Tuesday afternoon, 11th December. Just arrived back at White Beach having spent a fantastic long weekend with Neil and Eunice, up in the hills of the Kaeng Krachan national park. We stayed at the superb Baan Maka lodge, which is just ten minutes from the park entrance and  has some great birding ‘on the door step’. We spent two full, 12 hour days, in the park itself and another pottering around the outskirts and saw some superb birds, some of which are featured in the photo kaleidoscope below. We’re off to Bangkok tomorrow afternoon for a last night with our friends before getting ready for the evening flight on Thursday.

But first the pics….

Dawn over the lake ‘at the bottom of our garden’ at Baan Maka

We had numerous Babbler species, this was a particular favourite, Collared (a split from White-hooded)

One of the families well represented at Kaeng Krachan is Hornbill – this one is Oriental Pied

The ‘difficult to see’ Green-billed Malkoha

One of a pair of absolutely lovely roosting White-fronted Scops Owl

Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush drinking at a forest pool

Not to be confused with common or garden chicken – Red Jungle Fowl, the real thing!

Grey-faced Buzzard with a freshly captured squirrel

Asian Barred Owlet roosting in the grounds of Baan Maka

Kalij Pheasant – another deep jungle-dwelling species

Another Kaeng Krachan speciality Ratchet-tailed Treepie, the only place in Thailand it occurs

and another member of the family,  Rufous Treepie

A nice male Olive-backed Sunbird

Our only Thai parrot species – Vernal Hanging Parrot. A beauty nonetheless

One of a few Barbets seen – this one, at the entrance to Baan Maka, was Lineated

Just down the road from Baan Maka was an excellent lily pond with a family of Bronze-winged Jacana

Seen crossing the road on our journey back to the lodge – a rather large python!

and a real kaleidoscope of colour – butterflies at a ‘mineral lick’

And to finish with a Great Hornbill – what a monster!

Friday, 7th Dec., White Beach, Thailand. This place is fantastic! Just a couple of hours from Bangkok, on the gulf coast – a small collection of holiday chalets and a few local restaurants, right in the middle of the most extraordinary wader habitat I’ve ever seen! There are ten miles of salt-pans between Pak Thale and Laem Pak Bia just crawling with birds, including three of the regions most endangered species – Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Nordmans Greenshank and Asian Dowitcher.

Over the past three days we’ve covered what feels like every square metre of the place, often in the ‘heat of the day’, looking for these rare birds and, as I write this blog, I’m delighted to say we’ve seen them all – we’ve also seen a host of superb ‘supporting cast’ birds!

Sign to the recently established Spoon-billed Sandpiper site

The first of the rare wader trilogy – Asian Dowitcher. They’re the shorter, spotty ones – mostly looking right!

Nordmann’s Greenshank

…and the star of the show Spoon-billed Sandpiper. There are thought to be fewer than 200 pairs left in the world and the site at Pak Thale is critical to their survival. Congratulations to the Thai birders and authorities for protecting their habitat!

One of the many ‘bonus birds’ – the bird on the right is Milky Stork – a scarce bird in Thailand.

Sunset over the Wat at Laem Pak Bia

Monday 3rd Dec., early morning, Neil & Eunice’s apartment. Spent the day yesterday acclimatising – it’s pretty hot and reasonably humid here, but not unpleasant. Domestic morning catching up on e-mails, Christmas/wedding planning (Joe & Gabi’s wedding blessing actually) and washing. Went out birding in the afternoon to a couple of sites south of Bangkok around Bang Poo, coastal mangrove, fish ponds and wetlands. Excellent locations but under imminent threat of development – the story of wetlands across the world I guess. Saw about 60 species, mostly new stuff but with a bit of overlap with Australia and Britain – weird!  In the evening went to a local restaurant for some lovely authentic cuisine  – £30 for six, drinks included. No wonder Thailand is such a popular holiday destination.

Just a few bird pics as a warm up. Eastern Black-tailed Godwit with Black-winged Stilt

Golden-bellied Gerygone

A quarrelsome group of White-vented Myna

Asian Openbill flying to roost

Sunset over…an Oriental Reed Warbler!

Touristy things today – trip to the Grand Palace et al so a few ‘holiday snaps’ in due course!

One of the slightly frustrating  aspects of our Great World Birding Adventure itinerary has been that, having spent a week around Darwin on the north coast of Australia -well on our way to our final destination of Thailand, we had to fly four hours back to Sydney to pick up our international flight to Bangkok. So yesterday we spent nearly half the nine and a half hour flight flying the breadth of Australia, over Darwin, to Thailand!  All this necessitated an over night in Sydney so, having been there before, we knew that the Botanical Gardens (apart from being very beautiful in themselves) were a birding hot spot and a potential location for Powerful Owl.

Thus we were up early for a wholesome breakfast and a good meander around the park. Nothing of great note on our way to the cafe – it was raining quite heavily at the time, just the usual city species like Chestnut-banded Rail, Dusky Moorhen, Little Pied Cormorant. At the cafe I engaged a friendly park ranger in conversation, who informed me that if we went to the trees, close to Government House, there was a fair chance of an ‘owl encounter’.  We strolled up to the spot she kindly marked on the map and there, high in the tree was indeed a splendid Powerful Owl – complete with dead Possum in it’s talons! Only problem was that, partly sceptical of the possibility of seeing such a creature in the centre of Sydney and not wanting to look too conspicuous carrying my long lens, I didn’t take my camera! I ‘hot hoof’ back to the hotel for the camera but the result was worth it – hope you agree!

Dawn is just breaking here in Bang Na, the Bangkok suburb where Neil & Eunice have their lovely apartment…got to get the Thai bird list started!