After a later than usual breakfast at 6.45 we were driven to the Khao Yai National Park for our second and final day.
Forest Wagtail was one species of bird I'd hoped to see in Thailand and eventually we ended up seeing four different birds at two locations. They were surprisingly elusive and hard to pick up among the dead leaves and shadows.
Whilst still in the car park we had a flock of five Golden-crested Myna's flyover with Hill Myna's and a shrike spotted by Alan & Marc turned out to be our first Grey-backed Shrike of the trip - a fairly common winter visitor to Thailand.
We also managed to catch up with a pair of Blue-bearded Beeeaters - the world's largest beeeater.
A fantastic looking bird and the fourth beeeater species we'd seen on the trip so far with Blue-tailed, Asian Green and Chestnut-capped having already been added to the trip list.
Siamese Fireback was one species we all wanted to see. It's Thailands National bird and features on the cover of 'The Birds of Thailand that our guide, Jay had co-authored. If we din't see one in the national park Jay had a plan B and so after lunch we found ourselves driving a couple of hours to the Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve where we were, according to Jay, guaranteed to see this beautiful pheasant. Apparently they come out of the surrounding forest to feed on the edge of the tracks at certain hours of the day.
The habitat at the lower elevations of the park was markedly different to we'd experienced before - dry deciduous forest - and the birds were hard to find. We did manage one of our targets in this new habitat - Rufescent Prinia. We also saw several Red-breasted Parakeets and a Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker and several Oriental Cuckoo Shrikes.
Time waits for no man and we soon embarked back int the mini--vans to drive up to the visitors centre where we'd be able to enter the evergreen forest areas inhabited by the firebacks.
Our hearts dropped as we entered the car park to find a large party of high school students on a field trip. We were supposed to be climbing into one of the rangers pickups to take us to the site but everyone was filled with smiling and waving youngsters. We thought our chances of seeing the firebacks were very slim with som much noise! Luckily we were told that we could take our van up the path to a certain point where we'd then have to go forward on foot.
Walking forward we could see all the kids sitting quietly in a semi circle surrounding teacher who was talking to them whilst, unbelievably a male Siamese Fireback wandered around in full view just few metres away!
So began perhaps one of the most surreal birding moments I've ever experienced. We joined the throng of students to find not one but at least twelve male and female pheasants milling around feeding on grains. After 20 minutes or so the students waved their happy goodbyes and left us alone to enjoy these magnificent birds to ourselves.
Photography was hard as they were so close and at one point a male was displaying to me and pecking the sole of my boot as a I knelt down on the track.
A headshot of a male Siamese Fireback is the stunning front cover picture of the 'Birds Of Thailand' co-authored by Jay and I tried to get a similar photo.
As quietly as they'd arrived the birds started melting back into the forest and we headed back to our vans and the visitors centre where our student friends waved us all goodbye again. A very happy group of birders arrived back at our hotel for our last night. Tomorrow we'd be looking for Rufous Limestone Babbler before flying north to Chiang Mai where we'd be exploring the more mountainous areas of northern Thailand.
No comments :
Post a Comment