September 2nd, 2008 
Nick Yesterday evening I returned to Bangkok after a 10 day trip to southern Thailand; the trip was a mixture of birding and visiting friends. For the birding I visited Laem Pakarang, Khao Sok, Krabi Mangroves, Krung Ching waterfall and the Tiger Cave Temple.
I don’t make many trips to southern Thailand so it is always interesting to see so many species that I don’t often see – even many of the common birds in the south haven’t bored me yet.
A good number of shorebirds were present at Laem Pakarang with the highlight being a Terek Sandpiper.
Birding at Khao Sok was very slow but eventually some good birds showed themselves. Highlights were Buffy Fish Owl, Fulvous-chested Jungle Flycatcher, Black-and-red Broadbill, Black-and-yellow Broadbill, Chestnut-naped Forktail, Bushy-crested Hornbill, White-crowned Hornbill, Great Hornbill. The Buffy Fish Owl sat out in the open in the daylight for so long that I managed a couple of record shots using a digital camera through my binoculars.
In the mangroves at Krabi things were pretty quiet apart from good numbers of Brown-winged Kingfishers calling and easily seen. One Mangrove Pitta responded to call playback and gave me good views.
By far the highlight of the birding portion of my trip was Krung Chiang waterfall in Nakorn Sri Thammarat province. I will write a full trip report soon but for now it is enough to say that the forest there is excellent, it has decent accommodation and a really nice trail for birding. My bird highlights were Maroon Woodpecker, Buffy Fish Owl, Scarlet-rumped Trogon, Green Broadbill, Banded Pitta, Maroon-breasted Philentoma, Gold-whiskered Barbet, Brown Barbet, Dark-throated Oriole and Blyth’s Hawk Eagle.
On my last day in Krabi I visited the Tiger Cave Temple to look for Streaked Wren Babbler. I eventually found a pair which I saw well and also found some other good birds: Black-and-yellow Broadbill, Banded Kingfisher, Gold-whiskered Barbet and Fulvous-chested Jungle Flycatcher.
More will follow on this trip soon.
birds, birding, thailand, nature, national parks
Posted in 
