Much gets written about the prime birding spots in Thailand such as Kaeng Krachan, Doi Lang, Pak Thale and others but there are a vast amount of other locations, both national parks and otherwise, that do not get talked about much. Many visitors to Thailand are accompanied by non-birding friends or family and cannot get to the best birding spots while others have been to all of the most-visited birding sites and enjoy getting to unusual locations to see what can be found; the latter is how I recently found myself birding, with David Scott, James Thomson-Glover and friends, at Novotel Chumphon Beach and Golf Resort. An afternoon birding around the grounds of this resort and the nearby beach turned up a number of species that proved that there is plenty of interesting birding to be had in what may first appear to be habitat with rather a low potential. Blue-throated Bee-eater, Malaysian Plover, Vinous-breasted Starling, Pink-necked Green Pigeon, Pied Imperial Pigeon and resident maculatus subspecies of Black-naped Oriole were all nice birds to see along with plenty of others including some unseasonal migratory shorebirds.

Chumphon is well-known among birders in Thailand as the province of starlings. Many of those birds are migratory and were not present during our recent visit but there is one resident species that suddenly becomes common when one gets to Chumphon: Vinous-breasted Starling. This bird is scarce or absent in most of Thailand but as we pulled in to the hotel grounds the lawns were covered in these attractive birds.

Vinous-breasted Starling

Vinous-breasted Starlings

There were also plenty of the far commoner White-vented Mynas and Common Mynas too along with a few Asian Pied Starlings. A water hazard on the gold course was covered in lotus flowers and among these we found Yellow Bittern, a couple of Broze-winged Jacanas and a pair of White-breasted Waterhens with a chick.

White-breasted Waterhen

St one point the clouds gathered and threatened to rain but it came to nothing. However, it did push a flock of Germain’s Swiftlets down to feed low over the water. As ever trying to photograph them was a challenge but I got a few reasonably good shots.

Germain’s Swiftlet

Of course birding in a garden and golf course turned up a high proportion of common and very familiar birds such as Streak-eared Bulbul, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Yellow-vented Bulbul, Common Tailorbird, Oriental Magpie Robin and Brown-throated Sunbird while a pair of Plain Prinias was notable for the fact that they are fairly recent colonists this far south.

Around the golf course were the types of birds one might expect such as Lineated and Coppersmith Barbets while Blue-throated Bee-eaters were quite abundant; another species that is quite scarce in much of the country.

Blue-throated Bee-eater

For those people who are on family holidays and can’t get to top birding locations, golf courses and hotel gardens such as these should be of interest so with those types of birders in mind I found it interesting to add to our list Asian Openbill, Little Egret, Paddyfield Pipit, Indian Roller, a pair of Racket-tailed Treepies, Asian Koel and, of course, the ubiquitous Red-wattled Lapwing.

Red-wattled Lapwing

David had heard a Black-naped Oriole at breakfast but we had not seen it until one popped up near the hotel entrance, calling from the treetops and after a little searching we were able to see it announcing his territory. The time of year and extensive black markings on the wings identify it as the maculatus subspecies which Birds of Thailand suggests may be split as Sunda Black-naped Oriole.

Black-naped Oriole

Getting to a variety of habitats always increases the chances of seeing more species and with an interesting piece of beach on our doorstep we investigated a stony, muddy beach and rocky spit with some offshore islands in the distance but not before we had recorded a flypast Pink-necked Green Pigeon.

The muddy beach predictably held a Striated Heron, stalking small fish, while offshore two Black-naped Tersn were fishing close to a moored ship. A flyover Little Cormorant was new for the afternoon list and some excitement was had with a pair of Pied Imperial Pigeons in flight albeit at some distance.

On the muddy patches of the beach itself we were a little surprised to find a collection of shorebirds, species that should have been much further north at this time of year. However, they were all in non-breeding plumage with around 20 Lesser Sand Plover, 3 Greater Sand Plover and 5 Whimbrel. A pair of Malaysian Plovers were interesting too as this is a species in decline and there was a fair bit of disturbance from humans on this beach whereas they usually favour quiet coastlines.

Malaysian Plovers

With the day drawing to a close we went back to the hotel with just a couple of distant Collared Kingfishers and some Pacific Swallows to add before dinner and a few welcome drinks. This was an enjoyable birding session that proves that it is worth looking for birding sites away from the normal places and that holidaying birders can find some interesting species almost anywhere.

Incidently, David was interested to see my copy of Birds of Thailand, published by Lynx Edicions. I told him that it was a great improvement on older field guides and that he should get a copy!