good for Racket-tailed Treepies, but with our inexperience and the huge distance involved even at x 60mag. we still couldn't be certain of the i/d.

A river close to one of the minor campsites lured me away from the birds for some twenty minutes as an impressive gathering of butterflies were tasting the salts on the sandy rocks; I was just tempted to go back for the iPad with photography in mind when the skies opened for the first rain of our visit.

The afternoon ended on a high note with a Black-throated Laughingthrush, a female Blue Rockthrush catching butterflies, and at the park exit a pre roost gathering of Red -breasted Parakeets. In addition we had many more species already seen earlier. 

It was immediately obvious that the birds in the park were far less wary than those up in the north-east (Isaan), and it was good to see considerable numbers of young Thai birders with bins and scopes/ cameras, anxious to exchange information.

Sunday dawned rather cloudy, and we made another early start to maximise our birding time as we had to leave by 11.15 for our return to Bangkok. Out of the morning mist at a good roadside overlook, we enjoyed a spectacular flyby procession of Hornbills leaving their roosts: some 25 Oriental Pied Hornbills, and a single Great; this latter's wingbeats sounding like those of a Mute Swan.

An open lakeside section produced our first Black-naped Orioles for Thailand, a White-throated (Smyrna) Kingfisher, then later behind the restaurant at park HQ several White-crested Laughingthrushes, a gathering of Green Magpies, and some annoyingly high (and tiny) White-eyes, which we then ignored as better fare was on offer. A perched Mountain Imperial Pigeon, competed with two Thick-billed Green Pigeons, raising the standard of recorded doves and pigeons considerably.

As our time came to an end, we recorded our only Crested Serpent Eagle of the trip, soaring high above.

En route to Bangkok, at a roadside vantage point over some flooded rice fields, we found our only Wood Sandpipers of the trip keeping company with more numerous Black-winged Stilts.

- Journeys End!

Best Wishes,

Mike P.

-- Edited by Mike Passant on Sunday 26th of February 2017 02:04:08 PM

Feb 21st Tuesday morning - forest and river section (7.15 -8.15)

A Common Kingfisher on the river was only my second sighting and probably the same bird (same location). In birding terms this is the least productive river I've ever come across, though the riverside cover itself is excellent for warblers.

This morning's circuit produced nothing new other than a different Brown Shrike. This a handsome male showing a neat grey crown, whitish throat and delicate peachy underparts, the tail seemed more rufous in flight than the other Brown Shrikes around here, and I studied it for ten minutes through bins and scope. The literature indicates that this is of the race lucionensis, which I'm pretty certain is new for me.

Other regulars were both Brown and Taiga Flycatchers, Raddes and Dusky Warblers plus the usual common residents.

We hit the road at 9am heading east for Pha Taem National Park in the easternmost part of Thailand, via the Mekong River which we reached at about the worst time for birding- 14.30 or so. Ashy Woodswallows, a Common Sandpiper,  8 Little Ringed Plovers, and a River Lapwing were all we saw;- this time not even a Wagtail of any kind. However our lunchtime stop at a roadside cafe had earlier produced a new (overdue) species for our Thailand lists in the form of an Intermediate Egret. The toilet block at the rear of the cafe offered a view over a field of early rice, within which strutted a solitary egret which on proportions looked a good candidate through my bins. I set up the scope whilst the others ate most of the chicken (ouch!). The bird showed a black bill tip on a shorter looking bill and the gape line ended directly under the centre of the eye, certainly not extending past the rear of the eyeline; - job done.

The final tortuous 20 kilometres of the drive saw us needing the 4 wheel drive over what we though were old lava flows, the rock appearing black, but when broken, the rock revealed itself to be a sandstone of sorts. A perched raptor superficially showing the plumage pattern of an outsized male Kestrel proved to be a Rufous-winged Buzzard, which soon flew away gliding off on level wings - far bigger than any Kestrel gave us hope of exciting discoveries to come. After we had erected our tents we walked to the Cha Na Dai cliff edge where we could look out over miles of the Mekong river perhaps 700 feet far below us, and beyond, into the hills of Laos.

Surely the morning would yield up yet more new trip birds?

Cheers,

MikeP.

-- Edited by Mike Passant on Wednesday 22nd of February 2017 10:33:54 AM

-- Edited by Mike Passant on Wednesday 22nd of February 2017 11:51:22 AM

Monday Feb 20th

Yesterday's festivities mitigated against any birding. The tambun was a solemn ceremony in which 9 monks come to the farm house early, with around 80 guests turning up, these being relatives and neighbours from the village. Caterers organised the marquees, seating and food. The idea is to bless the new farm house, announce Paul and Pen's wedding to those who couldn't make it to Switzerland (where they married in Oct. 2015), and to induct us Europeans into the family and local community.

The monk's chanting of the mantras was almost hypnotic and I videoed much of it. Virtually everyone participated in the custom of tying strings round our wrists (and queuing up do do it, which took about 40 minutes keeping us from breakfast) so politeness and patience were necessary.

Later when the monks had departed, the beer and whisky came out and a noisy party resulted with karaoke booming across the fields, but at least it stopped at around 6 pm.

I'm picking up more and more of the language, and can now count. Thai is much like Mandarin, is grammatically simple, but complicated in that it has 5 tones which impart meaning and is therefore full of pitfalls. To further complicate things the local language here is Isaan which is close to Laotian.

This morning after attending to the watering chores, it was with a sense of relief that I vanished into the peace and quiet of the woods and fields.

I logged 23 species before breakfast, including a new bird for the patch, a common but welcome Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker.

This is definitely not a prime birding area, but nevertheless who can complain at wandering around lovely farm fields (almost reminiscent of Suffolk rural scenes from 200 years ago) dotted with hay ricks, and with Siberian wintering Warblers and Flycatchers easily studied and with Bee-eaters gliding around, an Indian Roller flying over, 3 species of Cuckoo (Greater Coucal, Koel, and Green-billed Malkoha) all showing well?

It seems that Tree Sparrows are now nesting under the eaves and Plain-backed Sparrows in a couple of the ornamental garden trees, with nests like grassy balls with an entrance hole at the side.

Cheers,

Mike P.

Friday morning, 7.05 - local forest section.

A little more activity today; - both Taiga Flycatchers, L. Green Bee-Eaters and Ashy Drongos were already hawking about in the little recessed corner of the forest which acts as an early morning sun trap. Both Greater Coucal and Common Koel were calling and I soon located and scoped them in turn; the numerous Streak-eared Bulbuls seemed disturbed at the presence of the Coucal which soon moved on. A White-rumped Shama was a local patch tick, only the second for this trip. An odd lump high on a horizontal shaded branch turned out to be another Owlet (Asian barred again) giving even better scope views than the previous bird. This one kept looking nonchalently away, and then back at me, "full on" as if rather indignant at my staring, and after a couple of minutes it moved into deeper cover. It's always great to see cryptic birds well, and Owls to my way of thinking always seem full of character.

I then noted the ongoing presence of the Pale-legged Leaf Warbler in what I think of as its usual spot, foraging amongst a spread of leafy vegetation no higher than a foot off the ground. I'm noticing distinctive behavioural patterns across the philloscopus warblers I'm seeing. This morning a Yellow-browed Warbler darted along and across fine branches of a loose open straggly tree mostly at or just above eye level and hovered briefly several times during its foraging, staying for a good ten minutes whilst I checked its finer points (inc. tertials tips). Arctic Warbler is more deliberate, whilst Raddes comes over as slightly clumsy, almost as if it's tail is a bit loose and needs to be dragged along in some of its foraging actions.

I've not yet bumped into Two-barred Greenish Warbler which winters here, nor Eastern Crowned Warbler which is a passage migrant through here, wintering further south down the peninsula, so I'm probably here too early for this latter species.

All in all, a good little session.

Cheers,

Mike P.

Still Wednesday, - late morning,

I took a longer walk along the riverside later, (despite the hot sun) as there are intermittent shady spots from which to scan and it was nice to be able to do a full circuit joining up with the little forest section with which I'm now pretty familiar. 

From various spots along the route, among the treetops it was possible to see the 30 metre high water tower in Paul's vegetable garden as a direction aid.

Annoying small flies seemed to be competing with each other to land in my eyes, but as consolation I found a new mix of small birds just yards within the forest edge. First addition was a Pale-legged Leaf Warbler, readily identified not just by its pale legs and single wing bar, but by its solid grey crown contrasting with olive green mantle. Almost next to it in the same sapling were two Ashy Minivets and nearby a Grey-headed Flycatcher, (a common Asian species) but with the previous two species all new for my Thai list, to which I've added 57 species thus far.

It's great fun doing all this in an area largely neglected by birders, and I wonder just what the potential might be once migration is underway.

Cheers,

Mike P.

Monday 13th Feb.

I went out at 6.30 a m alone as Barb fancied a lie in after the previous night's partying.

An hour and a half mooching quietly around the forest section some 300 metres from the farm perimeter, yielded 18 species, which is not a bad score for here; the usual regular culprits being Brown Shrike, Dusky Warbler (which showed really well), and Brown Flycatcher. A few new additions to my local list were Green-billed Malkoha, and a pair of Ashy Drongos chasing about, with 2 Black-collared Starling flying out from the farm trees.

I heard what seemed to be a Yellow-browed Warbler calling, and traced it to a small phylloscopus, sporting what appeared to be only a single wing bar; - an altogether rather dull individual, which on appearance would make a better fit for Hulme's Yellow-browed Warbler, (which shouldn't be here and which of course calls differently). I didn't get a chance to check the tertials before losing the bird altogether, which was frustrating. Two-barred Greenish and Arctic Warblers winter here, but Yellow-browed is very common in the winter and on call it probably was a dull/ worn one of these, but I should wish to see more before it makes the list. 

Later we drove the 40 Klms. to the hilltop stunning temple and forest park at Pha Nam Yoi. This is jaw droppingly impressive, (google it and you'll see what I mean) and I added at least a new trip species as well, - a male Blue Rock Thrush. I would have dearly loved to spend a few hours of early morning birding here, as much of the forest looks very tasty, like a residual island patch of primary forest. 

This evening I managed 40 minutes more in the local forest patch and found Black-crested Bulbul (common), to pad out the local list a bit more, and pleasingly a Taiga Flycatcher, which I enjoyed for 10 minutes or so.

Best Wishes,

Mike P