Just back from a 14 night stay in Thailand, 22 February until 7 March 2020. Weather sunny and hot every day with no rain. Around 34 degrees c with real feel at times up to 40 deg c. We were with a non birding couple so, as usual, it was a morning walk for an hour and a half before it got too hot. Otherwise, keeping my bins with me on various trips. I did a full days birding trip with Nature Trails Thailand to Pak Thale Salt Pans to hopefully see Spoon-billed Sandpiper and then on to Kaeng Krachan National Park. I also did a half day (low key) birding trip around Khao Lak with Khao Lak Tour Plan.
Areas birded :-
Bangkok (3 nights). As with most big cities, just seeing what I could, when I could.
Pak Thale Salt Pans. Huge, absolutely huge. Also a good farmland area to the south west.
Kaeng Krachan National Park. In part of the forest at a pool hide.
Hotel Angsana Laguna, north west Phuket (5 nights). Beautiful hotel situated in the middle of a series of lagoons afronting the beach.
Hotel La Vela, Khao Lak (6 nights). Fronting the beach with garden areas, a small river to the side with undeveloped area of scrub, trees and fields.
Laem Pakarang. A coral spit a few miles north of our hotel in Khao Lak. One of the most important birding sites in southern Thailand.
General 'countryside birding' around a few sites in Khao Lak.
Bird List :-
Lesser Whistling-Duck Cotton Pygmy-Goose Red Junglefowl Little Grebe Rock Pigeon Red Collared-Dove Spotted Dove Asian Emerald Dove Zebra Dove Large Green-Pigeon Greater Coucal Green-billed Malkoha Asian Koel Germain's Swiftlet House Swift Asian Palm-Swift Whiskered Treeswift Eurasian Moorhen White-breasted Waterhen Black-winged Stilt Black-bellied Plover Red-wattled Lapwing Lesser Sand-Plover Greater Sand-Plover Malaysian Plover Kentish Plover Whimbrel Bar-tailed Godwit Ruddy Turnstone Great Knot Broad-billed Sandpiper Curlew Sandpiper Long-toed Stint Spoon-billed Sandpiper (1) Red-necked Stint Sanderling Terek Sandpiper Common Sandpiper Gray-tailed Tattler Common Greenshank Nordmann's Greenshank Marsh Sandpiper Wood Sandpiper Common Redshank Oriental Praticole Brown-headed Gull Little Tern Gull-billed Tern Caspian Tern Whiskered Tern Asian Openbill Painted Stork Oriental Darter Little Cormorant Indian Cormorant Yellow Bittern Purple Heron Great Egret Intermediate Egret Little Egret Pacific Reef-Heron Cattle Egret Chinese Pond-Heron Striated Heron Crested Serpent-Eagle Changeable Hawk-Eagle Shikra Brahminy Kite White-bellied Sea-Eagle Eurasian Hoopoe Common Kingfisher Ruddy Kingfisher White-throated Kingfisher Black-capped Kingfisher Collared Kingfisher Green Bee-eater Blue-tailed Bee-eater Chestnut-headed Bee-eater Indochinese Roller Dollarbird Coppersmith Barbet Blue-eared Barbet Lineated Barbet Gray-capped Woodpecker Greater Flameback Common Flameback Black-naped Oriole Ashy Woodswallow Common Iora Green Iora Malaysian Pied-Fantail Black Drongo Ashy Drongo Bronzed Drongo Greater Racket-tailed Drongo Black-naped Monarch Brown Shrike Racket-tailed Treepie House Crow Large-billed Crow Common Tailorbird Dark-necked Tailorbird Oriental Reed Warbler Barn Swallow Pacific Swallow Rufous-bellied Swallow Black-crested Bulbul Stripe-throated Bulbul Yellow-vented Bulbul Streak-eared Bulbul White-browed Scimitar-Babbler Puff-throated Babbler Abbott's Babbler Brown-cheeked Fulvetta Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrush Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush Asian Glossy Starling Asian Pied Starling Common Myna Great Myna Oriental Magpie-Robin White-rumped Shama Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker Baya Weaver Scaly-breasted Munia House Sparrow Plain-backed Sparrow Eurasian Tree Sparrow Grey Wagtail Paddyfield Pipit
Highlight of the trip undoubtedly the single Spoon-billed Sandpiper at Pak Thale. Two had been seen that day (and generally two via eBird for a number of weeks) but we were happy with the one. No chance of a decent photograph as the bird was both distant and hunkered down on a small ridge. Also superb that day were a single Nordmann's Greenshank and three Great Knot, together with good numbers of Red-necked Stint. The pool hide at Kaeng Krachan was also enjoyable as it offered great views of woodland species at close quarters. Lastly, I had a good morning at Laem Pakarang. Good numbers of Sand Plover at this coral spit in baking heat. Also 18 Terek Sandpiper were noteworthy. I would have loved a full day here but, because of the heat, an hour and a half and I was ready to call it a day.
A few photos attached of Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, White-browed Scimitar-Babbler, Racket-tailed Treepie, Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush, Red-wattled Lapwing & White-rumped Shama.
(Ian, bearing in mind I hijacked Mike P's Zürich in May thread over ten years ago, I thought I would keep this thread separate to his excellent Thailand Diary thread. If you want to or need to merge it, that's fine by me!)
