Thailand 29Nov-16Dec14

From Con

Summary

For me the best bird of the trip was certainly Mrs Hume’s Pheasant seen well on Day 1 one male and three females for 40 minutes. And then we backed our car up and never even flushed them.

Besides birds we also saw the following, mostly mammals. After living so many years in Asia I finally saw my first wild rabbit, but certainly the best mammal seen was the Binturong. We got great views through the scope, but the photos aren’t so great.

Asian Elephant
Lesser Mousedeer
Barking Deer
Hog Deer
Sambar Deer
Yellow-throated Marten (seen twice)
Binturong
Cream-colored Giant Squirrel
Himalayan Striped Squirrel
Grey-bellied Squirrel
Mouse (species)
Burmese Hare
Northern Pig-tailed Macaque
Dusky Langur
White-handed Gibbon
Tokay Gecko

Day 2

This small female Slaty Blue Flycatcher came in to the feeder that is famous for the Rusty-cheeked Scimitar Babblers. Danny will remember this feeder. The Rusty-cheeked are still coming in! This little flycatcher was quite shy and only came in a few times and then usually just flew in, stole a worm and then flew off.

Female Slaty Blue Flycatcher

Taken at Doi Lang these are the best two images I got.

Cook's Swift

Day 3

This was taken at the same patch of farmland we got a Grey-faced Buzzard 3 or 4 years ago on the mountain road to Doi Lang.

Adult Grey-faced Buzzard

Day 4

Since the military coup in May the rules at Doi Lang have changed. You can no longer go up the Western entrance to the top army camp. You are stopped at a check point. So most folks just bird until there. We saw Hume's Pheasants on our first day and again today. Spot breasted Parrotbill is in exactly the same spot. A couple of the big feeders are still at the same spot with the same birds. But the highlight of today was a non-breeding male Sapphire Flycatcher. Today I ran into the same Japanese digiscoper that we met in January.

Yesterday we went up the Eastern side. Road is not so good. Need an SUV at least. Anyway we reached the Army camp and beyond. I ran into a fellow I met at the Pencil Hill raptor watch 4 years ago. He had got lots of pictures of the Fire tailed Sunbird earlier that morning. Heck we were too late.

Day 5

As you can see this little warbler has an injured leg. He was feeding low in a bush. I guess with a bad leg he had to adapt his behavior. Taken at the King's Project at Doi Ang Kang at the coffee shop.

Yellow-browed Warbler

Taken at Ban Luang Resort at Doi Ang Khang.

Female Grey Bushchat

Day 6

Digi scoped this evening. Sorry lost the light. At 70X mag on Swarovski scope and crop a lot on Nikon photo.

Common Buzzard

Day 7

Then we took the back road from Doi Ang Khang to Chiang Dao and then the main highway to Doi Inthanon. Beautiful but it took us 6 hours to reach our accommodation at Inthanon Along the Chiang Dao mountain road we got Verditer Flycatcher, Short-billed Minivet and a few other things.

This morning at Inthanon summit on the King's birthday it was so crowed we had very low expectations. But we just went into the forest behind the souvenir shops and got entirely away from the crowd. In awhile I heard a partridge calling in the distance. I was sure it was a partridge but didn't know which one. So I imitated its call with my voice. It took awhile but to my amazement a pair Rufous-throated Partridges came in and we got great views. Add to that Chestnut-tailed Minla, Green-tailed Sunbird, Mrs Gould's Sunbird, Black-throated Sunbird, some bulbuls, a whistling thrush, Silver-eared Laughingthrush and Grey-throated Babbler and it was not a bad morning at the summit.

We had lunch at Mr Daeng's. He didn't have any rare thrushes in his gully. And he told us the Black-tailed Crake is gone. So first in the afternoon we tried the two jeep trails. The lower one had tourists on it so we left shortly. The one by the check point was quiet in the afternoon so we went to the Mae Pan Waterfall to try for the Plumeous Redstart. But it was neither in the stream by the car park nor at the waterfall so a rather dry afternoon with just a few bulbuls to show for the effort.

But at least we had a good morning !

Day 13-15

A bird I really wanted on the trip was Spotted Redshank, as one had been reported at Laem Pak Bia.

But initially I dismissed this bird as being a Common Redshank. But on closer examination it’s non-breeding Spotted, based upon Round “bill is longer and proportionately finer, with brighter red base to lower mandible. Well defined whitish supercillium.”

It’s actually the first bird we saw when we turned off the highway into the salt pans, there was just one individual.

There are only 4 possible stints in Thailand (long-toed, Temminck’s, red-necked and little). Little and Red-necked have blackish legs. Only Temminck’s and Long-toed have yellowish / greenish legs. All photos here have yellowish / greenish legs.

I believe the more upright birds with the longer necks are Long-toed Stints.

I believe the shorter bird with shorter neck is Temminck’s Stint. Only Temminck’s has a rather drab greyish plumage variation.

I’m feel pretty confident this one is a Nordmann’s Greenshank. It’s not a great photo though because it has been digiscoped at a great distance under windy conditions.

Marsh Sandpiper (middle) with Common Greenshanks

This Paddyfield Pipit was seen at the salt pans at Laem Pak Bia.

Here are four Yellow-browed Warblers from Doi Lang, each with 2 images except for the last

Warbler 1

Warbler 2

Warbler 3

Warbler 4