The first trip to Kaeng Krachan for 3 months. The road up to Panoeng Thung is now open again.
Me and my wife Pairaow went to check it out. The access road was undergoing maintenance and is now wider (and dirty).

Day 1: Arrived at Ban Krang campsite at 12:30. Put up the tent and went out looking for birds around the campsite. Some bulbul in a fruit tree, a couple of Red-throated Flycatchers. Not much at all. A flock of 6 Chestnut-headed Bee-eaters came in and spent some time in a dry tree before leaving.

Day 2: We went straight up to Panoeng Thung at the top. Some Emarald Doves and Jungefowls on the way as usual. Some work on the road has been done and my favourite Golden Babbler bushes were gone :(
At the top a little bit cold and some fog but not too bad. Not many birds around, some flycatchers (Dark-sided, Red-throated, Hill Blue). A Collared Falconet came to a treetop and ate an insect. A Honey Buzzard was seen catching some thermals. The usual Flavescent Bulbuls and Grey-eyed around. Streaked Spiderhunter moving around with its characteristic sharp call. Unfortunately some of my favorite banana trees has been cut down. It's hard to find a banana flower with good soft light and a nice clean background. Too bad, this makes Panoeng Thung less attractive to me as a photographer.
We had lunch at the restaurant, excellent food as always and went down again at 4:30pm. On the way down we saw Red-headed Trogon flying over the road between 27 and 28km. We parked at km27 and I went out with the camera to see if I could find him. At about 200m up from the parking I run into a bird wave with White-hooded Babblers, Sulphur-breasted and Yellow-browed Warblers. When I was busy photographing them a Ratchet-tailed Treepie turn up above me. I tried desperately to capture him but he was moving around very quickly. He was almost straight up making it extra difficult. And when I was busy with the Ratchet-tailed some large reddish bird came flying in and landed on a tree not too far away. It was a woodpecker and a beautiful one. First I thought it was a Crimson-winged but later when downloading the pictures I found it to be a Banded Woodpecker. He moved up the tree and I didn't get any good pix. Quite an intense 20 minutes there which turned out to be the highlight of the trip.

Day 3: Up to km27 again with hopes of encountering the local speciality, the Ratchet-tailed Treepie. We were doing our usual routine by walking up and down the road with walkie-talkies and trying to spot the bird waves. No sight of the Ratchet-tailed but we had 3 Babbler flocks (White-hooded Babblers, White-browed Scimitar Babblers and Grey-throated). The White-hooded seems to be easy to see here if you stay the whole day. They will came through somewhere between 27 and 28km. This time they came from above the parking and moving down. After they passed I walked down below the parking and like clockwork they appeared again half an hour later. Not too many birds around, no sight of the Trogons either though I heard one for a while. A single Rufous-fronted Babbler in company with a Yellow-bellied Warbler gave some nice pictures. At least 2 Paradise Flycatchers was around but never came close enough.

Day 4: At morning stayed at the Ban Krang campsite to try and picture the Hainan Flycatcher seen in the small trees next to the campsite, didn't get him though. Not as many birds around as 3 months ago. Not many Woodpeckers or Broadbills, no Pittas. Then went up to the streams to look for Kingfishers. Spent 2 hours in the hide but nothing seen. At the second stream 2 Blue-bearded Bee-eaters came very close but they took off when they saw us. Set up the hide and waited but they never came back. The road at the streams was very dirty, I won't came back until the dry season.

Day 5: Stayed around the campsite but nothing special turned up. At 10am we packed and went home. On the way a saw a Drongo sitting close to ground at the roadside. I stopped the car on the other side and got the camera to capture him. Just when I was about to focus on him a Mountain Hawk Eagle came down from the sky and went for my Drongo! Couldn't you wait a little so I could take his picture first. Appearently not. The Drongo saw the Eagle in the last second and went for cover but the big bird took up the chase. They did a lap around a small tree before the little bird escaped. The Eagle had big problem manouver his long wings in the branches and after loosing the chase he sat down in the tree just 10 meters from our car. I took his portrait and then he took off. Amazing to see an eagle so close, they're big fellas.