29th April – 4th of May, 2024

May is a very hot time in Thailand. But this year even more hot then normal with a late arrival of rains.

But it is also a ‘hot period’ for birds as many tropical forest birds are nesting.
Most foreign birders visit Nov-March and thus miss out on for instance the arrival of Hooded and Blue-winged Pittas.
Then there is the migration of passerines from Indonesia and Malaysia. Some of these are very colorful: Yellow-rumped Flycatcher, Narcissus Flycatcher, Green-backed Flycatcher, Mugimaki Flycatcher to name a few.

Iain A, a brit, living in Japan, came for 6 days of bird photography.
He came with some serious gear at his disposal. He had some hope to see specific birds but was in no way demanding or fretting.

After an early pick-up near the airport we drove to an area with wetland and open area birds in Nakhon Pathom. The car came to good use as a mobile hide. We were hoping to find Pratincoles and there in a newly plowed dirt field both Small and Oriental was running around feeding. I have not seen this behavior before, they seemed to adapt the feeding pattern of Little Ringed Plover rather then feeding in the air like a tern.

A couple of hours in the area and we continued towards Kaengkrachan National Park. This time driving along country roads taking in the landscape.

Lunch at a nice restaurant by Kaengkrachan Dam. Always nice to lay eyes on a large body of water, enjoy the Thai food and a cold drink in the sweltering heat.

After checking in at our resort and a little break we went to spend a few hours at a permanent hide at the edge of the forest. It was of course very hot in the hide but an incredible amount of birds kept us very busy. It seemed like every bird in the forest needed to drink and bathe. Most birds with open mouths to cool themselves off.

A family of Grey Peacock-Pheasants included 2 chicks graced us with enticing views.
A pair of male Kalij Pheasants joined the crowd. But best of all were two Hooded Pittas that simply wouldn’t go away. Ha!
Then there were Common Flamebacks, Greater Yellownape and Streak-breasted Woodpecker.
Add to that 3 species of Laughingthrushes, Flycatchers, Bulbuls and more.

Day 2.

I had arranged for a 4WD to pick us up to get up to Panern Thung. There were reports of a Red-bearded Bee-eater feeding young that were about to fledge. It turned out that we got there in the nick of time as they left the nest the day after.

Then we also got on the Long-tailed Broadbills nest building.

Up at the top the best part was the panoramic views of the mountain ranges but birdlife was surprisingly quiet.

We had about 50 species of birds for the day which included Dusky and Silver-breasted Broadbills.

Evenings were spent at Ban Maka Nature Lodge. Delicious foods, cold beers and good conversations.
The place is often fully booked these days. There was a group of folks from Hong Kong and other independent birders.

We exchanged news, ideas etc with folks we met and as a reward were given a generous amount of Durian from the Chinese. Durian has in recent years become very expensive due to the fruit being very popular with people in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Day 3.

Today we went back to the hide where we spend the majority of our day aside from a lunch break.

The light was different from day 1 and we pretty much saw all the same birds over again with the addition of Blue-winged Pitta and much wanted Bar-backed Partridge. Having Green Magpie coming in to bathe was another big highlight!

At the resort many little birds were coming in to a small basin of water. So while having our lunch we also got to see Amur and Blyth’s Paradise Flycatchers, Yellow-rumped Flycatchers, Large Wood-shrike, Green-billed Malkoha, Malaysian Pied Fantail, Blue-winged Pitta, Arctic Warbler and more.

Day 4.

Most of the day at lower level of the park. It worked out for Iain to photograph Black-backed Dwarf Kingfisher that regularly came with feed for their young. Meanwhile I walked in the stream in search of Odonata, another echo system filled with wonder.

Day 5.

Iain quite liked the hides so we decided to visit Ban Song Nok that recently have reopened.
This time with two hides and fruit feeders in the open areas.
This gave us a huge amount of opportunities for photography.

In the course of the day we had both the previously seen Pittas though here the Blue-winged was the more showy one.

I also got on to a Brown-chested Jungle Flycatcher. A bird I seldom see and it was a new species for my Phetchaburi list, #507!
Other new birds for the trip were Siberian Blue Robin (male) and Tiger Shrike.

It was a good day in spite of it also being very hot.

Day 6.

Early start to get to Wat Khao Look Chang where we quickly located a pair of Spotted Owlets.
It was rather birdless in the area so we continued on towards some fields in Petchaburi.
Most interesting ones were Spot-billed Pelicans and Painted Storks.

Amazingly a Northern Lapwing had been reported from my home patch at Lak Krabang in Bangkok on the day before. I got a message saying it was seen today again so we did an earlier drive to Bkk as we could then continue at Lak Krabang. But, alas, the bird had not been seen since 7 am that morning!

It had been a good trip!

For more pictures follow the link below

https://ebird.org/tripreport/231611