Leaving the coastal salt-pans behind us we headed north to Kang Krachan National Park, where we would be staying at the Nana Resort, whilst stopping off at birding spots along the way. One of these sites was the Ton Maphrao paddies where we saw the amazing spectacle of over 200 endangered Yellow-breasted Buntings. A bird Al, Marc and I were particularly keen to see as none of us had seen one in the UK where they've become extremely rare in recent years. Persecution in China, where they were killed in their thousands to protect rice crops, has thankfully been reduced but there has been a continuous decline in numbers and redaction in range. They no longer breed in Finland where I saw them close to the Russian border when I worked there after leaving university in 1982.
What an amazing site and what a skittish bird! They hardly sat still and proved to be very difficult to photograph. in flight they were very reminiscent of Chaffinches with a big white shoulder patch and a similar flight pattern.
This site was extraordinarily productive for raptors with Black-winged, Black-eared and Brahminy Kite, Greater Spotted & Booted Eagle, Eastern Marsh & Spotted Harriers, Peregrine, Kestrel and Shikra all being recorded.
Asian Openbills stalked the fields, Dusky Warblers 'tacked' in roadside vegetation and Red-throated and Paddyfield Pipits flocked around the wetter areas. Brown Shrikes seemed to inhabit every bush. It was here we had our best views of Plain-backed Sparrows mixed in with a flock of Indian race House Sparrows. Asian Golden Weavers and White-rumped Munias mingled with the flocks of buntings and sparrows in roadside vegetation before flying back to feed in the harvested paddy fields.
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| Plain-backed Saprrow |
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| Asian Openbilled Stork |
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| Brown Shrike |
Lunch was once again interrupted by birds with Ornate Sunbirds providing fantastic views from the windows whilst a couple of Black Besra overhead caused a stampede as everyone grabbed their binoculars and ran outside to view these scarce migrant raptors. A grip back for the rest of the group as Marc and I had seen two flying over the golf course back in our Bangkok hotel.
Before heading to our hotel for the night Jay had one more treat in store for us. An island at Tha Laeng where Indian Thick-knees rested up undisturbed by predators during the day. We saw 14 of these relatives of our Stone Curlew at this site. The only place we saw them although we heard them during the hours of darkness at several other places.
Arriving at our hotel we met up for dinner at 7 pm and had time for one more new bird for the trip list. Jay found an Asian Barred owlet sitting in a tree outside restaurant. Unbelievably he located it by seeing its shadow cast on a wall by a street light! It stayed long enough for me to dash back to my room and grab my camera! Moral of the story - always take the camera. I didn't learn from this rookie error....
Another superb day and with an early start again in the morning it was time for an early night. Unfortunately that didn't go well due to a very noisy group of Thai local government officials on a jolly who kept me awake with their appalling karaoke renditions until the early hours of the morning. Tomorrow we were heading into the Kaeng Krachan National Park.
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| Asian Golden Weaver |
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| White-rumped Munia |
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| Chestnut-vented Starling |
